In the Amazon HQ2 Contest, the Winner Might Actually be the Loser

Richard Florida , author, editor and Professor at the University of Toronto, is part of a growing chorus of prominent thinkers across the country who are speaking out against the race to the bottom that Amazon's search for a second headquarters has induced. Strong Towns is fully in agreement that cities should compete on their merits and strengths, not on the amount of local tax dollars they're willing to pony up. So Florida wrote a letter and invited urban leaders, developers and economists to sign onto it — Chuck Marohn included. The letter asks elected officials in the HQ2 finalist cities to sign a mutual non-aggression pact that rejects egregious tax giveaways and direct monetary incentives for Amazon. So far, more than 1,100 people have signed it. You can join them. In this short conversation wtih Chuck Marohn, Florida discusses the letter and what motivated him to get it going.