bclintonk- Have you checked out Nashville’s reputation lately? It’s the “it” city, and is also attracting a lot of tech talent. It has a lot of corporate HQs, including my employer. It is the state capitol and has a major university. The school system in the counties surrounding Nashville proper are excellent. It is a fantastic place to live and cost of living is reasonable. It is getting more crowded and public transportation sucks, but otherwise it is pretty much perfect. Our airport is easy and awesome, the restaurant scene is incredible, and it’s gorgeous around here. Easy to drive to the Florida panhandle, too- or the Smokies. That said, we don’t want Amazon!
"And second, it wants boatloads of financial incentives. "
Well, Toronto is still on the list and didn’t give much in the way of incentives. I don’t think Boston did, either. Not sure about the other 18.
So i talking with a buddy in Atlanta today and he reminded me of something I had not thought of…Amazon is going heavily into original programming and streaming of videos…it’s a big part of the business now but becoming much larger and Georgia just surpassed California, the UK and Canada as the No. 1 filming location in the world…with 60 movies/TV shows being filmed at any given moment (everything from the Hunger Games to Spiderman to Stranger Things) and the production/film/studios infrastructure is astonishing. So that kind of gives an edge to them in my mind. Though I still think Boston & DC & Pittsburgh have the edge.
Just a side note, cuz I found that interesting, Southern Hope. This is a couple of years old.
https://staffmeup.com/setlife/TOP_CITIES_FOR_FILM_AND_TV_PRODUCTION
Interesting analysis from a techie site - https://www.geekwire.com/2018/ranking-amazons-hq2-short-list-analysis-top-20-contenders-one-best-shot-winning/
I agree with his conclusion that having 3 places near DC is a way of getting them to compete with each other on incentives and may indicate a preference for that region.
Don’t rule Toronto out when it comes to film/tv. My guess is that Toronto has as many, if not more, filming going on at any one time than all of Georgia. ACTRA Toronto has 15,000 members and that isn’t counting the SAG and Equity members. A huge talent pool from which to draw. Studio infrastructure is large, modern and in constant use. The Handmaid’s Tale, Suits, Designated Survivor, Orphan Black, 12 Monkeys, Private Eyes, Black Mirror, Anne with an E, Killjoys, to name just a few and 2018 has projected over 200 feature films in production here. We also have one of the very best animation studios, and a top college program whose students are recruited prior to graduation, both here and in L.A. Netflix has set up a permanent operation here and being involved with the theatre community, I know a lot of the people who are involved in the film/tv biz here, too. Not saying that this will be a deciding factor but if Amazon is looking to expand in this area, Toronto is ready for them now.
Toronto won’t give incentives but a savings of $600 million a year in healthcare costs isn’t anything to sneeze at and that’s an ongoing savings, not a one time incentive. Excellent public schools anywhere in the province, not just in wealthy areas. Very little crime - 61 murders in a city this size. You won’t find that anywhere in the U.S. Gun control that actually works. Excellent social safety net. Parental leave benefits for 12 months. A more diverse city than any other on the list with the possible exception of NYC. A merit based immigration system that allows for easy access to talented internationals. The tech sector here is large and the population has equal or more education than likely any of the remaining cities.
I’m not even sure I’d like them to come to Toronto but it’s an interesting process looking at these various cities. A friend spearheaded the city’s proposal so it will only become more interesting! It’s going to be an entire country behind this next phase, with support federally and provincially as well as city-wide.
My guess is that Bezos won’t choose Toronto because he likely doesn’t want to irritate you know who even more than he already does, but I imagine that he’s probably tempted. 
I don’t think the millennials want to move to Canada.
Canada has their own millennials and actually I think many millennials wouldn’t mind moving, actually. Toronto is a cool place to live and Canada has a lot going for it in terms of more progressive policies that are aligned with the political and social values many in their 20s and 30s embrace.
Many millennials would jump at the chance to leave this “fill in the blank” imo.
Here’s that article on Georgia becoming the top film location in the world http://www.ozmagazine.com/single-post/2017/05/24/Georgia-Named-Top-Filming-Location-Worldwide
but to @kiddie post on using the 3 areas in DC to compete against each other, I think that’s spot-on and that the HQ will end up in one of those locations.
Our millennial DS started with Amazon in Seattle in the late spring and the only place he’d relocate to is California. As far as lifestyle, his main requirement is good internet 
. He’s happy enough in Seattle though, and would only move for better weather.
@SouthernHope That was a 2016 listing and FilmLA is notorious for not including all films released in any given year. In any case, we’ll see what, if any, influence this aspect of the study will have on the final decision.
If they’re trying to get the 3 DC areas to compete, VA already has an edge by having lower taxes. Montgomery County adds 3.2% for residents and 1.25% for non-resident workers.
It would be a game changer for a city like Newark.
@MomofWildChild, I’m with you in hoping it’s not Nashville. I think Nashville will be my retirement home and the lack of affordable housing already has me worried. If Amazon lands there, it will make that problem worse and traffic problems will escalate.
^^yeah, but perhaps the A2 HQ might get special prime service faster than Dominos’ (old 30 minute guarantee!
The other reason I think places like Austin, Columbus, Indianapolis, Nashville, Pittsburgh, and Raleigh won’t get it is they just aren’t big enough to absorb something as big as Amazon says it’s planning. Each of these metro areas has a workforce somewhere in the vicinity of a million. Compare that to metro DC (3.4 million), Philadelphia (3.1 million), New York-Newark (10 million), Chicago (4.9 million), Boston (2.7 million), Atlanta (3 million), Dallas (3.8 million), LA (6.8 million), or Miami (3.1 million). Denver is more borderline (1.6 million).
Granted, Amazon won’t hire 50,000 people all at once, but if it wants to ramp up rapidly the local labor markets in those smaller cities would get awfully tight awfully fast—as would housing, transportation infrastructure, and public services like schools, because most of the employees would need to be brought in from outside the metro region… Plus I assume a large fraction of their hires will be college grads, and in some of these cities only about 30% of adults have a college degree, which means in a workforce of 1 million you’re looking at only about 300,000 or so with college degrees. Contrast that to DC (47%), Boston (43%), and New York-Newark (36%), all with much larger base labor forces.
In the end my guess is Boston or somewhere in the DC metro, but I wouldn’t rule out Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, or Dallas where an Amazon HQ2 would be more transformative.
I think it has to be on the East Coast. It doesn’t make sense to have a second HQ in the west, so close to Seattle. Even Texas is too close.
Based on what @alwaysamom pointed out…I want to move to Toronto!! The millennials can follow. Unfortunately I’ve never lived anywhere cold so I’d probably last about a week.
I live in Montgomery County, and I don’t particularly want Amazon here. We have enough traffic on I-270 without adding the extra cars of Amazon employees. Also, if they want their headquarters to be Metro accessible, it has to go in the part of the county close to DC, which is pretty crowded already.
Virginia can have it, in my opinion.