"Nothing is too strange for cities wooing Amazon to build there"

BG:

In Philadelphia, hundreds of Wharton Business School students have a new fall semester assignment: Pitch the city to Amazon

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“It’s like ‘The Amazing Race,’” said Jim Watson, the mayor of Ottawa. “You’ve got this cast of characters running toward the Holy Grail.”

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Mark D. Boughton, the mayor of Danbury, Connecticut, posted a video Sept. 14 calling himself a “proud Amazon customer” and asking Alexa, the Amazon virtual assistant, where Amazon should build its second headquarters. “Danbury,” a female voice responds.

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Gilbert, the founder of Quicken Loans, has also built an Amazon war room, where more than 40 people are trying to analyze what the online retailer “likes and doesn’t like.” They are also trying to read Bezos’ psyche.

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Joe Snell, a business leader with an economic development group in Tucson, was behind the recent shipment to Bezos of the local saguaro cactus, which he said was symbolic of the region’s people.