Earlier quoted context omitted.
NYC is more attractive than it used to be, to be fair. But, especially the parts of NYC young tech workers are actually interested in is still urbanization on steroids. I can tolerate and even revel in it for a week or so but it takes a lot of adjusting from most places, even other large cities.
NYC is very urban, but it isn't even the largest or most dense city in North America. I think you just have a bias against heavy urban areas. Lots of people are comfortable living in large dense cities. Hundreds of millions, if not more, live in cities with similar levels of urbanization as NYC.
Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters
201–210 of 229 posts
Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like not many places are willing to do the work in order to attract an Amazon; or better yet, foster an environment where one could build one organically. Too many pundits are trying to shame Amazon into moving to a city like Detroit or a city in the American heartland. But these areas are unattractive places for obvious reasons and it seems like Americans want to deny it. Want to attract an Amazon? Invest in…
This doesn't really explain why they didn't pick NJ or Boston which are liberal, well educated, incredibly diverse and multicultural. Also the sentiment of "reduce business regulations" goes together with conservative politics more often. I also disagree that "nobody wants to move to a socially conservative place". CA, Florida, Colorado, Nevada are all examples of places that were conservative or still are but appear…
The real "losers" in this situation are heartland states without major metro areas, like most of the plain states and rural America.
Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
You’d have a huge amount of Michelin stars in strip malls if LA even had the opportunity.
Even with that built in bias there are of course stars in strip malls.
There is a bib gourmand in a strip mall less than 3 blocks from where I sit.
Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to be "that guy", but I really do wonder whether there even were any serious "late stage" talks with any of these other cities? NYC is so obviously superior to every other location that you have to wonder whether there was any serious chance of anyone else actually getting the HQ2 at all? I mean, sure, DC can play both the government card, and the "Bezos loves us" card. But everyone else has no credible argument…
Texas has taxes a lot lower than NYC. Dallas is far cheaper to live in, too. That's quite a difference. Even if Amazon gets tax breaks, its employees will not. Dallas vs NYC is lowest vs highest income taxes in the nation.
If you had a global behemoth of a company, and you were already based on the West Coast, then your links to Asia would be just about as good as they could be without relocating out of the US.
But what if you wanted to go for a whole "sun never sets on the British Empire" thing? Then you would need better links from the Europe-Africa side of the world to your HQ. Assuming you don't want to relocate out of the US, that means the Eastern seaboard. That's just geography. Which place on the eastern seaboard has the best multi-modal transport links to the rest of the US and Europe-Africa? NYC. For logistics, by air, land, and sea, you can't beat NYC. They've just invested way too much into that stuff for anyone else to beat them at it. (Probably did so over time using those high taxes you talked about.)
Add in the fact that NYC has access to an enormous community of technology experts, and the fact that it has plentiful high powered jobs in other industries, and the choice really is a no-brainer.
Dallas, is just not there yet, to be perfectly frank. The only city in Texas that is even working towards being a rival to NYC is Houston. And while they've made admirable progress, with ports, metro trains, and airports, they've still got quite a ways to go. (For instance, they're metro is building out nicely, but it still doesn't connect to either of their airports yet. Nor does it connect to their port.)
Other cities can compete with the coastal elites, but we have to sober up as to what we need to do in order to actually be competitive. Lowering taxes might be part of it, but it's not going to make any of the knowledge behemoths leave the coastal elite cities.
Would you leave your home for another home in a neighborhood with worse schools and worse transport just because it was cheaper?
Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters
#205I 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.…
Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The average salary for these employees will be many x greater than the average NYC resident - you need to compare the relative size of the +25k employees to the ~200k subset of residents that make $200k+ in NY, not the entire 8M pop. NYC isn't known for small salaries, partly because it's not easy to live in Manhattan on a small salary. A major industry in Manhattan is banking, and folks in investment banks pull sa…
200k is at the low/mid range of an SDE2 at Amazon, Amazon pays more competitively than people give them credit for, especially compared to the majority of firms competing for software engineers in NYC right now.
It's unreasonable to assume most of the employees in the new office are going to be SDE2. Likely most of them will be new hires and SDE1.
$200k total compensation is not competitive for an experienced senior software engineer in Manhattan. I bet one of the arguments against NYC was that Amazon would likely have to improve compensation packages.
Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
200k is at the low/mid range of an SDE2 at Amazon, Amazon pays more competitively than people give them credit for, especially compared to the majority of firms competing for software engineers in NYC right now.
An SDE2 is a senior software engineer, typically one who's been with Amazon for a few years. It's unreasonable to assume most of the employees in the new office are going to be SDE2. Likely most of them will be new hires and SDE1. $200k total compensation is not competitive for an experienced senior software engineer in Manhattan. I bet one of the arguments against NYC was that Amazon would likely have to improve com…
Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
An SDE2 is a senior software engineer, typically one who's been with Amazon for a few years. It's unreasonable to assume most of the employees in the new office are going to be SDE2. Likely most of them will be new hires and SDE1. $200k total compensation is not competitive for an experienced senior software engineer in Manhattan. I bet one of the arguments against NYC was that Amazon would likely have to improve com…
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Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
Texas has taxes a lot lower than NYC. Dallas is far cheaper to live in, too. That's quite a difference. Even if Amazon gets tax breaks, its employees will not. Dallas vs NYC is lowest vs highest income taxes in the nation.
It's not about taxes though. That's what so many people don't understand. If you had a global behemoth of a company, and you were already based on the West Coast, then your links to Asia would be just about as good as they could be without relocating out of the US. But what if you wanted to go for a whole "sun never sets on the British Empire" thing? Then you would need better links from the Europe-Africa side of the…
I was just pointing out that a place like Dallas does have some benefits over NYC.
Re: Amazon expected to announce NYC and Northern Virginia as new headquarters
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
200k is at the low/mid range of an SDE2 at Amazon, Amazon pays more competitively than people give them credit for, especially compared to the majority of firms competing for software engineers in NYC right now.
An SDE2 is a senior software engineer, typically one who's been with Amazon for a few years. It's unreasonable to assume most of the employees in the new office are going to be SDE2. Likely most of them will be new hires and SDE1. $200k total compensation is not competitive for an experienced senior software engineer in Manhattan. I bet one of the arguments against NYC was that Amazon would likely have to improve com…