Amazon HQ2 RFP

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dshoost88 said:
I agree and am currently seeking it out. Apparently “IPEDS” has that data...
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I assume Newark is included in NY in your chart.

Home to some of the nation’s most prestigious universities, Massachusetts is the only state in which more than two in five adults have at least a bachelor’s degree. Because of their high educational levels many Massachusetts residents likely qualify for high-paying jobs that tend to require college degrees. For example, 13.5% of the Massachusetts workforce is employed in a professional, scientific, or management occupation, the fourth highest share in the country. Some of those employees may belong to the 10.0% of Massachusetts households earning $200,000 and higher a year. Only two other states have a higher share of households earning as much.
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https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...t-educated-states_us_57dc22f2e4b053b1ccf2990f
 
stellarfun said:
I assume Newark is included in NY in your chart.


https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...t-educated-states_us_57dc22f2e4b053b1ccf2990f
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He used MSA's, and Newark is considered part of the NYC MSA. The New York MSA is very large (and includes chunks of CT)

New_York_Metropolitan_Area_Counties_2013.png


Personally I like CSA's better. The Boston MSA is weird in that it includes Rochester NH but not Worcester or Nashua.

Greaterboston2.png
 
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stellarfun said:
shmessy, I was going by White Flint because White Flint was what Bethesda Magazine guessed the site to be. Shady Grove Metro to Dulles is 31 miles; Google maps says current traffic makes the trip about one hour long. Shady Grove to University of Maryland College Park is 20 miles. The University of Maryland appears to be the only reasonably high ranked 'computer' school in the metro DC area.
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School-wise, perhaps, but the professional farm system for STEM in Montgomery County/NoVA and DC is robust.

I don't think Amazon would have much trouble in a metro area that populates the massive Hopkins APL, Goddard Space Center, NIH, FDA, NIST, NSA, etc.

I agree with what you are saying about Shady Grove to Dulles, but with the new ICC (Inter-County Connector highway), the trip to BWI can easily be made within 35 minutes.

Both are still probably longer than what Amazon wants to an airport, which is why I was completely surprised that Montgomery County was on this cut-down list - - I live here and I never thought it was in play.

But wait!

The Discovery Channel just announced it is pulling up stakes from Silver Spring and moving to NYC. Downtown SS now will have a large hole to fill and perhaps expand? A one transfer trip on the Metro to either National or (soon) Dulles may be alot quicker from SS.

Here ya go:
https://wamu.org/story/18/01/17/silver-spring-faces-future-without-discovery/
 
Rover said:
You DO realize jouhou has his/her location as Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which isn't exactly the Boston suburbs, right?

Now kindly tell us about Bezos BIG mistake not choosing Baltimore over places like Indy and Columbus which did make the list. :D
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To be fair, Portsmouth is at the far edge of the Boston CSA/MSA and many people do commute to Boston from here, and is thus technically a suburb of Boston while at the same time having its own small freestanding economy. However, downtown Portsmouth is very dense and isn't suburban in the sprawl kind of sense I was referring to.
 
Shirley Leung in the Globe linked to this article in the Baltimore Sun. The state supposedly offered $5 billion in incentives and infrastructure in support of Port Covington (Baltimore).

Appears to be less enthusiasm at the state level for now offering a similar package for Montgomery County. Spending that amount of money to improve the economic fortunes of Montgomery County means the rich only get richer.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-md-amazon-incentives-maryland-20180118-story.html
 
fattony said:
I think the governor and (more importantly) Amazon will make them work together. Cambridge may not have the option of sitting out this time.
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I seem to recall Cambridge was in the Somerville proposal. So really it is Boston, Revere, Somerville and Cambridge being considered
 
stellarfun said:
Shirley Leung in the Globe linked to this article in the Baltimore Sun. The state supposedly offered $5 billion in incentives and infrastructure in support of Port Covington (Baltimore).

Appears to be less enthusiasm at the state level for now offering a similar package for Montgomery County. Spending that amount of money to improve the economic fortunes of Montgomery County means the rich only get richer.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-md-amazon-incentives-maryland-20180118-story.html
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Does sort of add to the idea that Amazon's already made their choice; this scheming is just to get billions in incentives out of them.
 
stellarfun said:
Shirley Leung in the Globe linked to this article in the Baltimore Sun. The state supposedly offered $5 billion in incentives and infrastructure in support of Port Covington (Baltimore).

Appears to be less enthusiasm at the state level for now offering a similar package for Montgomery County. Spending that amount of money to improve the economic fortunes of Montgomery County means the rich only get richer.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-md-amazon-incentives-maryland-20180118-story.html
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Yeah but that Discovery move out of Silver Spring has people panicking there. Big hole in their downtown to fill. The move was announced only days ago, so that incentives motivation may be changing as we type. There's a lot of decrepit 1940-1950s ugly urban renewal buildings around Discovery's HQ building that can be knocked down and built up around. This might be a "Tom Brady Thumb Injury before the Game" late breaking change that could reshuffle that deck.

My guess is that Montgomery wasn't on the original list published yesterday and was hastily added because of the Discovery move (hence, Amazon may see a newly motivated sucker....err, contestant).

However, still not very close to an airport and the DC Beltway is lousy.
 
jklo said:
Does sort of add to the idea that Amazon's already made their choice; this scheming is just to get billions in incentives out of them.
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No doubt about it. Right now they've got one over the top offer that I can tell, which was Newark and I'm not sure a city like NYC for example is going to think they need to outbid Newark. However, lets say Amazon starts getting other places to up the ante as well. Then it can go to the city or cities it actually wants to locate in and say "hey, the price is now $5bn since we have 5 other cities willing to pay that".
 
Jouhou said:
To be fair, Portsmouth is at the far edge of the Boston CSA/MSA and many people do commute to Boston from here, and is thus technically a suburb of Boston while at the same time having its own small freestanding economy. However, downtown Portsmouth is very dense and isn't suburban in the sprawl kind of sense I was referring to.
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I wouldn't want to do that commute. Yikes :eek:
 
^ well, probably takes about as long to get from Kittery to Chelsea in the morning as it does to get from Chelsea to Dartmouth St...
 
Washington Post reporter broadly applied three Amazon criteria, and identified the following cities in the final 20 that meet all three.

Boston, Dallas, Denver, and Washington DC are the four that meet all three.

(Reporter had data on the number of 25-39 year olds in metro areas that had a science or engineering degree. Boston is ranked 5th nationally, NYC, LA, Chicago, and San Francisco would be higher.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...2-840am:homepage/story&utm_term=.82206cb23e09

Boston is the only finalist that is in the top 10 of all major US cities against all three criteria. The question is whether this reporter, a de facto Amazon employee, had 'inside information' on which criteria to emphasize in his straw man analysis and selection.
 
stellarfun said:
Washington Post reporter broadly applied three Amazon criteria, and identified the following cities in the final 20 that meet all three.

Boston, Dallas, Denver, and Washington DC are the four that meet all three.

(Reporter had data on the number of 25-39 year olds in metro areas that had a science or engineering degree. Boston is ranked 5th nationally, NYC, LA, Chicago, and San Francisco would be higher.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...2-840am:homepage/story&utm_term=.82206cb23e09

Boston is the only finalist that is in the top 10 of all major US cities against all three criteria. The question is whether this reporter, a de facto Amazon employee, had 'inside information' on which criteria to emphasize in his straw man analysis and selection.
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I can't see Boston not being neck and neck with one other city to get this. Certainly top 3. Oddly enough I'm less worried about Dallas (geography, TX politics) and Denver (geography, also maybe too small) and more worried about DC and NYC. Maybe NY is too expensive and Amazon wouldn't be quite the big fish that it would be in any other city in the country. But DC vs Boston with Bezos having connections in DC already is tough...
 
stellarfun said:
Boston is the only finalist that is in the top 10 of all major US cities against all three criteria. The question is whether this reporter, a de facto Amazon employee, had 'inside information' on which criteria to emphasize in his straw man analysis and selection.
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Unlikely.
 
Rover said:
I wouldn't want to do that commute. Yikes :eek:
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The Amtrak from the UNH campus in Durham to North Station is a little over 80 minutes, with no transfers. From Exeter it is around 70 minutes. That's less than my brother's drive in from Hopkinton some mornings.
 
That's seems to be the trending gutwrenchy feeling.

Finishing 2nd to DC area would be awful.

and i won't ever stop thinking South Station/Dot Ave would have won easily.
 
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