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>> Can any city provide a net increase in 5,000 housing units? Well, that’s a speculative question, but one thing we can do is ask if any city did produce 5,000

by jlos 9y ago

>> Can any city provide a net increase in 5,000 housing units? Well, that’s a speculative question, but one thing we can do is ask if any city did produce 5,000 extra housing units beyond household formation over the last 5 years Calgary (Alberta, Canada, not Texas) added triple that in 2014[1]. Since the province's economy is commodity driven the major city centers are accustomed to boom and bust cycles and are used to adding housing quickly. Also of note, Calgary has rated quite high based on a number of other metrics given by Amazon[2] (though, to be fair its really hard to trust all bias is left behind in these analyses) [1] http://calgaryherald.com/life/homes/new-homes/calgarys-housing-market-experienced-great-growth-in-2014 http://calgaryherald.com/life/homes/new-homes/calgarys-housi... [2] http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/amazon-headquarters-calgary-tops-data-crunchers-analysis-jens-von-bergmann-1.4298204 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/amazon-headquarters-ca...

thinkling 9y ago
The #1 problem with the article is that it restricts the analysis to the U.S.. With the current political climate around immigration, Amazon can't easily bring engineering talent from around the world to its headquarters. A site outside the US could solve that. The RFP said "North America".
- sheepmullet 9y ago
  > With the current political climate around immigration, Amazon can't easily bring engineering talent from around the world to its headquarters. A crack down on H1B abuse will free up tens of thousands of spots for companies like Amazon to bring in real talent. You have companies like Tata getting 5x as many H1B visas as Amazon. And yet they pay their H1B staff on average ~$50k/year less than Amazon.
  - cbsmith 9y ago
    > A crack down on H1B abuse will free up tens of thousands of spots for companies like Amazon to bring in real talent. Yes, and unicorns would be nice, but let's stick to things that are actually likely to happen.
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yahna 9y ago
It's also way cheaper to hire software devs, and they can bring in immigrants easily. If they put it in Calgary I'd consider moving. That salary hit is massive though.
cbsmith 9y ago
Yeah, in general, the article's restriction to US cities is pretty flawed.

by jlos 9y ago

thinkling 9y ago

The #1 problem with the article is that it restricts the analysis to the U.S.. With the current political climate around immigration, Amazon can't easily bring engineering talent from around the world to its headquarters. A site outside the US could solve that. The RFP said "North America".

sheepmullet 9y ago
> With the current political climate around immigration, Amazon can't easily bring engineering talent from around the world to its headquarters. A crack down on H1B abuse will free up tens of thousands of spots for companies like Amazon to bring in real talent. You have companies like Tata getting 5x as many H1B visas as Amazon. And yet they pay their H1B staff on average ~$50k/year less than Amazon.
- cbsmith 9y ago
  > A crack down on H1B abuse will free up tens of thousands of spots for companies like Amazon to bring in real talent. Yes, and unicorns would be nice, but let's stick to things that are actually likely to happen.

deleted 9y ago

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yahna 9y ago

It's also way cheaper to hire software devs, and they can bring in immigrants easily. If they put it in Calgary I'd consider moving. That salary hit is massive though.

cbsmith 9y ago

Yeah, in general, the article's restriction to US cities is pretty flawed.