New York and Washington have the second and third-largest populations of tech workers in North America after the San Francisco Bay area, according to CBRE, a commercial real estate firm. Amazon declined to comment. The move to split the project was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Spreading across two different cities would broaden the talent pool Amazon can draw from. It could also spare the new locations from the worst of the explosion in housing costs and transit congestion that have been hallmarks of the company’s rapid growth in Seattle. “It signals at least some hesitance to repeat the growing pains that occurred here in Seattle,” said Jeff Shulman, a marketing professor at University of Washington’s business school who hosts a podcast about the city’s recent boom.

https://www.ft.com/content/0017cf68-e202-11e8-8e70-5e22a430c1ad