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Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

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Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#651

Post by BookmarkSaver »

saosebastiao wrote: post #234
hinkley wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they need logistics centers in those areas, NOT a headquarters.

They also need product managers, vendor managers, inventory managers, analysts, planners, forecasters, operations managers, customer service agents, human resources, legal, research scientists, security, marketing, IT, financial operations, as well as the world's most overweight and useless middle management layer ever seen. Even in Seattle, programmers make up well less than half of Amazon's personnel.

You sound like you have absolutely no clue how Amazon is run, but really don't like them so you go threw in some unfriendly, unfounded assumptions on top of your ignorance.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#652

Post by BookmarkSaver »

wfo wrote: post #561
closeparen wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL software engineers aren’t actual residents of the places we live.

Are you a software engineer in one of these cities struggling to find a job? Would you take one at Amazon, knowing that it's one of the worst software jobs out there because of horrible working conditions? Would you last significantly longer than the average 1 year turnover rate at Amazon? If you said yes to all these questions, your response makes sense. Congratulations, you are the .25% of the population that my ar…

>Would you take one at Amazon, knowing that it's one of the worst software jobs out there because of horrible working conditions?

Source? It is consistently ranked as one of the better places for software engineers to work, despite NYT hit pieces.

>Would you last significantly longer than the average 1 year turnover rate at Amazon?

Amazon's turnover is almost indistinguishable from Google's. It's an industry issue (at the highest tier, at least), not an Amazon one.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#653

Post by cthalupa »

yohann305 wrote: post #353
bruceb wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Nobody seriously thinks they are going to pick Miami.

Jeff Bezos grew up in Miami, and his dad is Cuban. Miami has the largest Cuban (and Cuban-descent) community. If Bezos wants to give back to the place that made him who he is today, Miami is a solid contender. I know you don't drive a business with emotions and nostalgia, oh wait... He's already doing it with Blue Origin, we love you Bezos!

He also spent years in Houston. He's moved around a lot.

Not sure if any of his childhood stomping grounds are going to get much favoritism.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#654

Post by stevenwoo »

appstateguy wrote: post #542
scarmig wrote: post #538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Texas is one bad election from making it legal to discriminate against LGBT communities and racial minorities. North Carolina is already there. That's a nonstarter.

Your comment is ignorant of both the past and future trajectories of the voting populations for both Texas and North Carolina. NC has only become "far right" since 2010. Prior to that it's legislature was controlled by democrats since 1990. Increases in hispanic and latino populations within Texas could turn it blue within the next 20 years. It is very short sighted thinking to think this won't change.

An increasing Hispanic and Latino population won't turn Texas blue all by itself. The turnout among that population at the voting booth is really low in Texas. This was also true in California until proposition 187 gave a lot of motivation for people to starting getting in the habit of using their vote. Without a precipitating event of the Texas GOP shooting itself in the foot with an equivalent to proposition 187, its going to take longer than 20 years. Old caucasian people are very reliable voters and as we saw in the recent special election in Alabama, will the vast majority of the them vote GOP no matter what candidate. https://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/latinos-wont-turn-te...

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#655

Post by p3llin0r3 »

justin66 wrote: post #143
itsdrewmiller wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More likely the same thing that kept Portland off - they want more distance between HQs.

Or the fact that their employees would need to sell their organs in order to afford single-bedroom apartments. But I'm curious, have they actually publicly stated that they want a lot of geographical distance between the old and new HQ? It's an assumption that informs a lot of what's being said here.

I see this sentiment coming a lot from Portlanders.

I understand that rent is rising in your area. That is awful.

But you do realize that Portland's rent is comparable to the rent in many other US metros? In fact, it's cheaper than quite a few! With better infrastructure and poverty rates!

I'm from Chicago, and the rent in Portland is pretty comparable. You can find cheap rent in Chicago if you don't mind commuting 45-60 minutes each way and living in an (almost) literal war-zone. When was the last time you witnessed a drive by? Or had an active gang-shooter outside your house having a gun-fight with other bangers?

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#656

Post by tptacek »

cbHXBY1D wrote: post #620
tptacek wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think Amazon is going to pick Chicago, but there are underdeveloped areas in/near the center of the city in Chicago. There are parts of Chicago that are quite expensive (like West Loop, where McDonalds is moving its campus), but Chicago is really big .

Why not? It ticks all the boxes: tax breaks, good airport, transit, large metropolitan area, good schools, talent pool, etc.

My suspicion is that Amazon has known all along where they want to put HQ2, and that this whole exercise is a negotiating tactic. Illinois would be a particularly rough choice, due to state finances.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#657

Post by joveian »

sjg007 wrote: post #239
aaronarduino wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for Los Angeles, that is.

Bezos has a house there. So we should rank these by where the CEO has a house.

Wow, he has way more houses than I imagined. Two each in Medina, Wa and Beverly Hills, Ca. 30000 acres in Van Horn, Tx (not actually anywhere near Austin or Dallas despite being in Texas). Also, the single largest house in DC and a mere three condos in New York City (right next to Central Park).

http://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-owns-five-massive-...

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#658

Post by wfo »

lloyd-christmas wrote: post #580
wfo wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First link on google on poor voters going Democratic: http://www.businessinsider.com/exit-polls-who-voted-for-trum... Every income group over $50k voted Trump. If you scroll down you see that rural voters did indeed go for Trump, but they are much smaller proportion of the population than city folk or, the largest group, suburbanites (who went for Trump solidly as well). I don't have a source handy for the poor being…

That article doesn't support your assertion. Those are overall exit polls, not polls of swing states. The swings states are the only meaningful measure of comparison as to "why he won". The middle class are doing very well in red states like Iowa and Nebraska, but they are just as irrelevant as a billionaire in manhattan or a welfare recipient in the bronx.

Okay, if you will only accept extremely specific tailored data on tiny fractions of the population you are perfectly capable of finding it yourself. I'll be happy to review it with you when you do.

The other responder to you has already done this for you, in fact, and the data there backs up my claims.

Plus, my main claim is that Trump voters are not the poor, they are middle-class suburbanites. My source absolutely backs that claim up.

Also, I'm not sure you understand the electoral landscape very well. Iowa is one of the more purple states, it was VERY blue for Obama and almost exactly dead even on Bush both times.

The makeup of Iowa is actually very similar to nearby Wisconsin and Michigan, which were the surprise red states that took the election for Trump.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#659

Post by BookmarkSaver »

pdelbarba wrote: post #541
hbosch wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm. I have always thought of Seattle and Denver having equally blue-leaning, outdoorsy, marijuana-legalizing, progressively-led cities. What are the cultural differences between them that you're thinking of?

The outdoors are extremely accessible here in Denver. The culture here is very strongly in favor work/life balance since everyone hauls ass out into the mountains every Friday afternoon.

That's basically how it is in Seattle.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#660

Post by aaronbrethorst »

bulldoa wrote: post #648
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted. This is exactly what's happened to Seattle. http://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/article/What-does-it-re...

This is an interesting position that I am quite conflicted about. From the conclusion of the original post it seems like he/she would prefer company that brings in high salary jobs not to relocate to the area if the company itself would not be employing people that originated from the area for those high salary jobs. This is because he/she perceived that there is no benefit to the economy since the local does not get…

"The Times reported in July that 74 projects were under construction in downtown Seattle. Two-thirds of the buildings will be residential towers, with most being apartments for rent, not condos...Seattle has gone from one of the most affordable West Coast cities to one of the least, Aaron Terrazas, a senior economist at Zillow, told CNN Money. The city and developers have tried to alleviate that by building tons of apartments. Downtown has added 20,000 units in the past decade, with another 27,000 on the way...But nearly all the buildings are considered luxury real estate, with rents 40% higher than in older buildings. The dueling 41-story Insignia towers include amenities like a "sky retreat," an indoor lap pool and sauna, and a screening room...From 2005 to 2015, Seattle's median rent jumped by three times as much as the national figure did. In downtown Seattle, average rent has climbed to $2,400 a month, meaning you'd need to make about $96,000 to afford it."

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-hq-photo-tour-seattle-...

And another article: http://gawker.com/how-amazon-swallowed-seattle-1724795265

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