Because There's No "Public Comment" Section on @Amazon's RFP Page ...

I guess I'll just blog mine. From said page:

Amazon HQ2 will be Amazon’s second headquarters in North America. We expect to invest over $5 billion in construction and grow this second headquarters to include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs – it will be a full equal to our current campus in Seattle. In addition to Amazon’s direct hiring and investment, construction and ongoing operation of Amazon HQ2 is expected to create tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the surrounding community.

LEVY COUNTY, FLORIDA, PLZ 

Hear me out.

Levy County is convenient to a university city (Gainesville) full of prospective "you need a degree for this job" hires, as well as the college dropouts who actually get things done while the people with degrees wave their degrees around and yell about how qualified they are. It's also within a few hours of Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Miami. There are a range of living prices/lifestyles within commuting distance of, say, Bronson.

The area is economically depressed by comparison to much of the country (the turpentine industry died out and the nuclear power plants got canceled). That means cheap land and competitive bidding by contractors for a campus, as well as lots of people looking for the kind of work that doesn't require suit and tie (you're going to need janitors, cafeteria employees, security, etc.).

Aside from the opportunity to work at Amazon, what would attract the people you're looking for? To start with, how about no income tax and pretty low property taxes? Plus being within a few hours of the best schools and the best vacation spots in the country (or out -- quick flights to the Bahamas)? If people will live in a hell-hole like California for the opportunity to work for companies like Google, presumably they'll be willing to live in a nice place to work for Amazon.

Instead of trying to fit into an already heavily populated area, Amazon should do its own thing. Like the man said, build it (YOUR way) and they will come.

This is something of an admission against interest in that I'd love to buy some property and build a house out in Levy County before it gets discovered and becomes expensive. Maybe you'll hire me as a location scout or something so I can afford to do that.