Posted on 11/15/2017 8:49:54 AM PST by RegulatorCountry
November 15, 2017 - It's been two months since Amazon announced they will be searching for a site for their new co-headquarters, resulting in hundreds of applications and endless speculation. Now we have the answer.
Trust us - it's going to be Atlanta.
So says the collective wisdom of urbanists, researchers, pundits and publications. The team at Sperling's BestPlaces collected 18 of the most reputable lists and rankings of potential Amazon HQ2 locations. Using those rankings, we created one huge super-study which tallied how each location performed and from that, we generated a score for each place.
Sperling's Amazon HQ Hyper-Ranking
1. Atlanta 2. Boston 3. Chicago 4. Philadelphia 5. Washington, D.C. 6. Austin 7. Dallas 8. Denver 9. New York City 10. Raleigh (full list of 64 at the end of this document)
(Excerpt) Read more at bestplaces.net ...
West coast liberals will get a practical, real life lesson on race relations that is much different from that of Silicon Valley.
Y*A*W*N!!!!
Wake me up when the choose the loser, er, I mean winner... Actually, loser will be whoever Amazon chooses.
I hope they DO NOT PICK ATLANTA. I live too close. I fly frequently and the Amazon center would ruin Hartsfield IAP.
What is the benefit of having a 2nd headquarters so close to the first? They’ll just expand in Seattle instead.
Where is this magical low earthquake risk area west of the Rockies, by the way?
This isn’t going to be a distribution center although having one nearby would have an appeal for a 2nd headquarters, I’d think.
It’s a detailed study based upon 19 different groups who have differing weighting and standards as far as Amazon’s stated criteria. Some will find it interesting reading. It appears you don’t, if you even read it.
Feel free to ignore the thread, nobody’s got a gun to your head.
“Atlanta? Worst possible choice. Traffic, crime, lousy standard of living. Blah. Good airport though...if you can get there.”
That’s just not true. It would describe downtown Atlanta proper, where only about 475,000 ppl live, but certainly not the greater metro area of about 5.5 million ppl. I was born and raised up North, lived in the Northwest, then in FL for many years. I relocated with my family to the northern Atlanta burbs 18 years ago. I’ve lived in a number of those Atlanta metro cities, and I can tell you the quality of life is second to very few. They are full of professionals and executives, and the public schools are some of the top in the nation. I moved back from Scottsdale AZ in 2010- Johns Creek where we live now compares very favorably for quality of life and safety. When I want to take a day off and get away from people, I’m 1 and 1/2 hours from some of the finest hiking and waterfall viewing anywhere east of the Mississippi. There’s a reason Porsche, Mercedes, and other corporate HQs have relocated to the Atlanta metro area recently. But you do have to live here to know and when to deal with the traffic on the major roads!
Atlanta is a riot waiting to happen.
Atlanta Underground within walking distance of my house is ideal. I walk right through it every day walking home from my downtown gig.
Crime? Not compared to Chicago or even Chicago burbs I came from. I can walk all over my South and East side Atlanta without the hint of crime.
Traffic? 50% of traffic problem is easily and cheaply fixed. A new expressway on the edge of Benz stadium above Northside Dr and from I75 down to the airport is the other half...no more expensive than the Cobb County Expressway in the sky.
Atlanta’s Underground is an Urban Planners typical mistake. They built N-S and E-W commuter rail lines intersecting at the Underground. Then they required that there be massive open space around the commuter hub.
Stupid. High density offices and housing should be at a commuter hub.
Atlanta’s Gulch is just 2 blocks west of the Underground. It would be the #2 choice for me. It is underused rail yards and parking lots between the basketball and soccer stadiums. (I say soccer because soccer has bigger attendance than NFL in Benz stadium.)
Bezos will regret this !
It has been quite the magnet for people who haven’t been typically known for relocating, certainly not to the south at least.
Low risk earthquake zones west of the Rockies that meet the other criteria are:
Denver (technically east of Rockies and beyond 2hrs flight)
Sacramento
Phoenix (beyond 2hrs flight)
Reno (growing with the Tesla factory)
Boise
Las Vegas
Salt Lake
So there are no cities literally west of the Rockies that meet the stated criteria then, correct?
If Amazon employees are lucky, the company will weigh lifestyle factors heavily, and avoiding monstrous commutes in already congested urban areas would be near the top of that list. That would argue for a smaller city that (a) still has manageable traffic and (b) has an opportunity to build smart from here on out. (Mixed use neighborhoods; jobs in close proximity to housing, shopping, schools, etc.; intermodal transit options.) Alternatively, Amazon might take a chance, think redevelopment, and look for a close-in site in a major metro area that is battered enough to be affordable but that offers real turnaround potential.
People will have to make their own suggestions about cities they know well. Here in DC, there are a number of inside-the-beltway sites on the east side of the city (or in close-in PG county) that would offer outstanding proximity to downtown and affordable housing. Just to suggest one such site as an example: build next to the new DHS site in Anacostia, on the first ridge east of the river with the panoramic views across the valley and downtown. Or go to Hyattsville, College Park or Chillum (there is nothing in Chillum that can't be torn down) on condition that Metrorail run a suitable extension to serve the campus. These areas have issues but also real pockets of strength, and they are starting to improve as gentrification continues to sweep DC; they're too close-in not to get better, and Amazon could ride the wave. I imagine most other big cities offer comparable opportunities.
The braindead response would be to say, "We're picking DC," by which they would mean going to an outer ring county and building yet another suburban office park to accelerate sprawl. I hope Amazon will avoid that wherever they go. If a big city, tackle a close-in turnaround job and get in on the ground floor of what could become a legendary urban revival story. Or go to a smaller city and try to avoid ruining it.
Yes, there are.
Sacramento
Reno
Salt Lake
Las Vegas
Boise
And with 30 extra minutes of flight time, Phoenix.
Nope, no gun to my head. Sorry, I have a love/hate relationship with Amazon. I really like a lot of their products and services, But I can’t stand Jeff Bezo’s philosophical/political viewpoints. Torn, I tell you. Torn, like an old sweater.
CC
YES!
.
Well, now, I wouldn’t say that. I lived in ATL for almost 24 years. Generally low crime except in a few center city locations. Lower cost of living than any major city. Traffic is bad during rush hours (7 - 9 and 4:30 - 6:30) but not bad most of the day. MARTA keeps expanding, and the roads are being widened.
I was there in the 1990s through 2014, when Atlanta was adding 100,000 - 150,000 people each year, and it handled the increase very well.
On the other hand, I’ve seen what Amazon did to Seattle, and it is not pretty. Atlanta has one huge advantage over Seattle. There is so much developable land in the Atlanta Metro area, that it can keep housing relatively stable. But the high salaries that Amazon offers will be highly disruptive to any city. People will leave their stable jobs by the 1000s to get an Amazon job. There will be instant shortages of labor in the rest of the businesses there.
Orange County CA, where I call home now, is a complete mess. Crazy traffic, immigrant influx (China and Mexico) without assimilation, poor services, overpriced housing, etc. We could not handle any big businesses moving here.
Connecticut... According to the Whalers forum... (DeplorableAmerican1776 was a Whaler ticket holder when they were in Hartford).
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