Atlanta wants you #Amazon HQ2

Atlanta is a great destination for Amazon 2.

#Jeff Bezos,

As an Atlantan (for the past 20 years) I wanted to reach out and express my excitement that you’re considering #Atlanta for your 2nd office. There are a lot of reasons why I like the idea of course but the main one is that I truly feel it’s a great fit for you! 

Atlanta is the capital of the Southeast. OK, Miami is a decent sized city but doesn’t have the depth and logistical advantages of Atlanta. It’s a fun destination city but not in the same league as Atlanta.  

Atlanta has the largest airport in the entire WORLD! Yes, that’s right. Even larger than Beijing International which also like the Atlanta airport manages a lot of packages, not just people.

UPS is headquartered here and is currently your largest carrier (I personally think you can destroy them in you tried to compete against them but that’s for a different article). Surely you’ll start delivering your own packages?? When you’re ready, you’ll have a 60 Billion Dollar company (#UPS) right here in Atlanta to recruit your logistics experts from (as much as I don’t like their structure, they do hire very bright people). 

Speaking of logistics, we are a 2-hour flight to NY and Boston, 1 hour to Florida. You can have the entire East Coast covered for daily meetings. We also have a rail system that connects all of the Eastern Coast to the rest of the Country. Heck, you can be in Mexico and the Caribbean in a few hours. 

The biggest reason I feel makes Atlanta a great fit is the available talent. Within a 3 hour drive you can visit and recruit the best young technical talent (#GA Tech, #Vanderbilt, #Emory, #Wake Forest, #Duke, #UGA, #GA State, #Clemson, #Alabama, #Auburn, #UNC, and many others (………please feel free to send me your Alma Mater to remind me who I missed.) #Atlanta is a VERY young city with tons of young talent from great schools. It’s THE destination for young grads looking to get away from the old dilapidated cities of the northeast and midwest Just look at the population changes over the past decade and you’ll see. The cold,  expensive, heavily taxed life in the Northeast and Midwest is something that smart young people are wanting to avoid. Go where the talent is! 

Apart from UPS, we are also home to #The Home Depot, #Coca-Cola, #Turner, #Suntrust, #Delta, and a LOT of other companies. 18 of the Fortune 500 companies are currently headquartered in Georgia (and 33 Fortune 1000 companies). 

What about attracting people from other cities to Atlanta? Will that be easy you ask…….why yes Jeff, it will be and is. The city is made up of people from other places. It’s actually VERY hard to find someone that is actually from Atlanta. How can a city of 7 million have grown while losing it’s original inhabitants? Well, for the last 30 years people have been moving here from everywhere in the US (and overseas) in droves. With great weather, a low cost of living (rent and home purchases), low real estate taxes, no toll roads/bridges, and LOTS of trees, who could blame them.   

In the Field of Dreams they said, “Build it and they will come”.  Jeff, Atlanta is built and ready for you!

Ps - Oh, and we’ll have the Super Bowl 2019 next year to celebrate!