Amazon HQ2

[Austin1971]

Originally Posted by Dcbrickley

Nimby power is in the ability to say "no" when a developer/employer wants something. They can employ new city regs etc to slow progress, but that can backfire when affects the locals too. They have not tried to stop Google from adding 100's of jobs, or Facebook, or Oracle, etc....because they know they can't stop them, or even slow them. Those companies didn't ask them for anything-that I'm aware of.

Amazon probably always knew where they wanted to go, and ginned up their search for publicity and possibly increase the incentives offered by their favorite city. Austin won't have to offer much. Texas will offer plenty, and Austin's cost of living will take care of the rest. (paying 50,000 employees $50k+ less per year than Boston,DC area adds up quickly) Austin is a town that has plenty of room in the urban core now, and room for them to grow....and they can make a difference with their weight/money. Amazon can almost mold Austin into the urban city they desire.

Amazon would not choose a town and hope that they could convince a small cadre of people to allow them to relocate. I think we are giving the nimby's too much credit in this particular case.

They will complain, piss and moan, but in the end......I doubt Bezos will lose any sleep over Poole (or her equivalent in some other city).

I've raise my prediction from 33-50% to 50-67% that we got this.

I'll go 70-80%.....The Republic adding multiple floors has me wondering why? Something big is in the works.