Amazon HQ2 thread

[PhilliesPhan]

I'm still not admitting defeat until we receive an official announcement from Amazon. I still view Philadelphia's Schuylkill Yards as the perfect site for HQ2, and I view Philly as the perfect city to take on Amazon. The only downside to Philly is our tax environment, but that should improve once we fix the problems caused by the uniformity clause in our state constitution. Philly has the perfect combination of a viable site, preferable location, excellent transit, affordable housing, a bustling downtown area, unique neighborhoods, and a quality of life that few other American cities can provide.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by JAYNYC

You typed - and I quote - "There is probably more foot traffic in CC on an average day than most of downtown Dallas though"

If you don't understand why I would roll my eyes at the mere suggestion that a city of 22,543 residents has more foot traffic on an average day than a city of 1,197,816, then I can't help you.

Jesus. Obviously I don't mean Crystal City has more people walking around than Dallas. I am talking about intensity.

[Mr Saturn64]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

only in ny kids:

https://www.amny.com/news/amazon-long-island-city-1.22999481

Only in NY? The hell are you talking about? It doesn't matter where they put it, be it in New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Philly, wherever, there will be locals objecting. It doesn't matter how big they are, they're going to be heard no matter what. Hell, IIRC, there were anti-Amazon groups popping up in Pittsburgh and somewhere else months ago. Crystal City is kind of an exception, though, because it's essentially a giant office park.

Originally Posted by PhilliesPhan

I'm still not admitting defeat until we receive an official announcement from Amazon. I still view Philadelphia's Schuylkill Yards as the perfect site for HQ2, and I view Philly as the perfect city to take on Amazon. The only downside to Philly is our tax environment, but that should improve once we fix the problems caused by the uniformity clause in our state constitution. Philly has the perfect combination of a viable site, preferable location, excellent transit, affordable housing, a bustling downtown area, unique neighborhoods, and a quality of life that few other American cities can provide.

I'll admit, part of me is hoping for an M. Night Shyamalan style twist where it does go to a non-elitist city (eg. anywhere that's not New York or DC). I really do think we were one of the top-tier contenders, for the reasons you listed. What I was really hoping for was that it would go somewhere where it would make a substantial impact and turn a different city that struggled in the post-WWII era into a next-level tech city. It could've been us, it could have been Chicago, it could have been Newark. But honestly, we should've seen this coming all along.

[Shawn]

Long Island City happens to be where a shit-ton of Netflix original programming is developed and shot. Kimmy Schmidt, for example. NBC has a lot of back-lot space in LIC too.

Keeping in mind Amazon's goal of seeing Prime surpass Netflix by 2022 (in terms of original content budgeting, not subs), LIC makes some sense. The talent is already there to poach, and the pay will make it impossible for lots of network creatives already in the area to pass up.

But yeah . . . not according to the brief we all saw.

[mhays]

That's one of several business lines of various sizes that people are attributing to a big role in the rumored selections, or the rumored non-selections. I imagine that's one factor among many, but smaller than the ability to grow big quickly, the ability to attract broad-based talent from around the world, and so on.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by eixample

I am not trying to take anything away from Crystal City or LIC, but wasn't part of the original RFP to be located in an area that would provide affordable housing to its employees (unlike Seattle)? That is why DC and NYC are surprising to me. I thought the point of this process was to find an affordable city that offered the best big city environment without the price tag for living in those cities (not just developing in those cities, which the tax cuts help offset). That is why I thought cities like Philly and Chicago made so much sense.

Regardless of what they may have said, the critical factor in the selection seems to be the availability of young techie employees, preferably in a market without strong competition from other large tech companies (like Microsoft in Seattle) or, barring that, with a large enough pool that hiring won't be troublesome.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

Regardless of what they may have said, the critical factor in the selection seems to be the availability of young techie employees, preferably in a market without strong competition from other large tech companies (like Microsoft in Seattle) or, barring that, with a large enough pool that hiring won't be troublesome.

I somewhat agree, but they could've chosen Chicago or Dallas and gotten this too at a lower cost.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I somewhat agree, but they could've chosen Chicago or Dallas and gotten this too at a lower cost.

I doubt Chicago or Dallas have similar pools of young talent. And I doubt that young talent is particularly swayed by differences in housing prices.

Nearly half of Ivy League grads end up in NYC. That isn't exactly Amazon's traditional hiring base, but illustrates these cities are outliers in terms of talent.

[maru2501]

Was Amazon’s Headquarters Contest a Bait-and-Switch? Critics Say Yes

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/technology/amazon-hq2-long-island-city-virginia.html

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I doubt Chicago or Dallas have similar pools of young talent. And I doubt that young talent is particularly swayed by differences in housing prices.

Nearly half of Ivy League grads end up in NYC. That isn't exactly Amazon's traditional hiring base, but illustrates these cities are outliers in terms of talent.

This assuming that “talent” is exclusively defined by people who attend “Ivy League” schools, and that people who attend other schools aren’t talented.

I don’t buy it.

[JMKeynes]

New York and Boston were always the clear number 2 tech cities outside of the Silicon Valley region, even though NY, to my knowledge, was empirically ahead of Beantown.

Anyway, I think that Amazon's decision to come to NY really seals NY's status as the No. 2 tech capital. Google and Facebook, for example, have a bigger presence here than anywhere else outside of California. Also, IBM is based here, etc.

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I doubt Chicago or Dallas have similar pools of young talent. And I doubt that young talent is particularly swayed by differences in housing prices.

Nearly half of Ivy League grads end up in NYC. That isn't exactly Amazon's traditional hiring base, but illustrates these cities are outliers in terms of talent.

What an odd post.

Chicago is a city of 10 million and Dallas is in a state with 30 million people.

There's "talent" outside of New York.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

This assuming that “talent” is exclusively defined by people who attend “Ivy League” schools, and that people who attend other schools aren’t talented.

I don’t buy it.

Through the 90s you could wait tables and survive in NYC. Now you need parents who support you during unpaid internships and speculative moves. That's not a "talent", it's luck of the draw.

$1,500 in rent + $1,000/mo in professional clothes and meals + $1,000 in student loans -- a brief period of unemployment sends you back to mom's basement in Indiana. I know a girl who got a master's degree from Yale, shacked up with a rich guy in NYC right after school, then quickly racked up $20k in credit card bills after he put her out. She had to move back to Tennessee and now works in Kentucky.

[The North One]

People fling the word "Talent" around like their favorite buzzword but it really means nothing, they have no idea what they're even talking about.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

This assuming that “talent” is exclusively defined by people who attend “Ivy League” schools, and that people who attend other schools aren’t talented.

I don’t buy it.

Well, yeah. "Talent" is obviously far broader than "attended fancy college". But it's a reasonable proxy for desirable young talent (which appears to be Amazon's main concern).

It's the same issue as "why does anyone expand in Palo Alto when housing costs are outrageous, NIMBYs out of control and regulations ridiculous". Certain companies value access to talent above other factors. Yeah, Austin and Raleigh are much cheaper than Silicon Valley but they don't have the talent.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Sun Belt

What an odd post.

Chicago is a city of 10 million and Dallas is in a state with 30 million people.

There's "talent" outside of New York.

Not sure what you find "odd" about my post, or what any of the above nonsense about state populations have to do with my post.

I never claimed there isn't high-end young talent outside of NYC or DC; just that these places generally attract more than Chicago and Dallas (which should be rather obvious).

Chicago, in particular, has lots of high-end talent with Northwestern and Chicago and huge corporate HQ presence. Dallas has less but still quite a bit. But neither come remotely close to NYC (and both fall short of DC).

[38 Geary]

I'm not sure why people get so bent out of shape by the word "talent". Some cities just have more and better talent than others in the tech industry. That's just a fact. It has nothing to do with the quality of the city. It doesn't mean a city with more tech talent is better than a city with less. Are people really that insecure?

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Nearly half of Ivy League grads end up in NYC.

Yes, as lawyers and bankers, not tech workers.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Chicago, in particular, has lots of high-end talent with Northwestern and Chicago and huge corporate HQ presence. Dallas has less but still quite a bit. But neither come remotely close to NYC (and both fall short of DC).

Sorry, but I lived in DC (even attended Georgetown) and I don't buy that at all. NYC is of course its own league.

But there's no point in this discussion--you've made up your mind that talent=Ivy League. Hence wherever Ivy League grads go (duh, all of those schools are on the East Coast, so....) means that's where "the talent is"

[F1 Tommy]

I think the winning city or cities will realize this whole HQ2 contest was a joke when they announce HQ4 and HQ5