50,000 Amazonians in KC? (Kansas City, Independence, Lee's Summit: 2014, car registration, income)

[zach_33]

Yes, not an unexpected result. Where's the smart money leading now? Denver? DC? Boston? I would expect something east of the MS but who knows...

[James Bond 007]

Originally Posted by kcmo

KC deserved to be there right along with Nashville, Columbus, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Raleigh etc. KC dropped the ball and I'm pretty sure I know why. Did you see all the sites proposed? I think all but one were in suburban or even exurban locations. No transit, no walkablity, way out in the deep red suburbs. So many people there still just don't get it including those that are trying to bring new companies to the area. Even when Amazon basically told people what they wanted, KC didn't listen. They actually thought Amazon would love to be out by the speedway or out on K-10 or clear down in the blue hawk thing or in the rural part of Independence or Lee's Summit. Most of KC's proposal probably totally wasted their time while they didn't really put together several very well thought out urban locations. WTF.

Many of the sites proposed in the cities that made the final 20 didn't have urban settings either, and yet those cities made the final cut anyway. So obviously that wasn't the reason. Plus, we don't know that KC didn't also include downtown sites, so there may have been urban sites in our proposal anyway.

[Canamlian]

Originally Posted by zach_33

Yes, not an unexpected result. Where's the smart money leading now? Denver? DC? Boston? I would expect something east of the MS but who knows...

odds from an offshore bookie

[GraniteStater]

This would have likely disqualified KC right off the bat if they had proposed a location for Amazon in Johnson County or an outlying area that wasn't in Kansas City, MO:

LGBT rights: Olathe, Overland Park Kansas rank low, Human Rights Campaign finds | The Kansas City Star

[Canamlian]

Originally Posted by Canamlian

odds from an offshore bookie

Odds are quite different from Bovada

Nashville, Tennessee +800
Washington, D.C. +1000
Atlanta, Georgia +1200
Austin, Texas +1400
Dallas, Texas +1400
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania +1400
Indianapolis, Indiana +1500
Los Angeles, California +1500
Montgomery County, Maryland +1500
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania +1500
Chicago, Illinois +1600
Denver, Colorado +1600
Newark, New Jersey +1800
New York City, New York +1800
Northern Virginia, Virginia +1800
Raleigh, North Carolina +1800
Toronto, Ontario +1800
Boston, Massachusetts +2000
Columbus, Ohio +2000
Miami, Florida +2000

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by James Bond 007

Many of the sites proposed in the cities that made the final 20 didn't have urban settings either, and yet those cities made the final cut anyway. So obviously that wasn't the reason. Plus, we don't know that KC didn't also include downtown sites, so there may have been urban sites in our proposal anyway.

I'm just saying that KC should have went all out with urban sites. I'm telling you that Amazon is not going to be even remotely interested in suburban Kansas (or Missouri for that matter). I know people in KC may think otherwise, but there is nothing about suburban KC that would interest a company like Amazon. Suburban KC has zero transit, it's very spread out, you would be in a much more conservative political environment and suburban KC is just something that would not appeal to younger people from the coastal areas. People come to this forum all the time looking for suburban areas of KC that have transit, are diverse etc and there just isn't much, if anything in KC like that.

That's not to say all suburbs wouldn't work. Much of suburban DC is more dense, walkable, diverse and better serviced by transit than nearly all of KCMO. I work in suburban Maryland just outside of DC. Downtown Silver Spring for example is about 4 times the size of the plaza in KC and is serviced by metro rail, metro bus, marc rail, commuter buses and soon a light rail line. Many other suburban aras of DC are similar such as Bethesda, Tysons Corner, Pentagon City, Rosyln etc. Even the true suburban sites pitched in the DC area such as near Dulles is on the Silver Metro line and near a major international airport. Another site in Montgomery county that is more suburban is on the Metro Red Line.

Raleigh, Nashville and Columbus probably also pitched suburban locations along with urban locations. But those cities are further along in luring tech companies. Also, they have a much larger urban university presence. That is something that really hurts KC too. UMKC is just not going to get it done. KU is too far and not all that prestigious anyway and people that list MU, Kstate etc as KC schools are just clueless. KC lacks a major urban university and that is a major problem with KC that twill continue to haunt it.

Nashville is booming. That city actually wants to go to the next level and grow while KC is more of a status quo city and is residents are more interested in slowing what little growth that does happen there. Nashville actually has a plan to build regional transit system. Nashville has decided it wants go to the next tier of cities and Amazon would probably enjoy helping them do that. Columbus and Raleigh have major urban universities, are highly educated and ripe for becoming a higher tier city as well.

KC doesn't have that. KC lacks an urban university. That hurts. So the city needed to really put together some incredible urban sites to make up for it. I know the river market was proposed, but not sure if anything else. I'm pretty sure that most of KC's proposed sites were way out in KC's far flung outer suburbs with no transit and far from KCI which are not going to appeal to a Seattle based company.

Before anybody goes off on me for putting down KC. I'm not putting down KC. I'm simply saying that the mentality there is still decades behind much of the rest of the country. To even propose a site like Blue Hawk in Overland Park to Amazon proves that. Like Amazon wants to be on 159th and Metcalf in an office park that is 45 miles form the city by car only and even further from the airport in a deep deep red state. Yea right.

KC should have pitched the River Front, East Crossroads, East Loop, Crown Center, Hospital Hill, Midtown and an area east of the Plaza near UMKC and the Stowers. Anything outside those areas would have been a total waste of time.

[James Bond 007]

I'm just saying that KC should have went all out with urban sites.

You don't know that they didn't! We only heard about a few sites that they pitched, but everybody said the complete list was confidential, so there were other sites that were pitched that we didn't hear about. For all we know they pitched a lot of sites downtown or around Crown Center, etc. but we never heard about them.

KC should have pitched the River Front, East Crossroads, East Loop, Crown Center, Hospital Hill, Midtown and an area east of the Plaza near UMKC and the Stowers.

Again, you don't know that they didn't.

[James Bond 007]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Raleigh, Nashville and Columbus probably also pitched suburban locations along with urban locations. But those cities are further along in luring tech companies. Also, they have a much larger urban university presence. That is something that really hurts KC too. UMKC is just not going to get it done. KU is too far and not all that prestigious anyway and people that list MU, Kstate etc as KC schools are just clueless. KC lacks a major urban university and that is a major problem with KC that twill continue to haunt it.

This I somewhat agree with ... however, I suspect Indianapolis made the list because of the University of Indiana - which is some distance to the south in Bloomington - and Perdue University, the main campus of which is well to the northwest in West Lafeyette. I suspect KU and K-state aren't "too far away" but they likely aren't prestigious enough, or don't have high-enough rated computer/engineering schools. Not much we can do about that.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by James Bond 007

You don't know that they didn't! We only heard about a few sites that they pitched, but everybody said the complete list was confidential, so there were other sites that were pitched that we didn't hear about. For all we know they pitched a lot of sites downtown or around Crown Center, etc. but we never heard about them.


Again, you don't know that they didn't.

True and True. I don't know. From what I know, which I can't confirm, the sites pitched were the Riverfront, the blue valley in eastern Independence, Lee's Summit (probably near the summit tech campus), Oxford on the Blue in South KC near the Cerner project and this is just a guess, but I'm thinking the Kansas side would have pitched sites near the speedway, somewhere along K10/Renner, bluehawk in south OP. They may have come up with a better location in a more built up area near 435, but you would still lack transit etc.

[kcbluesprings]

This might sound like a put down, but I just don't believe that Kansas City ever had a ghost of a chance of landing this. Look at some of the cities that Amazon also skipped over... (I'll admit that I don't know if they submitted proposals) Charlotte, Jacksonville, Tampa-St. Pet., Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco area, Sacramento, Portland, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Houston, San Antonio. All of these cities I believe are cities that Amazon would have picked over KC. And as for some of the other cities that could have gone either way.... St Louis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville, Norfolk-Va Beach, who knows?? But looking at the map on this link I provided, https://www.geekwire.com/2018/amazon...conomic-prize/ clearly Amazon is looking further east, and on the east coast. Again, I think we need to quick putting ourselves down and look ahead. I think Kansas City has made numerous strides for the better, and if we continue down that path, other opportunities will present themselves. Amazon, as big as it is, is just one company. I'm sure we can land other company expansions or start-ups.

edit: reading the link, a total of 238 cities submitted proposals. Odds were never in our favor.