Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2 • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#351

Post by sol_remmy » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 7:03 PM UTC

plehoux wrote: post #349

sol_remmy wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think my fellow Philadelphians should have to pay to bring a company here that's just going to hire people who are not currently residents, while increasing their expenses and utilizing the public services that their taxes have paid for, while receiving little to no tax revenue or services in return. If you applied these views at the federal level than you'd be anti-immigration. It amazes me how people can…

Immigrants pay taxes.

Sometimes new immigrants get tax breaks though

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#352

Post by fancyfacebook » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 7:03 PM UTC

ashelmire wrote: post #340

Part of me would love to have a big tech / infrastructure company like Amazon in Philly. But I take serious issue with the idea of the city paying millions or billions to bring them here, promising years of tax breaks (a free ride), and the tightening of an already very tight real estate and rental market. I don't think my fellow Philadelphians should have to pay to bring a company here that's just going to hire peop…

Creating jobs that don't exist for people who currently aren't residents (or don't yet exist) is the very definition of economic progress. If you don't want that then you just want nothing but the status the status quo unchanged forever. You can't have it both ways.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#353

Post by yohann305 » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 7:04 PM UTC

bruceb wrote: post #68

jasode wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is that Amazon isn't _seriously_ considering all 20 cities equally. Instead, they privately already have 2 or 3 particular cities in mind and the other 18 cities are just there for negotiating leverage for the 2 they really want. The problem is that the cities themselves don't know if they're "really in contention" or just "disposable chess pieces". Again, that's just my guess.

I agree. Nobody seriously thinks they are going to pick Miami.

Jeff Bezos grew up in Miami, and his dad is Cuban. Miami has the largest Cuban (and Cuban-descent) community. If Bezos wants to give back to the place that made him who he is today, Miami is a solid contender. I know you don't drive a business with emotions and nostalgia, oh wait... He's already doing it with Blue Origin, we love you Bezos!

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#354

Post by keyboardhitter » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 7:04 PM UTC

linkmotif wrote: post #26

Take a look at what’s happened to Seattle and you’re liable to say “no, thank you.” The gentrification, the homelessness. The overall wealth inequality. I mean, sure, Amazon invested billions in Seattle, but those billions went to people who lead end of days capitalist lifestyles oriented around giving that money right back megacorporations like... Amazon. Suggesting the Amazon’s investment will be meaningfully local…

Some days I feel disgusted by even participating in the job market for those reasons. I feel there's a very superficial aspect to some lifestyles in Seattle (including my own) that I didn't expect to become so... unavoidable

My stomach feels sick reading the HQ2 updates. It seems so good on paper, and surely it would create jobs and promote infrastructure growth, but... there is something very dystopian about it that makes me want to run away.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#355

Post by philipodonnell » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 7:05 PM UTC

rhino369 wrote: post #338

Finnucane wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of money flowing through Amazon in an already-densely built city would quickly swamp any possible expansion. Prices will rise.

In larger cities, even amazon money wouldn't have too much an effect.

Seattle is a pretty large city. It definitely had an extremely large effect.

As I understand it from stories people told me when I lived there for a few years, South Lake Union was a lower-rent district near the lake where younger single people lived that weren't attracted to the lifestyle on Capitol Hill but didn't make enough to live downtown proper or on Queen Anne or Magnolia hills. Now those people commute 45 minutes on the train from Everett or wait in traffic coming south on the heavily congested I-5 or west across the heavily congested Lake Washington Bridges.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#356

Post by ryangallen » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 7:05 PM UTC

brohoolio wrote: post #248

asciimo wrote: post #238

I'm disappointed that Detroit isn't on the list. My money is on Nashville or Denver. Hm... I wonder if how hard it would be to set up a decentralized blockchain pool to wager on the winner...

The Metro-Detroit area voted down a public transit system a year or two ago. Public transit was one of the requirements that Amazon laid out.

I'm already not disappointed that we didn't get Amazon's HQ but I'm still disappointed about the Regional Transit vote. Luckily it might be on the ballot again in 2018.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#357

Post by jimmywanger » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 7:06 PM UTC

ashelmire wrote: post #340

Part of me would love to have a big tech / infrastructure company like Amazon in Philly. But I take serious issue with the idea of the city paying millions or billions to bring them here, promising years of tax breaks (a free ride), and the tightening of an already very tight real estate and rental market. I don't think my fellow Philadelphians should have to pay to bring a company here that's just going to hire peop…

If you think that attracting high numbers of highly educated and wealthy people into a moribound city is not going to increase property taxes and the existing tax base, I don't know what to say, especially since you (or anybody outside of Philly or Amazon) know what the concessions are, I don't know what to say.

If the concession was only to take 1% off the tax bill for Amazon, it'd definitely be a good idea. If it was to rescind taxes in all perpetuity and give massive development credits, it would probably be a bad idea. Now it's all down to negotiation.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#358

Post by planteen » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 7:06 PM UTC

fetus8 wrote: post #265

planteen wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice small mountain towns, especially those near ski areas, are expensive. But towns and cities on the plains (e.g., Ft. Morgan) are pretty inexpensive. And southern Colorado cities like Pueblo and Colorado Springs are also a lot more inexpensive. Denver and Boulder are quite expensive.

Uh, there's nothing out in the eastern part of Colorado that qualifies as a city. Sterling, is like 10k people, if that. But anything east of Greeley is still relatively affordable. Anything along the Front Range, Colorado Springs, and north, all the way up to Fort Collins, have seen huge increases in housing costs in the last 5 years. Denver and Boulder are expensive, yes, but the commuter (bedroom) communities, lik…

> Uh, there's nothing out in the eastern part of Colorado that qualifies as a city. Sterling, is like 10k people, if that.

You realize that both Ft. Morgan and Sterling call themselves cities? But I get your point. They are small in population compared to Front Range municipalities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_and_towns_in_Co...

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#359

Post by Pokepokalypse » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 7:08 PM UTC

fetus8 wrote: post #265

planteen wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice small mountain towns, especially those near ski areas, are expensive. But towns and cities on the plains (e.g., Ft. Morgan) are pretty inexpensive. And southern Colorado cities like Pueblo and Colorado Springs are also a lot more inexpensive. Denver and Boulder are quite expensive.

Uh, there's nothing out in the eastern part of Colorado that qualifies as a city. Sterling, is like 10k people, if that. But anything east of Greeley is still relatively affordable. Anything along the Front Range, Colorado Springs, and north, all the way up to Fort Collins, have seen huge increases in housing costs in the last 5 years. Denver and Boulder are expensive, yes, but the commuter (bedroom) communities, lik…

Foreign Investment is driving this.

The money got sucked out of the US economy (foreign manufacturing, high oil prices back in the '00's) - and now that wealth is consolidated, and they're investing in property all over the place; especially in US suburbs (and Canada), and it's jacking up demand so bad, that even very high-paying white-collar jobs can't realistically finance a house anymore. Oh- people can BUY the homes. They will have to stretch to pay for maintenance, save for kids' college, and their own retirement.

Only people who bought before the last bubble are really able to afford these homes. Or Doctors and Lawyers and executives.

The only way to beat this game, seems to be; if you're a rock-star, and can work out a remote gig, you can live in a cheap area, and still make "expensive area" money.

(and if you go for a company that's expanding to an area of low housing demand: they'll pay you less. AND. In 5-10 years when the economy hits a low spot, they'll shut your site down and lay you off. In any case, the GOOD projects, the kind that will boost your career, are not going to come to your backwater site. You would need to relocate to their main headquarters. Territorial battles are a real thing)

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#360

Post by Pokepokalypse » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 7:09 PM UTC

dgritsko wrote: post #184

JauntTrooper wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes though A is Amazon. It’s been used by the investing media to describe their ezcellent stock performance in recent years. Sometimes it’s FAANG to include Apple. Google kind of ruined it by rename the parent company Alphabet though!

Yeah, FAAAN doesn't have quite the same ring to it :)

South Koreans are especially wary of that, due to FAAAN death.