Inadequate freeways? Welcome to Seattle. I do my part by riding the bus. That takes one car off the road!! 
Is there any major city in the USA that has a manageable traffic situation, though?
Our country’s infrastructure is crap, we don’t invest in public transportation, and the population keeps growing but our highway systems really haven’t in the past decades. I feel like it is a universal problem.
It is crap everywhere, but if you have a lake thrown in the middle, it becomes a major cluster! 
Denver is super cool. It did remind me of a more compact Seattle when we visited.
Yes, I’m sure they wouldn’t choose to have universal healthcare, very little crime, good public education, one year’s parental leave, etc. Who in their right mind would?!
I love Nashville, but I don’t see how we could get HQ2. We have almost no public transportation at this point and the HQs here (including my wonderful employer) fight for the tech employees. It’s a great quality of life, no state income tax and moderate cost of living, but I don’t see it. We do have a great mayor and lots of amenities.
It’s not going to be in Canada. You can’t even mail things to Canada without it costing a fortune.
Stories about Amazon’s growth in Canada, the untapped market for e-commerce relative to the USA, and how Amazon is using Canada’s more open immigration laws to import tech talent.
http://www.nearshoreamericas.com/amazon-taps-global-labor-market-vancouver-expansion/
I’d like the US to reap this benefit. Maybe Canada can get HQ3.
Minnesota’s governor has made it clear that we’re not prepared to pay out billions in “incentives” (= bribes) to lure Amazon’s HQ2 to Minneapolis-Saint Paul, which probably puts us out of the running. But apart from that we meet all their criteria—highly educated work force, excellent schools, a major research university in the urban core with particular strengths in business and engineering/CS, a major international hub airport with easy 2-3 hour nonstops to every major market from the Atlantic to the Pacific (including a long history of nonstops to Seattle since practically the beginning of commercial aviation), a metro-area population of 3.5 million, a vibrant cultural scene, professional teams in all 4 major sports plus a new major league soccer franchise and the Minnesota Lynx WNBA dynasty, a progressive social environment (exceptionally LGBTQ-friendly), relatively low cost of living, a solid and rapidly expanding public transit system, environmental amenities, lots of outdoorsy-ness including one of the highest percentages of bike commuters (second only to Portland, I believe), and local companies with strengths in areas that should be attractive to Amazon, including highly successful national retailers like Target and Best Buy (both of which appear to be managing the transition to e-commerce splendidly) and R&D-driven innovators like Medtronic (medical devices) and 3M (pretty much everything). Winters are a negative, but apart from that and our unwillingness to pay bribes, this should be close to a dream location for Amazon.
The thing is, though, we don’t really need them. Our unemployment rate is already among the lowest in the country, and locally-generated job growth is strong. And at the end of the day I’m not sure many Minnesotans would welcome the increased traffic congestion, higher housing prices, and upward-spiralling cost of living that Amazon would bring. We don’t envy Seattle. Probably most people here would say they want to avoid becoming another Seattle. But if Amazon is really in it just for the cash bribes as some here have suggested, that’s probably all moot anyway.
I agree that MSP is attractive in many ways, except for weather. (But get the light rail done to the SW and East suburbs – THAT could have sealed the deal). For that matter, if Seattle had better transit, maybe they wouldn’t be looking for Hub2. Those parking lots otherwise known as freeways are a nightmare. Water everywhere makes bridges a choke point for traffic. Accident on a major artery in Seattle, and you might as well go home for the day.
@MomofWildChild , I’m not sure I understand your point. You do know that Amazon already exists in Canada, right? And has for many years. In fact, we are able to order from Amazon dot com as well as from Amazon dot ca.
I agree that Toronto has a shot.
Downtown Atlanta, between GaTech and the GWCC. There’s an undeveloped area of a few blocks. You have downtown, GWCC, and new MB dome within walking distance. Major international airport less than 30 minutes away (with traffic). It goes without saying that GaTech is a major source of technical staff but you also have Emory University and UGA.
They could also pick a spot more north. Buckhead is a really nice area. Ten minutes from downtown.
Do they really need to have such a huge HQ2? If they had two more smaller ones they would have a lot more choices because they wouldn’t be such a potentially choking burden on local transit and roads.
They sure have felt the need to be close in Seattle.
That wasn’t my point at all. I’m well aware that Amazon serves Canada. Just getting things back and forth between the two HQs would be expensive. I’ll be the first to admit if I’m wrong, but I don’t see the HQ2 being in Canada. I’ve been involved in a couple of corporate HQ decisions during my career, and there are so many things that go into it that would not favor Canada.
MOWC ^What is your prediction fr6om your experience?
I’m sort of at a loss with something of this magnitude. They want public transportation and a huge workforce. I think Atlanta is a possibility and maybe Philadelphia or Dallas. Depends a lot on what $$$ the cities offer.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/10/20/theres-no-begging-in-torontos-amazon-bid-keenan.html
Toronto won’t beg and they won’t offer financial incentives. It may still be a good choice. It will be interesting to see what happens and, once a decision is made, what criteria influenced the decision. With ~100 proposals, it’s going to take them some time, I would imagine, even if many of them aren’t even close to fulfilling the initial desired factors.
If Toronto offers no financial incentives, they will not be in the running. This I can promise.