5 challenges to South Florida’s Amazon bid

As with most regions around the United States, the area’s challenges could be regarded as unfinished business. Improving education, transportation and housing, as well as finding new growth engines loom as a weighty to-do list for public and private sector leaders in South Florida. One positive sign is that three formerly disparate counties are beginning to act in concert to address the problems.

Here are five factors we think might put South Florida at a disadvantage in its bid for Amazon’s second North American headquarters:

Local transportation: Heavy north-south congestion among the three counties causes heavy delays on Interstate 95, Florida’s Turnpike and other major arteries. Despite the rise of Tri-Rail and the nascent Brightline commuter rail system, public transit is insufficient, particularly in and out of the urban cores.

Affordable housing: Workforce housing is in short supply, particularly in the urban cores.

Secondary education system: The region’s K-12 system remains uneven, plagued by underachieving schools and cycles of generational poverty.

Technology development: Despite the presence of a growing startup community and several longstanding businesses such as Citrix Systems, the region is not known nationally as a major tech center.

Incentives: While economic development agencies offer tax abatements and other incentives, critics including lawmakers in local and state governments are increasingly resistant to what they call “corporate welfare.”

SOURCES: Economic development agencies, developers, government officials, news reports.