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Comment by drumttocs8 | Hacker News Reader

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.

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Nice try, Atlanta city council. We're onto you

From what I’ve heard, there’s a bunch of mostly unused land south of the football stadium that has been slowly being bought up over the last year or so. Obvious speculation is that it’s either Amazon or someone betting that Amazon will want to buy a big chunk of land near downtown...

The "Gulch":

http://www.myajc.com/business/new-filings-for-huge-project-a...

http://atlantaintownpaper.com/2017/11/gulch-become-amazons-n...

Would be a pretty big slap in the face for all other "contestants" if it turns out that Amazon intended to move to Atlanta all along and this whole thing was only for publicity and leverage.

The thing about real estate on that scale is, to not get ripped off you have to time it carefully.

It probably would cost amazon less to buy 10 potential properties and resell 9 of them, than to announce their intentions and then attempt to buy their chosen property.

In Atlanta, we already learned that lesson by announcing the BeltLine (mixed use alternative transit development corridor around the city) before acquiring any of the land. A decade later, after court battles involving the city purchasing land via the Board of Education in order to prevent further price gouging, we still don't have all the land needed, and only ~10% of the project is completed.

20 "finalists" are there to make the legitimate candidates become hyper-competitive. It's the way to extract the most incentives from the levels of government involved.

Maybe the lesson there is that cities should not prostrate themselves every time a big corporation says they might create create some jobs there.

There are a few other places if the Gulch for some reason fails; each with many more problems (but likely more room to expand)

- Westside (superfund site from concrete operations)

- Jail/Aarons Amp

- Union city area.

When I saw Atlanta on the list, I felt that it's over. The rail system is far superior to what exists in Seattle & should support reasonable suburban commutes. Georgia Tech's talent supply makes it interesting, but I get the impression that Amazon hires people with more experience than just straight out of college.

Amazon hires plenty people of both classes, recent grads and experienced hires. But from my impression I think they hire more recent grads than any other tech company.

> The rail system is far superior to what exists in Seattle & should support reasonable suburban commutes

Atlanta has a relatively poor transit system compared to many other cities on the list. The bus system isn't great and MARTA (trains) is quite limited. I left before the beltline was built out, so maybe things are getting better.

Only the more expensive ones (Chicago, DC, NYC, and Boston), and Philadelphia. If transit is important, Atlanta is actually in a better position than the closer competition (Austin or Raleigh).

Beltline is taking its time getting completed, but what is done is fantastic!

I ride my bike on it almost everyday and there are tons of new restaurants, apartments, and fun things to do.

Amazon is one of the biggest new-college-grad hirers. This was true when I was one a few years ago, and it's very true now.

georgia tech grad here, was offered a vacation to seattle to interview.

I remember the initial thread[1] with the announcement had many good things to say about Atlanta too.

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15192930

Do you have sources for the claim that ATL is the busiest airport in the world? Just curious because I've never heard this before.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-busiest-airports-in-th...

Thanks!

Only for the last 20 years - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports

Awesome thanks, I had no idea!

But Raleigh, NC is in the Research Triangle?

The other way around, RTP is inside Raleigh, it sits between Raleigh and Durham

RTP doesn't sit within Raleigh. Addresses that sit within the park (like GSK, or IBM) are within the cities of Durham, maybe some in Morrisville, and some simply "Research Triangle Park." The Triangle as a whole (including the Raleigh, Durham, & the Park) put in a bid to Amazon, so presumably by "Raleigh" they really mean the whole Raleigh-Durham/Triangle region

Atlanta, Raleigh and Dallas are all in states whose statewide electorate makes them a governor's veto away from passing "religious freedom" laws that would make hiring difficult. Maybe it would be good for Atlanta, but I don't think Amazon would risk it.

I thought "religious freedom" laws made it so the employer could legally refuse to hire, say, homosexuals. That probably won't pose a risk to Amazon, the hiring company.

Are you thinking the second order effects would come into play, like spouses not being able to find work? Or am I wrong about the definition of rf laws?

They don't just affect employers, they also affect lots of service providers. As a result, people who would be likely to be subject to discrimination under those laws (whether currently living in the area or not) may view living and working in the affected areas as less attractive, making hiring more difficult for employers in the affected areas.

This may, of course, be somewhat offset by attracting people supportive of the discrimination thus enabled, making it easier to hire those people.

I'm not the OP but I assume "laws that would make hiring difficult" include laws that would shock the conscience of the sort of people you would want to hire if you were Amazon, not to mention the existing employees. Bathroom laws, etc.

Imagine if a state had a law making it legal to discriminate against women. You might argue that would give the hiring company valuable hiring and firing flexibility. But it's probably obvious that, aside from the ethical issue, it would be bad for business to seek such jurisdictions out. Skilled workers (both women and men) wouldn't want to work there, and the PR impact would be negative.

Many corporations have been extremely vocal in their opposition to these laws in lobbying. They're bad for business because they make hiring harder, and it's bad PR.

Georgia has some of, if not the most, employer-friendly right-to-work laws in the country.

you can essentially hire and fire anyone you like for no cause with no notice.

Isn’t that something Georgia should be proud of! /s

I’ve never understood why people in those sorts of places are so excited about such regressive laws.

I'll take Atlanta and you can have the other 19 also-rans.

Mass transit is NOT needed. Flat land without rivers blocking flow of traffic is all thats needed

Well Amazon said it was needed in the RFP... "Direct access to rail, train, subway/metro, bus routes"

It was a very specific need listed by Amazon.

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