What wouldn’t the cities of the Triad have done to lure the $5 billion Amazon HQ? We met three of the four criteria — more than a million residents, an international airport within 45 minutes and a stable business climate. But despite 11 area colleges and universities, we fell short on the “highly educated workforce” requirement as Guilford and Forsyth’s college-education rate is about one-third, right about at the national average which be definition is unexceptional.

This week, Amazon whittled the list of 238 applicant cities down to 20, and we are not on it.

Anyway, yay Raleigh!

01. Atlanta

02. Austin, Texas

03. Boston

04. Chicago

05. Columbus, Ohio

06. Dallas

07. Denver

08. Indianapolis

09. Los Angeles

10. Miami

11. Montgomery County, Md.

12. Nashville, Tenn.

13. Newark, NJ

14. New York City

15. Northern Virginia

16. Philadelphia

17. Pittsburgh

18. Raleigh

19. Toronto

20. Washington, DC

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