OT: Amazon HQ2 - 20 Finalists
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Let's call a spade a spade: Newark has doesn't have enough to offset the problems of decrepit infrastructure and crime. It's not exactly a walking city. There is not one safe 10 block walk that you'd want to take at night.
If I were to bet, I'd say Raleigh, NC, Atlanta, Austin and Denver make the final list ahead of s-hole Newark.
If I were to bet, I'd say Raleigh, NC, Atlanta, Austin and Denver make the final list ahead of s-hole Newark.
gotta LOL at all the people shitting on Newark and praising all the other crappy cities. Anyone actually been to Columbus?
Do you think Seattle was a gleaming Mecca when Amazon started up?
Newark makes the most sense. It's a blank slate of office space ready to move in & easily restorable brownstones ready to kick out the Section 8 and bring in young corporate types.
Do you think Seattle was a gleaming Mecca when Amazon started up?
Newark makes the most sense. It's a blank slate of office space ready to move in & easily restorable brownstones ready to kick out the Section 8 and bring in young corporate types.
Don’t forget all the poor people in Newark! People who don’t vote and have no voice. Easy as hell to plough those people into a ditch and build fancy Amazonian highrises.
I don’t think they have been too many of these cities. They don’t know that Atlanta is only 38% white.
Wake County (Raleigh) is decidedly Democratic, as is Durham County (Duke) and Orange County (UNC).
Cant believe the number of people saying it couldnt be Newark due to infrastructure issues but then tab Atlanta as ideal. Lol. Atlanta has incredibly horrible traffic and getting worse all the time, a poor and very limited mass transit system, a serious homeless problem just to name a few. When i first moved here i used to talk it up to people i knew back home like you should think about moving here too. Well hell 11 years later and i sure dont do that anymore. Would seriously consider moving on myself if certain things were different.
Seattle was a high quality city prior to Amazon; Microsoft was the Amazon of the late 80's/early 90's. But your general premise that other cities have their own warts holds true.
If your suggesting that Newark, proper, isn't attractive to "technical talent" then I might be inclined to agree with you.
If, on the other hand, you're suggesting that the immediate region isn't attractive to those same people then I'd be more inclined to write you a prescription for something.
Outside of the Valley and maybe Seattle, this area has the highest concentration of technical talent in the country. We're all doing quite well, thanks.
Once again, I'd encourage people to actually get out once in a while before making unreasonable comparisons.
There's no part of downtown Atlanta that you'd want to walk around at night, either.
The entire discussion about which second-rate city is best is really pointless, because it's not about that.
This is about the captain of the football team trying to choose which of 20 chicks he's gonna take to the prom. Assuming their looks are reasonably similar, the decision is based on which one is most likely to put out with the least effort.
The city that wins will be the city that's least afraid to get its knees dirty.
I will agree that Newark digressed dramatically from the 50’s and 60’s and yes , the Central ward is still a question mark but the location of where this facility would be is no where near downtown ...Rutgers...NJIT...Seton Hall Law School... all give downtown Newark a different feel... Columbus Ohio???...Seattle Washington... even precious Austin... Pittsburgh... Atlanta all have their scabs to pick... some here are undervaluing an area ripe for dramatic regrowth... Prudential... and more recently Shop Rite Supermarkets have established a foothold in this former great city...some of those here need to understand the decision is about $$$$ and where Bezos and Amazon can thrive... when you see big business closing stores around the country very few in this state are part of the closures...Newark will be in til the end.
First city to pledge its first born to two years of indentured service in Amazon warehouses wins.
As messed up as mass transit is with New Jersey Transit, it's still better than most of the country.
I’ve been to most of these cities includkng Seattle. Traffic is terrible in all the ones I’ve been to so that is consistent. I did not like Atlanta at all. Just a crap place. I did like Dallas a lot but also tons of traffic and no one can drive there.
Austin is a great little place but also no mass transit and barely an airport.
Austin is a great little place but also no mass transit and barely an airport.
This. As messed up as NJTransit, PATH, Amtrak and NYC subways are, at least they exist. What mass transit systems other than a handful of bus lines and light rail systems that may go a mile or two exist in Atlanta, Austin, Raleigh, Columbus, Miami, Indianapolis, DFW, and Nashville exist?
Atlanta traffic is incredibly putrid, as is Dallas. My cousin who lives in Atlanta posts on FB pictures of her daily commute sitting in bumper to bumper traffic saying how much she wants to move from the area. I had to remove her from my feed since it was annoying seeing this every damn day. Not to mention if a quarter of an inch snows in either of these cities, shut down for a day+ as they don't have the plows/salters to handle and people don't know how to drive in those conditions.
The grass is always greener on the other side, and while you may hate Northern NJ/NYC traffic, commuting sucks throughout the country. At least you have public transit options in this part of the country. While in other the final cities, you have no choice but to drive.
To Denver's credit, they've invested quite heavily in public transit. It still has a long way to go, its a step in the right direction.
While they will need plenty of engineers/techies, they'll need plenty of accountants, bankers, lawyers, logistics, product managers, etc. so focusing on new tech hubs like Raleigh and Austin is short sighted and not deep enough of a talent pool for all of those roles.
Also, this is Amazon's push to grow outside of the US and be closer to Europe/MENA/India. A major airport will be necessary.
It's also a political play. In several years, Amazon will be viewed as monopolistic. Will have to keep Congress at bay on cries of breaking up the company. Need to be close to DC or in a strong politically influential swing state.
With all of that in mind, my guess is Philly or DC. Both have top notch universities in the cities, are walk-able, have developed mass transit systems, plenty of restaurants/arts/culture/museums/sports/shopping. Have major airports than can fly east and nonstop flights to Seattle. Paying employees here would be cheaper than NYC, LA or Toronto (which I think would be an interesting choice, but would be political suicide.)
The two dark horses are Denver and Pittsburgh. Denver is too far west, and Pittsburgh might not have the infrastructure (public transit/airport) and culture Amazon is looking for.
If Newark/NYC were smart, they should combine their bid, promise to build a new tunnel under the Hudson extending the 7 line into the Westside and into Newark. Of course this requires strong political will and compromise by both, so of course won't happen.
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Amazon has the challenge of getting people to relocate to Seattle.
Any location they choose must have huge upside in :
A. Have a large enough tech population that people don't need to relocate.
B. Be much easier to get people to relocate than to Seattle (cheap real estate, great qualify of life, etc.).
The only metro that can have a chance at getting 50k tech heavy work forces without major amounts of relocation are NY metro and bay area.
Any location they choose must have huge upside in :
A. Have a large enough tech population that people don't need to relocate.
B. Be much easier to get people to relocate than to Seattle (cheap real estate, great qualify of life, etc.).
The only metro that can have a chance at getting 50k tech heavy work forces without major amounts of relocation are NY metro and bay area.
Suprising to me DC has larger tech work force than NY....
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/pictures/feki45ehefi/the-20-best-cities-in-th/amp/
We aren't in desperate need of help at all. This would accelerate things yes.
I love how you apes consistently (and proudly) out yourselves as drone/storm troopers Everytime king orangutan makes a new comment. No one wants to go to po-dunk Raleigh ... Atlanta I can see. I doubt Austin. Newark has one of the busiest ports and airports in the nation and one hell of a highway system. Also several trains to NYC .. and the 10 block and crime myth keeps mooks like you the hell away. Parta the reason why I live here
Yeah, idk why these ppl.domt get the hell out already.
I believe Atlanta has a higher crime rate than Newark, though maybe the violent crime is a bit less. It's always amazing to me how easy it is for humans to see the flaws in something familiar and completely overlook them in something less familiar. Newark has a ton of issues, for the most part those issues aren't appreciably worse than the issues for other cities on the list. Some things are better, some things are worse.
I bet that most posters here never visited the cities they think it’s better than Newark. For those that have, i’m sure you just saw the nice parts.
I think people have traveled to Atlanta and been to nice parts. But when they compare Newark to Atlanta, they neglect that Newark is 24 sq miles and Atlanta is 133 sq miles. Atlanta is bigger than all of Essex County.
Newark is a dump. Is it less of a dump than Trenton and Camden and some others, yeah. Is Ras a better mayor than photo-op Booker, yeah. So while things may be improving a bit, it's still a dump and has a long, long way to go. I hope Amazon selects Newark, it would be a game changer! Good luck.
Your cousin is right.The Atlanta metro area encompasses about 10 counties. The Marta rail service touches 2 of those counties. And instead of just proactively expanding it they always put it to a referendum so that its politicized. It snowed an inch on Tuesday night into Wednesday and my son has had 3 days of school closing days. And everybody recalls the debacle of a few years ago. Snowmageddon they called it.
I dont have a horse in this race, as I havent lived in NJ for nearly a decade. But, that is a disgusting way to speak about someone's home. That poster clearly lives there. You have no respect, and then you try to backhandedly wish them luck. Loser ****.
Nothing wrong with wishing good luck to land Amazon. It would be a transformational opportunity for any city, including Newark.
It's going to be Philly, you heard it here first. I'm going to ramble because I'm getting ready for work but here goes:
Bezos loves reclaimation projects with tradition and name recognition, see: Washington Post and Whole Foods. Philly would allow him to be top dog because no other company really owns it and the city itself is rich with history.
Philly has a walkable downtown and other walkable neighborhoods much like Seattle. The Seattle downtown is very much like Center City and Rittenhouse Square, there are even similar street names like Vine and Broad. Then both cities have the same sports stadiums that are built near each other, surrounded by warehouses, located directly south of the downtown area.
PHL is a major cargo hub airport. The port of Philadelphia is active and still growing. Tech talent can be supplied by UPenn, Drexel, Princeton, UDel, Villanova and Rutgers. It's close enough for an easy drive or multiple public transportation options to NYC or Washington DC.
They're not going to put 50K in one office, as there will be satellite offices and locations. The Philly area has plenty of developed and developable land. Back office operations can go in Delaware, warehouses can be put up along the water in Chester county, tech operations can go in Cherry Hill and its surrounding areas, and the HQ show office can be in Center City.
Bezos loves reclaimation projects with tradition and name recognition, see: Washington Post and Whole Foods. Philly would allow him to be top dog because no other company really owns it and the city itself is rich with history.
Philly has a walkable downtown and other walkable neighborhoods much like Seattle. The Seattle downtown is very much like Center City and Rittenhouse Square, there are even similar street names like Vine and Broad. Then both cities have the same sports stadiums that are built near each other, surrounded by warehouses, located directly south of the downtown area.
PHL is a major cargo hub airport. The port of Philadelphia is active and still growing. Tech talent can be supplied by UPenn, Drexel, Princeton, UDel, Villanova and Rutgers. It's close enough for an easy drive or multiple public transportation options to NYC or Washington DC.
They're not going to put 50K in one office, as there will be satellite offices and locations. The Philly area has plenty of developed and developable land. Back office operations can go in Delaware, warehouses can be put up along the water in Chester county, tech operations can go in Cherry Hill and its surrounding areas, and the HQ show office can be in Center City.
These comments ring similar to the threads that complain about the lack of support for Rutgers around New Jersey.
I think Amazon's top choices are NY/Newark or DC/MD/NoVa. Philly is a good compromise choice if they can't decide between NY-metro and DC-Metro. I'd be somewhat surprised if any other location is selected.
The one thing I think many may not realize is if Amazon chooses Newark, it may not be the windfall for jobs as they may expect. While there will be subcontract jobs like cafeteria service, cleaning people, security guards, etc... most of the 30k+ jobs that avg 100k a year will probably go to non-Newark residents. In addition, if Amazon shifts 15-20k current employees from Seattle and various satellite offices to the potential Newark HQ then the NJ area qualified workers who are unemployed or underemployed will not have the opportunity to get a job with Amazon.
basically, the avg person who thinks they are getting a high paying job with Amazon may be disappointed at the end.
Yes, there will be a number of lower paying jobs available near the potential Amazon HQ that non-college educated citizens can fill (ie. various fast food / delis, drug stores, retailers who move nearby) but don't expect Amazon to go out of their way to find a Newark person who may have a liberal arts degree from a lower rated college and has been working as a receptionist to hire these people into executive 100k a year jobs. The same may hold true for a laid off Toys R Us tech employees where Amazon may prefer to recruit someone from another industry or hire someone who may be less experienced but has worked for a digital age company that is not struggling.
We may find the Rutgers alums in their 50s who were laid off by legacy companies after many years of service will not be considered by an Amazon.
basically, the avg person who thinks they are getting a high paying job with Amazon may be disappointed at the end.
Yes, there will be a number of lower paying jobs available near the potential Amazon HQ that non-college educated citizens can fill (ie. various fast food / delis, drug stores, retailers who move nearby) but don't expect Amazon to go out of their way to find a Newark person who may have a liberal arts degree from a lower rated college and has been working as a receptionist to hire these people into executive 100k a year jobs. The same may hold true for a laid off Toys R Us tech employees where Amazon may prefer to recruit someone from another industry or hire someone who may be less experienced but has worked for a digital age company that is not struggling.
We may find the Rutgers alums in their 50s who were laid off by legacy companies after many years of service will not be considered by an Amazon.
The Port of NY/NJ has the largest and busiest East Coast Port. Philly does not make the top 10.
https://www.icontainers.com/us/2017/05/16/top-10-us-ports/
As far as UPS air hubs:
Louisville, KY (Main Global Air Hub); Philadelphia, PA; Dallas, TX; Ontario, CA; Rockford, IL; Columbia, SC
USPS has Network Distribution facilities in Jersey City and Philadelphia
I believe the 50,000 jobs they keep mentioning are projected to be over the next 20 years. Obviously if things keep going well for them it might be significantly quicker, but its not like they are showing up year 1 with 50,000 jobs. So if somewhere like newark needs to beef up the infrastructure in the area it can be done with a decent capital plan. At least they have significant infrastructure that can be improved as needed instead of almost starting from scratch like some others.