Should Amazon look at not only what a city can do for it but what it can do for a city?
Absolutely! Amazon needs to engage with the community around it to succeed in the long term. Building bonds with a long-term vision in mind is so critical... because honestly, who knows if Amazon will be around in 20 years? You wouldn't want these neighborhoods to end up abandoned like an olympic village.
I worry that a lot of these tech-towns are doing what Detroit did in the 1950s. There's a monopolization of industry (retail-tech) happening here. Everyone worked in a car factory in 1950, and when those factories began to close... everything collapsed.
While Amazon is clearly bringing/investing in more than just brick and mortar, I still wonder how it will all shake out 20 or so years down the road. Great post @tyler-cukar
Also I am offended that you've called Philadelphia a "tier 2" city ;)
yes, @voroni I use tier 2 in loosest way possible. Tier 2 in that land is still some what economical. We could call it a 1.5!
What is a tier 1 city? How is Philadelphia, the nation's 5th most populated city not a tier 1 city? Why not add Sacramento California to the list of cities competing for Amazon?
@untrust yes, the "ranking" system is a bit convoluted. Tier 1 cities are generally considered global or world cities. There are debates within the United States. Generally NYC and LA are on the list and occasionally Chicago. Tier 2 cities are Large cities experiencing or the potential to experience high growth. I have included an intriguing link from the Geography department at Loughborough University. They are doing work to produce and disseminate knowledge around cities at a global comparative level. Their top cities are NY and London with Philly coming in as a Beta + city.
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/group.html
In the end the ranking system is up for grabs based on the metrics being used! Sacramento, I would hope is competing!
Thanks for sending me the UK link. Looks like a online library for works on world cities but not very user friendly-looks like a site from the 1990's. Updated site but not really easy to see anything.
Is there a real definition of tier cities or opinions? This link just gives random guesses from people. Link to Quora Looks from your comment that the tier system is only opioions.
As for Sacramento International Airport, it's not that busy but only 100 mile drive to San Francisco International Airport. Link to Sacramento International Airport Land price would be cheaper in Sacramento than San Fransico and a short drive to the airport of 100 miles could save Amazon a good amount of money.