
Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia - aboveandbeyond
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/amazon-in-advanced-talks-about-putting-hq2-in-northern-virginia-those-close-to-process-say/2018/11/02/9be831d6-d7c0-11e8-aeb7-ddcad4a0a54e_story.html
======
Yhippa
This is clearly a DoD play. The federal government as a whole is thirsty for
cloud services and having a services provider like Amazon literally at their
doorstep is going to win them a lot of work. If they do bring good experts to
government work instead of what the typical government contractors in the area
provide this will be a good thing for taxpayers.

~~~
eli
People keep saying this and I really don't follow. Why does the DoD care where
the headquarters of the parent company of their contractor is located? Are
they gonna pop in and ask questions about the Amazon retail site?

Sure AWS needs a sales office in the region. And a datacenter. And a lobbying
shop too. Pretty sure they got all that covered already.

~~~
erichurkman
Or: Amazon is going to heavily recruit former-DoD and government workers,
luring them from low pay rates to high paying jobs. Reduce hiring friction:
you don't need to convince them to uproot their families to move. They already
live in the area, hell, their commute doesn't even change.

Are you more likely to award contracts to AWS if you work at the DoD knowing
that in two years you can move over and suddenly quintuple your salary?

~~~
JPKab
Your statement is incredibly naive and ignorant.

The Federal government pays incredibly well, but has few technology workers.
They instead primarily act as managers for embedded contractors, who
themselves are paid far above average for a given role.

Additionally, AWS already has a DoD presence.

Source: Lived in DC area for 8 years, worked on numerous federal contracts,
witnessed highly overpaid, lazy shitbags who were so incompetent that
government shutdowns forcing them to stay home sped up work on contracts.

Amazes me how the "government workers are underpaid" meme is so strong in
people who haven't spent time in DC area.

I grew up in an impoverished rural part of Virginia 6 hours from DC. Going
home and seeing my hard working relatives scrape by and do without after
paying taxes, then going back to DC and seeing people who arrived at work at
9, left at 3:30, and yapped half the day made me transform from Leslie Knope
to Ron Swanson.

I always tell people this:

The US political parties have it wrong. One thinks gov't is always bad and
shouldn't exist. The other thinks it is fine, but just needs more money.

The reality is that it is a broken organization that used to be amazing, but
has rotted, and the last thing it needs is more money. It needs to be
radically reformed and reinvented. End rant.

~~~
dc_wtf
How could the federal government possibly pay "incredibly well" in the context
of software? ~185k is the current cap on salaries. That's not the bottom or
the median, it's the top, a place most people will not reach in their whole
careers, and there are rigid rules around how to get there. As far as I know,
pretty much everyone is on something equivalent to the GS? Even contractors
are on a proxy version of it, based on my experience in the space (it's why I
left). I know people talk about 18f a lot on HN and I was under the impression
they had to get an ultra-special allowance of some kind for even their
salaries. What makes the pay so good, I really don't get it? There are
benefits, sure, but I am under the impression that pensions aren't what they
used to be, and a FAANG is going to give you health insurance as a dev. What
am I missing?

Maybe they pay the people in question _too much_ for their skills, motivation,
or work product, but that is not "incredibly well" for a software developer in
the USA. DC isn't that cheap, though certainly not like SF. If you are a good
developer who doesn't show up at 9 and leave at 3:30 and don't want to, who
can make it to a decent pay band at a FAANG, or have a specialization that
demands high income, I just don't see how the government could be a good
choice economically.

~~~
rhexs
You are vastly, vastly discounting the value of the benefits. THE most secure
pension in the world (you cannot buy one that good on the private market),
incredible health benefits, incredible vacation policies, lax work policies
for most jobs, great holiday schedule, Gov will pay to train you, you
effectively cannot get laid off (try downloading porn at most corporations for
hours and hours and see what happens), etc.

Obviously that doesn't look quite as good right now (pretty much only for the
software engineering field), but during the next recession? Best deal in the
world. Heck, you even get free holidays every now and then during government
shutdowns. (The employees have always been back paid for these if I recall
correctly -- maybe there was one time they weren't? Very rare.)

~~~
hhyydd
You are vastly, vastly mischaracterizing government shutdowns as “free
holidays.” Shutdowns due to lapses in appropriations by congress are extremely
traumatic for ordinary government workers. It’s not as though you can just go
on a trip while you wait for the government to re-open, as you must be ready
to report the next day if appropriations are made. There is absolutely zero
guarantee that back pay will be paid, despite what might have happened
previously. Even if you wanted to work pro bono, you are forbidden from doing
any sort of official work, even checking email, during a shutdown. In all,
it’s stressful and morale crushing, and incredibly wasteful, as huge amounts
of time are spent preparing for a shutdown and then spinning back up from it.
To give just one example, at government science labs, experiments must be
stopped, and any field work must cease and everyone must come home, which can
ruin a big experiment that may have been years in the making. Calling it a
holiday is flat-out false.

~~~
rhexs
And private sector is far, far more stressful. Instead of worrying about
whether or not you'll get a week of back-pay, you have to worry about how
you're going to feed your family and keep a roof over your head after your job
is terminated with no notice and a meaningless severance package.

Cry me a river. Federal jobs have downsides, but this isn't one of them.

------
DevX101
I'd be willing to bet Bezos knew with 90% confidence where he'd want HQ2 a
year ago and put on this prisoner's dilemma game amongst states to reap the
most benefit possible before moving there.

~~~
teej
Jeff Bezos owns a $23m house in DC. The entire HQ2 process was a farce to get
cities to game theory themselves to death in favor of Amazon. HQ2 was always
going to be in NOVA.

~~~
oh_sigh
Have you made this claim earlier than today?

~~~
teej
There was someone who wrote a blog or tweet about it awhile back but I
couldn’t find it.

Found it -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLtLz4wQtOg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLtLz4wQtOg)

------
headShrinker
Just a stones throw away from Washington DC, imagine that. I’m sure it’s no
coincidence that Amazon is in talks to do billions of dollars worth of work
with the DOD and that the location choice of the second headquarters might
have a lot to do with that.

~~~
hn_throwaway_99
Crystal City really has so much going for it:

1\. As you point out, right next to Pentagon and federal government. 2\. Good
transportation: right on the Metro and literally across the street from
National Airport. 3\. If you're going to have 2 headquarters, having them be
on opposite coasts makes sense. 4\. And I think another one that is pretty
unique to Crystal City is that Amazon and their employees definitely want to
be in a downtown, urban environment. However, most of the other cities on the
list were either extremely crowded downtown, available sites were actually
more out in the 'burbs, or the cities were far down in what a lot of people
would consider "2nd tier" (or 3rd tier) cities. Crystal City is basically an
urban suburb of DC that you could easily see having a great "vibe" for an HQ2,
but still has room for Amazon to build out.

~~~
solatic
It's debatable whether Metro will be able to handle another few tens of
thousands of daily commuters going through the downtown core to get to Crystal
City. The system's already crammed up at rush hour and nobody has the budget
for capital improvements to start to put more tracks through Gallery Place,
Metro Center, and L'Enfant Plaza.

It would be interesting though, if Amazon was prepared to invest in capital
improvements for Metro...

~~~
bobthepanda
Judging from Seattle's experience, Amazon is not really prepared to do
anything other than garner support from the business community and support a
token streetcar. And Metro's capital needs are probably much bigger than
Seattle's and are politically more complicated due to three jurisdictions that
are frenemies in the best of times.

~~~
mikeash
More like twelve jurisdictions. The various counties and cities also get
involved. It’s quite Fun.

~~~
bobthepanda
I was just talking about the board.

It's worth noting that Seattle and DC have vastly different representations on
their boards. In DC this is two representatives picked by the governments of
DC, VA, MD, and the feds each, and in some cases not even appointed by elected
officials. In Seattle, this is a board consisting almost entirely of elected
officials of counties and municipalities.

Seattle's method works because the responsibility of elected officials is
quite clear and their voting records are transparent, whereas a diffuse chain
of responsibility via appointment is not.

------
throwaway713
Aargh, I wish ONE tech company would put a HQ somewhere in the South. I
currently live in the Bay Area working at a company I love, but I'll have to
move back at some point (my wife wants to be closer to family).

Crystal City, VA is still an 8 hour drive from the part of the South I'm from.
Atlanta, Raleigh, and Nashville have so much potential... I think if just one
of FANG put a HQ there (or even an office), the others would quickly follow.

~~~
fierro
I feel like the South has a long way to come before the average tech worker
would want to live and work there. You couldn't pay me enough (literally since
comp is so low out there, but also kind of metaphorically as well) to go work
and live in any Southern state. Maybe you need a critical mass? \- fellow Bay
Area tech worker

~~~
ethagknight
Can you elaborate why the south has a long way to go before the average tech
worker would want to live there?

~~~
octonion
The politics and culture (which are intertwined). Even if one area or city is
more liberal, you're still dealing with a conservative, and possibly racist,
sexist and homophobic, state government.

~~~
tifnufiene
Having lived in Alabama, this would be rather offensive if it weren’t so
endearing; Sounds like a child who’s so certain that the closet hides a
monster, that they’re too scared to go learn that the noise is just an air
vent.

~~~
azinman2
I’ve known many a gay man who has left the south because they don’t feel safe
there. Certainly voting wise, the parents comment feels very true.

~~~
oh_sigh
I've known gay men who moved to the south because they liked the culture, so
where are we now?

~~~
tomcam
At perfect equilibrium for gay men in the south, with a pseudo-osmotic filter
allowing only hardy gay men. Meanwhile the wimpy gay men who fled are invading
the rest of the country, leaving behind a trail of well-kept neighborhoods
with lots of tasteful little galleries.

------
totoglazer
Alaska Airlines has the only DCA<->SEA nonstop flights I know of. I expect
that will become much more popular and expensive...

~~~
jzymbaluk
I imagine that won't be the case for long I'd the rumors are true

~~~
bronco21016
DCA is slot controlled so the slot owners are going to have to weigh the
revenue of SEA/DCA vs all the other markets they’re currently using those
slots for. One business often isn’t going to bring enough revenue to compete
with a market like BOS/DCA or NYC/DCA which consumes an enormous amount of the
slots.

~~~
snowwrestler
DCA also has a "perimeter rule" in place, which forbids flights between DCA
and airports more than 1,250 miles away, unless a specific exception is made.

[http://www.flyreagan.com/dca/dca-reagan-national-slot-
perime...](http://www.flyreagan.com/dca/dca-reagan-national-slot-perimeter-
rules)

~~~
synaesthesisx
What the purpose of a perimeter rule? Just curious...

~~~
reaperducer
Originally, it was to put regional routes in the regional airport, and long-
distance routes in the long-distance airport. (As told to me by an urban
studies professor I picked up at Dulles when I was a chauffeur in college.)

Similar to how in New York, LaGuardia was supposed to be for domestic flights,
Kennedy for international flights, and Newark for freight. But that didn't
fully work out. (Same source.)

~~~
mikeash
Ever since Dulles was built, there’s been a struggle to actually get people to
use it. DCA is just _so_ much more convenient. I’ve heard from people who were
around at the time that it was virtually a ghost town when it opened, and was
a great place to fly small planes since there wasn’t much commercial traffic.
Even today, the two airports serve about the same number of passengers per
year, despite Dulles being approximately eleven thousand times larger.

Personally, I use DCA whenever I can. It usually takes me about fifteen
minutes from car to gate. Dulles takes ages and ages, since everything is so
far away.

A lot of the rules are just trying to get people to use that big expensive
airport more.

------
markstos
Can we refer to this Eastern headquarters as us-east-hq-1?

~~~
chrishynes
Hahaha! Way to bring some levity to an otherwise humdrum stream of comments.

------
tinyhouse
> "The company may be having similar discussions with other finalists."

The article sounds very speculative. I don't know anything about this place,
but if it's expensive like people here say it is, then I don't see the point
of Amazon moving there. I think a place like downtown Chicago would make more
sense. (if only the winter was not as cold and better public schools...)

~~~
monocasa
Denver still makes the most sense to me. Single hop to Beijing & Shanghai,
real estate and wages aren't at DC, Seattle, Bay Area rates quite. Lots of
amenities (open space, good beer, close to skiing) that Amazon doesn't
actually have to pay for. Decent tech scene (Google, Facebook, Uber campuses,
as well as an ever growing Amazon dev presence). Large downtown property
looking for a buyer and is probably underrated (Elitch Gardens). Decent public
transit that's trending really well (new light rail within the past couple of
years, and more coming out soon).

DC never made sense to me. The other defense contractors manage to not have
HQs in DC.

I think this story is exactly what they'd leak if they were trying to buy real
estate somewhere else.

~~~
tinyhouse
Denver has some great things going for it, like easy access to mountains and
outdoor space. But I must say its downtown is pretty unappealing. Many weirdos
(similar to Seattle...) and chain restaurants. I enjoyed my trip to Colorado,
but Denver was the most boring part of it.

~~~
monocasa
The tourist part is always weirdos and chain restaurants. That's like saying
there's nothing in New York because you went to Times Square and it was just a
tourist trap.

------
gist
Amazing the amount of people here who takes this as some kind of truth instead
of just a story that could have even been leaked for another purpose (perhaps
even to gain more leverage with the area that they actually want to go to).

This is also the epitome of infotainment something that in the end won't even
matter unless it actually happens other than to discuss the 'inside baseball'
of the entire event.

How sure is anyone of this? Sure enough to go and snap up real estate (say
residential) knowing that if it is correct that real estate will inflate in
value well over whatever it is right now (already inflated).

Also I still am not seeing the advantage to Amazon (as long as everyone is
speculating) of going into such a dense and expensive area to begin with. Jeff
is all about efficiency and paying as little as possible. What possible
advantage does he have but located in such an expensive area that is sure to
get even more expensive.

------
tvanantwerp
I live in the DC area and this is entirely expected. Bezos owns the Washington
Post and a very expensive DC home. Amazon's got data centers in Northern
Virginia. We would've all been shocked if it went somewhere else.

~~~
mabbo
But the entire point of the exercise wasn't to make Jeff happier and shorten
his commute, it was to find a way to continue to grow without overloading
Seattle any more than it already is.

HQ2 needs to be somewhere that people want to live, with the room for lots of
them.

I really was hoping HQ2 would go somewhere more conservative politically.
There's plenty of people who would work for Amazon but aren't really excited
by Seattle (I'm not one of them, but I know some).

Detroit specifically would have been perfect- low cost of living, lots of
space to grow, great airport, lots of robotic/mechanical industry leaking from
the failing car industry, plus UofM nearby. I don't know how they didn't make
the finalists.

~~~
bilbo0s
> _I really was hoping HQ2 would go somewhere more conservative
> politically..._

> _Detroit specifically would have been perfect..._

???

Detroit? Conservative?

------
jaggederest
I find the logic in the article pretty funny.

> [T]he best way to make it is you collect as much data as you can, you
> immerse yourself in that data, but then [throw all that data away and decide
> based on personal whim]

~~~
matchagaucho
_" Go with your gut"_ is code word for "which HQ2 city offered the greatest
tax exemptions" ;-)

Oregon gave Intel a 30 year property tax exemption, worth $2B, to establish
their their HQ2 fabs near Hillsboro. Wouldn't be surprised if Amazon is asking
for similar.

[https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-
forest/index.ssf/2014/08/...](https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-
forest/index.ssf/2014/08/intels_tax_break_compare_it_to.html)

~~~
lucas_membrane
That would be quaint. The standard price for big investment now is a 50-year
tax break.

------
nathankunicki
This is no surprise, it was always going to be Virginia, or somewhere else in
the east coast tech corridor. The whole "city competition" has been a grand
scheme by Amazon to get cities (mostly those in the aforementioned area) to
offer incentives to move there. No other states were ever in the running.

------
amanaplanacanal
I wonder how much the locals are giving away to make this happen?

~~~
qaq
You do realize that like 3 of top 5 counties by avg family income are in NoVA

~~~
qaq
Defense, IT (3d after SF and NYC by number of devs)

------
Twirrim
That's going to drive up house prices nicely, in an already expensive area to
live.

------
Endama
Wow, this is close to what Scott Galloway has been predicting for the past few
months [1]

[1][https://youtu.be/wLtLz4wQtOg](https://youtu.be/wLtLz4wQtOg)

------
rorygreig
There's an irony to this being an article from the Washington Post, maybe they
know something we don't

------
gigatexal
Makes it easier for Amazon to lobby the feds. Not sure how I feel about this.

Also is this how skynet starts: they get some big government contract, it’s
some military A.I. thing and then boom T1000s. I joke but still. I agree with
the others that Bezos has this place picked all along. I was hoping he put it
in Portland Oregon but the local government would have taxed him a ton or
insisted on a union and Amazon wouldn’t have liked that.

------
AdmiralAsshat
Been looking to buy a house in the Northern Virginia area for about five years
now, but the prices have climbed almost linearly, and never slowed down. If
Amazon does settle here, I'll probably continue renting until I can GTFO.
Microsoft also bought a large plot of land around Loudon county, on which they
plan to build a campus.

If this area is to become the next Seattle, I have no interest in being here.

~~~
rayiner
Northern VA sucks. Come east to MD its a million times better.

~~~
CPLX
Well that’s the first time I’ve ever heard someone describe going from VA to
Maryland as going east.

------
siggen
Very unlikely it will be Crystal City. Based on parameters that news lifted on
qualifiers for HQ2.

1\. There isn't sufficient space for a large campus. 2\. DCA is a small
airport.

Loudoun county has a higher chance than Crystal City based on the above
parameters. Of course, the parameters could have been wrong. And I would much
prefer Crystal City over Loudoun, too.

------
clircle
How long will it take them to set up shop? My wife and I want to buy a house
in the area in a couple years.

~~~
ENOTTY
Article says they want to open by 2019. We're all boned

------
perpetualcrayon
I would've been extremely surprised if it ended up being anywhere but
Washington D.C. area.

------
sj4nz
I have heard that the HQ2 is supposed to be a kind of "domed city." If it is
Crystal City, Amazon HQ2 has started a infrastructure formation using a
subscription with a DCaaS.

~~~
smacktoward
If “domed city” is the atmosphere they’re looking for, Crystal City is
definitely the right choice — the existing buildings there are all connected
together by a warren of underground tunnels, which includes an underground
shopping mall. Combine that with the Brutalist ‘60s architecture and you get a
neighborhood straight out of a bad sci-fi movie.

~~~
empath75
My dad worked at the Safeway there for years and people go shopping in pj’s
there all the time.

------
Simulacra
Please. Don’t. Housing is terribly expensive here, and a second HQ would spike
it grossly. Why not choose a place that needs the jobs and development??

------
tacomonstrous
How's the public transit there? I was under the impression that this was a
major piece of the puzzle for HQ2.

~~~
rhino369
Not great, but could be a lot worse. Crystal city is on two of the main subway
lines. And has a Virigina regional rail and Amtrak stop. There is a pretty
major bus depot there too.

The downside is one of the subway lines only runs every 13 minutes during rush
hour. And that cannot be increased without decreasing runs on other lines
(because they share a tunnel). Maybe Amazon will convince the governments to
run more on that line (and take it away from the other lines).

edit: Forgot to mention that airport access is probably the best place in the
entire country. You could basically walk to national airport.

~~~
edraferi
I think Metro hit bottom a couple years ago and is on the way back up.
Dedicated funding (finally!) will enable steady improvement. If Amazon comes
to town and uses their clout to push for better transportation, that will on
accelerate things.

~~~
rayiner
I’m really hoping Amazon can be the force that helps crush WMATA resistance to
reform. All hail Bezos.

~~~
nataz
It's already had an impact. The stalled metro stop between DCA and Braddock
(next to one of the potential build sites) magically started moving forward
again a few months ago.

------
moron4hire
Noooooooooooo, this is going to completely destroy an already broken transit
system.

~~~
edraferi
Growth is coming to the region, regardless of what Amazon does. HQ2 is just an
accelerant. Embrace growth or resign your community to irrelevance.

~~~
lj3
> Embrace growth or resign your community to irrelevance.

Growth has killed plenty of communities, or made them not worth living in
anymore. Just ask San Francisco.

------
sjg007
Clearly they need to be closer to AWS east for performance reasons... :)

------
trentnix
They want to be where the big money is. And that means DC.

~~~
bilbo0s
Or NYC.

But NYC is way too crowded. They'll need growing room.

------
7174n6
The traffic and congestion is already horrible. The cost of living is
excessive. I don't understand why these companies - that can locate anywhere -
want to lessen the quality of life for their employees.

~~~
hak8or
Why would they want their hq out in the boonies? And amazon (and many other
tech companies) adjust their salary to cost of life in the area.

The closer they are to a big city, the better, because they can attract more
talent from the people already living close by.

~~~
jayess
As though it's a binary choice. Washington DC metro, or the boonies.

~~~
snowwrestler
I'd love to know which major U.S. city does not have terrible traffic near its
downtown.

~~~
kevindong
I didn't think Seattle traffic was very bad.

~~~
withinrafael
Might consider a revisit. Seattle traffic is now in the top 10 (9th) of
horrible. [1]

[1] [https://www.geekwire.com/2018/seattle-traffic-congestion-
nin...](https://www.geekwire.com/2018/seattle-traffic-congestion-ninth-worst-
u-s-eight-cities-top-10-vying-amazons-hq2/)

------
otterley
Source article: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/amazon-in-advanced-
talk...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/amazon-in-advanced-talks-about-
putting-hq2-in-northern-virginia-those-close-to-process-
say/2018/11/02/9be831d6-d7c0-11e8-aeb7-ddcad4a0a54e_story.html)

~~~
dang
Thanks. We changed to that from [https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/03/amazon-
reportedly-in-advance...](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/03/amazon-reportedly-
in-advanced-stages-of-naming-va-as-2nd-headquarters.html).

------
viburnum
This will make nationalizing Amazon a bit easier.

------
perseusprime11
This location will serve the ambition of Bezos to run for President.

------
dlbucci
As a Pittsburgher living in Seattle for the past few years, hearing this gives
me hope. I know NIMBY isn't the best philosophy, but I make an exception for
Amazon, who I think has done a number on Seattle and its culture.

~~~
jseliger
I think you mean that "excessive parking and single-family zoning
requirements" have done a number on Seattle:
[https://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/2015/12/single-family-
zonin...](https://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/2015/12/single-family-zoning-in-
seattle-and.html).

There are technologies that exist that allow more than a handful of people to
live on a given unit of land.

~~~
Qworg
I wouldn't knock having enough parking, but Seattle has a ridiculous number of
single family residences within spitting distance of downtown. The upzoning
regulation is a great first step, but is slow to roll out due to difficulties
in permitting teardowns.

------
tomohawk
Seems like an admission that they have nothing new to do so they are seeking
growth through federal contracts.

Northern VA is the poster child of what happens when you have tons of growth
over decades, but absolutely no planning, or worse, lots of nimby preventing
infrastructure.

~~~
rhino369
Arlington, VA probably did the best job of any post-WWII high growth city in
America. The orange line corridor is actually urbanizing what was once pure
suburbia. Crystal City/Pentagon city is built pretty densely and has space for
even more high rise buildings.

Every other city in America that grew post wwII would have just built strip
malls and single-family homes.

There are new high rises going up in Crystal city even as rents stagnated.
Can't be too much nimby stuff going on.

Compared to say, silicon valley, they did a good job.

Loudon County did a bad job. Fairfax did a mixed job. They definitely grew in
some places--like Tysons, but other parts have just grown without planning.

~~~
murph-almighty
I have a lot of trouble believing that Tysons was planned at all. The area is
nearly unwalkable and is effectively dominated by multi-lane roads. Yes,
there's there Silver line, and I won't dispute that the station for Tyson's
corner managed to make some considerations for walkers, but as for the rest of
the area, I shouldn't have to cross a highway to walk to work!

------
xbkingx
I still maintain that not picking Chicago would be a major mistake. I only
think this because I want to see them take over most of the Sears Tower and
convert it into a delivery drone launch site. A) How bonkers-cool would that
look? B) Ideal test site for large scale drone delivery. Less drone power
drain, since they would essentially be performing a controlled descent instead
of a liftoff and descent. Asymmetric flight paths, like with the drone return
around the 2nd-3rd floor, would allow more rapid launches. Grid street layout
that makes actual sense, so easier on the AI/ML. Center of the country (ish),
so longer distance delivery with solar powered drones might be viable.

Okay, I'll admit it. I just REALLY want to see streams of flying killbots
emanating from my home town. The Robot Uprising is coming, people, and I'm
hoping early allegiance leads to a nicer brain vat in their biocomputer.

Seriously, though, I would have thought Atlanta, Chicago, and Boston, in that
order, would be better. Bi-coastal or geographic center make logistical sense.
ATL and BOS have excellent tech resources, but maybe a bit too much
competition for talent in BOS. ATL gives a presence in "The South", so could
serve as a political/cultural foothold without any major compromises. ATL
proved it can easily support a tech boom during the y2k bubble. BOS serves as
a great gateway to Europe. CHI is really hungering for more tech influence and
would probably bend over backwards to be accommodating. Plus, the most likely
site in CHI is actually a great location for anyone that likes an urban
setting, not just millennials. Amazon is one of the few tech companies that I
think CHI could embrace because it has a strong influence on financial markets
and doesn't feel as 'magical' as many tech companies (where it's hard for
everyday people to understand what they do). And Chicagoans can be fiercely
loyal, even to companies. Case in point - The Sears Tower. The only time you
hear "Willis Tower" is on the news. And there are a couple dozen other cases
of locals refusing to rebrand stuff simply because ownership or naming rights
changed.

Being by DC isn't a BAD location, but it seems like it would be better to have
a strong satellite location that can be expanded as needed. I would assume the
atmosphere there is more restricted for some of their more ambitious projects
involving lots of sensors and physical presence. Every location will have red
tape, but it seems like there DC would be ordering it in bulk.

I dunno, just rambling.

~~~
jcranmer
Amazon wanted an in-place tech-ready workforce, an environment that could
appeal to yuppie urbanites, and a good transportation hub. Empty office space
for quick bootstrapping and the ability to wring concessions were also major
sweeteners. Bicoastal geography was also strongly suspected to be a major
criterion.

That pretty much cut out any second-tier city from the running. When
Montgomery County, DC, and Northern VA were all announced as finalists, it
ought to have been pretty clear that Amazon was focused on the DC area.
Crystal City itself is basically the description of what you're looking for in
that list I gave. Atlanta doesn't really have anything when you take out the
airport (which is lousily situated anyways). I suspect Chicago, NYC, and
Toronto all have too much focus on other industries (and, besides, Illinois is
basically broke, so a sweetheart tax deal needs to be discounted on the basis
that Illinois could need to find the cash quickly).

