On Tuesday, after a year-long search, the international e-commerce site, television production company, streaming service, hardware manufacturer, and leader in artificial intelligence announced its HQ2 would be split between the New York City borough of Queens, and Crystal City, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. The selections were so patently obvious as to draw ire. Why, people wondered, were Raleigh or Atlanta or Pittsburgh so elaborately vetted when HQ2 was always going to end up in the cultural capital of the country—and the Capitol itself? In the same packet where mayors and chambers of commerce collated pages of publicly-available maps of existing transit networks, they also shared plans of where they hope future light rail lines or subway systems might extend. They shared population growth projections, and ideas of where those people might work, live, eat, and shop. And they put a price on each of these things—in the form of incentives they’d be willing to give a company that comes to town and promises to stay for good.
