I started to get that impression when I, as an east coast dev, started getting hit up by Amazon recently... for jobs in Seattle and SF. But not New York.
Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus
631–640 of 1001 posts
Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus
#632After being a resident of NYC for 30 years and seeing the city change and become a technology hub and just a financial center I think this is a real loss for NYC. It would also be in Long island City which would provide a huge influx of new workers and move that neighborhood forward in development rapidly. The down side would be that it would push some residents and business owners out but this is simply a fact of li…
That subway line is actually quite useful and has pretty high ridership
Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus
#633Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the debate about animal cruelty?
Most people are quite happy to keeping buying cheap factory-farmed meat and dairy, despite vague awareness of the generally horrific conditions of the animals (and humans) producing it.
Oh, so “animal cruelty” is Newspeak for not being vegan.
Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus
#634Earlier quoted context omitted.
It isn't any more "bullying" than you shopping various car dealerships to get the best deal on a new car.
more closer would be a Saudi prince agreeing to become a US citizen in exchange for a personally reduced income tax rate. Would you support it?
Would you call that "bullying" by the Saudi prince?
Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus
#635Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is incorrect: " that otherwise wouldn't be paid at all " The opposite is true, 100% of those taxes will be paid by some other business. Maybe you could make your argument about the New York City of the 1970s, but you sure as heck can not make that argument about the New York City of 2019. New York City is not starving for investment, rather, its biggest challenge nowadays is managing its fast growth. Other busin…
If that’s the case, why would the NY politicians put that money on the table? They did so voluntarily.
The obvious answer is what is commonly called the inertia of dead ideas. Leaders grow up in one era but take power in the next era and they often bring along with them ideas that are 20 years out of date. Military historians joke “generals are always ready to fight the last war” and political leaders make mistakes of the same category. Offering billions in tax breaks to lure businesses is the kind of thing New York might have sensibly done in the 1980s when they were desperate to replace the loss of the textile industry. Such a strategy makes no sense in 2019, when an abundance of investment has clearly replaced the lost industries.
Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus
#636Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't this exactly the opposite? Amazon would have destroyed the general economy in NYC like they did in Seattle. This is the city ignoring the big corporation and listening to their people. NYC doesn't need Amazon. It needs to fix it's rail system.
And how do you fix the rail system? With money from... taxes... from well paid workers, for example. I think a lot of people get so caught up in hating on tech workers and opposing gentrification they forget where the money comes from.
How long will it take to cover the almost 3 billion dollars they were offering Amazon? That is money that could go into improving mass transit right now AND provide jobs for building and operating it, while benefiting hundreds of thousands of citizens through it's usage.
Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus
#637Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let me explain it in terms that any New Yorker should be able to understand: If you are a New Yorker you are no doubt familiar with the concept of "one month free rent". Most buildings in NYC will give you one month free when you sign your lease. If a building doesn't give you that offer its probably not as tempting as another nearby building that does. Yet the "one month free" isn't a losing money proposition for th…
What New York City do you live in? I have never been offered, nor do I know anybody who's been offered a month's free rent on signing a lease. Places that do this are overcharging and driving up rents. Your comment may just be emphasizing the fact that there are multiple "New Yorks." And I suspect the New York that Amazon HQ2 would benefit would be the New York that pays too much to live in a glass tower and gets off…
What is the point of this comment? It combines some smug self-satisfaction about "Your New York" with your ridiculously insulated anecdata about the first month discount many apartments give.
A 5 second Google search shows hundreds of results for 1 month free rent in apartment listings.
What exactly are you contributing to the discussion?
Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus
#638Earlier quoted context omitted.
But they probably did. It was just behind closed doors rather than publicized.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure any such tax breaks would have to be public data by now, even if they were originally hashed out behind closed doors. If you're implying that Google got tax breaks, and no one noticed the public data confirming these tax breaks, please provide evidence of the data that has been overlooked.
It's basically standard practice for any business to negotiate tax breaks for building in one place rather than another. I'm not going to spend any real amount of time tracking down theoretically publicly available documents on these deals. Sure the records exist, but I have no knowledge of a database I can search, and I'm not putting in a FOIA request.
Here's an article discussing the topic at large[0] (and Google is one of the beneficiaries here).
[0]: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/jul/02/us-cities-and...
Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus
#639If Amazon had just quietly announced plans to expand to LIC without the "HQ2 Search" dog and pony show they almost certainly would still be here. Google buys entire city blocks and nobody bats an eye. Turns out that publicly shaking down cities across the US tends to draw out the opposition. More publicity = more scrutiny = more angry opponents of your business decision
Most new Yorkers supported the project even when told about the subsidies. It's a vocal minority that sank the project https://www.wsj.com/articles/majority-of-new-yorkers-support...
56% is not a resounding endorsement, though, especially for such a big-ticket giveaway that the city absolutely does not need.
Re: Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Campus
#640Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the debate about animal cruelty?
Most people are quite happy to keeping buying cheap factory-farmed meat and dairy, despite vague awareness of the generally horrific conditions of the animals (and humans) producing it.
It is rarely labeled that way so the history of the animal doesn't come into play when purchasing.
When people think animal cruelity they think beating your family dog vs the state of factory farming or organic farming.