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Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters

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Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters

#71

Post by sonnyblarney »

prlambert wrote: post #56
sonnyblarney wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NYC has a lot of developers, more than the valley. It's already a 'draw' of sorts, this is an advantage. "DC, access to policymakers - but I see no real strategic advantages here." Amazon is going to become the #1 IT vendor of choice for the biggest government of the world AND reach their tentacles deep into the political arena for all sorts of other benefits. Military, FBI, CIA, Gov, Fannie/Freddie. All huge . Also…

"NYC has a lot of developers, more than the valley" - do you have a source for that? Seems highly unlikely. My quick googling suggests silicon valley has 2x-5x more engineers than NYC.

Oh - I'm sorry - I was looking at job openings in a specific software field and there were way more openings in NYC - I confused that with devs.

A summary glance indicates that the Valley and SF may be roughly on par with NYC but that the Bay Area has more than NYC, I stand corrected - though there seems to be scant hard data as it's difficult to define exactly what a developer is ...

Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters

#72

Post by jowiar »

api wrote: post #20
sonnyblarney wrote: post #11

I'm saddened by this because it just adds to hyper concentration. DC is already woefully over staffed with overpaid folks living off of guaranteed tax revenues, I don't believe in the inherent productivity there, and just cynical enough to believe it's a means for AMZN to leverage political power and government contracts. NYC is understandable ... ... but it would have been really nice for business diversity for that…

I dont understand it. We seem to have decided as a culture that absolutely everything had to be in like five cities. Its a major contributor to division and polarization and a trend that is destroying the middle class.

Taking the slider to the other extreme, you end up with company towns everywhere, and there are a whole lot of burned out husks of civilization that are memories to that.

Until we truly solve remote, there will be some concentration. And there's value to that as an employee. If your employer goes kaput, or you're stagnating in your career, or you have an abusive boss, there are plenty of opportunities available, and enough of them that one shock to the system won't break the local economy.

Of course, the flip side of that is that real estate values go through the roof.

Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters

#73

Post by dunpeal »

whatever_dude wrote: post #60
prlambert wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"NYC has a lot of developers, more than the valley" - do you have a source for that? Seems highly unlikely. My quick googling suggests silicon valley has 2x-5x more engineers than NYC.

Living in NY for over a decade and visiting the Bay area often, I have to agree. I'd say the difference is even bigger if you look at Silicon Valley as a whole. I wouldn't be surprised if the ratio was more like 10:1.

10:1 seems a bit too much, but yeah, I'm not sure where GP got the idea that NYC has more engineers than SFBay.

NYC was not historically focused on engineering or tech. Media, advertising, and of course - finance, banking, and investment banking.

Pure engineering or software work? Not very much.

Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters

#74

Post by pratik661 »

justapassenger wrote: post #48
jey wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[retracted]

For some quality of life means being able to get a drink at 3AM. For others - house with a backyard.

You can literally have a house with a backyard and a less than 1 hour commute from Manhattan.

Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters

#75

Post by jkaplowitz »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #31
bobsil1 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banking, ads, modeling. Not tech. No Fry’s.

They have Microcenter and B&H, what more could you need?

Also 269 Canal Street. Not just another Chinatown jewelry shop.

https://makezine.com/2008/03/01/269-electronics-canal-str/

I hope they're still there, that link is a decade old. Once I went there and bought a cable or adapter (I forget) - the guy tested it with a multimeter before selling it to me to confirm it worked. Loved that.

Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters

#76

Post by jorblumesea »

Aloha wrote: post #6

I feel this choice is a mistake for the company long term, they're putting resources into two very hot housing and real estate markets, that have no real draw (in my opinion) for technical employees. Hew York is high tax (compared to Washington), unpleasant weather, overall high costs, and has a housing shortage, Washington DC, once described has having "Southern Efficiency, and Northern Charm" has similar issues of…

Implying that these "HQs" are going to be more than 10k employees. Both cities can easily absorb another few thousand highly paid engineers/business/lobbyists.

Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters

#77

Post by wpietri »

gkanai wrote: post #17

I agree with Scott Galloway who has both predicted the outcome and has called this a sham 'contest.' Galloway said that Bezos was always going to pick one of the coastal cities where he has a second/third home. By doing this 'contest' Amazon was able to get cities to compete with each other to provide tax incentives to Amazon and was also able to get valuable private information on the cities that Amazon can use in t…

Whoa. Bezos indeed has homes in NYC and Washington DC. (As well as Seattle, Beverly Hills, and a ranch in Texas. [1])

I can't find it now, but years ago The Economist ran an article about a study that said a key factor in corporate headquarter moves was where the CEO lives. Disappointing to see it play out like that on such a grand scale, and after such a pretense of a nationwide search. Yet another thing that convinces me I'd never want to work at Amazon.

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-owns-five-massive...

Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters

#78

Post by cthalupa »

CPLX wrote: post #33
Aloha wrote: post #6

I feel this choice is a mistake for the company long term, they're putting resources into two very hot housing and real estate markets, that have no real draw (in my opinion) for technical employees. Hew York is high tax (compared to Washington), unpleasant weather, overall high costs, and has a housing shortage, Washington DC, once described has having "Southern Efficiency, and Northern Charm" has similar issues of…

New York is literally the greatest city in the history of world civilization and the planetary capital of finance, media, business, fashion and culture. It’s easily the largest city in the country, and iconic globally. But you’re finding it hard to understand why people might want to live here? I’d post more but my New York life is veritable cornucopia of novel and enriching experiences and I’d better get back to it.…

>New York is literally the greatest city in the history of world civilization and the planetary capital of finance, media, business, fashion and culture. It’s easily the largest city in the country, and iconic globally.

So, I mean, I generally agree with your point, and if you said the American, or maybe even Western, I might agree with you completely. But, uh, there's some pretty amazing cities out there. There's not much I like better in NYC to Tokyo, for example. And hell, with how much better the Tokyo metro and JR lines are than the NYC subway system, you can live cheaper and still get into the heart of the city faster.

Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters

#79

Post by jordache »

CPLX wrote: post #33
Aloha wrote: post #6

I feel this choice is a mistake for the company long term, they're putting resources into two very hot housing and real estate markets, that have no real draw (in my opinion) for technical employees. Hew York is high tax (compared to Washington), unpleasant weather, overall high costs, and has a housing shortage, Washington DC, once described has having "Southern Efficiency, and Northern Charm" has similar issues of…

New York is literally the greatest city in the history of world civilization and the planetary capital of finance, media, business, fashion and culture. It’s easily the largest city in the country, and iconic globally. But you’re finding it hard to understand why people might want to live here? I’d post more but my New York life is veritable cornucopia of novel and enriching experiences and I’d better get back to it.…

haha greatest city in the history of the world? You obviously don't get out much at all.

Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters

#80

Post by dunpeal »

wpietri wrote: post #77
gkanai wrote: post #17

I agree with Scott Galloway who has both predicted the outcome and has called this a sham 'contest.' Galloway said that Bezos was always going to pick one of the coastal cities where he has a second/third home. By doing this 'contest' Amazon was able to get cities to compete with each other to provide tax incentives to Amazon and was also able to get valuable private information on the cities that Amazon can use in t…

Whoa. Bezos indeed has homes in NYC and Washington DC. (As well as Seattle, Beverly Hills, and a ranch in Texas. [1]) I can't find it now, but years ago The Economist ran an article about a study that said a key factor in corporate headquarter moves was where the CEO lives. Disappointing to see it play out like that on such a grand scale, and after such a pretense of a nationwide search. Yet another thing that convin…

Doubt it was a factor with Bezos. The guy is rich enough to live anywhere, and has houses everywhere, as you also observed.

Somehow the office didn't land in Beverly Hills or the Texas ranch.

I expect the fact that he already has homes in NYC and DC is related to the fact they are in fact important locations for his business.

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