Amazon HQ2 thread

[McBane]

I think the "talent pool" thing is overstated. Amazon is a behemoth and looks great on your resume - people will move to land a high paying job with Amazon. And by and large, the remaining cities fall within the range of acceptable relo options (sorry Detroit and Twin Cities). Columbus and Pittsburgh are deceptively cool; almost like big college towns and the latter has a wealth of cultural amenities that punches far above its size. Agree with others - not sure what the attraction is with Indianapolis - I could see lots of people saying, no, I'm not moving there.

Hometown bias aside, my top 5 are in order:

Atlanta
Dallas
DC
Boston
Phila

[themaguffin]

The 3 DC locations (and 2 NY) are getting misread.

Because of state politics etc, separate bids were submitted for these areas.

Where for most others, different locations were included in one bid.

If all metros submitted bids independently for more specific areas, then we would be looking at a different list.

[mhays]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Yeah, that's obviously a lie. Detroit has a much larger talent pool than Indianapolis.

What makes you think the local talent pool is important? Amazon hires globally for most of the key positions (the ones that drive location choices), and it's probably more about attracting new people to the city.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by mhays

What makes you think the local talent pool is important? Amazon hires globally for most of the key positions (the ones that drive location choices), and it's probably more about attracting new people to the city.

But Indianapolis over Detroit?

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by jd3189

The only problem is that talent tends to leave Miami because of lack of major domestic US companies in the area. That's why Bezos decided to leave Miami for Seattle, which had some major tech companies like Microsoft. I would think there is some talent in UM, FIU, FAU, and Nova that they could offer that usually goes out of state. If Amazon comes here and is successful, it might encourage more tech to come to live in all those condos.

Bezos left Miami to go to college at Princeton and then went to work on Wall Street for a while before moving to Seattle and founding Amazon.

UM is a top university, but the Miami area in general cannot compete with many of the other cities' academic/research pipeline to companies. However, Miami has been developing more of a "tech" presence in the last 5 years especially, with all the big players opening offices there... as the hub for their burgeoning Latin American operations, so I would not be surprised if Miami actually wins out.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Not shocked at all. I think it has had a much better chance from the get-go than people probably understand.

Diagonal opposite geographically from Seattle... in what has become the hub of access to Latin American commerce and wealth in the hemisphere. Miami and Florida will do whatever Amazon wants and have the $ to do so. High-speed rail being developed along with all of the massive real estate development and population influx. Major international airport.

And Bezos is Cuban and grew up in Miami.

Bezos is not Cuban. He was adopted by his Cuban stepfather.

[The North One]

Amazon has an agenda which is pretty obvious (looking at you DC) and there's no real guarantee they'll actually fulfill all their promises yet so far they've reaped all the benefits in the promotion. This list looks like they took the two or three actual options they've been trying to sway for benefits and just threw in a bunch of other cities for whatever reason (political?).

I don't care really and I never expected the city to win but the Detroit region stepped up, submitted a damn good unified bid and is actually in the process of planning regional transit supported by all the county leaders. It was a good exercise that made a lot of people wake up.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Bezos is not Cuban. He was adopted by his Cuban stepfather.

Exactly. He was adopted and raised by a Cuban man (who he fully considers his father)... that alone makes him Cuban.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Exactly. He was adopted and raised by a Cuban man (who he fully considers his father)... that alone makes him Cuban.

No... lol okay.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

No... lol okay.

I've been married to a Cubana for over a decade... jeez, I'm practically Cuban by now.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Exactly. He was adopted and raised by a Cuban man (who he fully considers his father)... that alone makes him Cuban.

Conversely, Steve Jobs' biological father was Syrian, but he did not get a chance to meet or grow up with him.

According to Steve Jobs' Wikipedia page, Jobs' attitude was very much that he saw his adoptive parents as his real parents, not his biological ones.


Jobs would become upset when Paul and Clara were referred to as "adoptive parents" as they "were my parents 1,000%."[12] With regard to his biological parents, Jobs referred to them as "my sperm and egg bank. That's not harsh, it's just the way it was, a sperm bank thing, nothing more."[12]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs#Family

[bnk]

http://www.businessinsider.sg/amazon-headquarters-pitch-chicago-2017-9/

Chicago is one of 20 locations Amazon’s considering for its next headquarters — here’s why Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says his city is the best choice


Lydia Ramsey, Business Insider US

January 18, 2018




.

...

As far as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is concerned, his city is the best choice for Amazon because of its young talent pool, extensive public transportation, and low cost of living.


“If you’re Amazon, and you want to grow to X, what city today, on Day One, can say every June from its universities and the Big Ten, 150,000 freshly minted four-year colleges coming out of Madison, Ann Arbor, Notre Dame, Purdue, University of Iowa. Every year, guaranteed, 150,000. Only one city can say that in the United States: Chicago,” ...

On the topic of air travel, he added: “What city can say to you, if you want to get to Seattle or New York and have six options a day? What city can say that to you on two different carriers? Only one city.”

Chicago has had a lot of success moving corporate headquarters into the city. Business Insider’s Dennis Green reported that McDonald’s, Kraft Heinz, and Conagra Brands have all planned to move their headquarters into the city instead of the suburbs. Emanuel also pointed to GE Healthcare and GE Transportation, which both moved headquarters from the UK and from Pennsylvania, respectively, to Chicago in recent years.

Plus, Chicago’s rent prices haven’t been as notoriously high as San Francisco or New York.

..,

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by skyscraperpage17

They are: Single-Payer Healthcare.

Employers pay zero for healthcare in the form of taxes?

[lio45]

Originally Posted by skyscraperpage17

The only reason people discounted it was because its prone to Hurricane.

But if that's not important to Amazon, then it does change things somewhat.

They'll just have to hope the next Cascadia Great One doesn't coincide with the statistically inevitable direct hit by a Cat 5 hurricane on Miami.

[twister244]

Who knows where Amazon will actually plant their flag....

I think we are reading into this list a bit too far and need to realize (as has been stated multiple times in this thread), Amazon probably already has a very short list of cities they are actually considering. The rest of this is for PR purposes IMO.

I am not surprised Minneapolis was booted. Two huge Amazon competitors (Best Buy / Target) are located there and probably had some local sway in dissuading Amazon from coming in. Weather was probably another factor.....

I am not surprised Denver made the list, and I have heard rumors (as we all have probably), but again, it's hard to know one way or another what Amazon is truly going to do.

[skyscraperpage17]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

Employers pay zero for healthcare in the form of taxes?

One of the Canadian members can explain the extent of the cost savings better (they've explained it several times in this thread already, so that's why I mentioned it), as I'm not sure of the details.

[lio45]

I still think Atlanta would be the best choice to complement Seattle.

You could hire talent by offering them to live in an environment that's urban, sprawly, cheap, expensive, mild, rainy, sunny, coastal, continental, hot, politically blue, politically red, Western, Eastern, Southern... That combo would really minimize the risk of having talent saying "hmm, I'd consider working for you but I don't want to live in [City Where HQ Is] for some reason".

[10023]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

No... lol okay.

This implies that you see ethnic or cultural background as a matter of genetics rather than environment, which is... curious, in this day and age.

[10023]

Originally Posted by lio45

I still think Atlanta would be the best choice to complement Seattle.

You could hire talent by offering them to live in an environment that's urban, sprawly, cheap, expensive, mild, rainy, sunny, coastal, continental, hot, politically blue, politically red, Western, Eastern, Southern... That combo would really minimize the risk of having talent saying "hmm, I'd consider working for you but I don't want to live in [City Where HQ Is] for some reason".

Except it won't really work that way.

They can't possibly be thinking of duplicating specific functions across two HQs or having people work entirely by telepresence. That just doesn't work, no matter how often it's tried. Rather they will have different teams in each place. So there might be software engineers at both offices, finance people at both offices, lawyers at both offices... but the team that develops AI for Alexa is going to need to sit together. So a specific individual being hired for a specific role based on their experience and knowledge is not necessarily going to be able to choose.

[Northern Light]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

Employers pay zero for healthcare in the form of taxes?

Not exactly.

First thing is to say, there is no Canadian Health Care System. There are 13 provincial and territorial systems which all comply w/the Federal Canada Health Act.

But each system has slight variations in coverage and in the way it is financed.

For general purposes.

Canada's single-payer healthcare system covers family doctors and almost all hospital based coverage. That is the federal requirement.

While prescription drug (outside of hospitals) do not have to be covered, most provinces cover all or a significant portion of drugs for seniors, those on social assistance and/or disability pensions.

Some provinces cover more (such as outpatient cancer drugs, or experimental/expensive drugs etc.).

Some provinces also have low-income dental coverage.

***

That said, many employers in Canada offer 'supplemental' private insurance which may pay for prescriptions/dental/vision/medical devices (hearing aids etc.) as well as non-hospital based physio and the like.

This is entirely optional, and typically inexpensive relative to comprehensive American health insurance.

***

Most of the costs of our 'systems' are financed through general tax revenue income/sales/corporate, as opposed to a payroll tax.

However, some provinces do have partial payroll tax.

Ontario as an example charges 1.95% of payroll greater than $400,000

That still amounts all-in to a tiny fraction of what U.S. employers fork out for private health insurance.

The tax portion in ON, for instance, would be $1,950 on a $100,000 pay pkg.