Will Detroit, Other Cities Learn Anything From Amazon HQ2 Megaflop?
Amazon stunned almost no one when it announced it will open new major headquarters near both Washington DC and New York.
The Detroit People Mover operating during the 2024 NFL Draft.
This week, Amazon stunned almost no one when it announced that it will open new major headquarters near both Washington DC and New York.
Despite a nationwide sweepstakes which drove nearly every major city — including Detroit — to compete for Amazon’s geographic approval, the two epicenters of economic and demographic power on the East Coast won.
It’s not just the Amazons of the world that are concentrating their resources in a few powerful places either.
The gap between municipal haves and have-nots is growing, even as cities throw everything that can — tax incentives, subsidies, all manner of goodies — at companies they hope to lure.
Does that ever work, though? And is there a better way to spread opportunity?
On Detroit Today, Stephen Henderson speaks with CityLab staff writer Sarah Holder, who wrote about the decision this week. And he speaks with Kirk Pinho of Crain’s Detroit Business, who has also been following Detroit’s HQ2 bid from the very beginning.
Click on the audio player above to hear the full conversation.
