Quote:
Originally Posted by DNR
In the early days of Amazon’s nation-wide search for suitable cities, it seemed that they were truly following their own official criteria, especially based on their narrowed choices for the last 20 cities. At that time I felt like they actually knew what they were doing and were really taking their research data seriously. However, I think they failed to really take a closer look at most of the cities on their list of the final 20 cities.
From what I have read, it just seemed like the team that visited Atlanta had “blinders” on and couldn’t see the “forest for the trees”… they couldn’t really see Atlanta and what it had to offer, because they already had their (Jeff Bezos) minds made up and of course the Georgia's Political climate would have been the final “nail in the coffin”.
In the end, it just seemed that Jeff Bezos wanted what he wanted, no matter what the data said, especially given his comment about going where his heart leads him. I feel sorry for cities like Chicago that were lead on for so long, and then dropped.
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Agreed.
The Gulch was Atlanta's answer to Seattle's South Lake Union, which it seemed as though Amazon was looking for at first. Midtown, quite frankly, doesn't need to be transformed. It's on a tear as far as growth/development It's downtown that needs some type of catalyst to kick off more growth/development.
I kind of suspected Amazon was on some BS with their so-called criteria when they rejected Detroit for lacking transit, but subsequently included places like Nashville, Columbus, Indianapolis and Raleigh on their short list, which also lack transit. But I gave them the benefit of the doubt still, because in all fairness, it's a lot esier to attract talent to those cities than Detroit.
But when Bezos finally admitted his decision would come from the heart, in hindsight it was obvious that DC (and possibly places like Austin and NYC) had the advantage all along.
As far as Nashville's operations hub, IMO there were a combination of factors were at play there for that outcome. But regardless, I'm definitely thrilled a Red State city at least got a significant investment out of this. And plus, having one city score such a developmemt makes the entire Sun Belt region a stronger economic engine and more attractive place to live in general.
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