Houston may have a problem with Amazon’s list of 20 finalists for HQ2

After being courted by cities across the nation, Amazon announced their list of 20 finalists to be home to their second headquarters (HQ2). Two are in Texas, but neither of them are Houston.

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Instead, Dallas and Austin made the cut, joining other major cities like Los Angeles and Chicago.

Most of the finalists appear to be concentrated in the southern and coastal areas on the east.

The New York Times speculates this may be because the west coast is becoming “saturated” with tech companies and hubs, like California’s Silicon Valley. The newspaper also credits Austin’s growing reputation for housing tech company headquarters.

Austin and Dallas reportedly came as finalist frontrunners for the position early on in the search, as both are very well situated to meet the criteria Amazon put forward in its initial announcement.

For instance, Austin is already home to companies like Facebook, and Dallas is trying to make a name for itself as the Silicon Valley of the South.

Amazon also received bids from cities in Mexican regions, but ended up narrowing the list of finalists to U.S. and Canadian cities, according to the Times.

The announcement naturally left the internet buzzing about the winners and losers of the HQ2 destination.

Houston’s own Sheriff Ed Gonzales tweeted he’s “bummed” Houston is out of the running, but expressed support for Austin and Dallas.

With the projection of the headquarters bringing in a reported 50,000 new jobs and $5 billion in spending, those living in relatively smaller-sized finalist cities like Newark, New Jersey, hope to see a boost their regional economies.

However, not every citizen is happy about the prospect of Amazon setting up shop where they live.

In an interview with the Times, Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, said, “As these cities woo and grovel, they are basically communicating this idea that we should want Amazon to be bigger and more powerful in our economy.”

In a statement on the finalists, Holly Sullivan, Amazon’s head of economic development, said, “Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.”

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos reportedly took a hands-on approach in the narrowing of cities, along with economists, human resources managers and real estate executives who formed a team of around 12 people.

Company officials said they will now move into the next phase of selection and start communicating more directly with officials from finalist cities.

RELATED: John Oliver perfectly explains why HQ2 would actually hurt Chicago

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