Few corporate location decisions have generated as much excitement or controversy as Amazon’s search for HQ2. More than 200 cities across North America entered into a frenzied bidding war to become the tech giant’s next home, with New York City and Arlington, Virginia ultimately sharing the prize in late 2018. Just a few months later, Amazon cancelled its plans for New York in the face of a backlash that divided New Yorkers.

To recount the story of HQ2 and the lessons for cities, as well as the recent decision by Sidewalk Labs to abandon its plans for a smart city in Toronto, Sam Chandan is joined by Richard Florida, University Professor at the University of Toronto and Distinguished Fellow at Schack’s Urban Lab, and Matthew Kwatinetz, Director of the Urban Lab. Florida was involved in preparing Toronto's bid for HQ2 while Kwatinetz was Executive Vice President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC) at the time.

This episode includes excerpts from Sam Chandan's and Richard Florida's NYU class, Global Cities in a Post-Pandemic World, and has been edited for content and length.

For more information about the Urban Lab podcast and Dr. Sam Chandan, please visit http://www.samchandan.com/urbanlab.