Nice to see Toronto on the list, though game theory suggest that we're only here because having a Canadian Candidate has the potential to have all 3 levels of government involved rather than just state and city.

I'm not really sure how to go about handicapping the finalists.

Given the current political climate, Toronto is interesting because it's the only city that gives Amazon some escape form the US government.

You'd want:

- an international airport so you can get to Beijing, London, etc on a single flight. This might eliminate the smaller cities.

- a strong existing tech workforce and universities.

- land in the downtown core to build on, this might eliminate New York?

- perhaps you'd preference the cities that already have an amazon campus in them.

Toronto has all of these..

Ah, who am I kidding. its going to come down to which government gives them the most money and that eliminates Toronto.

Would be fun for someone in each city to make a list of what makes your city a good choice for the headquarters!!

Part of me would love to have a big tech / infrastructure company like Amazon in Philly. But I take serious issue with the idea of the city paying millions or billions to bring them here, promising years of tax breaks (a free ride), and the tightening of an already very tight real estate and rental market. I don't think my fellow Philadelphians should have to pay to bring a company here that's just going to hire people who are not currently residents, while increasing their expenses and utilizing the public services that their taxes have paid for, while receiving little to no tax revenue or services in return.

Amazon would have the greatest impact in Atlanta. You could argue that Atlanta is the economic, cultural, and geographical center of the Southeastern United States. It has the busiest airport in the world and is a major rail hub. There are already dozens of major corporations headquaratered in Atlanta. There is no shortage of talent, with a top-5 engineering school in Georgia Tech. Yet there are things missing which are preventing Atlanta from becoming a modern powerhouse; strong mass transit is probably the most obvious, and progressive policies another. This kind of investment by Amazon could be exactly what Atlanta needs to bring it back to the world stage. The only other city I could possibly see as being close would be Raleigh, for similar reasons.

Just visited Pittsburgh. There is indeed a renaissance happing in that town. The restaurant scene alone is phenomenal. And the addition of a FANG level HQ could cement its burgeoning international reputation as a destination.

The idea is that CMU spits out about 200+ world class CS grads a year. If even 5% decide to stay in the area to start their own ventures. There would be potential for massive growth.

the other data points that shocked me is that the population of Greater Austin, Texas is now 2.5M souls! I still think of it as a sleepy southern college town like Athens, GA ;) And that Denver is experiencing a net influx of 10K people per day!

> Amazon will work with each of the candidate locations to dive deeper into their proposals

Breaking the process into stages like this will create a bidding war where Amazon can then go to each city government and extract more benefits. I'm usually against tax payers funding things like this (ie:stadiums) but I still selfishly want the location to be somewhere in the NYC/Philly/DC corridor.

Its basically most of the major metro areas in North America >500 miles away from Seattle. Doesn't seem to be cutting it down much.

I totally support this move by Amazon and Apple. My hope is Microsoft/Google/Facebook would follow. There is a desperate need for larger tech companies to move away from Bay Area/Seattle and expand into other cities which actually may have cheaper housing and where life may not feel such a challenge, specially for folks with dependents and families.

Ask for Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area to build better transportation, and that's the pick

Something about this just makes my stomach sick... A massive corporation is pitting governments against each other for its own gain, often to no benefit of the local population.

I'm scared to see the numbers of "incentives" that local politicians try and hand out to Amazon. There's little evidence that the public money used/lost will ever be recouped. One of the worst cases of this happening so far is the Foxconn deal in Wisconsin that will cost taxpayers around $4.5B [1], and I feel that numbers for Amazon will dwarf those Foxconn numbers.

The US is far removed from the days of trust busting [2], and keeping massive corporations (monopolies and oligopolies) and their market distorting effects in check, for the long-term benefit of the entire economy and the people. There seems to be a lot of similarities between now and the late 1800s and early 1900s. We live in a strange time. I get the feeling there will be a strong resurgence of antitrust cases and similar progressive policies. I'm curious to see where the near future takes us.

1: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/mem... 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Theodore_Rooseve...

NYT walked through a process of elimination and concluded it will be Denver.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/09/upshot/where-...

My money is on one of Nashville, Indianapolis or Columbus with Pittsburgh as a dark horse.

Amazon is going to be looking to build a major campus (say 5-10 big buildings) right in the center of town (as they've done here in Seattle) and that's just not feasible in expensive cities like LA, Boston, NYC, Chicago or DC. Denver is too far west, Miami, Atlanta and Raleigh too far southeast. Newark and Philadelphia don't have a sufficiently developed tech scene and as satellites of NYC have a price premium. There's no way Seattle and Dallas are going to form a family, Austin looks great on paper but I doubt they're hungry enough to offer sufficient incentives. Don't know why Montgomery County or Northern Virginia are even on this list.

From wsj.com:

"...some site-selection experts to speculate Mr. Bezos may choose a location where an influx of workers could help promote political change..."

Playing with that notion.

Premise: 50k tech workers would have more impact on US politics if: 1) added to U.S. cities; 2) added to cities in states with smaller populations. (Debatable premise(s), but just go with it).

Below is trimmed down version of the original list of 20 with that in mind, sorted by lowest population. Cities in states where 50k would be < 0.40% of the population were cut (eg. 50k in florida would only be 0.25%).

  Place:  50k/State Pop (as %)
  ------------------------------------------

  Denver: 1.00%
  Nashville: 0.77%
  Northern Virginia: 0.63%
  Atlanta: 0.50%
  Raleigh: 0.50%
  Columbus: 0.45%

(50k would be about 7.35% of Washington DC, which I edited out, but put back in after seeing a reply to this post)

(list of cities and quote above from https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-narrows-choices-for-seco...)

Please please pick Toronto. My immigrant future in the US is still uncertain after being here for 12 years. Would be great if Canadian tech ecosystem gets a boost so that I and countless others in my position have options

I'm surprised to see Miami make the list, since they're going to have so much work to do over the next 50 years to deal with rising sea levels. I'm not at all sure that the city will still exist in its modern form in 2050, and surely Amazon is planning that far out too.

Oof unfortunate that Detroit missed the cut, wonder why that happened; they seemed reasonably competitive from an outsider's perspective.

If you haven't seen this yet, this gambling site has Atlanta, GA / Boston, MA / Austin, TX as the top three choices for HQ2.

http://www.paddypower.com/bet?action=go_type&ev_type_id=2271...

If it doesn’t end up somewhere on the silver line in northern Virginia, I’ll eat my hat.

Plenty of housing, transit straight to the city or an international airport, convenient access to the nations capital for lobbying, in the middle of us-east-1, a large population of tech workers, lots of local universities, right in the middle of the east coast...

Three candidate cities are in the same metro area (DC).

* Montgomery county, MD

* Northern Virginia

* Washington DC

Philadelphia made the list, but they also pitched three separate locations [1] within the city. It is not clear if all 3 are under consideration or if one or more of the locations has been ruled out.

[1] http://www.philly.com/philly/business/real_estate/commercial...

Please, not Austin. Austin is full. Not enough water for the current population. At least one local park requires a waiting list to get in, and you can only spend a half day there. Mass transit is a joke. Commutes are terrible. Go away.

It's interesting how little culture figures in to this conversation. It seems to me that the North and the South (Canada aside) are drastically different in ways that will really matter to a lot of people. I don't work at Amazon, but my family and I would not feel fully safe or comfortable living in Texas, Tennessee, Georgia or North Carolina.

My money is on Vriginia particularly Loudoun county. Amazon AWS data centers are already there. Many other data center vendors are moving in hords. Land is cheap and in abundance there. VA allows easy access to eastern and southern states. People who want to work for Amazon would move eventually. Major metro-city is not going to happen.

UPDATE: Spelling mistake

Columbus definitely seems like an underdog here but it could be one of the best options on this list. Great talent pool coming out of Ohio State, young people are already moving here, the local economy is doing great, and real estate is still very cheap compared to the national average and many other cities on this list.

It seems like the lack of nonstop flights to Seattle is the only real downside to it. But that's something I would think could almost certainly be fixed before the new campus was even finished.

It seems interesting that Amazon is not terribly concerned with the cost of labor. Several cities and states on that list have very high labor costs (Boston, New Jersey, etc.)

Good to see they are more concerned with talent and infrastructure rather than just bottom line costs.

Please don't come to Austin. There are enough of us new people here.

It amuses me to think of what will happen to Amazon’s neurotic overworking culture if their other HQ in Miami or Denver.

I can’t see amazon casting a big enough cultural shadow to change those cities instead of those cities changing them.

I'm disappointed that Detroit isn't on the list. My money is on Nashville or Denver. Hm... I wonder if how hard it would be to set up a decentralized blockchain pool to wager on the winner...

What's the point of announcing your candidate cities? Seems like it's only there so that the two or three cities they're really considering have to throw loads of tax breaks at them.

I could swear I read that the EU does not allow this kind of bidding war for tax reduction by companies, but I can't find it online. The US certainly allows it, which I think is a bad idea.

I remember reading an article earlier in the year talking about how (1) No city is going to have every characteristic Amazon was asking for so (2) this is really about how much the city is willing to work with Amazon in long-term development plans.

From that perspective, some of the cities isn't surprising. For example, I grew up in Columbus, OH and I know that one of the AWS regions is located in the greater Columbus area. The airport is international but it is is not a major hub like Atlanta. When I lived in Seattle, I remember locals there complaining about the transit system -- yet it is way better than what Columbus has.

I do know that, Columbus is probably willing to change things about its city to accomodate Amazon. Not just in terms of tax credits, but likely extending all the way out to municipal and regional planning.

The same could be said about the other cities -- Austin, Newark, etc.

I feel as though there are too many cities. I'd be curious to know what the top 5 are. My picks, in no particular order:

- Boston

- Dallas

- Atlanta

- Chicago

- Denver

In all likelihood it'll be Boston or Denver.

With how bad traffic/congestion is right now (in spite of our light rail/bus infrastructure) I'm surprised Denver is in the top 20. Especially since last by my understanding the city was offering a less rich incentive package than a lot of the other cities.

I'm hoping it'll be northern Virginia or Washington, D.C. We already have Amazon stuff here and plenty of tech companies in Tysons Corner, Reston, Herndon, etc. and plenty of universities in close proximity so it wouldn't be a huge stretch.

I was hoping the Twin cities would get a nod. Maybe it could still happen if Amazon buys Target. Denver makes a lot of sense. It's a nice place for executives to live, not far from ski resorts which makes the winter bearable. Los Angeles would be great too but traffic is a nightmare. It might make sense for them to be close to Hollywood as well. You'd want to be in the South bay since anyone with money will want to live near the beach.

Bombardier is selling 152 hectare Aircraft manufacturing facility [1] in Toronto with a brand new transit station adjacent to the property.

Amazon could build quite the campus on that much land.

[1] http://business.financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/bombardie...

Direct connection from RDU to SEA as of 2015: https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2015/10/01/alaska-...

For Amazon's decision, NC politics probably take points away, but right to work probably adds points in favor.

I'm so glad Kansas City wasted all that time pandering [1] to them. I bet Sly really thought he'd make a dent. Absolutely not surprised though.

Oh well, same old same old. Look at all the dots on the edges.

[1] http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article180878701.htm...

I think travel between HQ and HQ2 has to be a nonstop flight for it to be viable.

The cities sorted by number of nonstops to Seattle per day:

Los Angeles 23 Denver 18 Chicago 14 Dallas 12 Washington, D.C. 7 Atlanta 6 Newark 6 New York 6 Boston 5 Austin 3 Nashville 2 Philadelphia 2 Raleigh, N.C. 2 Indianapolis 1 Toronto, Canada 1 Miami 1 Columbus 0 Pittsburgh 0 Montgomery County, Md. ? Northern Virginia ?

Amazon could only benefit from having multiple state and municipal governments in competition within any general metro area that they are seriously considering. I think it's a bit telling that Washington, D.C., Montgomery County in Maryland and "Northern Virginia" are all on the list, as well as both Newark and New York City.

Imagine if Amazon single handedly turned Staten Island into Brooklyn

on realpolitik grounds, Indianapolis would be a fascinating choice.

I'm kind of surprised none of the old upstate NY tech cities are on this list. Syracuse or Rochester, maybe?

I wonder if New York is just New York City, or New York Metropolitan region. I guess including Newark makes the latter unlikely, but with IBM shuttering a chunk of its operations here, the Hudson Valley is full of empty IBM office parks and desperate local governments, while close to infrastructure.

After reading these comments it makes me realize just how limiting transportation is and how big of a drag it is. Austin/Boston/DC/Atlanta/Denver/others are all great locations with transportation issues. Even some of the more rural locations such as RDU would quickly fill up with 50k new tech workers join the existing the two-lane highways. It seems like the best solution currently is the Apple/Google wifi buse with 90 minute 1-way commute part of your workday.

The highway system itself is an innovation from the 50's and (In My Humble Opinion) lack of continued innovation on the US transport system since has significantly contributed to the loss of US technical/economic leadership since then.

No big surprises here, but I'm glad to see Philly is still in the running.

Los Angeles (i.e. Hollywood) could be a strategic move given Amazon's massive push in original series and programming via Amazon Studios. Also, shares a coast with Seattle.

I feel like Columbus is going to be a strong contender based on Amazon's plans to use CVG as their hub for Amazon Air and wanting to have some proximity to that.

I was surprised at the goofy map they used here - the bottom third of the country seems vertically compressed (see the angle of Florida's peninsula, or how squashed the bottom of Texas is). Also... Raleigh is south of Nashville (not north the way their map has it) and Nashville is 100 + miles east of where they've got it (based on Louisiana). Just surprising that so little time apparently went into it, maybe maps are harder than I think?

My money is on the three targets clustered around Washington, DC. If there are three cities that are so promising so close together, it seems like a good place to land.

Anyone else think Amazon released a list of twenty cities to create a substantially higher buzz factor, rather than a much shorter list would?

This whole shtick reminds me of a time when one of employers was getting a new office. Lot of places were proposed so that people had to travel less. But it all came down to BCP or business continuity plan. The plan stated both offices needed to be at least 9.5 miles or 15 kms apart. In case of service disruption atleast one office should be up and running.

Atlanta is right in the middle of many of the world's flight paths (there's a city outside the airport!), has lots of fiber, and the state already showed a willingness to work at all levels to get a big, logistics-dependent business with the Caterpillar plant. The latter point is probably the most important.

What a circus.

The page keeps crashing on iOS about 80% of the way through, can someone post the actual list?

The whole west coast seems to be ruled out, so clearly geography is coming into play.

Take a look at what’s happened to Seattle and you’re liable to say “no, thank you.” The gentrification, the homelessness. The overall wealth inequality.

I mean, sure, Amazon invested billions in Seattle, but those billions went to people who lead end of days capitalist lifestyles oriented around giving that money right back megacorporations like... Amazon. Suggesting the Amazon’s investment will be meaningfully local is kind of comical. It’s a multinational, and the people who get that money will give it right back to multinationals. That’s how those people spend their income.

Amazon isn’t trying to promote ways of life that don’t revolve around cheap foreign goods, soul crushing work, and an isolated, lonely existence. The lucky place that lands HQ2 will have more of all these things, and a lot less humanity. It’s good for business.

> William Whyte‘s rule: Virtually all corporate relocations involve a move to a location which is closer to the CEO’s home than the old location.

Of course, it's hard to pick any location farther than Seattle from DC.

They really should just go to Honolulu. Who wouldn't want to work there?

If they come to Boston, I'll be leaving ASAP.

Please don't ruin Austin either...

For the companies/individuals that hold the keys to the real state in the winning city, it is like winning the lottery. Even if they have no knowledge whatsoever of software or technology.

Kind of funny most of them have airports. Really makes you realize how much the traveling salesmen problem(route optimization) is embedded in everything they do.

I think Miami would be good strategically for Amazons future warm-water port.

Joking aside, What sort of hoops do they expect these city and state governments jump through?

Interesting that they're all far from Seattle.

I wish i could live in North America. You guys have it so exciting out there ;).

Hopefully it goes to a region that kinda needs it and can grow further.

Newark?

Los Angeles would probably service it best with Silicon Beach, great airport connections, great diversity

knowing my luck, it'll be Atlanta

This shows how unsuitable most American cities are for opening a large high-tech office. Ideally, Amazon should be searching for a city according to their existing tax laws. Exceptions should not be needed. In fact, if a city gives breaks to Amazon, they should amend their laws so that the same deal is available to every citizen.

Oh so every large city that is business friendly and that is a decision?

I dont see the list of 20 HQ2 candidates. Does anyone know?

if it is a tech HQ they want to at least move to the east coast so they don’t compete in talent.

No Ottawa, very disappointing.

this is still so bizarre

Please Amazon, stay away from Boston. We don’t need or want you here.

No New Orleans, Detroit, or Memphis.

I really wished they considered a majority African American community that has the capacity to grow. This is just going to increase inequality. Sad really.

Let's hope for Atlanta.

All the Mayors of these cities will now engage in a hunger games style competition at Jeff Bezos' estate for the privilege.

Thank god my city is not on this list. Amazon will kill the culture where they go and raise cost of living.