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Amazon Second HQ

AlvinofDiaspar said:
From Twitter

Jordan Kanygin‏ @CTVJKanygin
Amazon debriefed Calgary officials on why our city was passed over for its HQ2 short list this morning. The biggest reason? "Tech talent is definitely a weakness," says Mary Moran with Calgary Economic Development. More on @CTVCalgary at noon. #yyc
https://twitter.com/CTVJKanygin/status/954053092206575616

Sounds like the Toronto/Ontario focus on talent is appropriate.

AoD
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That same reasoning is also why a lot of folks have been eyeing Pittsburgh as a potential winner; loads of tech talent and jobs already there and one of the best engineering schools in the world.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
But they will have difficulty getting talent from abroad.

AoD
Click to expand...

I don't know about that; it hasn't stopped Uber, Google, Apple, and Duolingo (started by a Tokyo expat) from significant hiring binges there, and it's having something of a moment with respect to the "soft" stuff that makes cities more attractive to international talent (a burgeoning foodie scene, some interesting municipal-level urbanism efforts, a gorgeous Ace Hotel I recently stayed at, etc.), not to mention the fact that a global-top-15 engineering program at Carnegie Mellon is a huge draw for international students.

Pittsburgh ain't Toronto or DC or New York/Newark or Boston or Los Angeles or Miami (I'm sort of talking myself out of my previous graf as I type...) in that respect, but it's not the provincial post-industrial wasteland it used to be, either.
 
ADRM said:
I don't know about that; it hasn't stopped Uber, Google, Apple, and Duolingo (started by a Tokyo expat) from significant hiring binges there, and it's having something of a moment with respect to the "soft" stuff that makes cities more attractive to international talent (a burgeoning foodie scene, some interesting municipal-level urbanism efforts, a gorgeous Ace Hotel I recently stayed at, etc.), not to mention the fact that a global-top-15 engineering program at Carnegie Mellon is a huge draw for international students.

Pittsburgh ain't Toronto or DC or New York/Newark or Boston or Los Angeles or Miami (I'm sort of talking myself out of my previous graf as I type...) in that respect, but it's not the provincial post-industrial wasteland it used to be, either.
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Nope, I quite enjoyed Pittsburgh myself - and I am not questioning the attractiveness of the city to foreign hires; immigration and work permit policy on the other hand is going to be an issue.

AoD
 
When you remove American nationalist optics from the equation, I really do think Toronto is the strongest contender. (Culture+Talent+Cost savings+Transportation+Site potential+Immigration+Weaker dollar)

If I were Jeff Bezos, I'd build two new smaller HQ's; one in the States that gets the label HQ2, and one here without a title. Avoids the inevitable "Make America great again" anger that would be directed at Amazon if HQ2 was in Toronto.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Amazon debriefed Calgary officials on why our city was passed over for its HQ2 short list this morning. The biggest reason? "Tech talent is definitely a weakness," says Mary Moran with Calgary Economic Development.
Click to expand...

Plus, they'd have to live in Calgary.
 
The head of New York City's bid team seems to think that Toronto's bid is the only one that they have to seriously worry about:

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/articl...s-amazon-narrows-list-for-second-headquarters

Wylde believes that Toronto, the only city named in the list outside the U.S., is the biggest threat to New York’s bid because of tightened immigration rules imposed by the Trump administration that could make it more difficult to recruit talent from overseas.

“What I really worry about is that our national immigration policy is becoming so restrictive that it makes Canada look like a better place to be because they don’t have those rules,” Wylde said.
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42
 
I think DC or one of its outlying counties with lower taxes will get HQ2. Bezos is going to be spending half his time in DC anyway.
 
Hey Wylde, immigration policy is nowhere near the only reason why Canada looks like a better place to be.

Just saying.
 
MTown said:
Hey Wylde, immigration policy is nowhere near the only reason why Canada looks like a better place to be.

Just saying.
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Well, I would say that New York shares many of the positives that Toronto has.

The difference maker between NYC and Toronto would come down to details such as immigration.
 
Has it not occurred to these people who think Toronto has a good chance of getting it because Trump being in power is going to make Amazon want to distance itself from the US that that reason is exactly why Toronto won't get it? Just imagine what kind of tweets the president would churn out if they were to make that decision, and besides that Trump is putting NAFTA in jeopardy which would make cross-border business all the more difficult
 
WislaHD said:
Well, I would say that New York shares many of the positives that Toronto has.

The difference maker between NYC and Toronto would come down to details such as immigration.
Click to expand...

NYC isn't a cheap place to hire 50,000 skilled employees. Certainly plenty available but average salary will be in the 250/300k range.
 
WislaHD said:
Well, I would say that New York shares many of the positives that Toronto has.

The difference maker between NYC and Toronto would come down to details such as immigration.
Click to expand...
....or health outcomes. Life expectancy. Quality of life.
 
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