It's hard to argue with the fact that Austin made the shortlist without any incentives. The same doesn't apply to Atlanta.
As another engineer in Atlanta, I’ve got mixed feelings on whether the criteria Amazon put forth is really met. There’s probably more people from Atlanta that leave for tech than stay by a long shot given I’ve probably met more Georgia Tech graduates over my career outside Atlanta than actually in the metro area. Anecdotal evidence aside, there’s been several articles published about Atlanta’s brain drain problem specific to tech (medicine does not seem to apply given CDC and Emory attract world-class doctors just fine). I’m not sure if anyone on HN outside the region can name a single tech company HQed in Atlanta off the top of their head - I certainly couldn’t before I moved here.
Amazon never said this, so unsure why you think this.
The five primary criteria driving Amazon’s decision, per GBH, include:
1. “East Coast presence.”
2. “Thriving engineering/surrounding university infrastructure and student pipeline.”
3. “Transportation hub with major growth potential.” ...
I don't think Amazon has made it public as to which criteria it's using to make this decision.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/22/gbh-insights-atlanta-and-oth...
The sites in Somerville are actually a much better choice than the Suffolk Downs site offered by Boston. They're a lot closer to the Boston itself and are better situated for housing and transportation. It would also knit together those grim parts of Somerville that are cut off from the rest of the town by Routes 93 and 28.