Another national news outlet has jumped on the Austin-for-HQ2 bandwagon for Amazon’s second headquarters. Business publication Inc. claimed Austin has the best chance to land the $5 billion, 50,000 job project. According to Inc.com in a story Thursday, Austin is a natural choice for HQ2 based on housing, highly skilled employees from local universities and a strong infrastructure and international airport. Following Austin in the rankings were Raleigh-Durham, N.C. as well as Denver, Detroit and Washington, D.C. Some cities have become creative in their proposals, while Austin has taken a business-like approach while using every tool in the toolbox. More than 50 cities are expected to send documents due to Amazon by today, the deadline for doing so. The company will make its decision in 2018. For coverage about what Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston have done during the process leading up to the bid, see Community Impact Newspaper coverage here. Outside of Texas, a sampling of what other cities have talked about for their proposals: • According to www.northjersey.com, Gov. Chris Christie is confident no other state governor will beat his Newark proposal of $7 billion in tax incentives, which includes $5 billion over 10 years with the creation of the promised 50,000 jobs and another $2 billion in incentives from the city of Newark. • Kansas City Mayor Sly James bought 1,000 Amazon products and reviewed every one of them, according to www.fortune.com. • Three sites were pitched by the city of Philadelphia, according to www.philly.com. The three sites have a total of 28 million square feet. •According to www.npr.org, officials in Tucson, Ariz., uprooted a 21-foot tall saguaro cactus and tried to have it delivered to Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. Amazon News tweeted a photo of the cactus and said Amazon would not be accepting gifts so they donated the cactus to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. • Birmingham, Ala., according to NPR, constructed giant Amazon boxes and placed them around the city. • Georgia offered to create a new city called Amazon, according to www.fortune.com. • National Basketball Association Hall-of-Famer Michael Jordan wrote a personal letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in a pitch for Charlotte, N.C., www.fortune.com reported.