Quote:
Originally Posted by Atlanta3000
[CENTER]Nashville never - it's population is to small and lacks mass transit - Detroit lacks talent and the city's fiscal situation.
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Nashville does have the "IT" factor going for it. If Bezos is looking for an up and coming place that millennials love and he can mold into his own, Nashville would fit that bill.
Besides, you did mention how critical incentives will be. Besides Georgia, Tennessee is another state that's also very generous with their incentive packages. That's how they managed to land Nissan, Bridgestone, Volkswagen, etc.
As far as Detroit, other than transit, it checks all of the boxes. What you say may be true as far as talent in the city proper, but the metro area is home to one of the largest concentration of STEM graduates in the country thanks to the Auto Industry. Not to mention, University of Michigan (who has confirmed they're backing Detroit's bid) is one of Amazon's largest feeder schools for talent. It also has a ton of cheap real estate & vacant land, unlike most major cities, for Amazon to grow and expand when it's ready. It also has one other factor that every other candidate (besides Toronto) lacks, and that's easy access to Canadian / international talent. Also, it's possible that Amazon will want to collaborate with the Big 3 to become well verse in vehicle technology for its continued integration of Alexa into cars. Concerning the fiscal situation, Detroit proper is on much better footing after shedding its debt in bankruptcy. Sure, it's not flush with cash, but it at least has a balanced budget and is providing basic services again. Besides, the fiscal situation in Chicago and Philadelphia (two of the top candidates) isn't all that great either.
And frankly, I'm not totally convinced transit will be a deal breaker. For one, Seattle had fairly abysmal transit when Amazon was established and started growing. Second, the main reason Seattle and most other cities have severe congestion / traffic is because of their poor road infrastructure. Detroit, meanwhile, overbuilt its road infrastructure during the 40s - 70s and doesn't really have gridlock traffic like most places (Detroit was ranked at the bottom amongst major cities with 3+ million people in terms of traffic congestion). So it negates the need for transit to an extent (although it certainly doesn't excuse the lack of it).
But this is all just my opinion. We're all guessing at this point. Only Bezos knows what he's going to do.