美国国家公共电台 NPR Cities Dream Of Landing Amazon's New HQ And They're Going To Great Lengths To Show It（在线收听）

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The retail giant Amazon is looking for a second home. And this could mean thousands of jobs and a new economic anchor for a city. Big cities like Denver and Atlanta are competing. But as we hear from Michigan Radio's Rick Pluta, leaders in some smaller cities think they have a shot, if only they could get Amazon's attention.

RICK PLUTA, BYLINE: Tucson, Ariz., uprooted a 21-foot-tall saguaro cactus and tried to have it delivered to Amazon's Seattle headquarters. Birmingham, Ala., constructed giant Amazon boxes and placed them all around the city.

RON STARNER: Yeah we're seeing all kinds of stunts.

PLUTA: Ron Starner is the executive vice president of Site Selection magazine. Yes, there is a magazine devoted solely to the art and the craft of choosing where to locate factories, warehouses and world headquarters. Starner says people are getting creative as they try to land the project.

STARNER: Tucson sent the cactus. The mayor of one city - and forgive me, I don't recall - he actually traveled to Seattle and stood outside Amazon headquarters. There's a community here in the suburban Atlanta market that even annexed a whole bunch of land and said, look, if you come here, we'll let you call this Amazon City.

PLUTA: Amazon's also getting lots of videos from mayors using Amazon products to show they're ready to be team players.

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MARK BOUGHTON: I'm a proud Amazon customer. So, Alexa, where is the best place for Amazon to locate its second world headquarters?

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE: Danbury, Conn.

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MURIEL BOWSER: Alexa, where is the most interesting company in the world going to locate?

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE: Obviously, Washington, D.C.

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JEFF CHENEY: Hey, Alexa, where should Amazon locate HQ to?

COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE: In Frisco, Texas.

PLUTA: So what is this hundred billion dollar company looking for? A metro area of a million or more people, access to mass transit and proximity to an international airport, among other things. But the reality is there's probably no North American metro area that has everything Amazon's looking for, especially a ready-to-go workforce of 50,000 professionals. And so for economic developers in places like Grand Rapids, Mich., they think they have a chance. The city is just half an hour from Lake Michigan. It boasts a walkable downtown with plenty of restaurants and brewpubs, museums and music venues. Kristopher Larson with the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority acknowledges the city is a long shot but hopes the quality of life here will grab the attention of a certain Amazon CEO.

KRISTOPHER LARSON: We're hoping it's going to turn Jeff Bezos's head, and he's going to take a look at us.

PLUTA: But that's not all, says Birgit Klohs with The Right Place, a regional economic development group. She says this is a learning experience.

BIRGIT KLOHS: Just to be in the pool to us is success. We want to tell our story. We want to give Grand Rapids and west Michigan national attention by going for this.

PLUTA: Klohs says Grand Rapids can't lose by trying to win Amazon.

KLOHS: This is something we have to do. We owe our community that we put our best foot forward.

PLUTA: But their hopes are real that an online retail prince will slide a glass slipper onto that foot to make this city an economic Cinderella story.

PLUTA: For NPR News, I'm Rick Pluta in Grand Rapids, Mich.

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ILENE WOODS: (Singing) A dream is a wish your heart makes.