Tags: Amazon »»»» High Technology
After several months of looking for "HQ2", it's new headquarters for the USA, Amazon has chosen two locations - Queens NY and Arlington VA. Each location will house about 25,000 employees and there are hopes of rehabilitating or diversifying the economies of each area. But, while this choice is good for those two locations, it represents a missed opportunity. Plenty of locations in other parts of the country could use the sort of economic injection Amazon HQ2 represents, at a lower cost to Amazon for office space.
The two locations offer different possibilities for Amazon. In Arlington, it gives Amazon easier access to the federal government. In Queens, there are plenty of media companies, financial companies, and more.
It's likely that Amazon's strategic goals match those two locations.
As I noted a few days ago, at a Congressman Ro Khanna town-hall event just before the 2018 election he spoke about the value of spreading high-tech companies across the USA. Currently the high-tech industry is concentrated in a few locations, one of which is Silicon Valley. Khanna's district is in Silicon Valley.
Rep. Khanna suggested that Universities across the country could be centers of innovation. Silicon Valley's prominence came because of its proximity to several Universities such as Stanford Univ.
Amazon could have located an HQ operation near a University somewhere in the Midwest. It's not like the large cities on the coasts are the only places where high-tech expertise is located.
The New York City area already has plenty of economic activity. What's wrong with improving economic conditions in the middle portion of the USA?
