Amazon’s HQ2, would you want it in your city?

[dud]

I just read the article below and now I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't want this facility where I live. Would really appreciate any feedback from people living in Seattle ...



http://www.reuters.com/article/scru...no-city-should-want-amazons-hq2-idUSKCN1BP2F8




Why no city should want Amazon HQ2

Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce retailer by sales and market cap, announced last Thursday a request for proposals for a large North American city to host a second headquarters equal in stature to its downtown Seattle campus. This unexpected move sparked an Olympics-style competition by the likes of Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Toronto to seduce the company.

Mayors and civic leaders are prepared to offer tax breaks, development-ready sites, new aviation connections, and fiber optic lines to lure up to 50,000 highly-paid employees for the $5 billion campus. But they should be careful what they wish for: winning the Amazon beauty pageant might be the ultimate pyrrhic victory, especially if the winner offers too many subsidies. As The Brookings Institution argues, “State and local governments… have proven over and over that they are all too willing to give up their tax base for growth that would have occurred somewhere anyway.”

Although plenty of ailing metropolitan economies could use a shot in the arm, bringing in Amazon is like a heroin injection; it's a sharp spike that can balloon housing prices and flip entire neighborhoods in the blink of an eye. While a handful of local business owners and real estate developers profit handsomely, the city as a whole can suffer. Some of the challenges, like the skyrocketing cost of housing in Seattle, can be measured. Others, like a loss of local character, are intangible but no less important to many current residents. Seattle's experience as the country's leading company town - 19 percent of the prime office space in Seattle is occupied by Amazon, the highest ratio for one company in any American city - offers several warnings for why cities shouldn't be desperately seeking Amazon.

The article continues ...

 

[snoopy7548]

I heard on the radio it might come to Boston. I think I'm OK with an Amazon HQ being in a city where I don't live but still within commuting distance.

 

[Chaotic42]

It would be really interesting if they plopped it down in the middle of North Saint Louis. It's what NGA is doing, why not Amazon?

 

[sdifox]

Fuck no I have no interest in subsidicing big business.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Why always pick the big cities for this stuff, they should put it in Northern Ontario or something. Probably cheaper to operate too. They probably already have HQs in the big cities so it would make sense to be more spread out.

Ok I admit, I just want my packages delivered faster.

Also WTF give them tax breaks, they're a corporation, they should pay as much taxes as everyone else. Then again I'm still baffled at when I learned from John Oliver, where stadiums for sports teams are actually paid for by the city and not the team. WTF! It seems the bigger you are, the less you have to pay for your stuff. It's ridiculous really.

 

[Svnla]

The Mayor of Memphis is saying his city is on the hunt. The city has plenty of cheap land and labor plus the main hub of UPS, perfect to take care the East Coast and Southern US.

 

[R0H1T]

Why always pick the big cities for this stuff, they should put it in Northern Ontario or something. Probably cheaper to operate too. They probably already have HQs in the big cities so it would make sense to be more spread out.

Ok I admit, I just want my packages delivered faster.

Also WTF give them tax breaks, they're a corporation, they should pay as much taxes as everyone else. Then again I'm still baffled at when I learned from John Oliver, where stadiums for sports teams are actually paid for by the city and not the team. WTF! It seems the bigger you are, the less you have to pay for your stuff. It's ridiculous really.

I don't think Amazon is Canadian.

 

[RockinZ28]

Rent is already $3k/mo for a 2 bed apartment. Don't need anymore people in San Jose, or anywhere else in CA either.

 

[OutHouse]

Denver would be a great spot since i dont live in the city. its got everything they want and a mayor who is easier to grease than s chicago politician.

 

[BD231]

we all know what happens ....

 

[gorcorps]

Denver would be a great spot since i dont live in the city. its got everything they want and a mayor who is easier to grease than s chicago politician.

Denver can't handle more spikes in cost of living and home prices. They're already pretty fucked as it is.

 

[Exterous]

Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Toronto to seduce the company.

Kinda hoping to see Detroit in the mix. Cheap land (relatively speaking), low cost of living and a pretty large international airport. While not to the extent of some of those cities, the Big 3 and UofM along with Ann Arbor's growth with tech companies (Duo, Barracuda etc) means there is a good cross section of of the workforce available. Lots of autonomous tech research going on in the area as well

 

[Capt Caveman]

I heard on the radio it might come to Boston. I think I'm OK with an Amazon HQ being in a city where I don't live but still within commuting distance.

Used to work in the Kendall Sq Cambridge building that Amazon opened up their East Coast operations to be across the street from MIT just like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Akamai, VMware, etc. About 500 computer engineers working on their tech stuff. They also have large warehouse operations down in Fall River and hired a few thousand people there I believe. And I know they bought a robotics company up in North Reading.

50,000 employees would require a huge amount of land and space. Don't know if there's anything in the greater Boston area where there's enough land, it may require going further out to the suburbs. That may jobs would push real estate prices as well as salaries for all high tech people as the unemployment rate for high tech in Boston is close zero. So, Amazon would be poaching from or competing against all of the other companies in the area.

 

[tommo123]

how about detroit? plenty of cheap land there no?

 

[JM Aggie08]

Meh. Texas (Austin/Houston/San Antonio) is already getting too popular. I don't want our sweet, sweet housing prices to sky rocket because of additional hype and attention.

 

[tynopik]

how about detroit? plenty of cheap land there no?

Detroit sold out and is too mainstream

All the cool kids are going to Gary, Indiana now

 

[umbrella39]

how about detroit? plenty of cheap land there no?

Dan Gilbert sure seems to think he can woo them to downtown...

 

[Denly]

Come to Canada, our salary is 25% lower, have all the land you want. Waterloo is a good location, UoW across the street with all the engineer you needed, cheap housing, 1hr or less from other major city like Toronto, London, Mississauga, Hamilton and Guelph, high speed train in the work to Toronto, we can come up with 50k workforce np, no natural disasters in the region except a few tornado here and there.

Also a nice corp and university town, what more can you ask for?

 

[sactoking]

I live in a city of 54,000 people, would not want a 50,000 job office complex coming to town.

 

[sdifox]

Come to Canada, our salary is 25% lower, have all the land you want. Waterloo is a good location, UoW across the street with all the engineer you needed, cheap housing, 1hr or less from other major city like Toronto, London, Mississauga, Hamilton and Guelph, high speed train in the work to Toronto, we can come up with 50k workforce np, no natural disasters in the region except a few tornado here and there.

Also a nice corp and university town, what more can you ask for?

No tax incentive for them, then I would be ok with it.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Kinda hoping to see Detroit in the mix. Cheap land (relatively speaking), low cost of living and a pretty large international airport. While not to the extent of some of those cities, the Big 3 and UofM along with Ann Arbor's growth with tech companies (Duo, Barracuda etc) means there is a good cross section of of the workforce available. Lots of autonomous tech research going on in the area as well

Was just going to say this, put that shit in Detroit. Employ some people that actually need employment, it's in the middle of the US practically, access to the ocean, tons of cheap land and at minimum cheap slabs of concrete.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

I assume anybody that says no already lives in a city with a booming economy?

 

[Denly]

No tax incentive for them, then I would be ok with it.

Apple get 200m tax break from Iowa for a 1.3b investment, I will say Ontario will have to at least match that. I do that for 50k employment alone. Plus the halo effect, to speed up the transit projects(train) and all other possibility like drone project, self driving delivery truck, maybe even another highway to the north to connect 400 and 404(f 407).

 

[sdifox]

Apple get 200m tax break from Iowa for a 1.3b investment, I will say Ontario will have to at least match that. I do that for 50k employment alone. Plus the halo effect, to speed up the transit projects(train) and all other possibility like drone project, self driving delivery truck, maybe even another highway to the north to connect 400 and 404(f 407).

Nope. Not interested. Subsidicing other people that need help, sure. Companies, fuck no.

 

[Red Squirrel]

So why would they even give corporations tax incentives anyway, a corporation coming to a city should not cost the tax payers anything and they should have to pay the same tax rate as people, if more, because they have way more money. Nor should it make house prices go up or any ridiculousness like that. This is what is wrong with America. (well it's probably an issue here too).