Amazon recives 238 bids for its planned HQ2...

[Henry Krinkle]

which will provide at least 50,000 well paying jobs

Assuming your community meets the requirements, would you want them to build there?

Amazon specified it was looking for an area with a low cost of living, an educated and tech-savvy workforce, high incentives, at least 1 million people, and close access to an international airport, among other requirements.

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-says-238-cities-are-competing-for-hq2-2017-10

I live just outside of Boston, and close to several major roads that lead in and out of the city.

Traffic around here can be impossible at times, over development consisting of high end condos
and rental units is suffocating the community as it is already, and even MORE is being planned.

Home values are skyrocketing, but so are rents.

The public transportation system is an overcrowded, inefficient disaster.

50,000 newly created jobs or not, there is no fucking way in hell I would welcome or want
Amazons presence anywhere near here.

[Kleveland]

1. Cleveland Ohio has a unique situation.

After the terrible merger between United and Continental Airlines, an entire large and very modern concourse was mothballed.

We once were a Continental hub, but that was canned, putting many folks out of work.

(On a side note, it has really foo-barred decent non-stop flights to and from Cleveland as well.)

That area of the airport could serve Amazon quite well in their quest for an International Airport.

The airport is centrally located as well to the major freeways in Cleveland.

And surely, Cleveland would love to see all of the jobs, as our major blue-collar industries are all but gone.

Our cost of living is quite low. In my travels around the country, I have been amazed at the difference

The rust-belt in general could use more jobs in the area.

[Texasgal]

2. I'm with you!

Austin is in the running and I am really hoping it doesn't happen here. Austin has grown so much that our roads and highways are a mess... traffic is at a stand still ALL of the time. There is a shortage of housing, so rent and home prices are ridiculously high not the mention the homeowners taxes. Native Austinites ( Like myself ) are just about being priced out of this city!

Plus, I have no idea where they would even entertain a space that is needed for that large of a campus. Austin is full! We do not need 50,000 more people!!!

[maxsolomon]

3. If you don't want 50K new jobs to come to your downtown

You aren't a young person graduating college. The new Amazon Campus is a plum for any Pol.

Traffic sucks everywhere, and public transportation sucks because it's historically underfunded and has to share the road with cars and trucks.

Boston isn't the target. Neither is Austin - as you said, the cost of living is high and getting higher, and Amazon is specifically looking for the opposite. STOP BEING NIMBYs.

[Laffy Kat]

4. Denver is in there, too.

But we already have horrible traffic problems and our cost of living, although perhaps lower than some other cities, is still outrageous, IMO. Really sitting on the fence with this one.

[maxsolomon]

5. So, you won't get it.

It needs to be centrally located. Denver's central but isolated.

I'd wager it goes to somewhere in NC or the Midwest.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

6. Vegas has put its bid too

I'd love for Amazon to come to Vegas. We are close to everything, yet far away enough. Great airport right smack in the middle of the strip. Cost of living is low enough. People from everywhere. Generally, people in Vegas are friendly and generous (see the sad recent events for examples). And we now have professional sports! World-class entertainment and dining, yet enough local flavor to appeal to everyone and the desert scenery is fantastic. There's more to Vegas than the Strip, by the way.

I lived in Vegas from 2012 to 2016 and I just returned after spending a bad year in the Bay Area working in Silicon Valley. I'd love for Amazon to make its new home here.