> Nobody's going to Chicago.

Maybe nobody you know is going to chicago but 75% of my friends from the midwest have all congregated to chicago. I moved out west for the better tech jobs but I would instantly jump on the chance to move back to chicago to be close to friends and family.

I meant companies. They are going to steer clear of Illinois. Illinois is at the start of an economic death spiral. Roads are hugely underfunded. State workers' pensions are extremely underfunded, as in, state taxes are going to have to increase significantly beyond the tax increase passed this year for them to not default on their obligations and their other loan payments. Once they default on their loan payments, Illinois' ability to issue debt for capital expenditures like roads, road repairs, bridges and other infrastructure is limited to high risk / high interest loans.

Companies don't want to move to a state whose economic future and viability is in question.

They could always set up in Gary in Indiana or Kenosha in Wisconsin. Metra commuter rail goes out that far, so anyone wanting to live in Illinois proper could do so and commute outward instead of in.

Maybe I'm biased because I live here, but Chicago seems like a complete slam dunk for Amazon. We've got: good public transit, plenty of space for development, an educated workforce with a a decently sized tech talent pool already developed, easy draw from Big 10 schools and the University of Chicago, and a (relatively) low cost of living when compared to comparable cities. Yes, the state and city have financial problems, but watch how fast the gridlock disappears when an opportunity like this presents itself. As I said in another comment, the city has been really good at getting companies, both from the suburbs and from out of state, to setup headquarters in the loop.

Also, the blatant trolling for big bribes would fit right in with the local political culture.

Detroit has a rather large, comfortable, and underutilized international airport. U Michigan is close by, widely considered a top ten CS school.

Shit, they could probably buy the whole city!

And then change their name to Omni Consumer Products?

Georgia State is a reasonable school as well, not as glamorous as GT or Emory though.

I'm certainly bias as I grew up in ATL, but the RFP seemed to be written for Atlanta to me.

I'm sure Georgia State is reasonable, but it's just as reasonable as any other good state school in any other state. Georgia Tech and Emory are at the top of the list for their specialties though, engineering, computer science and business -- all things Amazon would find enticing.