Former Rare Staff
Many were excited to see a narrowed down list of cities for Amazon’s second headquarters, which was released on Thursday.
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Today we are announcing the communities that will proceed to the next step in the HQ2 process. Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough – all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity https://t.co/x1bFYbk4Ui pic.twitter.com/J2x0HHzBTR
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) January 18, 2018
Amazon’s list of finalists for #HQ2 @CNBC pic.twitter.com/RAAchC4nKY
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) January 18, 2018
Some quick observations were made.
With a few exceptions, many of the short list cities appear to be on eastern time. https://t.co/rkExDO1f6Q
— John Himpe (@JohnHimpe) January 18, 2018
BREAKING: Toronto is only Canadian city on Amazon short list of HQ2. More coming. pic.twitter.com/4eJsdlauf4
— The Canadian Press News (@CdnPressNews) January 18, 2018
https://twitter.com/DKThomp/status/953994219609346048
My guess is one of the three DC-area sites gets it. Bezos owns the WaPo and Amazon may want to be near the seat of U.S. govt power as it and Bezos becomes increasingly influential. https://t.co/ELy6cRvGGU
— Bill Shea (@Bill_Shea19) January 18, 2018
A few expressed doubts about the logistics of placing the new headquarters in certain locations.
https://twitter.com/jonsteinberg/status/953994461272510464
Some welcomed Amazon with open arms.
We are very excited that @CityofMiami made it to the list of cities being considered for @amazon’s HQ2! #Miami’s business-friendly environment and our highly-skilled, multilingual workers are ready for #AmazonHQ2. https://t.co/YCzhwN6AVb
— Mayor Francis Suarez (@FrancisSuarez) January 18, 2018
Critical to remember that the Toronto Amazon HQ2 bid did not offer subsidies as a way to get at the table. Our proposal touted our quality of life, openness to immigration and current/forthcoming transit investments as the key reasons to come. #WeDidItRight
— Jennifer Keesmaat (@jen_keesmaat) January 18, 2018
This is my favourite part of Toronto's Amazon HQ2 pitch pic.twitter.com/nkg1NZOlSB
— Jennifer Pagliaro (@jpags) January 18, 2018
While others remained a bit more skeptical of the news.
This is literally just a list of major North American metropolitan areas. They're no further along now than when they first announced this contest. https://t.co/uh8SVCDt3i
— Daniel Rubin (@DanielYRubin) January 18, 2018
“Our elaborate HQ2 PR exercise has reached some new, arbitrary round; continue to humiliate yourself so we can extract as much public resources out of your desperate city as possible” https://t.co/8QpvpIAwY5
— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) January 18, 2018
For many, there was more concern about the way the company would treat its new city, not vice versa.
I'm very glad *not* to see Baltimore on Amazon's HQ2 finalist list. It would have been bad for the city in the longer term.https://t.co/s8O9ljqSeF
— Amy Webb (@amywebb) January 18, 2018
Amazon's decision about a second HQ should not just be about what the cities give Amazon but about what Amazon gives the cities: its responsibility. Thus, I hope for Newark. @JeffBezos
— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) January 18, 2018
Having said that, there are many benefits Newark brings to Amazon: close to EWR and all transit hubs; near NYC but not as expensive!; lots of talent; lots of Amazon experience there with Audible laudible presence in the city…..
— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) January 18, 2018
And, most importantly, there were several jokes to be had.
Amazon HQ2 is like the super bowl. I'm going to act like it will never happen for Philly, but I'll secretly get really excited about it until proven otherwise.
— Sean Blanda (@SeanBlanda) January 18, 2018
Now that the Amazon Sweepstakes have reached a fever on par with that for Willy Wonka's golden ticket, it’s only logical that losing cities should be horribly mutilated and then ridiculed in song.
— Benjamin Freed (@brfreed) January 18, 2018
https://twitter.com/BrianBWagner/status/953998451909578752
(H/T Twitter)
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