Amazon HQ2 thread

[JManc]

My wife went to Belmont for 3 semesters before transferring to U. of Houston.

[bnk]

I'm hoping Amazon reps are stuck in the snow in Atlanta right now.


http://www.ajc.com/weather/snow-slic...Xxxf3ZusNxouN/

NEW INFO: Road concerns continue in metro Atlanta

Steve Burns The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
12:36 p.m Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017

[9:34 a.m.]: About 140,000 Georgia Power customers are without power statewide as of 9 a.m., a spokesman said. Since noon Friday, crews have restored power to more than 130,000 customers.
UPDATE [9:02 a.m.]: Wind chills are expected to be in the 20s and low 30s, Channel 2 Action News reported.



ORIGINAL STORY: The storm that dumped inches of snow across metro Atlanta and North Georgia on Friday —  closing schools, knocking out power and making some roads impassable — isn’t over

...



Or Austin

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/surp...9c6QS65TY6GiJ/

By Friday morning in the small Bastrop County town of Rosanky, 4.5 inches of snow had fallen; Kyle measured 3 inches; and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport recorded its first measurable snowfall in almost seven years, clocking 1.3 inches.

...

School districts and universities across the area — including the Austin school district and the University of Texas — canceled or delayed classes.
Authorities shut down a miles-long stretch of MoPac Boulevard in South Austin after ice turned the usually traffic-clogged freeway treacherous.

...



I know it will melt but we will be snowcover free too next weekend with a nice warmup.

[SteveD]

Originally Posted by bnk

I'm hoping Amazon reps are stuck in the snow in Atlanta right now.


http://www.ajc.com/weather/snow-slic...Xxxf3ZusNxouN/

NEW INFO: Road concerns continue in metro Atlanta

Steve Burns The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
12:36 p.m Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017

[9:34 a.m.]: About 140,000 Georgia Power customers are without power statewide as of 9 a.m., a spokesman said. Since noon Friday, crews have restored power to more than 130,000 customers.
UPDATE [9:02 a.m.]: Wind chills are expected to be in the 20s and low 30s, Channel 2 Action News reported.



ORIGINAL STORY: The storm that dumped inches of snow across metro Atlanta and North Georgia on Friday —  closing schools, knocking out power and making some roads impassable — isn’t over

...



Or Austin

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/surp...9c6QS65TY6GiJ/

By Friday morning in the small Bastrop County town of Rosanky, 4.5 inches of snow had fallen; Kyle measured 3 inches; and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport recorded its first measurable snowfall in almost seven years, clocking 1.3 inches.

...

School districts and universities across the area — including the Austin school district and the University of Texas — canceled or delayed classes.
Authorities shut down a miles-long stretch of MoPac Boulevard in South Austin after ice turned the usually traffic-clogged freeway treacherous.

...

hahaha...I know, right? We had about 5 inches of snow at my place a couple miles east of downtown Atlanta. The crazy thing is, in town, it never got to freezing, and the road in front of my house is dry right now. Sort of like when we hosted the Super Bowl and had a freaking ice storm. It does happen here, but (thankfully), it's rare.

[skyscraperpage17]

Originally Posted by SteveD

hahaha...I know, right? We had about 5 inches of snow at my place a couple miles east of downtown Atlanta. The crazy thing is, in town, it never got to freezing, and the road in front of my house is dry right now. Sort of like when we hosted the Super Bowl and had a freaking ice storm. It does happen here, but (thankfully), it's rare.

Yes to the bolded.

Honestly, I'd love to know why the person you quoted felt the need to even bring up the Atlanta's snowfall in this thread. An anomalous event that happens every couple of centuries (an 8-10" snowfall) has *NOTHING* to do with Amazon HQ2.

[Kngkyle]

Originally Posted by skyscraperpage17

Yes to the bolded.

Honestly, I'd love to know why the person you quoted felt the need to even bring up the Atlanta's snowfall in this thread. An anomalous event that happens every couple of centuries (an 8-10" snowfall) has *NOTHING* to do with Amazon HQ2.

bnk is basically a news bot that spams articles that put Chicago in a good light. it would be fine it didn't happen so often... and this coming from a fellow Chicago forumer and a (hopefully) less obnoxious booster

[SteveD]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

bnk is basically a news bot that spams articles that put Chicago in a good light. it would be fine it didn't happen so often... and this coming from a fellow Chicago forumer and a (hopefully) less obnoxious booster

FWIW, I love Chicago. It's a great town. If Atlanta doesn't land Amazon I hope it does. Atlanta always seems to generate a lot of ire/derision. I just roll with it. Those of us who live here love it (for the most part).

[F1 Tommy]

Atlanta has snow several times a year almost every year. And every time it happens they close the city down.

Here is why I think Texas will get it. Bezos owns huge amounts of land and he grew up in Texas. I think it will be one of the bigger cities, not Austin due to several of the guidelines set down by Amazon.

Chicago has a problem. Bezos real father John Jorgensen, was born in Chicago and knocked up Jeff's mother when she was 17 only to leave a year after he was born. Not a good history and I would not be surprised if he has unhappy memories of the city by the lake

[skyscraperpage17]

Originally Posted by SteveD

FWIW, I love Chicago. It's a great town. If Atlanta doesn't land Amazon I hope it does. Atlanta always seems to generate a lot of ire/derision. I just roll with it. Those of us who live here love it (for the most part).

I find most of it to either be jealousy (folks from declining Rust Belt cities) or unrealistic expectations (folks from cities in the Boston - DC corridor).

But hey, to each his/her own. Atlanta works and is good enough for plenty of people, as it remains one of the fastest growing cities in the country.

[SteveD]

Originally Posted by F1 Tommy

Atlanta has snow several times a year almost every year. And every time it happens they close the city down.

Here is why I think Texas will get it. Bezos owns huge amounts of land and he grew up in Texas. I think it will be one of the bigger cities, not Austin due to several of the guidelines set down by Amazon.

Chicago has a problem. Bezos real father John Jorgensen, was born in Chicago and knocked up Jeff's mother when she was 17 only to leave a year after he was born. Not a good history and I would not be surprised if he has unhappy memories of the city by the lake

I don't want to derail the thread on a weather tangent, but that's not true about Atlanta and snow. I've lived here over 40 years and I'm a weather freak. We can go years in a row without it (actually the last two winters, none). Yesterday's was the most significant snowfall in almost four years and the city didn't shut down. Ice storms, bad versions of which can happen about every five to ten years, are much more damaging, and do "shut the city down".

[F1 Tommy]

Originally Posted by SteveD

I don't want to derail the thread on a weather tangent, but that's not true about Atlanta and snow. I've lived here over 40 years and I'm a weather freak. We can go years in a row without it (actually the last two winters, none). Yesterday's was the most significant snowfall in almost four years and the city didn't shut down. Ice storms, bad versions of which can happen about every five to ten years, are much more damaging, and do "shut the city down".

If you are talking about enough to shovel that's correct, but if you are talking about snow flurries/sleet you have it every year, with a few storms with measurable snow every few years.

Yes Ice storms are rare. I think north central Texas get's more of those and they may get the amazon HQ2(Dallas).

[SteveD]

Originally Posted by F1 Tommy

If you are talking about enough to shovel that's correct, but if you are talking about snow flurries/sleet you have it every year, with a few storms with measurable snow every few years.

Yes Ice storms are rare. I think north central Texas get's more of those and they may get the amazon HQ2(Dallas).

Correct. Flurries flying through air, dustings of snow on lawns and rooftops, rain mixed with sleet, generally a few times per winter season. Measureable, impactful snow, quite rare.

[skyscraperpage17]

EDIT: Never mind. It's a silly discussion.

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by SteveD

Those of us who live here love it (for the most part).

True for just about everywhere.

[Domer2019]

Originally Posted by MidTenn1

Just for the record, Nashville does not have one large overshadowing institution, but rather it has an impressive number of unique Colleges and Universities which should measure up to what any other City can offer with regard to aggregate enrollment, variety and diversity.
There are several other smaller, four year schools, offering more variety of studies.

So dismissing Nashville's University stock as "lower tier" (Vanderbilt??, seriously??) is grossly incorrect and uninformed.

I believe you misread this:

Originally Posted by 10023

Vanderbilt is nowhere near the size of UT. I'm not really concerned with community colleges or lower tier schools.

Meaning, Vanderbilt, the notable high quality school, is much smaller than UT. The above implication is that the REST of the schools (beyond Belmont) are not comparable in quality. Other metros have multiple Vanderbilts, and multiple liberal arts and state school(s) to boot.

Boston: EVERYTHING

DC: Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, UMD, and a boatload of privates

Philadelphia: Penn, Villanova, Temple, PSU, Drexel; Pitt and Carnegie Mellon a hop/skip away

Chicago: U of C, Northwestern, Notre Dame, UIC, UIUC, DePaul, Loyola

Atlanta: Emory, Georgia Tech, Georgia

Nashville: Vanderbilt, Belmont, a smattering of tiny colleges you noted, and UT. MTSU and TSU aren't on the same level.

Vanderbilt is its saving grace, and in terms of output, it's not nearly as many as the others mentioned.

[ssiguy]

Amazon specifically stated it wanted a city with a good transit system and Nashville hardly even has a transit system little alone a good one.

As far as Canadian cities go, healthcare savings, according to the Toronto bid, will be in the range of $600,000,000 a year and of course the those savings will increase as healthcare costs rise. Canada also offers the HUGE savings with the "dollar subsidy". For every 7 workers you can hire in US cities, you could hire 10 in Canada. Also academic upgrading for employees in Canada would be much cheaper as universities here have tuition fees that are anywhere from 40% to 70% cheaper as Canada has no private universities and our public ones are still much cheaper.

As for Bezos, he HATES Trump with a passion and I could see him going to Montreal or Toronto just to piss Trump off.

[MidTenn1]

Originally Posted by Domer2019

Nashville: Vanderbilt, Belmont, a smattering of tiny colleges you noted, and UT. MTSU and TSU aren't on the same level.

In spite of being ranked near the top of the likely cities lists to get HQ2 in a significant number of independent ratings by many respected sources, I personally believe Nashville's not going to get HQ2 anyway, but not because of a lack of academic infrastructure. I'm sure if it were necessary to upgrade the curriculum at any of the significant schools to accommodate the particular needs of a large corporation like Amazon, one or more of the schools would comply. It's been done before under similar circumstances even at state schools.

That's an impressive list of major, older cities which, of course, have a number of highly regarded Universities. It doesn't include Seattle, however, where Amazon seems to be thriving with just a small number of four year schools in the region.

I know I said "any' City in the original post, but I should have said peer cities. But, among Nashville's peer cities, Nashville does compare favorably in the higher education category.

Anyway, moving on. Somebody turn out the lights when you leave. Not going to get into a city vs. city discussion.

Go Preds!!

[mhays]

The University of Washington is often the #1 public US university in research dollars (albeit mostly medical), and has a significant computer science department. Its attendance is nearly as much as all of those Nashville schools combined. It's the sort of place that tech likes to be near. Seattle needs more higher ed, yes, but it's better than many cities in that regard.

[10023]

Originally Posted by MidTenn1

So dismissing Nashville's University stock as "lower tier" (Vanderbilt??, seriously??) is grossly incorrect and uninformed.

I mentioned Vandy, which is a great school. The others are not well known or very high quality institutions. Companies with hiring as competitive as Amazon's are not jumping at the chance to hire Tennessee State or Middle Tennessee grads.

[skyscraperpage17]

After further deliberation, I'm going to slightly modify my list of most likely Amazon HQ2 choices (in no particular order):

Top Candidates:

-Atlanta
-Dallas
-Chicago
-Philadelphia

Dark Horse:

-Nashville
-Pittsburgh
-Detroit
-Toronto

[skyscraperpage17]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Amazon specifically stated it wanted a city with a good transit system and Nashville hardly even has a transit system little alone a good one.

Nashville's transit system isn't that much worse than Austin's. Both cities have one lone commuter rail line.

That being said, Nashville does have an extensive transit plan in the works ($5.2 billion) that would be fully self-funded by the city *IF* the referendum passes in May.

https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/c9c...shvilleMap.png