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Amazon Selects New York City and Northern Virginia for New Headquarters

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

#161

Post by strikelaserclaw »

matchbok wrote: post #113
bsanr wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moving is a substantial expense. Should people be forced to consider the likelihood that housing costs that are currently within their means might rise outside of them at some unknown point in the future, and to some unknown degree, when choosing housing? How exactly should that be considered? It seems regressive, socially, to force this consideration on the people least able to afford it. After all, people who "choo…

...Yes? This has been happening for hundreds of years. Part of being a responsible adult is managing your finances and being prepared. It is crazy to me that so much attention these days is basically advocating for the babysitting of adults. It is not as if this will happen overnight, either. If we allow people to stay in subsidized housing we remove the biggest carrot for self-motivation.

this comment assumes people are poor because they lack self motivation or "grit to pull themselves up by the bootstraps", which in general i believe to be false.

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

#162

Post by ap24 »

jesseryoung wrote: post #57

Unless I'm misreading this, it looks like Nashville got the best deal > Amazon will receive performance-based direct incentives of up to $102 million based on the company creating 5,000 jobs with an average wage of over $150,000 in Nashville. This is a pretty big deal for Nashville, and costing them only $12,000 per job is a pretty big win.

As someone who lives in Nashville and can see the future location out my office window, Nashville might be getting jobs but we don't have the infrastructure to support what we already have. The post Amazon puts out makes it sound like we have public transit (we basically don't) and the recently downvoted transit bill means we can't readdress it anytime in the near future. I don't really see anything good out of it for those of us who already live here and have no interest in picking up one of those jobs.

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

#163

Post by sinker »

matchbok wrote: post #113
bsanr wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moving is a substantial expense. Should people be forced to consider the likelihood that housing costs that are currently within their means might rise outside of them at some unknown point in the future, and to some unknown degree, when choosing housing? How exactly should that be considered? It seems regressive, socially, to force this consideration on the people least able to afford it. After all, people who "choo…

...Yes? This has been happening for hundreds of years. Part of being a responsible adult is managing your finances and being prepared. It is crazy to me that so much attention these days is basically advocating for the babysitting of adults. It is not as if this will happen overnight, either. If we allow people to stay in subsidized housing we remove the biggest carrot for self-motivation.

That carrot is unobtainable for most people. Janitors, teachers, deli workers, city park employees, dog walkers, babysitters, waiters, waitresses, contractors. Doesn't matter how well you "manage your finances" if your salary basically has a cap on it.

The only ones benefitting are overpaid tech workers supplanting people that do actual tangible work that makes the city tick.

Funny that a tech worker posting on the HN playground is addressing people who deal with real life struggles (raising a family, making increasing rent) how to be a "responsible adult."

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

#165

Post by Johnny555 »

unreal37 wrote: post #154
Johnny555 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did game the system though. Feels like they negotiated tax benefits with 50k employees in mind, and kept the same benefits while only giving locations 25k each. If that's what happened, that's poor negotiation by the cities. If they made an offer based on employee counts, they could have required employee targets in return for the benefits being offered. And if Amazon refuses to make firm employee count guarante…

I thought I read that the tax benefits were paid "per job created". So creating half the jobs results in half the tax benefits.

But paying a company $10,000 in benefits per employee for 1,000 jobs may not be as valuable to the community than paying $10,000 per employee for 20,000 jobs.

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

#166

Post by sol_remmy »

ap24 wrote: post #162
jesseryoung wrote: post #57

Unless I'm misreading this, it looks like Nashville got the best deal > Amazon will receive performance-based direct incentives of up to $102 million based on the company creating 5,000 jobs with an average wage of over $150,000 in Nashville. This is a pretty big deal for Nashville, and costing them only $12,000 per job is a pretty big win.

As someone who lives in Nashville and can see the future location out my office window, Nashville might be getting jobs but we don't have the infrastructure to support what we already have. The post Amazon puts out makes it sound like we have public transit (we basically don't) and the recently downvoted transit bill means we can't readdress it anytime in the near future. I don't really see anything good out of it fo…

There's plenty of space elsewhere in the country, why not relocate your family to the Midwest? You can get a cheap home and there are plenty of jobs

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

#167

Post by kmonad »

jrockway wrote: post #114
SippinLean wrote: post #12

> Long Island City is a mixed-use community where arts and industry intersect It's mostly empty warehouses, housing projects, and luxury condos. There's very little in terms of culture or even basic needs, like grocery stores. > Long Island City has some of the best transit access in New York City, with 8 subway lines, 13 bus lines, commuter rail, a bike-sharing service, and ferries serving the area Realistically it'…

I am not sure I agree with this assessment. Where are Amazon employees going to live? Probably not out on Queens Boulevard on the 7/E/F/M/R so they'll be taking the train in the opposite direction. If they live on Long Island, they can take LIRR to Hunterspoint Ave (infrequent service, but demand can change that). If they live in New Jersey or in MNR territory, they'll take the train to Manhattan and then take the su…

I might be wrong, but are you suggesting getting to LGA from LIC is ...inconvenient? I think in all of NY there is no relationship between neighborhood and airport that would be better? Not sure about public transport since I would think everybody would take a lyft/uber/taxi from LIC to LGA. It's 10min and cheap.

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

#168

Post by jocro »

mtberatwork wrote: post #136
basseq wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm skeptical at the choice of Crystal City. (Sorry, that's where it is, call it what you want.) I think being "urban" mattered a lot to them, and Crystal City has the most opportunity for a significant tenant to move in. But that "opportunity" is there because it's a secondary or tertiary choice for employers. Considering that 70%+ people are commuters, a) there are more desirable locations no matter where you're co…

Agreed, Crystal City is a terrible choice if you are trying to attract talent in the DMV. Who wants to make that commute? Not sure why they didn't choose Dulles - more space, new metro infrastructure, Dulles airport access and existing AWS offices and data centers.

>Not sure why they didn't choose Dulles

Dulles is no better of a commute for most people in the DMV, especially those that want to live within the DC/Arlington area.

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

#169

Post by jocro »

basseq wrote: post #98
mikeash wrote: post #3

What the heck is “National Landing”? I’ve lived in this area for over a decade and that’s the first time I’ve heard the name.

I'm skeptical at the choice of Crystal City. (Sorry, that's where it is, call it what you want.) I think being "urban" mattered a lot to them, and Crystal City has the most opportunity for a significant tenant to move in. But that "opportunity" is there because it's a secondary or tertiary choice for employers. Considering that 70%+ people are commuters, a) there are more desirable locations no matter where you're co…

Honestly a ferry across the Potomac could make a lot of sense if it runs frequently enough. Could be a release valve for a lot of that Metro congestion, and otherwise the 14th St bridge would be nightmarish for 4+ hours a day.

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

#170

Post by akhilcacharya »

burger_moon wrote: post #124
screye wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wouldn't you call two new offices that are smaller than the headquarters "satellite offices"? Not quite. Amazon has satellite offices, that employ an order of magnitude fewer employees. At 25k/branch, the term "regional headquarters" can be considered justified. They did game the system though. Feels like they negotiated tax benefits with 50k employees in mind, and kept the same benefits while only giving locations…

> Fin-tech firms WILL HAVE TO compete against Amazon for (supposed) west coast wages, and could help build a much stronger tech industry than NYC has atm. Those fin-tech companies almost certainly pay more than Amazon already. IIRC amazon has a cap of 275k for base pay, which means even if you're James Gosling that's the most you're getting, the rest has to come from RSUs which amazon also has a terrible vesting stru…

> Amazon is regarded as a top-tier tech company, but their pay is not on par with any of the other companies (Google, FB, Uber, etc).

Can you expound on this?

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