New Hampshire’s bid for Amazon dumps all over Boston
"When you leave your tiny $4,000-a-month apartment only to sit in 2 hours of traffic trying to make your way to an overburdened airport, you’ll be wishing you were in New Hampshire."
Bostonians are well aware of the challenges facing their city. Suffocating traffic. Lack of affordable housing. An airport at near-capacity.
New Hampshire wants to make sure Amazon knows, too.
The Granite State released their bid for the commerce giant’s second headquarters Wednesday. And while officials pointed to the state’s proximity to Boston (which is also submitting a bid) as one of their proposal’s major advantages, they were also quick to point out all of the Bay State capital’s flaws as well.
“ALL THE BENEFITS OF BOSTON WITHOUT ALL THE HEADACHES,” New Hampshire’s proposal spells out in bold font on its fourth page, promising a “genuine way of life” north of the border.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh declined to punch back Wednesday in response to the rather aggressive approach.
“I don’t want to have Amazon come to Boston by tearing down another city,” Walsh said in a statement to Boston.com. “That’s not my style.”
New Hampshire’s bid, which was submitted by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s administration, suggests Amazon develop its planned $5 billion, 50,000-job “HQ2” at Woodmont Commons, a 603-acre urban village in Londonderry, which would have its own Interstate 93 exit.
The “shovel-ready” site is just 40 miles north of Boston — close, but not too close.
“Though just over the state line, the site represents a far superior business environment without the cumbersome commute times, taxes, and affordability challenges that plague Boston businesses and their employees,” New Hampshire’s proposal said.
Officials called the commute into Boston “congestion nightmare,”
“It has grown beyond capacity to the point where Boston actually had to withdraw from Olympic consideration because of the citizen’s fury over current untenable traffic congestion,” they wrote.
New Hampshire said locating Amazon’s second headquarter in Londonderry would offer proximity to the Greater Boston workforce with “a vastly simplified reverse commute” on the widening I-93 highway.
The bid also plugged the state’s quality of life, an “abundant” talented, young workforce within 100 miles of the proposed site, and the nearby Manchester–Boston Regional Airport, which has the capacity to expand to accommodate flights to the West Coast and Europe. It even mentioned New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary as a perk.
In the end, state officials concluded their pitch by presenting Amazon with a choice: “Make the predictable choice” or “Make the authentic Amazon choice,” by which they mean choosing New Hampshire.
“Choose Boston and next year when you leave your tiny $4,000-a-month apartment only to sit in 2 hours of traffic trying to make your way to an overburdened airport, you’ll be wishing you were in New Hampshire,” they wrote.
Amazon says they will announce their selection for their second headquarters in 2018.
New Hampshire’s bid for Amazon’s second headquarters
