I'd also say the research triangle, Salt lake city, Austin, Chicago, the twin cities, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati

Cincinnati isn't a good choice. It has a modest tech scene and no great CS/CE universities. Columbus is a far better choice.

> modest tech scene

Anywhere Amazon puts a HQ is going to have a pretty decent tech scene pretty rapidly.

> no great CS/CE universities

Columbus is 90 minutes away, and Amazon recruits internationally. Close proximity to a good CS program is hardly a strict necessity.

Sure, but having a great university down the street means they get first crack at interns.

The biggest problem with recruiting tech people to live in Cincinnati is that most people are unimpressed when they visit. Cincinnatians like nasty food and get excited over utterly boring events. So when visitors come, people recommend they try Skyline and go to the fireworks or something and it generally leaves a bad taste in the visitor's mouths.

Columbus seems like a better choice.

> Sure, but having a great university down the street means they get first crack at interns.

I can't imagine an Amazon HQ in Cincinnati would have trouble recruiting interns from Columbus, Cleveland, etc. They already attract interns to Seattle from all over the country.

For every Skyline rec (which is, indeed, a shitty thing to do to a visitor), there's a Graeters one. :-p

I could definitely envision a Philadelphia location. Comcast is building a new skyscraper as we speak with a ten year tax abatement. The local city government would easily grant them the same deal.

Portland suffers from the same cascade fault as Seattle and Oregon was much later to the party in terms of realizing they had a risk and addressing it.