Originally Posted by ATLswede
My gut says it will come down to Atlanta and Boston. The most important criteria are allegedly transit, proximity to quality higher education, cost of living, and availability of large tracts for development. Also, let's not forget that the whole point of this exercise is to give them an East Coast presence.
Boston's educational institutions, public transit, and cultural amenities probably make it the front runner (assuming they are willing to open their collective wallets). The only knocks against it would be cost of living, dinky airport, and cold weather.
Atlanta has a fairly big advantage in its airport. Its transit system is not extensive, but it at least has the bones of a solid system, it just needs expanding. And the educational institutions are quite good, even if they are not on the same level as Boston. I suspect Georgia will be willing to throw more money at Amazon and we have bigger parcels available, but I still think this thing is Boston's to lose. If they eff it up, we'll probably next in line.
Cost of living and availability of large contiguous parcels for development in a desirable area probably exclude Chicago, Philly and DC, even though their transit systems and educational institutions are top notch.
Lack of transit would all but disqualify Nashville and Charlotte, and TN does not have particularly good schools (though NC does).
Denver doesn't make the cut if the stated goal is to have an East Coast presence (it's a 3 hour flight, as opposed to 4.5 hours from Seattle). It also doesn't have the same level of educational institutions. No disrespect to CU, CSU, and University of Denver, but they pale in comparison to Boston (MIT, Harvard, UMass, Amherst +many other) and Atlanta (Emory, Georgia Tech, Georgia State, UGA + many others). Dallas also isn't exactly East Coast, it's transit is even weaker than Charlotte, and the educational institutions, while good, are not at the same level (yes, UT is a great school, but the combo of UT, SMU, and Texas A&M does not stack up IMO).
I have also gone ahead and written off the entire state of FL because I suspect Bezos is smart enough to realize that Miami is going to be largely under water in the next 30-50 years and there aren't really any other cities that have any of the other stated criteria.
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