Amazon HQ2

[K1052]

In all fairness LIC started blowing up about ten years ago, haha. Just look at the amount of new construction there over the last decade, one of the busiest places in the whole city.

LIC is just like Williamsburg, only to the part of Manhattan that sucks.

Yeah it had started to pick up around then but maybe really went bananas in the last 5-6 or so years. The slate of residential either planned or underway for Court Square is rather formidable.

Amazon is leasing about 1M square feet in the Citi building almost immediately. Given the timelines I presume people will be starting to occupy that space around the time the L shuts down which is going to turn the Court Square subway services into quite the mess for more than a year.

 

[Vic]

No doubt, a net gain from income taxes from peasant middle class workers.

So you prefer the Republican way, a taxpayer handout to a corporation that never nets a gain to the local economy?

 

[purbeast0]

Well there still is the Metro (when not on fire) and it seems the VRE station will be expanded. But yea the traffic is a bear, we have work in Tysons and DC so very familiar with the headaches.

I drove from Rockville to Fairfax last Thursday at like 6:15pm to see our friends movie premiere, and it took me like 55 minutes. It was ridiculous. Usually it would be like 20 minutes. But like 30 minutes of this was going 6 miles in VA. The express lanes were the worst possible thing they could have done too. No one uses that shit and it could be helping out so much with traffic.

 

[purbeast0]

Northern Virginia is not very dense, so why not more people? Just have to build the infrastructure to help with that.

It never ceases to amaze me what people in the US consider to be overcrowded. We are one of the least dense developed countries in the world.

I'm not disagreeing with that. 495 and 66 and 395 are roads I simply try to avoid. Even during the weekend there is traffic on those roads for no reason other than too many people.

50k MORE people trying to get to Crystal City (or however many 10s of thousands of jobs they are making) is going to be a nightmare. The Metro is already a pile of shit and it's only going to get worse. I used to commute on the Metro daily from Rockville to Crystal City when I worked there. It was expensive, took a while, and there were always issues with trains and escalators. The worst was getting into a car with no AC in the middle of August.

 

[Brainonska511]

I drove from Rockville to Fairfax last Thursday at like 6:15pm to see our friends movie premiere, and it took me like 55 minutes. It was ridiculous. Usually it would be like 20 minutes. But like 30 minutes of this was going 6 miles in VA. The express lanes were the worst possible thing they could have done too. No one uses that shit and it could be helping out so much with traffic.

For the most part, congestion is a function of the number of cars on the road - adding more lanes has historically not been a very cost effective way to reduce it. Likely, the most effective way to reduce congestion would be to both encourage mass transit use and build it up so that people actually want to use it.

 

[Homerboy]

By now most people here have heard the news on where Amazon will be splitting their new Headquarters.

All I have to ask is - Where is your god now liberals? As you continue to shun corporatitions your states continue to lobby to offer massive tax incentives for them to plant their HQ on your face. I thought you were fighting for the people and not the evil corporations?

Oh well, better give them another 10B in tax incentives to squat on your land. They can always make it up by taxing you stupid middle class earning peons instead.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon...rginia-for-additional-headquarters-1542075336

You mean like Wisconsin did under a GOP Governor?

 

[IronWing]

This whole process Amazon ran was kind of questionable. The locations selected make it pretty apparent that no mid-tier city ever had a prayer. Even places like Philly and Newark which could have used this kind of investment seem to have gotten left out in the cold fairly early. It just feels unseemly and throws the incentives Amazon is getting into a not entirely favorable spotlight, especially in NYC.

I have to complement them on their site selection though. I was telling people 10 years ago that LIC would sooner or later blow up lol.

Marketplace? did a report on the selection process. The broad competition was mainly a data fishing expedition by Amazon. Cities across America bared their financial souls, laying all their development plans out for Amazon. I'd be curious to see how Amazon used/uses the information to plan warehouses and make real estate purchases. Amazon picked up a lot of market research, gratis.

 

[K1052]

For the most part, congestion is a function of the number of cars on the road - adding more lanes has historically not been a very cost effective way to reduce it. Likely, the most effective way to reduce congestion would be to both encourage mass transit use and build it up so that people actually want to use it.

I agree with this however both the management and money problems that have dogged WMATA haven't made this easier though, even as those issues seem to be somewhat correcting.

Metro is going to need another way into DC like very soon since their existing crossings from VA are at capacity during peak such that it constrains extra service that VA badly needs. I don't think they've found the billions that will cost yet.

 

[K1052]

Marketplace? did a report on the selection process. The broad competition was mainly a data fishing expedition by Amazon. Cities across America bared their financial souls, laying all their development plans out for Amazon. I'd be curious to see how Amazon used/uses the information to plan warehouses and make real estate purchases. Amazon picked up a lot of market research, gratis.

Given the company involved I'd consider that a credible allegation. It certainly gives them a leg or two up on their competitors.

 

[MrSquished]

This whole process Amazon ran was kind of questionable. The locations selected make it pretty apparent that no mid-tier city ever had a prayer. Even places like Philly and Newark which could have used this kind of investment seem to have gotten left out in the cold fairly early. It just feels unseemly and throws the incentives Amazon is getting into a not entirely favorable spotlight, especially in NYC.

I have to complement them on their site selection though. I was telling people 10 years ago that LIC would sooner or later blow up lol.

Newark, which is down the road from me, made it to the list of 20 finalists actually. Also Austin, Columbus, Philly, Nashville and Raleigh

 

[Zorba]

For the most part, congestion is a function of the number of cars on the road - adding more lanes has historically not been a very cost effective way to reduce it. Likely, the most effective way to reduce congestion would be to both encourage mass transit use and build it up so that people actually want to use it.

Subsidizing cars and trucks via road spending is good policy, while subsizing public transportation is socialism, even though you get a much better bang for your buck with public transportation.

 

[K1052]

Newark, which is down the road from me, made it to the list of 20 finalists actually. Also Austin, Columbus, Philly, Nashville and Raleigh

Even though they continued the process it sounds like it didn't take them long to figure out they wanted to be in the talent wells of DC/NoVa and NYC.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

OP not my State, Governor (R) & Mayor both said don’t expect huge tax breaks. Expect road & public transportation upgrades.
I’m very proud of Massachusetts, we sold on the value portion of the deal. Skilled workforce and we are willing to improve transit to get to the office plus give some minor incentives regarding zoning and local taxes. We weren’t willing to give billions in tax credits hoping it would work out.
Hope is not a method you should use regarding plans.

Seems like we are judging this by the finalists list. I’m nearly positive Boston was on that list.
Personally I think it’s dumb to look at the finalist list because the only one that matters are the winner.

 

[K1052]

OP not my State, Governor (R) & Mayor both said don’t expect huge tax breaks. Expect road & public transportation upgrades.
I’m very proud of Massachusetts, we sold on the value portion of the deal. Skilled workforce and we are willing to improve transit to get to the office plus give some minor incentives regarding zoning and local taxes. We weren’t willing to give billions in tax credits hoping it would work out.
Hope is not a method you should use regarding plans.

Seems like we are judging this by the finalists list. I’m nearly positive Boston was on that list.
Personally I think it’s dumb to look at the finalist list because the only one that matters are the winner.

Amazon announced a major expansion in the Seapoprt earlier this year, couple thousand jobs. After I that I figured they had been considered but passed over. Boston certainly has the skills they need but is too small/constrained to manage even the half-HQ that they're putting in VA and NYC.

 

[Starbuck1975]

I am looking forward to the cage match between Ocasio-Cortez and Bezos. Once we get past the age of Trump, this is where the battle lines will form, and I guarantee you that the wealthy educated people that shifted blue will rediscover libertarianism once cheeto is out of the picture.

 

[K1052]

I am looking forward to the cage match between Ocasio-Cortez and Bezos. Once we get past the age of Trump, this is where the battle lines will form, and I guarantee you that the wealthy educated people that shifted blue will rediscover libertarianism once cheeto is out of the picture.

This is up there with the GOP is going to win the midterms by running on the caravan and Pelosi.

 

[Starbuck1975]

This is up there with the GOP is going to win the midterms by running on the caravan and Pelosi.

I suppose you could address the fact that Ocasio-Cortez is expressing concerns over the gentrification that will inevitably occur once Amazon moves in adjacent to her district, and the corporate welfare gleefully handed out by Cuomo and De Blasio. Bezos has already smacked down Seattle a few times, can’t wait to see what is going to happen in NY. Just what the working class of NY need, another Whole Foods zone.

 

[fskimospy]

I suppose you could address the fact that Ocasio-Cortez is expressing concerns over the gentrification that will inevitably occur once Amazon moves in adjacent to her district, and the corporate welfare gleefully handed out by Cuomo and De Blasio. Bezos has already smacked down Seattle a few times, can’t wait to see what is going to happen in NY. Just what the working class of NY need, another Whole Foods zone.

If NYC wants to avoid displacement and gentrification it has an easy answer - build more housing. It’s not amazon’s fault that New York has dumb housing policies.

 

[Starbuck1975]

If NYC wants to avoid displacement and gentrification it has an easy answer - build more housing. It’s not amazon’s fault that New York has dumb housing policies.

NY has a lot of dumb policies, housing being one of them.