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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

#351

Post by DoreenMichele »

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 best history book I ever read on The South indicated that extensive research found that some definitions included Texas, some didn't. Some included Florida, and some didn't. Etc.

Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and a few others were consistently included in all definitions of The South. "Edge" states for the region varied tremendously.

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

#352

Post by snowwrestler »

dsg42 wrote: post #174
synaesthesisx wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the purpose of a perimeter rule? Just curious...

The answer to every question about why DCA isn't as you would expect is that it's controlled by Congress and they optimize it for personal purposes.

Most members of Congress don't care about the perimeter rule (if they are inside the perimeter) or hate it (if they are outside the perimeter). That's why there are exceptions now.

The rule still exists because local jurisdictions really really want to keep it, and getting rid of it is just not worth the fight for anyone else.

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

#353

Post by dvtrn »

JBlue42 wrote: post #183
mindslight wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget the cookie cutter restaurants, properly styled and stippled to create an illusion of not just being yet another bland chain.

Edison bulbs, wood, microbrews, and board games on hand. See you at trivia night!

I just involuntarily started grinding my teeth reading this entire comment chain, having escaped one such of those kinds of cities in Central Texas.

/walks away from the keyboard to avoid ranting about why I got the ever loving hell out of Austin yet again.

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

#354

Post by gergi »

heartbreak wrote: post #297
amazingman wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 capital of the Confederacy was in Virginia, but you’ve decided that it’s not in the South. Let’s try Wikipedia instead. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_United_States

Geographically, sure. However, "the South" can mean a lot of different things. e.g. "the South" culturally does not apply to much of Virginia, Texas, or Florida.

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

#355

Post by gergi »

NotSammyHagar wrote: post #334
amazingman wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's only one way of defining it. Without context, it can mean many different things.

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

#356

Post by iamdave »

bluedino wrote: post #42
samstave wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not Detroit? They could remodernize Detroit in a massively good way.

Same weather, even worse schools, way less infrastructure, almost no public transportation, the Chicago area has over twice the population to draw employees from

the Chicago area has over twice the population to draw employees from

Leave us alone, the blue line is still broken.

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

#357

Post by ianai »

snowwrestler wrote: post #330
rhexs wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are vastly, vastly discounting the value of the benefits. THE most secure pension in the world (you cannot buy one that good on the private market), incredible health benefits, incredible vacation policies, lax work policies for most jobs, great holiday schedule, Gov will pay to train you, you effectively cannot get laid off (try downloading porn at most corporations for hours and hours and see what happens), etc…

This comment was good for a laugh, thanks. My wife works for the feds and I'm in the private sector. I have a better retirement plan, better health benefits (she is on my plan, not vice versa), more paid vacation per year, more flexible work schedule, and more holidays (I get the day after Thanksgiving, she does not). Oh, and I get paid more.

Holidays will vary from government job to government job.

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

#358

Post by throwaway713 »

mbrumlow wrote: post #225
fierro wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like the South has a long way to come before the average tech worker would want to live and work there. You couldn't pay me enough (literally since comp is so low out there, but also kind of metaphorically as well) to go work and live in any Southern state. Maybe you need a critical mass? - fellow Bay Area tech worker

Comp may be lower, but so is everything else. At the end of the day the guys in the south have more in their pocket than most Bay Area workers.

This isn't true for a lot tech workers. It's part of the reason why I moved from the south to the Bay Area. I pay as much in rent, taxes, and other California fees as I made in my entire salary in the South (which was roughly $110k), and I still have way more left over to save for retirement after all of that. Not to mention the health insurance here saves another $10k per year.

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

#359

Post by ianai »

tormeh wrote: post #240
JPKab wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your statement is incredibly naive and ignorant. The Federal government pays incredibly well, but has few technology workers. They instead primarily act as managers for embedded contractors, who themselves are paid far above average for a given role. Additionally, AWS already has a DoD presence. Source: Lived in DC area for 8 years, worked on numerous federal contracts, witnessed highly overpaid, lazy shitbags who we…

Maybe the reinvention could get automated? Like, any agency is going to be shut down and rebuilt without previous staff every 30 (or whatever) years after it was originally formed? Hard to see how the transitions from old to new version would be done unless you kept outwardly backwards compatibility, though. At least it could shake things up internally. Norway is actually doing this a rebuild of one agency. The Gover…

I’m more for that mindset toward government projects. Ie repaving highways every X years. Rebuilding buildings every Y years. There’s plenty of capital (buildings, roads, dams, etc) that is old enough that a tear down/rebuild makes sense - and would generate careers. As for people, they often represent institutional knowledge and ability. The people who’ve left the state department will be impossible to replace, for instance.

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

#360

Post by com2kid »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #339
fierro wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wi…

Move to Seattle.

We are like SF except we still enjoy BBQs, sports, and my friends from Texas get compliment about their accent.

Weather is a bit chillier though.

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