Amazon HQ2 RFP

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Suffolk 83 said:
Bezos may care about the APPEARANCE of being a liberal but when it comes to his money he's far from it. Good article here about that. I've long thought it should be illegal what he's doing to pit cities against each other. The mainstream media should be taking this angle but it seems many won't. It's why I refuse to be a fan boy for Boston getting Amazon, beyond the fact that it would hurt many of Boston area residents. Especially those that dont already own property.
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Wait a second......let me understand this......you think he's the FIRST to do that?????
 
atlantaden said:
Don't confuse the rational, progressive Atlanta business community with the rest of the GA Goobers. Atlanta is a bright blue island in a sea of red and the rural reps do all they can to punish the city for it's progressive views. Makes no sense but there it is, many feel the rural conservatives are threatened by a company like Amazon moving into the city which would bring more young, progressives (who vote) into the state. My Facebook feed today is filled with many, many posts, similiar to what Stellarfun posted here, about how the Lt. Governor's comments just killed the Amazon bid. Time will tell.
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Don't worry, Governor "West Station to be reconsidered in 2040" Baker has taken Massachusetts out of the serious running:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...h-news-says/y6G08BL3zAyKNKIKzahTTI/story.html

".......In 2017, the publication ranked the state 19th on infrastructure. Now, Massachusetts has fallen to 45th. That ranking includes metrics like Internet access, public transit use, commute times, and bridge and road quality....."

When will it dawn on him that NSRL, B-R Connection and yes, a near term plan on West Station is vital to the BUSINESS of Massachusetts?
 
shmessy said:
Don't worry, Governor "West Station to be reconsidered in 2040" Baker has taken Massachusetts out of the serious running:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...h-news-says/y6G08BL3zAyKNKIKzahTTI/story.html

".......In 2017, the publication ranked the state 19th on infrastructure. Now, Massachusetts has fallen to 45th. That ranking includes metrics like Internet access, public transit use, commute times, and bridge and road quality....."

When will it dawn on him that NSRL, B-R Connection and yes, a near term plan on West Station is vital to the BUSINESS of Massachusetts?
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Weren't you the guy who was pimping Baltimore as some sort of Shangra-La? I'd be astounded if Bezos gives a rat's ass about West Station unless he plans on locating his campus there.
 
BostonDrew said:
More details on Amazon adding space to the Seaport, separate from HQ2. Mayor Walsh is scheduled to announce the project tonight during a downtown business leaders meeting.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business...obs-seaport/eCZvhGNTm88IBW6F6AnXTP/story.html
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I was wrong! It's site L4:

http://www.bostonplans.org/getattachment/4e099431-26ee-4a09-8f68-c58ea1e52e87

Directly behind 121 Seaport, with an option for L5, located kitty-corner on the other side of the central plaza.
 
Rover said:
Weren't you the guy who was pimping Baltimore as some sort of Shangra-La? I'd be astounded if Bezos gives a rat's ass about West Station unless he plans on locating his campus there.
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US News and World Report rankings have some meaning. When they rank Mass45th in Infrastructure that’s not a good thing.

I get it. You are an Internet Tough Guy and obviously want to make this discussion a personal bullying event. I come here to learn from others and put forward some observations. You, evidently, want to let off some steam. I never touted Baltimore as any model city and politely asked you several times to stop putting those words in my mouth. I’m not sure why you want to continue to pursue your weird agenda.

Bezos obviously is fine with locating several pieces of his company in and around Boston as evidenced recently. The lack of infrastructural forsight and ambition leads me to believe he won’t have the confidence in. Boston for HQ2.
 
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I am going to assume Massachusetts got hammered on road and bridge quality as well as commute times. By and large the highway infrastructure in this state is pretty poor and needs upgrading.
 
The high and lows of Massachusetts' Infrastructure ranking

Electricity Price #47
Commute time #47
Public Transit Usage #8
Road Quality #46
Broadband access #1
Ultra fast Internet Access #48

(Rankings in the middle for other metrics not displayed)

None of the other states ranked higher than MA are an Amazon finalist.
_________________

Some other metrics


Education Ranked #1
Higher Ed ranked #29
Educational Attainment ranked #1
Pre K-12 ranked #1
College Readiness ranked #2
NAEP Math Scores #1
NAEP reading scores #2
Pre-school enrollment #4

Business Environment #2

Affordability #47
Housing Affordability #44
 
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So Boston is HQ3.

Air Rights.
Kneeland St,
Copley Tower (w/ signage)
Columbus Center......
SST,
Suffolk Downs, etc....
 
odurandina said:
So Boston is HQ3.

Air Rights.
Kneeland St,
Copley Tower (w/ signage)
Columbus Center......
SST,
Suffolk Downs, etc....
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Absolutely - - and I'm fully down with THAT.

If Boston can replicate every five years what is has over the past 5 years, it will have gained MORE square feet and employees in 20 years than the HQ2 will represent at full (advertised) buildout - - - - without the expected tax breaks/ransom.

200+ hits and a .360 batting average is better than 45 homeruns and a .245 batting average. Being a large, successful and DEEP economy is better than becoming a Company Town.

The Tortoise and the Hare - - - let those desperado tax break throwing - stadium building cities like Nashville, Austin, Atlanta, Las Vegas and, yes, Baltimore be the type of cities that have space, neediness and desperation to mortgage their future budgets to corporations/sports franchises to be seen as a "player".

Stealthily and smartly becoming HQ3 is the far better strategy.

However to achieve that smarter/long term strategy will require smart and targeted infrastructure spending on well-defined, studied projects. Boston has two that make sense and are already partially structured.
 
Yes. Today i became a believer we might have won more by being HQ3/ labs + whatever else they have planned for Boston.
 
odurandina said:
Yes. Today i became a believer we might have won more by being HQ3/ labs + whatever else they have planned for Boston.
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Exactly. More and more people are coming around to this.

Let the desperado cities throw the big money at Amazon Splash (and baseball/football/basketball stadiums/arenas, etc) for large, headline announcements that may or may not actually reach their stated potential in decades (while causing huge displacement).

Boston wins much larger and longer-term by not binge eating at one moment, but by grazing constantly.

Look at the beautiful downtown stadiums (right next to each other!) in desperado cities like Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore. Look at the ridiculous amount of public money spent in Atlanta for its Olympic/Baseball stadium in the mid-1990's - - - only for the Braves to claim it was too old 20 years later, demand the city pay for a new one and then pick up stakes and move to a suburb for the replacement. Oh, at least Atlanta proper was able to keep the Falcons in town by building a new $1.6 domed stadium to replae the "old" 26 year old domed stadium. By the way, the Entertainment/Dining business tax deduction is going away - - wonder how that will affect all those corporate suites in stadiums?

Boston is winning. Best thing to do is not to screw that up - - -lose the H2Q beauty contest and put the money others are throwing for Amazon ransom towards our almost shovel ready infrastructure needs.
 
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tysmith95 said:
If you're talking about infrastructure then that is false.
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Massachusetts is ranked #8, using all metrics. None of the states ranked higher than Massachusetts (again, using all metrics) has an Amazon HQ2 finalist.

And if one looks at what little Amazon has said about its various criteria, education appears to be far more important than infrastructure. The infrastructure exception is a site requirement for direct access to the backbone of the Internet. If a huge data center were to be part of HQ2, then cost of electricity would be an important factor.

If one looks at the number of job openings by city for the following job categories, one gets a sense of where Amazon is basing its teams for cutting edge, technology-based solutions. The next phase of Amazon. (Note, the medical / health job category has no researchers.)

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/job_categories/hardware-development

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/job_categories/machine-learning-science

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/job_categories/project-program-product-management-technical

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/job_categories/research-science

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/job_categories/solutions-architect

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/job_categories/systems-quality-security-engineering

I am not changing my previous prediction that there will be no single HQ2, but rather several large-size research / service hubs (no pun) --HQ3s / HQ4s - whatever.
 
stellarfun said:
Massachusetts is ranked #8, using all metrics. None of the states ranked higher than Massachusetts (again, using all metrics) has an Amazon HQ2 finalist.

And if one looks at what little Amazon has said about its various criteria, education appears to be far more important than infrastructure. The infrastructure exception is a site requirement for direct access to the backbone of the Internet. If a huge data center were to be part of HQ2, then cost of electricity would be an important factor.

If one looks at the number of job openings by city for the following job categories, one gets a sense of where Amazon is basing its teams for cutting edge, technology-based solutions. The next phase of Amazon. (Note, the medical / health job category has no researchers.)

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/job_categories/hardware-development

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/job_categories/machine-learning-science

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/job_categories/project-program-product-management-technical

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/job_categories/research-science

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/job_categories/solutions-architect

https://www.amazon.jobs/en/job_categories/systems-quality-security-engineering

I am not changing my previous prediction that there will be no single HQ2, but rather several large-size research / service hubs (no pun) --HQ3s / HQ4s - whatever.
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....which is why the quest to land HQ2 is a Sucker's Contest.

Some 3rd rate city is going to throw billions and billions of dollars at Amazon and wind up with LESS square footage and jobs than Boston will get stealthily.

Get yer popcorn ready for this predictable movie script (and, as Bostonians, enjoy every delicious minute of it!).
 
stellarfun said:
The high and lows of Massachusetts' Infrastructure ranking


Some other metrics


Education Ranked #1
Higher Ed ranked #29
Educational Attainment ranked #1
Pre K-12 ranked #1
College Readiness ranked #2
NAEP Math Scores #1
NAEP reading scores #2
Pre-school enrollment #4

Business Environment #2

Affordability #47
Housing Affordability #44
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So is this study saying Mass is 29 th out of 50 in higher ed? If so then I highly question this ranking. There’s no way Mass is not in top 5 let alone bottom half.
 
GW2500 said:
So is this study saying Mass is 29 th out of 50 in higher ed? If so then I highly question this ranking. There’s no way Mass is not in top 5 let alone bottom half.
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Yeah, that jumped out at me, too, but I can envision some metrics that would yield such a result. Suppose they weight things in favor of public universities. UMass is decent but not top tier which would count against us, but even worse, we have a very small percentage of students in public institutions compared to many other states. My guess is that these two factors were more important than the factors you and I might consider in thinking we should be top five.
 
shmessy said:
....which is why the quest to land HQ2 is a Sucker's Contest.

Some 3rd rate city is going to throw billions and billions of dollars at Amazon and wind up with LESS square footage and jobs than Boston will get stealthily.

Get yer popcorn ready for this predictable movie script (and, as Bostonians, enjoy every delicious minute of it!).
Click to expand...

Lets all hope and pray that this viewpoint is true. Philosophically I think this makes sense and in the long run we are better off than having a gravity shifting event happen. Boston has its own perpetual motion machine that seems to work well. I would not want anything to mess with it.

cca
 
Weren't we #1 on that same list last year? Makes you take it all with grain of salt, no?
 
I would think Pennsylvania, New York, Mass, California, New Jersey, Illinois, Connecticut, Washington, Michigan, etc are all reasonably close on education--But NYC, Philly, Boston and Chicago pull away from (everyone) with high local density and public transportation straight to the front doors of HR.
 
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