The City That Will Be Building and Rebuilding Forever; Houston’s Long Amazon Odds; The Latest Poke Place

Photo of One Allen Center: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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  • That Austin and Atlanta are high on the list makes perfectly good sense. They rightly should be (although Austin’s Achilles’ heel is its airport). That Philly effectively ties them for the top three spots, that is a little odd. That Rochester, NY is #4, pulled up the ranks by high scores in “Cost”, “Transportation”, and “Geography”…yeah, that breaks the list and renders it clickbait in my eyes. The Rochester MSA has barely more than one million people living there and its workforce is about half that; if Amazon located there, it would be a company town through and through. Quality of life: it contends with lake effect snow, end of discussion. Its airport is nobody’s hub and never will be, and doesn’t even offer direct flights to Seattle. The city does not have much in the way of mass transit, which is okay because it does not have a big traffic problem because its economy is perpetually in the doldrums.
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    That Houston isn’t high on the list doesn’t surprise me, but that New York City is on the top ten list at all doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. That DFW isn’t on the top ten list also makes no sense whatsoever. The list is garbage.
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    If Austin wants to be a top contender then it either needs to come together with SA and lay out plans for a major new airport somewhere near San Marcos — or, between them, there either needs to be some kind of an understanding about linking their existing airports by some kind of very-rapid express transit (Hyperloop?) and expanding them jointly. That could be problematic, as SA has already publicly withdrawn itself as a contender, but it is the sort of project that would benefit both cities both for corporate relocation and for tourism.

  • Re: Amazon

    As I said before, Houston has no chance of becoming Amazon’s new HQ city AND that Austin would be a logical choice (although I also think Charlotte, NC would also be a high likelihood). Just because you want something bad shouldn’t cloud your head. Houston just doesn’t fit Amazon other than a distribution center …. get over it and move on.

  • Frank Liu’s Post Office Cite would be the ideal location. Transit adjacent, downtown, bada bing

  • I have a question regarding the apartments in Kingwood. There is a statement in the letter from the Apartments indicating that there is a clear difference between mold and mildew. I understand it as they are both one in the same when it comes to interior livable spaces. If it smells and or is visible you have a problem irregardless of the classification of mold or mildew.
    Is this not correct? Is there a legal distinction per Texas Law? Can someone please chime in. Thanks.

  • @Amazon: We need to finish 290 and three upcoming 610 projects prior for them to move in. (Will 290 ever be complete!?)

  • Not to mention Houston appears to be negotiating at the real-estate-developer level rather than at the civic level. That’s a non-starter right there since Amazon really really wants to be integrated into the fabric of the city (that is, whichever city gets the HQ2).