:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59732685/MW_GB969_amazon_20180118094051_ZH.0.jpg)
It’s been more than eight months since Amazon’s storied Request for Proposals was distributed indiscriminately across North America, seeking qualified cities where the behemoth online marketplace might plant a second headquarters—a “full equal” to its massive Seattle campus no less.
It’s been seven months since bids were due.
And it’s been about four months since Atlanta and 19 other places were named finalists in the HQ2-palooza.
So it’s been a while. And yet the waiting continues.
Who’s still swept up in the excitement of hypothetical numbers most people know well by now: a potential $5 billion investment with 50,000 jobs? (Plus, 8 million needed square feet! And $100,000 average salaries!)
Who’s completely burned out? Who’s saying, “Who cares?”
It’s time to let your voice be heard, Atlanta. But first, an update on the hullaballoo.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10840899/krogAmazon.jpg)
USA Today recently reported that Amazon reps have completed their site-visit tour of the U.S. (and Toronto), and some industry experts are predicting at least one more round of winnowed finalists is still to be announced, thereby heating up the competition that much more.
Meanwhile, Observer is the latest to suggest that various clues and Jeff Bezos’s vested interests signal that the HQ2 “beauty contest” is essentially over—with Washington D.C. being the queen—save for the continued dog and pony show.
And in a show of truly enterprising reporting, the Puget Sound Business Journal analyzed the flight records of Bezos’s private Gulftstream G650ER jet, which hasn’t recently landed anywhere near Atlanta, like several other finalist cities. For what that’s worth.
So on, and so forth.
Now, to the poll:
Poll
After eight months of HQ2 hoopla, I ...
This poll is closed
-
32%
am still really pulling for Atlanta. Let’s shock the world!
(768 votes) -
11%
just want this to be over. Yesterday.
(274 votes) -
11%
still fear what Amazon could mean to housing costs etc. around Atlanta.
(277 votes) -
20%
wouldn’t mind landing this thing, but it’s not crucial.
(490 votes) -
7%
hope any other city lands it but ATL.
(184 votes) -
8%
think this whole thing reeks of a scheme.
(196 votes) -
3%
think this entire process has been genius, in a business sense.
(92 votes) -
4%
just don’t care.
(97 votes) -
0%
am still peeved about Charlotte.
(17 votes)
Loading comments...