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Amazon Selects New York City and Northern Virginia for New Headquarters

blog.aboutamazon.com

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Re: Amazon Selects New York City and Northern Virginia for New Headquarters

#31

Post by mcgannon2007 »

jfasi wrote: post #22
melling wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grab a subway map of Queens. The good thing about NYC is that no one needs to drive to work.

The E/M/F/R tunnels are already some of the most congested, most delayed, least pleasant segments in the entire city. As much as I welcome Amazon's move, I don't envy the poor suckers who have to ride in and out of Queens.

I assume this is a big incentive to improve those lines and Amazon will hopefully lobby for such. Similar to their support for public transportation in Seattle.

Re: Amazon Selects New York City and Northern Virginia for New Headquarters

#32

Post by jcampbell1 »

jfasi wrote: post #22
melling wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grab a subway map of Queens. The good thing about NYC is that no one needs to drive to work.

The E/M/F/R tunnels are already some of the most congested, most delayed, least pleasant segments in the entire city. As much as I welcome Amazon's move, I don't envy the poor suckers who have to ride in and out of Queens.

Living in the west side rail yards, and commuting to LIC would be a very pleasant commute in the morning and not so bad during the afternoon.

It is surprisingly convenient the largest private real estate project in the US is conviniently located to Amazon's new HQ.

Re: Amazon Selects New York City and Northern Virginia for New Headquarters

#33

Post by mikeash »

Cyclone_ wrote: post #19

Can't believe how many subsidies they got, to me it's a question of fairness, why should we subsidize them, but not others? I get that they are doing the community a service by creating high paying jobs, but there certainly have been negative sides to what they've done (gentrification, poor working conditions for many employees in their warehouses).

A big company wants to bring some high paying jobs to a large, prosperous metro area that’s doing just fine without them: shower them with money!

Someone is on the verge of literally starving to death: make them pee in a cup before you give them any food to make sure they’re not an addict.

The Feds ought to use their interstate commerce power to put a stop to these races to the bottom to court individual projects. If some locality wants to be low-tax and business-friendly then go for it, but do it for everyone.

Re: Amazon Selects New York City and Northern Virginia for New Headquarters

#35

Post by gammateam »

Cyclone_ wrote: post #19

Can't believe how many subsidies they got, to me it's a question of fairness, why should we subsidize them, but not others? I get that they are doing the community a service by creating high paying jobs, but there certainly have been negative sides to what they've done (gentrification, poor working conditions for many employees in their warehouses).

You say gentrification like its a pejorative term.

Maybe its your recurring assumption that fairness has anything to do with this. Just excise the prosperity preaching from your brain and you'll see that none of this is related.

They provide a perceived dollar benefit to the governing institution, the governing institution has the authority to catalyze that, the end.

Re: Amazon Selects New York City and Northern Virginia for New Headquarters

#36

Post by dunpeal »

baseballMan wrote: post #4

Knew that they wouldn't pick Toronto - Trump would have blown a gasket

Kinda pointless to open a huge office for recruitment, where virtually all your top talent is trying to get to the US to benefit from far better employment terms and compensation.

Re: Amazon Selects New York City and Northern Virginia for New Headquarters

#38

Post by schnevets »

As a New Yorker, I am super disappointed that they chose Long Island City. There were contenders where this stimulus could have been a paradigm shift. Instead, it's just a drop in the bucket for a city that is already growing recklessly.

My vote was for Newark, personally. Plenty of office space; access to NJIT, Rutgers, and Princeton; and good public transit that connects directly into NYC. Bezos and co. could have done some real good, but instead they will just be contributing to New York's biggest gripes (unsustainable subways, housing shortages, and an aggregation of labor into a few metropolitan areas).

Re: Amazon Selects New York City and Northern Virginia for New Headquarters

#39

Post by imtyler »

gammateam wrote: post #35
Cyclone_ wrote: post #19

Can't believe how many subsidies they got, to me it's a question of fairness, why should we subsidize them, but not others? I get that they are doing the community a service by creating high paying jobs, but there certainly have been negative sides to what they've done (gentrification, poor working conditions for many employees in their warehouses).

You say gentrification like its a pejorative term. Maybe its your recurring assumption that fairness has anything to do with this. Just excise the prosperity preaching from your brain and you'll see that none of this is related. They provide a perceived dollar benefit to the governing institution, the governing institution has the authority to catalyze that, the end.

>You say gentrification like its a pejorative term.

I mean, it kind of is. It not only refers to 'improvements' but also the displacement of anyone below the middle class as a result of those improvements.

Re: Amazon Selects New York City and Northern Virginia for New Headquarters

#40

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

Cyclone_ wrote: post #19

Can't believe how many subsidies they got, to me it's a question of fairness, why should we subsidize them, but not others? I get that they are doing the community a service by creating high paying jobs, but there certainly have been negative sides to what they've done (gentrification, poor working conditions for many employees in their warehouses).

New York's Excelsior program has pretty low bars for it's tax credits:

https://esd.ny.gov/excelsior-jobs-program#eligibility

https://esd.ny.gov/sites/default/files/Excelsior_Overview_20...

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