INSIDE
FEBRUARy 2018 BCBusiness 57
Urban
Warfare
iLLUSTRATiON: KAGAN M cLEOD
The 238 cities and
regions vying to be the
site of Amazon's new
headquarters have
produced some
creative sales pitches
by Steve Burgess
Navigate native ... A winning hand ... Gaze into the future ... willie Mitchell's cup runneth over ... + more
F e b r u A r Y 2 0 1 8
"Salmon feed it all—the whales, the
eagles, the bears. B.C. is not here
without them, so I feel it's my
responsibility to protect it" –p.62
Off lıne
E v E R y b o D y ' S TA l K I N '
WATERCoolER
During the renaissance, most of what is now
the Italian peninsula was divided into city
states. They fought wars, sometimes against
foreign powers, sometimes against each
other. When the skirmish was over and one
city had triumphed, it would claim the spoils
of victory. Of course this was hundreds of
years ago, and things were di•erent—back
then victory was not referred to as "getting
the new Amazon headquarters." Otherwise,
not much has changed.
Ever since Je• Bezos announced plans to
build a second head o…ce for Amazon.com
Inc. to augment its existing base in Seattle,
cities all over North America have been
girding their loins for battle. With 50,000
jobs and an estimated $US5 billion of
investment up for grabs, the strategies have
been mapped out like D'Day campaigns.
Amazon reports that 238 cities and regions
have put in bids. (Among the places that
didn't bother: North Dakota. The retail giant
has speci•ed that it wants a centre of at least
one million people and a place that o•ers a
good quality of life. North Dakota's largest
city, Fargo, has about 120,000 residents, and,
based on what we know from movies and TV,
a disturbingly high percentage of them are
vicious killers. They must have known they
had no chance.)
Most cities trying to attract industry paint
pictures of themselves as pleasant burgs
