Competition for Amazon’s HQ2 gets more political

many as 50,000 over time, also could dramatically transform the selected city.

It’s the Amazon Effect: endless dog parks, miles of new bicycle lanes, new buses, streetcars, streetcar cost overruns, outdoor recreation stores and gastropubs for vegans. Not to mention a slew of Democratic voters who tend to believe in environmental sustainability and sensible gun control.

So when Georgia lawmakers yanked a big tax break for Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines earlier this year over the company’s severed ties with the NRA, Amazon executives who keep mum about the second headquarters derby privately expressed skepticism about Atlanta’s chances. A Boston-area college lecturer pushed the point further in a piece in Forbes: Delta’s NRA Move Gives Boston HQ2 Edge Over Atlanta.

Sure, Peter Cohan, who teaches business strategy at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., got a little out in front of his skis. Amazon officials have not mentioned a shortshort list, and, if one exists, who knows which cities are vying against each other.

But on its face, the idea that self-styled progressive cities in red states — Atlanta or Austin or Raleigh — are at a disadvantage makes sense. No matter how hip the city may be, would Amazon risk setting up shop in a state that might, say, allow cake bakers to turn down gay weddings or ban transgender people from the bathroom of their choice?

Bezos’ own positions on many issues are unknown except that he is described as a libertarian who favours gay rights. His most notable foray into Washington state politics came in 2012 when he and his wife donated $2.5 million to the gay-marriage campaign. Last year, he was awarded the national equality award from the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group.

“He is one of those executives who wants to be remembered as being on the right side of history,” said Thomas O’Guinn, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin school of business. “Part of the quid pro quo is there will be none of this stupid gender bathroom stuff. They are going to demand that the city do everything it can to fight voter suppression. They are going to demand high attention paid to meaningful spending on the environment and more efficient greenhouse reductions.”

One of the weirdest moments in tea-leaf reading came when a small website A trio of geodesic domes have been added to Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. The competition is getting fierce in the race to secure Amazon’s second headquarters. open and accepting to all its employees,” said Chris Wallace, president of the Texas Association of Business. He cited research showing Texas would have lost billions of dollars if the bill had passed.

The Amazon HQ2 list of “key preferences and decision drivers” calls for “a compatible cultural and community environment” and that includes “the presence and support of a diverse population.”

In the view of No Gay No Way, which is funded by more than a dozen LGBT donors and activists, that should rule out places in states with “no comprehensive legal protec- to spend time, where the political action is, where decisions will be made about the company’s future. And given that President Donald Trump has expressed special animus for Amazon, wouldn’t it be better to be a player where the decisions are made?

“The only thing standing between Amazon and a trillion-dollar market capitalization is regulation,” said Galloway, dubbed the Amazon whisperer after his lucky or brilliant prediction that Amazon would buy Whole Foods last year (it did a few weeks later). “The ultimate prophylactic against regulation is to be the local boy in D.C. No one is going to regulate the guy throwing out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals game which will be Jeff Bezos.”

The Amazon search comes at a time of declining confidence in government, Congress, religion and other institutions, said Wisconsin professor O’Guinn. “A public that doesn’t believe in other institutions has to start looking at companies to be part of the moral fabric of the country.”

Amazon officialdom may not want to play that role. But for competitive business reasons, it has to reflect the social and political values of its young workforce. If that’s a culture war, then it’s one worth fighting.