3 ms·
Actually I would challenge the idea Houston doesn't have enough of the professionals required. Houston was eliminated as not having enough white collar workers
by technofiend 9y ago
Actually I would challenge the idea Houston doesn't have enough of the professionals required.
Houston was eliminated as not having enough white collar workers. Yet they left in Austin which is far smaller because at least 12.5 % base of their base has the right skills.
It makes sense to compare desired jobs versus the general population but not without context. Seriously with six million+ people here, do you really need 12.5% or 750,000 of them to be what Amazon would consider hiring when they only need 50,000 people?
I find the idea absurd: Amazon could fill their entire job quota out of the current worker pool.
- stevenwoo 9y agoI haven't lived in Houston in 30 years but wouldn't it have been eliminated on the mass transit/transportation/traffic congestion round or possibly the amenities via outdoor recreation round and definitely the culture of inclusion due to the GOP state priorities on bathroom bills? I loved Memorial Park when I lived inside the 610 Loop but the options after that at that point in time required a significant amount of time in the car. The other amenities of restaurants/arts/music were pretty good, though.
- technofiend 9y agoDepends on where Amazon ends up. We definitely are weak on public transportation but have a couple of international airports. With 600 square miles of area, it's tough to have a single metro system serve that entire area and frankly with our weather few people choose to stay outside and wait on transportation unless they just have to. Which is why you see things like Exxon's move to the Woodlands. There's enough local infrastructure and housing to support their corporate HQ. Unless Amazon decides to buy an inner-city coporate park here they may end doing the same by going to Clear Lake, Sugarland, etc. Houston is sort of like Austin in that it's an oasis of less conservative politics but the even so the bathroom bill didn't pass. There's plenty to do outdoors here: I regularly play disc golf, cycle and kayak in the summer. But you do need lots of sun screen, water and to acclimate to the heat. Otherwise you will suffer. I don't think it's any different that living in the South West. You need to know how to deal with the heat.
- saryant 9y agoSo many of the oil companies have left downtown I have to think Amazon could snap up a good chunk of it. I moved away years ago but did anyone even fill up Shell Plaza after they moved out? That said, I doubt it'll be Houston.
- technofiend 9y agoI too doubt it'll be Houston. Downtown has slowly been shifting to residential high rises because of the tax incentives our previous mayor put in place for them. But yes there's still plenty of real-estate downtown, although I don't know the status of Shell One and Two specifically.
- vitus 9y agoOff the top of my head, two main points for why Austin is better-suited than Houston for a tech HQ: - UT (@Austin) means a large pool of fresh grads from a top-10 CS program they can recruit. - Existing presence of both Amazon itself and other tech companies (Google, FB, MS, etc) means they don't have to relocate workers, and it's a lot easier to convince SDEs from other companies to jump ship.
- JPKab 9y agoGay employees can't marry. That's all you need to say no.
- gtCameron 9y agoGay marriage has been legal in all 50 states for 2 years now
- vitus 9y agoEven if that were true, why would that be relevant for deciding between two cities in the same state?
- JPKab 9y agoI'm an idiot cuz I forgot about the SC decision. However, I meant it's relevant between Austin/Dallas and other cities nationally.
- eip 9y ago>Houston was eliminated as not having enough white collar workers. That fact that it is now under 10ft of water probably had nothing to do with it.