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Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

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Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#371

Post by s4vi0r »

prklmn wrote: post #319
claudiulodro wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you seen Trump's tweets about Amazon and Bezos? He's already pissed at them. Frankly if I was in their shoes I would go with Toronto also to have some sort of hedging against the US political climate.

I think that would be too incendiary a hedge. They have much more to lose than gain.

I think you're overestimating the trumples. He has an abysmal approval rating, and the types of people who tend appprove of him (e.g. rural poor) aren't exactly big spenders/prime consumers or whatever. Trump will raise a stink about it, but I'd be very surprised if anyone normal/reasonable felt Amazon opening hq2 in Canada to be like a personal attack against America or something.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#372

Post by oh_sigh »

ProAm wrote: post #295
dx034 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Denver appears to be the current favourite (also chosen by the NYT as the winner) but doesn't have any flights to Asia except for Tokyo[1]. But I guess being sufficiently connected within the US is enough, not sure how many flights to China they need. [1] https://www.flightera.net/airport/Denver/KDEN

Except no one in Denver wants them here except the Governor and business council. It would be a huge net loss for the community and people.

I'm in Denver and your post is not accurate.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#373

Post by t1o5 »

graeme wrote: post #128
bryanlarsen wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Canadian cities were in serious competition I think there'd be more than one of them on the list. There are a good number of American cities smaller than Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Ottawa/Gatineau on the list, let alone Montreal and Vancouver. I suspect that Toronto is the token Canadian city and won't get serious consideration. I don't blame them, in this era of Trump hyper-nationalism there'd be a huge blow…

Do any of those cities have good international flight options? I live in Montreal, the the options are very limited compared to Toronto. I expect Montreal would be completely ruled out because of the language laws, incidentally. Fine for a branch office, unacceptable for a second HQ. So, I'm not sure you're right about Toronto being a token candidate. I believe it's the best candidate in Canada. But, moving to Canada…

I second that about Montreal. The language laws are absurd. Getting a temporary work permit to work in Quebec is even weirder. The permanent residents of any other provinces cannot get health care in Quebec without Quebec's CSQ certificate which will take ages to get after you apply. The infrastructure is in ruins. Amazon will have a hard time getting skilled workers in Quebec than the rest of Canada.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#374

Post by southphillyman »

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…

Some context that might further illustrate OP concerns:

-Philadelphia already has major funding issues despite several unpopular taxes like the wage tax and soda tax

-Recently went through a huge gentrification cycle spurred in part by a 10 year tax abatement given to new construction or rehabs

-The city has already given huge tax incentives to another major corporation, Comcast.

What you have is a city that recently had to close many libraries, firehouses, and public schools due to budget issues potentially giving another gift basket to a huge corporation.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#375

Post by mozumder »

sol_remmy wrote: post #351
plehoux wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Immigrants pay taxes.

Sometimes new immigrants get tax breaks though

I agree with your OP, but citizens get far more tax breaks than immigrants.

Citizens don't have to pay foreigner rates for public Universities. That's a nice $50k-$100k savings for higher-education that citizens get that universities don't get, right there.

What kind of breaks do immigrants get over citizens that are worth $50k-$100k? None.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#376

Post by [deleted] »

fancyfacebook wrote: post #352
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.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#377

Post by [deleted] »

fancyfacebook wrote: post #352
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.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#378

Post by dopamean »

southphillyman wrote: post #374
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…

Some context that might further illustrate OP concerns: -Philadelphia already has major funding issues despite several unpopular taxes like the wage tax and soda tax -Recently went through a huge gentrification cycle spurred in part by a 10 year tax abatement given to new construction or rehabs -The city has already given huge tax incentives to another major corporation, Comcast. What you have is a city that recently…

Thanks for providing the context. I can see how people in Philly would be lukewarm on the idea of paying to bring Amazon to town.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#379

Post by noetic_techy »

wyattk wrote: post #126

Something about this just makes my stomach sick... A massive corporation is pitting governments against each other for its own gain, often to no benefit of the local population. I'm scared to see the numbers of "incentives" that local politicians try and hand out to Amazon. There's little evidence that the public money used/lost will ever be recouped. One of the worst cases of this happening so far is the Foxconn dea…

50,000 new non-McJobs as well as the follow on service jobs is no benefit to the local population? Tell that to all the non-silicon valley mini-tech hubs like Austin, Seattle, Miami, Dallas, etc. If amazons foothold is the seed for a new techhub to emerge, that's a true net boon for that city and its people / culture.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#380

Post by ellisv »

phkahler wrote: post #46
chollida1 wrote: post #3

Nice to see Toronto on the list, though game theory suggest that we're only here because having a Canadian Candidate has the potential to have all 3 levels of government involved rather than just state and city. I'm not really sure how to go about handicapping the finalists. Given the current political climate, Toronto is interesting because it's the only city that gives Amazon some escape form the US government. You…

Detroit fits most of your criteria but has fallen off the list. Perhaps we already have enough rich guys in town: http://michiganradio.org/post/who-owns-downtown-detroit

Most of the criteria != all of the criteria though
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