How Kansas City can win the next Amazon HQ2

Kansas City didn’t make the top 20 list for Amazon’s second headquarters, but we gained valuable new insight and built more regional collaboration than ever before. We are a city on the rise in many significant ways, but we must do better. We will soon learn what Amazon wants in their chosen city. A glance at the list shows some excel in tech, others are centers for entertainment, and some are strong in logistics and transit. In short, no city has it all. Some will be more expensive to live and work, and some have workforce development challenges.

I am certain that each metro area offered aggressive tax breaks. With an estimated 50,000 high-paying Amazon jobs and an estimated 100,000 support positions, it only makes sense. However, I doubt Amazon will choose a city based on incentives or overall cost. It will be a variety of factors that make a place functional and buzzworthy — a city that attracts and retains the best and brightest, that will work with Amazon to build and evolve with them.

Amazon may not have deemed Kansas City the right fit, but this process gave us the opportunity to start reflecting on how to best prepare for the next similar opportunity (hello, Apple). To attract new businesses, we must prepare to be the best at growing the next Amazon here. We must be a place that nurtures and supports businesses of all types. One that educates leaders for tomorrow.

How do we get there? We must address these challenges if we are to outshine other successful cities next time:

1. Build world-class higher education. Kansas and Missouri must reverse the cuts in higher education funding and invest in state universities. Local support — public and private — must continue to flow into local institutions.

2. Achieve equity in pre-K to 12 education. To grow the next generation of talent, we must improve our public schools and create programs that reach across districts.

3. Stop the parochialism. All corners of the area win when one part succeeds. Fighting for jobs within our metro is a net loss for everyone.

4. Restore sanity to Topeka and Jefferson City. The embarrassing headlines from our state capitals must stop. Focus on the issues that matter to improving our region. A stable and fair tax policy that allows for investment in services and infrastructure should be the priority.

5. Tackle the high crime rate. No easy fixes here, but a regional effort must be undertaken to stop the violence: policing, economic investment and workforce training.

6. We should consider downtown as stretching from North Kansas City south to Crown Center, and from downtown Kansas City, Kan., east to Prospect. Downtown should be considered a regional asset.

7. Build the new single terminal at Kansas City International Airport on time and on budget. It must be innovative and the most enjoyable airport in the country.

8. Get more connected internationally. The new non-stop Icelandair flight to Reykjavik is fantastic. Regional business and leisure travelers must support it and prove the demand for more destinations.

9. Fund regional transit. KCATA’s RideKC brand must be just the start. The region must look to cities like Denver and Nashville and create an integrated rail and transit plan that reaches all corners of the metro.

10. Develop more innovative leaders who are visionary and willing to recognize the metro investments benefit all.

11. We must not only invest in our civic organizations, but we must join them, and then press them to fight for the issues that matter in our community.

12. Make our startup scene more of a machine. We have many committed entrepreneurs, but so few breakout wins to show for it. Investors and business leaders must recognize and support the innovators, and government must create policies that allow companies to thrive.

13. Better brand the metro area. VisitKC tells the world about our city. We need to support regional funding to further spread the word and the brand for the region.

14. Embrace our uniqueness. We are arts, tech, agriculture and more. We need to value the farmers and the tradespeople as much as we value tech workers.

15. Ultimately, we must continue to believe in our metro. We must believe that endeavors like the HQ2 bid matter. They will pay dividends, and if we stay the course and continue learning, pushing and evolving, we will win more than we lose.

This story was originally published January 24, 2018 at 8:30 PM with the headline "How Kansas City can win the next Amazon HQ2."