Atlanta has Georgia Tech but would need to build public transport, picking Baltimore would let them be near the Acela corridor. Baltimore might be a safe bet me

Atlanta has Georgia Tech but would need to build public transport, picking Baltimore would let them be near the Acela corridor. Baltimore might be a safe bet methinks. Austin, Denver, Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, would almost be shoe-ins if they weren't in the middle or on the west coast. All have some public transport, and good universities. It would be quite a coup if a smaller more "standalone" city got it like Charlotte, Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Orlando, San Antonio, Minneapolis, or Detroit. Not sure which of these could build public transport fast enough. I would agree they probably don't want to be near extreme weather, but I don't think they would necessarily discount a city because of snow. Not having good universities could be a deal breaker. Dallas is the definition of sprawl, sorry Dallas.