CULTUREMAP -- If a recent poll is any indication, residents of the Austin metro area aren’t all that jazzed about Amazon’s proposed second headquarters potentially landing in the region. In fact, Austin residents are some of the least supportive of the $5 billion project among people in the 16 U.S. metro areas that remain in the running.
The online poll, conducted March 30 to April 3 by Elon University in partnership with the Business Journals chain of newspapers, found 13 percent of residents in the Austin area oppose Amazon HQ2, as the project is known. Denver was the only area with a higher level of opposition (16 percent).
In other regions, the level of opposition ranged from 2 percent to 7 percent.
“If you are Amazon, you are relatively happy with these results unless you were leaning toward locating in Austin or Denver. Public support appears to be the lowest in those areas,” Brandon Sheridan, assistant professor of economics at Elon's Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, says in a release. “Residents in those cities perceive Amazon to be a costly investment that their city does not need to begin with, let alone one that should be offered generous incentives. By comparison, the other sites are much more optimistic about becoming the home of HQ2.”
The poll revealed that just 36 percent of Austin residents strongly support Amazon HQ2. That’s one of the weakest levels of strong support among the 16 finalists. Only Boston (34 percent), Los Angeles (35 percent) and Denver (35 percent) had fewer strong supporters.
Overall, 71 percent of Austin residents either somewhat support or strongly support the city’s bid for HQ2.
“The balance between cheerleaders and opponents is key to how a major change is received within a community. While a majority in all of the HQ2 finalist regions support Amazon moving to town, some areas had more cheerleaders and fewer opponents,” says Jason Husser, Elon’s polling director and an assistant professor of political science.
“Our results suggest Amazon should expect Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Indianapolis to be particularly rich with advocates,” Husser adds. “Conversely, executives should have at least some reason for pause about the potential for opposition groups emerging in Austin and Denver.”
The poll also showed that many Austin-area residents aren’t keen on financial incentives being dangled to lure Amazon HQ2.
Read the full story on CultureMap Austin.
