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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

#101

Post by bsanr »

matchbok wrote: post #69
imtyler wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Displacement is a fact of life. Nobody is entitled to live in a certain area for a certain amount of money. What ever happened to living within your means?

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 "choose" low-quality housing tend to do so because their choice is necessarily limited, by their lack of access to wealth and financing, to housing that is more attractive for redevelopment.

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

#102

Post by bsanr »

matchbok wrote: post #100
bsanr wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drives up rent. Breaks up existing, stable (if often impoverished) communities. Increased, concentrated development can have a negative environmental impact.

Nobody is entitled to live in a certain area for a certain price. Such things lead to distorted markets and tons of other issues.

So do the developer incentives that have driven urban redevelopment for the last 2 decades. Hence, in part, the glut of luxury apartments and the ever-tightening affordable housing market.

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

#103

Post by gorkemyurt »

raiflip wrote: post #81
prolikewh0a wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're doing the community a service by creating high paying jobs? The people will be shipped in from all around the world and displace the current communities. This destroys communities. This segregates poor & lower income people out. Only already rich people get to experience the benefits of this. The subsidies and tax cuts they got are an embarrassment to our system and a wonderful look into how this country isn'…

That's partially true. Not sure where you are from, but as opposed to places like San Francisco, NYC has a functioning real estate private sector that reacts rationally to increases in demand by increasing supply. This is not to say gentrification is not a thing, but it's not like in San Francisco where there's basically a set housing stock and new people completely displace the old people. Instead new people displac…

In case you didn't know SF has been building more housing/per capita than New York City for a while now..

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

#105

Post by bdcravens »

Xcelerate wrote: post #72
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.

The University of Tennessee ranks well in supply chain & logistics, so it makes sense. I believe Lyft opened a similar operations office in Nashville. Unfortunately, Nashville could really use strong tech jobs as well, which the state is sorely lacking. I wish Amazon had chosen Nashville as one of the main HQs.

> The University of Tennessee ranks well in supply chain & logistics

Fedex is based in Memphis, so this makes sense

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

#106

Post by bdcravens »

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.

Proximity to Fedex's headquarters and hub probably played a large role.

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

#107

Post by gorkemyurt »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #44
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 spend a lot of time passing through in this neighborhood, and can mostly confirm this. In fact, about those luxury condos and housing projects… they're _very_ new, popping up within the past two years and more coming all the time. I’ve been wondering for years what kind of people make the sort of money to afford these places and would also _want_ to live in that area… now I wonder if this decision wasn't made long…

LIC is one of the few places New York NIMBYs allowed development

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

#108

Post by bilbo0s »

enraged_camel wrote: post #77
blindwatchmaker wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current situation we have is insane. It's like the height of the gilded age with no trust busting in sight, the largest corporations in the land buy out politicians and are openly taking public money.

It's worth noting that not all politicians fall for this crap. Austin's Mayor, for all his flaws, refused to give any incentives to Amazon.

A lot of mayors did that. Truth be told, even New York City's mayor did that.

Problem is that it doesn't make a difference. Lots of other mayors will give the incentives. And, as in the case of NYC, sometimes the governors will come in and override the decision not to give subsidies anyway. (Although in the case of NYC it likely wouldn't have really mattered. I suspect they would have won the HQ2 subsidies or no subsidies.)

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

#109

Post by notyourday »

schnevets wrote: post #38

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…

I'm absolutely baffled why they did not select Newark as well. It is close enough to NYC via not only Amtrak and NJT but also via PATH, ripe for redevelopment ( already in progress ) but not yet so developed that the additional infrastructure is nearly impossible to add.

Adding a subway line to NYC subway is like herding a multiple feral cat colonies.

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

#110

Post by gayandproud »

Hope all you want, but a good half+ of the HQ2 hires will be minorities. Not a lot of minorities want to live in a deep south or Texas region due to racism, stand-your-ground, etc. Same thing for gays.

If you want to hope for diverse knowledge businesses opening in Dallas, perhaps start with pushing for equality.

I can think of a thousand examples, but here is the latest: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/us/dallas-police-shooting... Dallas Police Officer Kills Her Neighbor in His Apartment, Saying She Mistook It for Her Own

Cop comes home to wrong apartment and kills black resident in that apartment. The really shocking thing -- widespread support amongst whites in support of the officer!

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