KCRag Forum

chingon wrote:Abstaining from participation in the amazon con-game/ad campaign is the only response that would demonstrate vision.

Completely agreed.

KC one of five 'dark horse' candidates for HQ2 according to Inc. Magazine...
https://www.inc.com/zoe-henry/5-dark-ho ... n-hq2.html

It overstates that KC has an international airport, which is likely not broad enough for their requirements.

a lot of overstating on this topic.

earthling wrote: It overstates that KC has an international airport, which is likely not broad enough for their requirements.

Its pretty indicative of our standing in the competition, which is that we really just satisfy the basic requirements of the RFP, but we're affordable.

Sacramento and KC were included in that list in case they are just checking the boxes and then optimizing for cost, like linear programming. With that methodology, we stand a chance. Otherwise, no way.

I'd be kind of shocked if they did not choose Atlanta now, lots of reports about an Amazon lobbyist going to Georgia, a few gambling sites have them as a clear favorite, i also think they have a lot of the gov't is willing to give them.

Would think ATL in top 3 anyway. Would think they release a short list before finalizing a decision. Austin makes a lot of top 5 lists but they don't have many international flights either, though they do have one regular to Europe and another seasonal. Austin's tech employment is high per capita but not hugely higher than KC in raw numbers, and KC/AUS about the same in STEM jobs overall. KC much cheaper overall as Austin getting fairly expensive to live/operate. But no, not thinking KC has a shot.

tower wrote:

earthling wrote: It overstates that KC has an international airport, which is likely not broad enough for their requirements.

Its pretty indicative of our standing in the competition, which is that we really just satisfy the basic requirements of the RFP, but we're affordable.

Sacramento and KC were included in that list in case they are just checking the boxes and then optimizing for cost, like linear programming. With that methodology, we stand a chance. Otherwise, no way.

Not specific to one large company, but a lot of our gains in jobs probably comes because of affordability.

Look at the business owner's view. One online affordability calculator says KC vs San Francisco, pay is ~15% less but COL is ~45% less.

So they can move and make their same pay rate and do a lot more with it, like buy an equally nice home, pay less in property taxes and travel more.
For their employees they can pay slightly less and pocket the difference, or pay more than average and have their pick of the best.

we didn't make the cut.

https://twitter.com/KCTV5/status/953992992569913348

Here is the full list - I'm kind of suprised Nashville made the cut. Really thought Detroit or Minneapolis would have made the cut
- Atlanta, Ga.
- Austin, Tex.
- Boston, Mass.
- Chicago, Ill.
- Columbus, Ohio
- Dallas, Texas
- Denver, Colo.
- Indianapolis, Ind.
- Los Angeles, Calif.
- Miami, Fla.
- Montgomery County, Md.
- Nashville, Tenn.
- Newark, N.J.
- New York City
- Northern Virginia
- Philadelphia, Penn.
- Pittsburgh, Penn.
- Raleigh, N.C.
- Toronto
- Washington D.C.

Amazon also looking for looking for 1 million square feet in Boston - http://www.wcvb.com/article/amazon-look ... s/15056401

Nashville kind of makes sense- they just announced a huge transit plan, and it's got a great music scene. The real slap in the face (not to us as much as Minneapolis, Detroit, Salt Lake City, etc.) is Columbus.

It seems they did have a definite preference for the east though. only 4 cities west of the Mississippi made it, and two of those are in Texas.

Ah well, no one actually thought that they were coming to KC anyway. It's good that we put ourselves out there and i hope that we learn something from this.

^Doubt it. The shortlist actually muddies the message. It is hard to point to one thing that all those cities have and say "we need that". Some of them have horrible public transit, some of them have horrible biking infrastructure, some of them are pretty sprawly, some of them don't have a really high preforming university, etc.

I think Columbus is a great choice. Ohio State can pump out tons of graduates every year, Ohio State also has a great Logistics program which I'm sure is important to Amazon. Miami seems like an odd finalist, its very remote from the rest of the US especially Seattle. A nonstop flight from Seattle to Miami is almost 6 hours, about the same time flying from Boston to Western Ireland.

^Actually, that is a good point. The only higher ranked state universities already have their cities on the list, are in California, or are located a bit away from the cities that were bidding (Wisconsin, Michigan). I didn't realize Ohio state was so highly ranked.

Guess we’ll just have to start our own Amazon.

So will the region make their proposal public now?

KCMOJoe89 wrote:So will the region make their proposal public now?

We already know a big reason why we lost: we pitched suburban sites in places like Olathe.

bright lining here...KC needs to try harder on all aspects other than incentives. Would have spoiled it. Civic support for transit, education, life safety, arts, startups, vocational training, etc. Think bigger and goodies will follow.

ldai_phs wrote:

KCMOJoe89 wrote:So will the region make their proposal public now?

We already know a big reason why we lost: we pitched suburban sites in places like Olathe.

Really? that was the pitch? correct, KC deserves to lose. Alt pitch would have been a win-win-win. on top of I-70, parking below, next to new stadium with naming rights. Tha's thinking bigger.

KC deserved to be there right along with Nashville, Columbus, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Raleigh etc. KC dropped the ball and I'm pretty sure I know why. Did you see all the sites proposed? I think all but one were in suburban or even exurban locations. No transit, no walkablity, way out in the deep red suburbs. So many people there still just don't get it including those that are trying to bring new companies to the area. Even when Amazon basically told people what they wanted, KC didn't listen. They actually thought Amazon would love to be out by the speedway or out on K-10 or clear down in the blue hawk thing or in the rural part of Independence or Lee's Summit. Most of KC's proposal probably totally wasted their time while they didn't really put together several very well thought out urban locations. WTF.