Too bad, Vancouver
Atlanta
Austin, Tex.
Boston
Chicago
Columbus, Ohio
Dallas
Denver
Indianapolis
Los Angeles
Miami
Montgomery County, Md.
Nashville
Newark
New York
Northern Virginia
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Raleigh, N.C.
Toronto
Washington, D.C.
Atlanta
Austin, Tex.
Boston
Chicago
Columbus, Ohio
Dallas
Denver
Indianapolis
Los Angeles
Miami
Montgomery County, Md.
Nashville
Newark
New York
Northern Virginia
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Raleigh, N.C.
Toronto
Washington, D.C.
I’m in no way surprised. There’s no real reason for a company like Amazon to set up a massive HQ here, and plenty of reasons for them not to. The housing cost and land values alone more or less rule it out.
I also see the majority of the cities listed are in eastern time zones; as a tech worker here in Vancouver working in a global company the Pacific time zone is already a massive hindrance to getting things done.
It was an interesting exercise to see if Amazon would consider Vancouver a good “fit” into their RFP criteria. I thought it did from an urbanism perspective, but to its credit the Vancouver bid was weak on publicly-funded freebies, giveaways and long-term corporate welfare.
This is a great juncture to have a deeper look at how home-grown Canadian tech, knowledge and innovation economies can secure it’s currently deficient ability to succeed in commercialization.
Of course Vancoiver was dropped as it is far too close to Seattle and has no real advantages over it.
Toronto is a good choice, but I am suprised that Mexico City was dropped, perhaps due to the likely cancellation of NAFTA with Mexico.
My top 5 bet is on a SE city like Miami, Nashville, Raleigh or Atlanta .. or Dallas.