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The Path Amazon Rejected

nytimes.com

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Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#91

Post by bogomipz »

pathseeker wrote: post #86
bogomipz wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"LIC will be toxic to big business for years" You mean like Citibank, JetBlue, Fresh Direct and Steve Madden who all moved to Long Island City years ago and continue to flourish? Or like Ralph Lauren who just signed a lease for 19K square foot of space and Cornel University's building of their Techion campus? Yeah right. I'm amazed on the number of people who appear be not only unfamiliar with Long Island City as a…

Those companies pay garbage.

Your comment as is as uniformed as it is absurd. Many of those are fortune 500/publicly traded companies. That not withstanding, the comment was that that the business environment would somehow now toxic in LIC which has exactly zero to do with salary ranges.

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#92

Post by bogomipz »

jedberg wrote: post #81
bogomipz wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"NYC didn't offer them anything of particularly great value that they couldn't get elsewhere." You mean like access to a very large and very skilled labor pool? A 24 hour transit system, 3 major airports? 1 million square feet of available office like they were going to take in Citicorp tower that has a train stop at the bottom of the building? Sure.

Amazon doesn’t need a large local labor pool. They get far more applicants than they need and plenty of people willing to move to work there. There are lots of cities with empty office space. And in most cities parking isn’t a problem so the transit isn’t necessary. You gotta think like Amazon — most of those things weren’t huge benefits to them. They were benefits to their future employees but only in that city. The…

>"Amazon doesn’t need a large local labor pool. They get far more applicants than they need and plenty of people willing to move to work there."

Nonsense. It's far more efficient to be able to tap a local labor pool. Google, FB, et al set up shop in NYC for this ver And there are always people who don't want or can not relocate. Or who simply do not want to live in New York City.

>"And in most cities parking isn’t a problem so the transit isn’t necessary"

Please name just one top tier city where parking isn't a problem and mass transit isn't necessary.

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#93

Post by jedberg »

bogomipz wrote: post #92
jedberg wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon doesn’t need a large local labor pool. They get far more applicants than they need and plenty of people willing to move to work there. There are lots of cities with empty office space. And in most cities parking isn’t a problem so the transit isn’t necessary. You gotta think like Amazon — most of those things weren’t huge benefits to them. They were benefits to their future employees but only in that city. The…

>"Amazon doesn’t need a large local labor pool. They get far more applicants than they need and plenty of people willing to move to work there." Nonsense. It's far more efficient to be able to tap a local labor pool. Google, FB, et al set up shop in NYC for this ver And there are always people who don't want or can not relocate. Or who simply do not want to live in New York City. >"And in most cities parking isn’t a…

Dallas.

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#94

Post by bogomipz »

pathseeker wrote: post #87
bogomipz wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"NYC didn't offer them anything of particularly great value that they couldn't get elsewhere." You mean like access to a very large and very skilled labor pool? A 24 hour transit system, 3 major airports? 1 million square feet of available office like they were going to take in Citicorp tower that has a train stop at the bottom of the building? Sure.

If any of those things truly mattered, Amazon wouldn't have walked away so quickly.

Here let me invert that for you - If any of those things didn't matter Amazon would not have chosen NYC in the first place.

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#95

Post by nrb »

dangban wrote: post #6

de Blasio tweeted this after Amazon cancelled: https://twitter.com/NYCMayor/status/1096110674613358593 "working with the community" is code for "bribe" among the community organizer types.

I don't read it like that personally.

I mean, judging by some reporting[1] it sounds like the final meetings involved a framework for unionization efforts which to Amazon was probably unpalatable enough to pull out entirely just based on that.

I guess if you consider "working with the community" to equal "greasing the local union bosses" then maybe. But it's just more logical to just imagine that Amazon doesn't want to exist a blueprint for other unionization efforts nationwide.

1: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/15/amazon-held-11th-hour-meetin...

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#96

Post by bogomipz »

jedberg wrote: post #93
bogomipz wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Amazon doesn’t need a large local labor pool. They get far more applicants than they need and plenty of people willing to move to work there." Nonsense. It's far more efficient to be able to tap a local labor pool. Google, FB, et al set up shop in NYC for this ver And there are always people who don't want or can not relocate. Or who simply do not want to live in New York City. >"And in most cities parking isn’t a…

Dallas.

Sorry Dallas is not a "top tier" city. Not by any measure - population-wise, ethnic diversity, diversity of industry or culturally. Nobody sets up shop in Dallas as a selling point to attract the world's top talent.

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#97

Post by my_usernam3 »

Pyxl101 wrote: post #48
my_usernam3 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why does amazon get to pay less than existing businesses, unfair tax laws or not?

Amazon would not pay less NYC tax than other businesses. The NYC tax breaks that Amazon was planning to take advantage of are open to every company that qualifies: https://www.nycedc.com/program/relocation-and-employment-ass... https://www.nycedc.com/program/industrial-commercial-abateme... These programs are designed to encourage specific behavior, like companies moving to and making capital investments in particula…

Interesting, thanks for sharing!

It does appear to be a "don't hate the player, hate the game" scenario which I do think is worth looking at. I would love to see real discussion with details like the link you presented from both side, and not these emotionally charged garbage opinion pieces presented almost as articles with no sources or credibility.

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#98

Post by dingaling »

tracer4201 wrote: post #16

I don't understand the outrage towards Amazon. 1. No one forced any of these states/cities to join this bidding contest. They willingly participated. "How dare Amazon put cities against one another in a bidding war?!" Yeah, I put five dealers against one another in a bidding war to get my business the last time I shopped for a car. Amazon can do the same thing. 2. "Jeff Bezos doesn't need our tax breaks!" I bet he do…

> I put five dealers against one another in a bidding war to get my business the last time I shopped for a car

Now try the same trick with five Bentley dealers. Nope, no discount because they know you can afford list price.

I don't mind that there are incentives for SMEs. I do mind that behemoths like Amazon can drain the pool to the detriment of others.

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#99

Post by jakelazaroff »

pathseeker wrote: post #80
jakelazaroff wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using this logic, people aren't allowed to be upset at anything, as long as it's a rational action within a system. This is a weird way to look at things! You can justify all sorts of reprehensible behavior this way. "Either be upset that the system incentivizes slavery, or be upset that the incentives against slavery failed." But definitely don't be upset at the slaveowners!

> Using this logic, people aren't allowed to be upset at anything, as long as it's a rational action within a system. This is a weird way to look at things! That's not what was said, at all. Be upset at your politicians. This is a democracy despite what the cynics say. The vast majority of people mad at Amazon don't even understand that they weren't being given very special treatment. Most of it came from existing st…

Why not also be upset at Amazon? They're doing something many people consider unethical.

Re: The Path Amazon Rejected

#100

Post by mch82 »

ardy42 wrote: post #89
slowmovintarget wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reality doesn't allow people to have it both ways. Either be upset that the system incentivizes the behavior, or be upset that the incentives failed. In both of those cases, the blame lies at the feet of the elected officials. Granted, the implication of that is the blame lies at the feet of those who cast the ballots (George Carlin, we miss you). People always have trouble blaming themselves. Corporations are jello.…

> In both of those cases, the blame lies at the feet of the elected officials. Granted, the implication of that is the blame lies at the feet of those who cast the ballots... Blame also lies at the feet of those people and organizations who twist the imperfect rules and governmental systems to suit themselves at the expense of others. To put it another way: all software has bugs, and many of them get exploited. While…

> “all software has bugs... blame still lies at the feet of those people who choose to exploit the bugs...”

Nice analogy!

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