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I think you need to be careful just calling Omaha out. Omaha is not as liberal as SF, but your comment implies it is homophobic/racist/sexist breeding ground.

I think you need to be careful just calling Omaha out. Omaha is not as liberal as SF, but your comment implies it is homophobic/racist/sexist breeding ground. I have not found that to be the case.

Balgair 9y ago
> (largely, though exceptions very much exist)
- bigredhdl 9y ago
  Yes, but you specifically called out Omaha, implying it is not the exception.
adjkant 9y ago
Not to say it is correct, but stereotypes alone could work against the Midwest pulling at tech from the coasts. I think Chicago would be a great fit for Amazon HQ2 but I'm confident that Amazon doesn't view it as liberal enough, and that's Chicago, the biggest city in the Midwest. Of course, there are other factors in HQ2, I'm not proclaiming it is the only or even primary. I do think it's a big enough one to disqualify it though. If Amazon does choose Chicago, I think it could really cause a bigger shift in the industry.
- bigredhdl 9y ago
  Hmmm, this is an interesting thought experiment. Should high tech companies choose the most liberal places to expand to make potential employees comfortable, but with the consequence of further polarizing the nation? Or go the other route and invest in less liberal places to reap their other benefits and maybe nudge them to a little more liberal environment.
- ghaff 9y ago
  >I think Chicago would be a great fit for Amazon HQ2 but I'm confident that Amazon doesn't view it as liberal enough It will be interesting to see how this plays out and I expect that financial incentives will play no small role. That said, it will be interesting to see if Amazon picks someplace that seems a logical fit for "tech" in a West Coast-style vein or does more of a if-you-build-it-they-will-come sort of thing. Even if it's perceived as somewhere typical SV techies wouldn't want to live today.
  - adjkant 9y ago
    I see two likely cases: 1. It's about financial incentives mostly, they have a few cities in mind and they are going to pick the best one of those options. 2. They already picked their city and they are hoping the competition gets them a better tax deal via competitive incentives. I live in Boston right now and there is a lot of talk right now about #2. I sure as hell hope they don't come here and am sad to see that while our major originally said they wouldn't play the incentives game, they made a very snazzy proposal for them. Boston housing is getting near NYC and SF - this would destroy minority communities and flood the city. One of the reasons I am hoping for Chicago is that it is a city that could use the revitalization and there is space to make the effect it would have on minority communities minimal, though frankly this will likely have big negatives no matter where it goes. But I suspect that it never had a chance.
    - ghaff 9y ago
      They're already building for about 5K workers in the Seaport (Boston) with basically no parking for them as I understand it. Boston metro housing is constrained and traffic coming in, even off-peak, has gotten sufficiently worse that I come in less than I used to. And when I do come in via commuter rail I see that it often is standing room only even from fairly far-out stations.

I think you need to be careful just calling Omaha out. Omaha is not as liberal as SF, but your comment implies it is homophobic/racist/sexist breeding ground. I have not found that to be the case.

Balgair 9y ago

> (largely, though exceptions very much exist)

bigredhdl 9y ago
Yes, but you specifically called out Omaha, implying it is not the exception.

adjkant 9y ago

Not to say it is correct, but stereotypes alone could work against the Midwest pulling at tech from the coasts. I think Chicago would be a great fit for Amazon HQ2 but I'm confident that Amazon doesn't view it as liberal enough, and that's Chicago, the biggest city in the Midwest. Of course, there are other factors in HQ2, I'm not proclaiming it is the only or even primary. I do think it's a big enough one to disqualify it though. If Amazon does choose Chicago, I think it could really cause a bigger shift in the industry.

bigredhdl 9y ago
Hmmm, this is an interesting thought experiment. Should high tech companies choose the most liberal places to expand to make potential employees comfortable, but with the consequence of further polarizing the nation? Or go the other route and invest in less liberal places to reap their other benefits and maybe nudge them to a little more liberal environment.
ghaff 9y ago
>I think Chicago would be a great fit for Amazon HQ2 but I'm confident that Amazon doesn't view it as liberal enough It will be interesting to see how this plays out and I expect that financial incentives will play no small role. That said, it will be interesting to see if Amazon picks someplace that seems a logical fit for "tech" in a West Coast-style vein or does more of a if-you-build-it-they-will-come sort of thing. Even if it's perceived as somewhere typical SV techies wouldn't want to live today.
- adjkant 9y ago
  I see two likely cases: 1. It's about financial incentives mostly, they have a few cities in mind and they are going to pick the best one of those options. 2. They already picked their city and they are hoping the competition gets them a better tax deal via competitive incentives. I live in Boston right now and there is a lot of talk right now about #2. I sure as hell hope they don't come here and am sad to see that while our major originally said they wouldn't play the incentives game, they made a very snazzy proposal for them. Boston housing is getting near NYC and SF - this would destroy minority communities and flood the city. One of the reasons I am hoping for Chicago is that it is a city that could use the revitalization and there is space to make the effect it would have on minority communities minimal, though frankly this will likely have big negatives no matter where it goes. But I suspect that it never had a chance.
  - ghaff 9y ago
    They're already building for about 5K workers in the Seaport (Boston) with basically no parking for them as I understand it. Boston metro housing is constrained and traffic coming in, even off-peak, has gotten sufficiently worse that I come in less than I used to. And when I do come in via commuter rail I see that it often is standing room only even from fairly far-out stations.