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Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters

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81–90 of 229 posts

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

#81
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some weird reason (in my experience) Amazon employees all seem to want to move to NYC. Like, constantly. Go on Blind and they'll talk about it all day with dubious reasoning. I don't get it myself (I had a few NYC offers but chose Amazon in Boston instead), but NYC has become "the place" elite for software-focused undergrads these days. Everyone wants to get into FB/Instagram NY or Google NYC.

One of the great parts of being in NYC is having friends who aren’t “in tech”. Tech is an industry here, and there’s a massive network where you’re not tying yourself to one company though your move, but it doesn’t define the culture of the city.

I don't think this can be understated. My friends and I don't even TALK about tech because not all of my friends are in tech. I have friends that are in completely different industries, like media, theater, urban planning, education, finance, journalism, etc. You meet people who are making it as artists or going for their PhD. There's a vibrant Meetup scene. And if you live near a friend, you can literally just walk to their apartment and hang out.

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

#82
post #33
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.…

The person you're talking to didn't say they were having trouble understanding "why people might want to live" there. They said they thought it was a bad choice on Amazon's part for cogent reasons, all of which you ignore in this reply.

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

#83
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…

Obviously Amazon was going to get a great bargain and bunch of info to boot - they have massive bargaining power. Not participating in the bid would have been suicide for the politicians of any major city save perhaps Kreuzberg, Berlin [1]. The amount of wealth creation and subsequent tax payments/land value boost that any FAANG company would bring with a new HQ is way too big to be ignored. [1] https://www.theguardi…

> they have massive bargaining power

Wouldn't call it "massive" in NYC. The office size is projected to employ 25,000 people in total. Nice number, but not "massive" for a city of 8,623,000 people.

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

#84
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…

nyc is a terrible place to live for a lot of people. i personally can not stand it. dirty city, terrible weather, and rude people.

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

#85
post #69
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So does the state of New York.

New York doesn’t put Michelin star restaurants in strip malls.

It's really quite jarring just how many of them there are. sure the east has strip malls, but they just don't seem to take up that much space.

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

#87
post #69
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So does the state of New York.

New York doesn’t put Michelin star restaurants in strip malls.

Show me a single Michelin Star restaurant in the entire United States located in a strip mall. And besides, if they put Michelin Star restaurants in strip malls, they probably wouldn't be the marker of not much going on that they currently are.

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

#88

What will it mean for a company to have three "headquarters"? Will each location focus on a different part of the business?

It's actually not uncommon at even medium-large companies. Once you're spread among large or even not-so-large campuses, you might almost just as well be in different cities anyway. They don't tend to be called HQs but they are effectively divisional HQs.

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

#89
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…

Obviously Amazon was going to get a great bargain and bunch of info to boot - they have massive bargaining power. Not participating in the bid would have been suicide for the politicians of any major city save perhaps Kreuzberg, Berlin [1]. The amount of wealth creation and subsequent tax payments/land value boost that any FAANG company would bring with a new HQ is way too big to be ignored. [1] https://www.theguardi…

>Not participating in the bid would have been suicide for the politicians of any major city

I find that pretty implausible. Foxconn didn't save Scott Walker (and I don't think that's because his would-be supporters later realized that it wasn't such a sweet deal, either).

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

#90
post #33
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.…

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