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NSIAP: Amazon HQ2, more jobs and traffic jams

Grippe

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GabrielsHorn

GabrielsHorn 2183

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Posted (edited)
15 hours ago, troph said:

 

The Washington Post reported Friday that Amazon has decided to limit its criteria for choosing a second headquarters to states that have laws in place to protect gay and transgender people.

 

I haven't seen the Washington Post report that this website is citing based on preliminary Google or twitter search, only previous stories likes these (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-unspoken-factor-in-amazons-search-for-a-new-home-jeff-bezoss-support-for-gay-rights/2018/04/20/9cfa8c66-31e6-11e8-8bdd-cdb33a5eef83_story.html?utm_term=.0dedf82ce9dc)

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troph

troph 24781

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8 hours ago, burntorangebongos said:

So Texas is out?

Couldn’t find the original source and no other news outlet confirming.  So not yet, but I think there is a damn good chance the answer is no based on the threat of bs discrim.  Austin and Dallas have enough inherent challenges to win it so I won’t be surprised to see it go elsewhere.

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NameAlreadyInUse

NameAlreadyInUse 5111

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I work from home. It’s highly likely the next place I work will have my happy ass working from home. I also work in tech. Amazon coming to town raises my salary. I’m in. 

And to those of you saying Austin traffic doesn’t suck, I defy you to drive from Ben White to 183 on I-35 anytime between 7 AM and midnight any day of the week and stay at or above the speed limit the whole way. I defy you to make it the whole way without coming to a complete stop at least once. Even before all the lanes got added to the Katy freeway and those extra toll roads got added, Houston at least had some times of every day where you could move down the freeway at highway speeds. That shit doesn’t exist in Austin. 

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Dahobbs

Dahobbs 17522

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5 hours ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

I work from home. It’s highly likely the next place I work will have my happy ass working from home. I also work in tech. Amazon coming to town raises my salary. I’m in. 

And to those of you saying Austin traffic doesn’t suck, I defy you to drive from Ben White to 183 on I-35 anytime between 7 AM and midnight any day of the week and stay at or above the speed limit the whole way. I defy you to make it the whole way without coming to a complete stop at least once. Even before all the lanes got added to the Katy freeway and those extra toll roads got added, Houston at least had some times of every day where you could move down the freeway at highway speeds. That shit doesn’t exist in Austin. 

Look, thats like complaining about 610 by the Galleria or 45 by downtown houston. Both of those are in a constant state of stoppage, i dont care the day or time. No shit the interstate that is right up against downtown Austin sucks. Ive driven both cities extensibly, Austin is not worse than Houston. And everytime I drive in either city reinforces that belief. 

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CooterBrown

CooterBrown 18002

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And to those of you saying Austin traffic doesn’t suck, I defy you to drive from Ben White to 183 on I-35 anytime between 7 AM and midnight any day of the week and stay at or above the speed limit the whole way.


Why? If you live in town, there’s no reason to ever get on I35. I have a hard time giving a shit if the drive to the suburbs is shitty. Move to civilization.
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Ghost of LL

Ghost of LL 15531

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6 hours ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

I work from home. It’s highly likely the next place I work will have my happy ass working from home. I also work in tech. Amazon coming to town raises my salary. I’m in. 

And to those of you saying Austin traffic doesn’t suck, I defy you to drive from Ben White to 183 on I-35 anytime between 7 AM and midnight any day of the week and stay at or above the speed limit the whole way. I defy you to make it the whole way without coming to a complete stop at least once. Even before all the lanes got added to the Katy freeway and those extra toll roads got added, Houston at least had some times of every day where you could move down the freeway at highway speeds. That shit doesn’t exist in Austin. 

And here we have perfectly articulated the fundamental "problem" with Austin traffic.  The problem with Austin traffic isn't a matter of congestion and engineering; it's a problem of perception and self-entitlement.  People in Austin honestly think that if they can't "stay at or above the speed limit" during the day on the most congested freeway in the city, then that's indicative of traffic sucking.

They take no responsibility to find alternate routes, or to vary their schedules.  Noooooo--at some point in the distant past the Interregional flowed smoothly from Riverside to 19th Street, and the fact that it doesn't today is an indication that Austin has the worst traffic in the history of ever.

This fucking town and its parochialism needs to stop.  I would tell you to stop bitching and explore alternate routes, but I shouldn't because then you might find some of mine.  But really--Austin giving up its narcissism is so unlikely that I shouldn't even worry.

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Macanudo

Macanudo 12974

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7 hours ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

I work from home. It’s highly likely the next place I work will have my happy ass working from home. I also work in tech. Amazon coming to town raises my salary. I’m in. 

And to those of you saying Austin traffic doesn’t suck, I defy you to drive from Ben White to 183 on I-35 anytime between 7 AM and midnight any day of the week and stay at or above the speed limit the whole way. I defy you to make it the whole way without coming to a complete stop at least once. Even before all the lanes got added to the Katy freeway and those extra toll roads got added, Houston at least had some times of every day where you could move down the freeway at highway speeds. That shit doesn’t exist in Austin. 

Dude,

I was in the Metroplex last Saturday.  On I-20 from 360 to I-45 (20 miles) at 7:30 in the evening, there were wrecks galore, at least three slow downs under 20 MPH and another complete stoppage.  

On Friday, in Houston, I was trying to get from 59/610 (Galleria area) at 1:00 pm.  59 came to a complete stop before the intersection with I45/288.  I ended up getting off at the Louisiana exit and driving through downtown.   Major accident had almost shut all three freeways down.

Austin is not some unique and delicate flower.

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LebongJames

LebongJames 1791

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Austin traffic does not compare to other major cities. Sure it does have its problems but I can regularly take I35 from South Austin to Round Rock to see clients without major delays. It slows down but it ain’t that bad.

Austin has an identity crisis. All the people that moved here before 2000 bitch because of the growth and all of the new people flocking in bitch because they so badly want Austin to be LA/San Francisco or NY.

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NameAlreadyInUse

NameAlreadyInUse 5111

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Didn’t mean to offend so many sensibilities with my post. Y’all win, Austin traffic is fucking awesome. We have it all figured out! Yay us!

Austin is the only city I’ve ever been stuck in standstill traffic not caused by a wreck or construction at 11 pm on a Saturday night or 3 pm on a Sunday afternoon. Granted, the only place I’ve lived with traffic besides Austin is Houston, and Houston’s traffic was absolutely terrible during rush hour, but I’ve never seen consistently stopped traffic during off peak times anywhere like here. If that’s ok with y’all good on you, but I’d like us to aspire to something better than that. 

I know I live a mile from I-35 and still take mopac when I need to go north. Every single time I decide to give 35 another chance I’m going to be driving 0 mph at some point before I get where I’m going, and I never decide to do that on a weekday. 

But I’ll take more traffic any day for more large tech companies coming to Austin. It’s good for my bottom line. 

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Dahobbs

Dahobbs 17522

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9 minutes ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

Didn’t mean to offend so many sensibilities with my post. Y’all win, Austin traffic is fucking awesome. We have it all figured out! Yay us!

Austin is the only city I’ve ever been stuck in standstill traffic not caused by a wreck or construction at 11 pm on a Saturday night or 3 pm on a Sunday afternoon. Granted, the only place I’ve lived with traffic besides Austin is Houston, and Houston’s traffic was absolutely terrible during rush hour, but I’ve never seen consistently stopped traffic during off peak times anywhere like here. If that’s ok with y’all good on you, but I’d like us to aspire to something better than that. 

I know I live a mile from I-35 and still take mopac when I need to go north. Every single time I decide to give 35 another chance I’m going to be driving 0 mph at some point before I get where I’m going, and I never decide to do that on a weekday. 

But I’ll take more traffic any day for more large tech companies coming to Austin. It’s good for my bottom line. 

Every city has traffic problems that its citizens should aspire to fix. I have no problem with you complaining about traffic. It's just hilarious to me how people seem to think Austin's is somehow worse than other large cities. 11 PM on Saturday night near downtown is going to suck in Austin. That's the nature of having the city's night life (and now a growing perm population) concentrated in one area. Don't go to that area if you're worried about traffic. It is the same reason you should avoid campus on football Saturdays. 

Anyway, I think DC has HQ2 on lock at this point. But I'm sure Amazon will expand its presence in Austin too, even if it isn't HQ2.  

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Ghost of LL

Ghost of LL 15531

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27 minutes ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

Didn’t mean to offend so many sensibilities with my post. Y’all win, Austin traffic is fucking awesome. We have it all figured out! Yay us!

Because that's exactly what I said.

Austin has traffic.  I don't think anybody's denying that. 

But there are two characteristics about Austin's traffic that should be noted: (1) it's predictable (e.g., I-35 is always going to suck), and (2) outside of I-35, it's very manageable.  For example--I got on Mopac this morning at 7:50, and was able to cruise in from 360 to Downtown at 45-50 MPH.  That's pretty goddamned good.  And when I go home tonight around 7:30, I'll be able to cruise home around 65 MPH--that's damned good.  And if there's a wreck on Mopac, I have three ways to get around it to go home.

Given those characteristics, anybody who thinks Austin has uniquely bad traffic either doesn't travel much or doesn't do anything to mitigate his/her own traffic experience (or both).  And sorry, but such people don't have much currency with me.

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Dahobbs

Dahobbs 17522

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3 minutes ago, Ghost of LL said:

Because that's exactly what I said.

Austin has traffic.  I don't think anybody's denying that. 

But there are two characteristics about Austin's traffic that should be noted: (1) it's predictable (e.g., I-35 is always going to suck), and (2) outside of I-35, it's very manageable.  For example--I got on Mopac this morning at 7:50, and was able to cruise in from 360 to Downtown at 45-50 MPH.  That's pretty goddamned good.  And when I go home tonight around 7:30, I'll be able to cruise home around 65 MPH--that's damned good.  And if there's a wreck on Mopac, I have three ways to get around it to go home.

Given those characteristics, anybody who thinks Austin has uniquely bad traffic either doesn't travel much or doesn't do anything to mitigate his/her own traffic experience (or both).  And sorry, but such people don't have much currency with me.

This. Try going 45-50 MPH on any highway in Houston from 6:30 am to 9:00 am for longer than a few seconds. Ain't happening.  

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VolenteHawk

VolenteHawk 495

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Austin's traffic is legitimately worse than cities of similar population due to the lack of freeways/lanes.  If I need to get downtown from 183/Mopac, the fact that my default would be something like Burnet -> 45th -> Lamar instead of the two N/S thoroughfares doesn't really have an equivalent in places like Indianapolis, San Jose, Cincinnati, Kansas City, etc.

Houston is a different beast just due to population.

 

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Dahobbs

Dahobbs 17522

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7 minutes ago, VolenteHawk said:

Austin's traffic is legitimately worse than cities of similar population due to the lack of freeways/lanes.  If I need to get downtown from 183/Mopac, the fact that my default would be something like Burnet -> 45th -> Lamar instead of the two N/S thoroughfares doesn't really have an equivalent in places like Indianapolis, San Jose, Cincinnati, Kansas City, etc.

Houston is a different beast just due to population.

 

Why wouldn't you take Mopac? You certainly can take Lamar, but I don't see why that is your default. I feel confident in saying that 90% of the time Mopac will be significantly faster. 

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45880

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39 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

Why wouldn't you take Mopac? You certainly can take Lamar, but I don't see why that is your default. I feel confident in saying that 90% of the time Mopac will be significantly faster. 

You're most likely correct for that particular alternate route, because Lamar tends to suck ass.  But, I can get from 2222 to the river faster during rush hour by avoiding MoPac in almost all instances.  Balcones -> Exposition -> 9th is rarely a problem.  MoPac often is.  Plus, it's just far more pleasant.

Honestly, I'll take predictable and slightly slower over the crapshoot that is MoPac any time.

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GSU&UT

GSU&UT 1798

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1 hour ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

Oh I agree.  Austin's traffic is shit.  However, I'm heading to Atlanta in an hour, where I will be faced with the worst traffic I've ever dealt with outside of Manhattan.  So yeah, it could be worse.

Having lived in Austin for 6 years and Atlanta for the past couple, Austin is still pretty fucking horrible and is comparable.

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Grippe

Grippe 310

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Interesting article from the Washington Post (owned by Bezos) that spends a great deal of time describing why the facade of the DC area isn't really so good for either AMZ or the people in the area.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/how-can-the-dc-region-absorb-amazon-hq2-if-it-cant-cope-now-with-gridlock-and-housing-costs/2018/05/12/a175afb0-4991-11e8-8b5a-3b1697adcc2a_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f6c3c5686c61

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bolverk

bolverk 29652

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I started taking the MetroRapid buses about 6 months ago and fucking love it. No more worries about traffic. I can relax and surf Shirley; I'm walking a little more (exercise, yo!); and, occasionally, I get a chance to spot a particularly attractive coed. Of course, I work downtown so that helps a lot.

Mass transit, whatever the form, is going to have to be a major part of the solution. Sure, we can build more roads, but we can't build them fast enough. And, with more limited funding today (relative to the past), we can't build as many as we used to.

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hayden_horn

hayden_horn 11362

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1 minute ago, bolverk said:

I started taking the MetroRapid buses about 6 months ago and fucking love it. No more worries about traffic. I can relax and surf Shirley; I'm walking a little more (exercise, yo!); and, occasionally, I get a chance to spot a particularly attractive coed. Of course, I work downtown so that helps a lot.

Mass transit, whatever the form, is going to have to be a major part of the solution. Sure, we can build more roads, but we can't build them fast enough. And, with more limited funding today (relative to the past), we can't build as many as we used to.

i know you're serious, but don't call us shirley

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Aqua Buddha

Aqua Buddha 14582

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4 hours ago, bolverk said:

I started taking the MetroRapid buses about 6 months ago and fucking love it. No more worries about traffic. I can relax and surf Shirley; I'm walking a little more (exercise, yo!); and, occasionally, I get a chance to spot a particularly attractive coed. Of course, I work downtown so that helps a lot.

Mass transit, whatever the form, is going to have to be a major part of the solution. Sure, we can build more roads, but we can't build them fast enough. And, with more limited funding today (relative to the past), we can't build as many as we used to.

There's a greater than zero chance we'll end up in one of the big Northeastern cities in the next few years and to be honest with you, I'm looking forward to it for this reason alone.  I wouldn't have to drive anymore and I could read the news, fuck around on my phone, listen to podcasts and walk more.

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irishtexan

irishtexan 11512

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I think traffic is worse-than-average here from 7:30 - 9:30am and from 4pm - 7pm. But other than that I have relatively no problems getting around. I live close to my work for a reason. I travel east/west and get through my 8 mile commute in roughly 15 minutes. I live south at William Cannon and West Gate and get to my 8:30pm bowling league at dart bowl in Less than 20 minutes. Rarely have to slow down on MoPac. It’s basically not that bad outside of rush hour

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Aqua Buddha

Aqua Buddha 14582

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Seattle passed that "head tax" last night.  ("Head tax."  Heh heh.....)

Anyway, that might be the nail in the coffin up there.  Even Starbucks weighed into the fray and that's odd for them.  AMZN says this is a second headquarters and not a new one but I don't think anyone really believes that.

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clapclapclap

clapclapclap 9000

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19 hours ago, bolverk said:

I started taking the MetroRapid buses about 6 months ago and fucking love it. No more worries about traffic. I can relax and surf Shirley; I'm walking a little more (exercise, yo!); and, occasionally, I get a chance to spot a particularly attractive coed. Of course, I work downtown so that helps a lot.

14 hours ago, Aqua Buddha said:

There's a greater than zero chance we'll end up in one of the big Northeastern cities in the next few years and to be honest with you, I'm looking forward to it for this reason alone.  I wouldn't have to drive anymore and I could read the news, fuck around on my phone, listen to podcasts and walk more.

 

So much to look forward to!

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-metro-homeless-20180406-htmlstory.html

Quote

Passengers who encounter chronic addiction, illness and misery say they feel they can do little to help, and struggle to stay empathetic when they encounter trash and human waste on platforms, urine in train cars, and harassment from riders who are mentally ill.

“Week by week, it seems like it just gets worse,” said Sarah Caldwell Sim, who takes the Expo Line, the subway and the Gold Line to work in a Cypress Park factory. “My frustration with what I see is turning me into someone that I’m not. I’m really struggling with this.”

Sim said she saw a man pull down his pants, squat over the edge of a platform and defecate onto the train tracks at Union Station. She said she has sat in urine on the subway, “hopscotched through peoples’ feces” on sidewalks, and endured verbal and sexual harassment on the train...

For more than five years, Barajas caught the 5:59 a.m. train from North Hollywood to his mechanic job near downtown. He said he tried to “peacefully coexist” with the high concentration of homeless riders, who board trains in the early morning to warm up after a night spent outside. Sometimes, he packed peanut butter sandwiches to share.

But recently, he said, the trains seemed dirtier and more chaotic. Some riders began spraying perfume and air fresheners to neutralize odors. Others brought magazines to sit on.

He kept riding, until he sat down one morning on a seat that was wet and hot with urine. With no change of clothes on hand, he wore the urine-soaked pants to work. Then he started driving to work again.

“There’s only so much we can take,” Barajas said. “At least I can sit in my car without worrying what I’m sitting in.”

 

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irishtexan

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The article is from LA. LA doesn’t give a fuck about its public transportation. I took the train every day for 10 years in Chicago and only rarely encountered a train car that had been pissed in. Never encountered a train car with shit in it. If it smelled of piss, you just got out and went to the next car up or down.

I really miss reliable public transportation. It would be awesome to have a subway in Austin.
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bolverk

bolverk 29652

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No "new" news, but this is a nice discussion on the role that incentives play in the business recruitment game. There is, however, mention of both Amazon and Austin.

Why Cities Can’t Stop Poaching From One Another

SAN FRANCISCO — Near the bottom of the lengthy ballot San Francisco voters considered this week, in this state famous for its abundant and oddball ballot initiatives, Proposition I asked voters to establish a policy of not coveting other cities’ sports teams.

The measure was part apology for poaching the Golden State Warriors from Oakland, part declaration of city principles (“San Francisco Will Not Endorse or Condone the Relocation of Any Team With an Extensive History in Another Location”). Voters, who said yes to several tax increases, looked at this largely symbolic measure and voted “no.”

That result was perhaps predictable; coveting what others have is implicit city policy nearly everywhere. The doctrine explains why corporations are so successful at extracting tax breaks from competing communities, why sports teams know their relocation threats usually work, why Amazon’s HQ2 sweepstakes has prompted such a bloated bidding war.

Economists largely agree that it’s bad economic development policy for communities to give in to this impulse, one-upping one another with handouts. That’s money diverted from education or infrastructure, and it goes to companies and teams that would most likely make many of these moves anyway. After all, they have to locate somewhere. If no one were playing the incentive game, someone would get them free. Instead, everyone is spending lots of money shuffling these prizes around.

The more intriguing question, then, is not whether these deals make sense, but why politicians and voters are so keen on them.

“It’s a little baffling, given that there seems to be such consensus on these programs,” said Nathan Jensen, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

He and Edmund Malesky at Duke University argue in a new book that much of what’s going on here is pandering by politicians. Voters want jobs, which are hard to deliver. Ribbon cuttings and splashy announcements about, say, a new Foxconn factory in Wisconsin, a new Boeing plant in South Carolina or more Nestle jobs in Indiana are the most visible way to show action on an issue voters deeply care about.

“Just like you could with immigration blame immigrants for crime — because it’s popular, even if you don’t believe it’s true — you can use incentives as a way to take credit for economic development,” Mr. Jensen said. “Even if you know a company is coming anyway.”

The inverse is also true: Incentives help politicians deflect blame when a company bypasses them. At least they clearly tried.

In survey experiments, Mr. Jensen and Mr. Malesky have found that people are more likely to say they’d vote for a governor when told the official helped secure a hypothetical thousand-job manufacturing plant. Independent voters even prefer a governor who offers generous tax incentives to score such a plant over a governor who secures investment without ponying up. These results suggest that politicians pick up votes by offering giveaways, whether they land companies or not.

Mr. Jensen and Mr. Malesky have also found that directly elected mayors offer bigger incentives and demand less oversight of deals than indirectly elected city managers. In other words, the politicians most responsive to voters offer the most. That dynamic may help explain why even some public officials reluctant to bid on Amazon did so anyway.

“What mayor could afford to be tagged as not being active on jobs?” said Greg LeRoy, the executive director of the group Good Jobs First, which has fought against incentives. “In the fall of 2017, being active on jobs was defined as bidding for Amazon’s HQ2. Then how could you not?”

An Elon University poll conducted this spring of residents in 16 metro areas that are Amazon finalists found a striking amount of support for offering the company incentives. In Denver, 17 percent of people said the region should offer nothing. And that was the highest share of any metro. In nearly every community, more people said “we should offer as much as possible” than “we should not offer any financial incentives.”

The question wording didn’t present alternative uses of the money, but that’s not how incentives are typically framed to the public. Respondents across these cities who supported doing whatever it takes to lure Amazon cited the additional tax revenue and taxpayers they expected the community to get in exchange.

“Even in the most hostile communities for Amazon, like Denver and Austin, there’s still enough support that folks could run a campaign off of it,” said Jason Husser, the director of the Elon poll. In that poll and others, he said, voters don’t appear to be weighing the long-term costs of incentives (of, say, giving resources to companies and sports teams instead of schools). “They’re thinking about the prestige get, whether that’s an Amazon headquarters or a sports team,” Mr. Husser said.

Politicians dangle incentives because voters want them to. And voters want them to in large part because politicians say that incentives make a real difference. “The dirty big secret,” Mr. LeRoy said, “is that they don’t.”

Location decisions often ultimately turn on quirks like the C.E.O.’s personal preferences. And most companies, including sports franchises, have higher priorities than tax breaks. Amazon’s request for bids was full of them: a specialized labor force, a good transit network, an airport hub, major universities to produce workers and amenities to keep them.

Consultants once had to contact cities to obtain all of that information, said Chris Steele, who runs the North American practice for the location strategies firm Investment Consulting Associates. Now much of it is easily accessible in public data. By the time consultants reach out to cities today, they really only need to ask two questions they don’t already know the answers to: What real estate is available? And what incentives are you offering?

“It’s created an illusion that incentives are much more important in the process than they really are, and/or that it’s the only thing communities have left that they can actually do something about,” Mr. Steele said.

Incentive deals also often include “but for” clauses, statements companies sign pledging that they wouldn’t come to town, or create these jobs, but for the incentives. Those lines offer political cover, too. And they further perpetuate the public belief that communities have to keep entering these bidding wars.

In San Francisco, Allen Jones believes the solution, at least with sports teams, is for more cities to make a pledge like Proposition I. Mr. Jones, a longtime San Francisco resident, wrote the ballot initiative.

“San Francisco has no excuse for taking from our neighbors when we have so much,” he said. And not long ago, he points out, the city was on the losing end of one of these deals, when the 49ers left Candlestick Park for a new stadium 40 miles south in Santa Clara County.

“If we didn’t like it being done to us,” Mr. Jones said, “why are we doing it to someone else?”

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bolverk

bolverk 29652

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20 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

So all we have to do is convince every single city to NOT offer incentives. 

Sure 

That’s like asking a group of guys not to text the hot girl because more than one person likes her. 

Good luck. 

No shit. I've made my career in economic development for the last 17 years, and it's a very frustrating reality. To "win", you have to play the game.

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It’s like the game theory prisoners dilemma where the way to win is not to tell on your co-conspirator and have them have the self control to not tell. But your fear or selfish or short-sightedness leads to the less optimal outcome.

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bolverk

bolverk 29652

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Pretty much. The direct cash giveaway, however, is only one aspect of economic development, but it's the one that everyone seems to focus on (much to our collective detriment). Playing only that game is just a race to the bottom, Mississippi-style.

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bolverk

bolverk 29652

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Not Amazon but still noteworthy:

Austin beats out Dallas, other cities to become home to Army's high-tech Futures Command

In a contest that has been called the military's version of Amazon's second headquarters sweepstakes, Austin has been selected as the home of the Army's new Futures Command, where sci-fi ideas become reality.

Bloomberg News first reported Austin's big win Thursday afternoon.

Austin beat out four other finalists, including Boston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Raleigh, N.C. Dallas had been one of the initial 15 cities considered before that list was pared down in early June.

The Army announced late last year that it was looking to start up a new Futures Command to help it design and produce the kind of high-tech equipment and weaponry needed to fight wars of the future.

The new command will take charge of the Army's six top modernization priorities, including long-range tactical missiles, the next generation of combat vehicles and helicopters, air-and-missile defense and "soldier lethality," which includes the Army's next rifle.

Army leaders have described the Futures Command as a "hoodies and jeans" alternative to the stuffy, spit-and-polish culture of a traditional Army post. They want to create the kind of disruptive innovation emblematic of Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial culture to help them build the Army of the future.

To do that, they need to go where the talent lives.


"We want this headquarters to be located near leading academic and commercial institutions to harness the best talent possible in emerging technology and innovation," Army Undersecretary Ryan McCarthy said in a letter to the House Armed Services Committee.

From new rifles to helicopters and air-and-missile defense, the Army is eager to modernize. Already in the pipeline are improvements in weapons and equipment, such as developing the next generation of night-vision goggles to ensure their soldiers "own the night," Army officials have said. 

Robotics and drones will also play an increasingly bigger role in the Army's future. Like air drones, robots could be used to explore dangerous or hostile locations while relaying information to commanders.

Two years ago, the Army selected Austin as one of its four locations for its own tech startup, the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, or DIUx. The organization is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and along with Austin has offices in Boston and in the Washington, D.C., area.

The Futures Command will be run by a four-star general, and the headquarters would have a staff of about 500, most of them civilians.

Anyone have any leads on where it'll be located? Camp Mabry maybe?

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Steamboat1874

Steamboat1874 4048

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, bolverk said:

Not Amazon but still noteworthy:

Austin beats out Dallas, other cities to become home to Army's high-tech Futures Command

In a contest that has been called the military's version of Amazon's second headquarters sweepstakes, Austin has been selected as the home of the Army's new Futures Command, where sci-fi ideas become reality.

Bloomberg News first reported Austin's big win Thursday afternoon.

Austin beat out four other finalists, including Boston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Raleigh, N.C. Dallas had been one of the initial 15 cities considered before that list was pared down in early June.

The Army announced late last year that it was looking to start up a new Futures Command to help it design and produce the kind of high-tech equipment and weaponry needed to fight wars of the future.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

The new command will take charge of the Army's six top modernization priorities, including long-range tactical missiles, the next generation of combat vehicles and helicopters, air-and-missile defense and "soldier lethality," which includes the Army's next rifle.

Army leaders have described the Futures Command as a "hoodies and jeans" alternative to the stuffy, spit-and-polish culture of a traditional Army post. They want to create the kind of disruptive innovation emblematic of Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial culture to help them build the Army of the future.

To do that, they need to go where the talent lives.


"We want this headquarters to be located near leading academic and commercial institutions to harness the best talent possible in emerging technology and innovation," Army Undersecretary Ryan McCarthy said in a letter to the House Armed Services Committee.

From new rifles to helicopters and air-and-missile defense, the Army is eager to modernize. Already in the pipeline are improvements in weapons and equipment, such as developing the next generation of night-vision goggles to ensure their soldiers "own the night," Army officials have said. 

Robotics and drones will also play an increasingly bigger role in the Army's future. Like air drones, robots could be used to explore dangerous or hostile locations while relaying information to commanders.

Two years ago, the Army selected Austin as one of its four locations for its own tech startup, the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, or DIUx. The organization is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and along with Austin has offices in Boston and in the Washington, D.C., area.

The Futures Command will be run by a four-star general, and the headquarters would have a staff of about 500, most of them civilians.

Anyone have any leads on where it'll be located? Camp Mabry maybe?

 

So now there will be a few more nukes aimed at us from North Korea.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Sbbruin

Sbbruin 21829

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Posted

Job posting hints at DC

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A new D.C. job posting from Amazon could hint at the company's plan to open its second headquarters in the nation's capital.  Amazon is hiring a D.C.-based economic development manager, a job it has not posted in any other city, the Puget Sound Business Journal reports.  The job posting says Amazon is looking for someone with experience in economic incentives, which will likely play a major factor in its HQ2 project. It says the economic development manager would work directly with "state and community" officials, but makes no mention of the federal government, the focus of much of Amazon's existing D.C. workforce.  The role would involve new corporate initiatives, a site selection process and site expansion plans, the job posting says. It is seeking someone with at least eight years of economic development experience. The D.C. region has been widely viewed as a front-runner for Amazon HQ2 since the tech giant included three of the area's jurisdictions among its list of 20 finalists in January. D.C. submitted four sites for consideration in NoMa, Shaw, Hill East and along the Anacostia River. Virginia also put forward several sites in Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax County. Montgomery Country reportedly submitted the White Flint Mall site.   Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who bought a $23M house in D.C. and owns the Washington Post, is scheduled to speak at an Economic Club of Washington D.C. event Sept. 13, just past a year to the day from when it launched its HQ2 search.  With 50,000 jobs and 8M SF of offices on the line, Amazon-watchers have seized on everything from job postings to public appearances to web traffic to speculate about the company's intentions. In February, local news website ARLnow reported it received a spike in web traffic from an internal Amazon page on a months-old story about Arlington's environmentally friendly buildings. JDLand, a neighborhood blog for D.C.'s Capitol Riverfront, said Monday it received a small bump in traffic from Seattle on its site, and specifically on a page about The Yards' Parcel A, one of the sites included in D.C.'s riverfront bid. 

 

 

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