UW professor explains the complexity behind Amazon’s HQ2

While a job boost of 50,000 seems appealing at first glance to any metropolitan city, there’s more to it than meets the eye.

At the beginning of this month, Amazon announced it is scoping for new places to build its second campus. This means cities across the U.S. and Canada are submitting applications and bids.

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[Jeffrey] Shulman has a “Seattle Growth Podcast” with 13 episodes so far where he interviews Seattle residents, business leaders, and government officials to cover the opportunities and challenges of a city brimming with tech behemoths. Of all his interviews, he most frequently hears about issues with Seattle’s transportation system.

“A lot of people are feeling the crunch that comes with new people getting to work,” Shulman said. Seattle ranks third among the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas for the rate of growth for mega-commuters. From 2010 to 2015, census data show the number of 90-minute commuters rose by 72 percent.

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