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Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#331

Post by NotSammyHagar »

monksy wrote: post #290
jldugger wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. It's a control state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_beverage_control_sta... 2. The politics are still overtly racist: https://twitter.com/haroldpollack/status/1051657219899617280 3. The HB2 saga demonstrates how strong the Christian right is in the state. As does a candidate in a race too close to call insisting there will never be peace in Jerusalem until Jews acknowledge the divinity of Christ: https:/…

Not sure if you've lived in NC... but there are a few things to that that I think you may have missed: 1. Yes, the fact that this is uniformly a control state, that is a problem. (Given how they are, I wish they had some special exclusion areas) However, a lot of the east coast operates in the same manner. The early hour for last call is bad as well. 2. Politics that you're talking about have very little to do with t…

on #3, based on my 21 years in the south, i'd say non-white non-mail non-christian should seriously consider before moving there, especially if not in a million person city.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#332

Post by c3534l »

ethagknight wrote: post #305
ethagknight wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate why the south has a long way to go before the average tech worker would want to live there?

Reading through the comments in response to my question, I am always blown away at the stereotyping, arrogance, and general disdain for the south coming out of these sorts of discussions. “The average tech worker” can get along absolutely fine in the south. I don’t know if it’s elitism, ignorance, or just the reverberating sounding board of popular media, but the south is actually quite nice, and I am confident that…

What an amazing coincidence that all the most racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and religious fundamentalists in the House and Senate happen to be from the south. The same people who supported segregation, poll taxes, and the generation that still lynched black people are still alive and voting. That wasn't ancient history, that was something my parents and grandparents remember watching on TV growing up. It beggars belief that all places in America should be equally as bigoted despite the fact not even a single generation has passed since the rest of the country had to send the national guard into the south to prevent mob justice against black children attending a white school. Strom Thurmond was still getting elected into the Bush years. Weird how the south is just like any place else now despite doing nothing to change and giving no indication that they have changed.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#333

Post by NotSammyHagar »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #234
fierro wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose the culture, politics, and traditions. Bay Area is generally quite liberal and tolerant, even if it is not the most diverse. Tech workers tend to be highly educated, well traveled, and open to new ideas. In contrast, I feel like the South is more xeno/homophobic, resistant to change, conservative etc. I have well educated family members in the South who are low-key racist. As a single data point, most young…

"quite liberal and tolerant" The Bay has a kind of a specific moral view, which is sometimes applied in a fairly authoritarian manner. It's not very Liberal, and arguably not hugely tolerant either. For example, all sorts of activities which are common and normal in the rest of America and the world are either frowned upon, or considered fully uncool in the Bay. Things like fishing. Hunting. Most sports. Talking abou…

No one in the bay area cares about fishing.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#334

Post by NotSammyHagar »

amazingman wrote: post #281
sonnyblarney wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"quite liberal and tolerant" The Bay has a kind of a specific moral view, which is sometimes applied in a fairly authoritarian manner. It's not very Liberal, and arguably not hugely tolerant either. For example, all sorts of activities which are common and normal in the rest of America and the world are either frowned upon, or considered fully uncool in the Bay. Things like fishing. Hunting. Most sports. Talking abou…

Contrary to what seems to be popular perception, Texas is not “the South”. The South is the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, and _maybe_ the Virginias and Kentucky.

The south is the states that lost the civil war. It goes past Mississippi.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#335

Post by Godel_unicode »

Spooky23 wrote: post #198
erichurkman wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or: Amazon is going to heavily recruit former-DoD and government workers, luring them from low pay rates to high paying jobs. Reduce hiring friction: you don't need to convince them to uproot their families to move. They already live in the area, hell, their commute doesn't even change. Are you more likely to award contracts to AWS if you work at the DoD knowing that in two years you can move over and suddenly quintu…

No, because as a procurement officer, you’ll be more worried about getting moved over to a US penitentiary a year after that.

That's not how it works. There are no restrictions on who you can work for, even if you were a CO/COR. The restriction is on representating a firm to the government. This happens very frequently; it's seldom that a flag officer retires without multiple offers from industry.

""" it might be assumed that a former contracting officer representative could not be hired by the same company whose contract they oversaw as a federal employee. Even though seeking such employment while still in federal service would represent a prohibited conflict of interest, seeking and being hired after federal service ends would be allowed ... the rules would bar the employee from representing them, such as through a communication or appearance, before a federal employee regarding the specific contract he or she oversaw """ https://www.army.mil/article/194019/moving_to_private_sector...

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#336

Post by NotSammyHagar »

romed wrote: post #308
JPKab wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If by FULL OF you mean less than a half a percent of the population, then maybe you are right. Seriously, this is offensive and inaccurate and wrong. It is just as bad as saying all Muslims are terrorists. Only people who have never been to the South, and let New York media and Hollywood caricatures inform them ACTUALLY believe this. It is terrible that CNN and MSNBC have followed the Fox News model of peddling fear,…

There’s a statue of a confederate soldier right in front of the Arkansas Capitol in Little Rock. If you think it’s still standing because of the efforts of only .5% of the citizens of that state, that suggests that those few citizens wield disproportionate power, although the more likely explanation is that your estimate is very low. In fact the state of Arkansas has a systemic racism problem that begins at the Capit…

I'm from arkansas and I saw common attitudes that blacks were a "problem" ie racism when I was a kid. I left in my early 20s. There was just an article in the nytimes about how horrible the LRPD is and how they have acted towards black people. Not everyone is that way, but plenty of people are.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#337

Post by Godel_unicode »

nova22033 wrote: post #130
bearcobra wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't follow this logic either. Boeing has their HQ in Chicago, Raytheon in Massachusetts, UTC in Connecticut. The key thing these companies seem to do is spread their offices into relatively small states so when votes happen Senators have to go against large employees in their districts.

Boeing has a big presence near national airport and in the northern virginia suburbs.

As does Amazon.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#338

Post by oh_sigh »

teej wrote: post #311
DevX101 wrote: post #209

I'd be willing to bet Bezos knew with 90% confidence where he'd want HQ2 a year ago and put on this prisoner's dilemma game amongst states to reap the most benefit possible before moving there.

Jeff Bezos owns a $23m house in DC. The entire HQ2 process was a farce to get cities to game theory themselves to death in favor of Amazon. HQ2 was always going to be in NOVA.

Have you made this claim earlier than today?

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#339

Post by sonnyblarney »

fierro wrote: post #322
sonnyblarney wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" I don't think liking country music in the Bay Area will cause any sane, reasonable person to treat you differently or not be your friend." It absolutely will. If you hunt, or own a gun or into 'gun sports' it will 100% affect who your friends are. Did you hear about the employee outrage when Zuck killed is own lamb for passover (or whichever festival it was, I'm not knowledgable). Do you really think that being a '…

I guess we just have different experiences man. The people I know, love, and associate with don't give a fuck if you fish, hunt, or own guns. Plenty of people own trucks, not everyone is vegan, tons of people love sports including football.

Of course there are people in the Valley who own trucks, hunt and fish etc..

But it's not really a matter of 'personal experience' - because in general, those are not cool things to be in the Valley - and many people will care.

'Culture fit' is a huge point of exclusion at high tech companies.

WeWork went fully vegan for exactly this reason: they don't want those meat eating types, and the culture that comes along with it.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#340

Post by oh_sigh »

azinman2 wrote: post #230
tifnufiene wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived in Alabama, this would be rather offensive if it weren’t so endearing; Sounds like a child who’s so certain that the closet hides a monster, that they’re too scared to go learn that the noise is just an air vent.

I’ve known many a gay man who has left the south because they don’t feel safe there. Certainly voting wise, the parents comment feels very true.

I've known gay men who moved to the south because they liked the culture, so where are we now?
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