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Personally, I'm happy that Amazon HQ{x} is not in either Boston or NYC


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2019 Feb 15, 3:00pm   1,992 views  24 comments

by Rin   ➕follow (8)   💰tip   ignore  

First of all, what a lot of ppl don't realize is that Amazon has a number of smaller offices, all over the place, including an R&D array in Boston with nearly ~3K jobs. The technical expertise in the region is utilized but at the same time, 3K workers doesn't cause an area to go into bubbleland. What HQ{x} would have done is made the area of East Boston, a stop & go traffic nightmare and an MBTA blue line disaster, for at least another ten years while at the same time, driving all affordable housing away from the semi-urban areas around the city.

And for NYC, I don't know if anyone's seen the N/R line but it's quite possibly, the worst subway line I've ever seen in this lifetime, eclipsing even Boston's shoddy blue line. And that's the major passage to Long Island City in Queens. If you think getting from LaGuardia airport to midtown Manhattan was a bitch today, you ain't seen nothing yet. Amazon HQ{x} would make the intraboroughs of NYC into the Calcutta of the northeast corridor.

The fact of the matter is that Amazon HQ{x} needs a massive suburban sprawl and thus, is best suited for the DC/VA/MD area. And I don't know if anyone knows but Seattle is half the population of Boston, and that's for the cityspace, not including the metro area which has 4.5M residents in eastern MA/NH border. If anything, Amazon, along with Kurt Cobain & Microsoft, gave Seattle a footprint in the world. Before that, it was a countrytown, not a city.

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1   Rin   2019 Feb 15, 5:26pm  

Ok, so we're all in agreement.
2   Rin   2019 Feb 15, 6:34pm  

So this isn't being turned into an AOC thread?

It's amazing, as even the right wing press doesn't really understand the public.

If Amazon wants a 50K headcount office, it can afford to do it, anywhere in the nation. Just like today, they have some 2-3K in Boston and thus, have utilized Boston's technical resources; they can do the same for anyplace else w/o expecting a govt donation of $3B+.

As before, I recommend the suburbs outside of Detroit, into Ann Arbor Michigan so that the firm can mop up prior auto workers (both white & blue collar) as well as graduates of one of the Univ of Michigan campuses. This will provide long term stability for the region, while maintaining (though not bubbling) the suburban housing markets, and also be near the Canadian hoeing area of Windsor Ontario.
3   Ceffer   2019 Feb 15, 6:40pm  

What's this have to do with Bezos' junk selfy?
4   Rin   2019 Feb 15, 7:01pm  

Ceffer says
What's this have to do with Bezos' junk selfy?


That despite his money, he needs to date loser media types and didn't have the brains to use a penis extender to make his flaccid length look bigger?
5   FortWayneAsNancyPelosiHaircut   2019 Feb 15, 7:10pm  

Wealthy are probably happy for less traffic, but middle class and poor who do want or need jobs are probably pissed off.

I know it’s not black white. But I see it as economic opportunity loss for NY.
6   Rin   2019 Feb 15, 7:38pm  

FortWayneIndiana says
but middle class and poor who do want or need jobs are probably pissed off.


Actually, many ppl in NYC are poor (or struggling), including ppl with jobs in IT, since IT doesn't have the bonus structures of finance.

If anything, the only thing which is keeping middle/poor ppl around in NYC are livery and service jobs for those in finance and media.
7   Booger   2019 Feb 15, 7:43pm  

Yeah, I would think that Amazon HQ2 in a giant city like NYC or Chicago might not be such a big deal in the grand scheme of things with respect to traffic and housing. With flex time and people working from home some days, etc. Putting everything in one spot like Long Island City is stupid when you can have numerous smaller offices all over Brooklyn and Queens.
But yes belt parkway traffic on Long Island is a bitch.
8   B.A.C.A.H.   2019 Feb 15, 8:19pm  

I am reminded about the pushback Cisco got about their proposal in the peak of the dot.com era to build a small city in Coyote Valley. All those buildings with their name on it along the Tasman Corridor of the "Golden Triangle" weren't going to be near enough for all the growth. Sky Is the Limit. So they planned to do what Steve Jobs and Apple proposed (then backed out of) in the 1980's, develop a small city for themselves in Coyote Valley.

Cities and regions all over criticized our community for pushing back and some tried to entice Cisco to make the big campus in their communities. So they did. In India. Some of those buildings in the Golden Triangle that weren't going to be enough office space, have been empty for nearly two decades.
9   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Feb 16, 4:50am  

@Kakistocracy

How did NY Dems, the light of the world, mess this all up?
10   anonymous   2019 Feb 16, 5:21am  

MisterLearnToCode says
How did NY Dems, the light of the world

Never knew they were the light of the world.

That being said when the dust settles - who is really going to be better off, the majority or the minority ?

Things are not going so gloriously in Seattle and not sure these deals are all they are pumped up to be after the long term burden the state taxpayers will end up with.
11   just_passing_through   2019 Feb 16, 10:23am  

Rin says
didn't have the brains to use a penis extender to make his flaccid length look bigger


Awww dude! You looked at it? What did the enquirer leak his weenie? (pun intended)
12   Tenpoundbass   2019 Feb 16, 10:33am  

I am too, the sensible people will run the Commies out of New York now. Trying to punk them with no jobs like that.
13   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Feb 16, 12:09pm  

Kakistocracy says
That being said when the dust settles - who is really going to be better off, the majority or the minority ?


Not the thousands of people who could have worked there, but ended up at Starbucks.
14   Goran_K   2019 Feb 16, 12:15pm  

I’m happy because New York’s tax revenue problem could have been solved and jerk off faggots like Cuomo, De Blasio, and Occasional Cortex would have taken credit for it.

Now they get to swim down shit river altogether, pointing fingers at each other all the way down.
15   Rin   2019 Feb 17, 10:51pm  

In all honesty, what brings jobs and stability to a region is defense or some university consortium. And thus, I'd have no problems with a state or city, offering benes to a Northrup, Raytheon, or to one of the armed forces. What I don't trust are companies which outsource (or fire) at the drop of a hat, without consideration of all the tax benes they'd gotten, prior to the offshoring initiative.

A long time ago, Massachusetts offered incentives for Fidelity Investments to expand in the Bay State and the result is that today, much of their former MA work is either in the Carolinas or in NH or RI. So what was the point of giving the Magellan Fund, a lot of free money when the company was one of the most lucrative mutual funds of the 80s and 90s?

I see a firm like Amazon, as no different than Fidelity. Sure, I recall a lot of ppl wanting to work at F.I. ages ago for the extra dollars, but today, it's considered one of the worst places in the region as for management, quality of work, and even compensation.

Since Amazon already has 2-3K jobs in Boston metro, I'm satisfied that there are enough ppl being employed by them, without the state bending over backwards to kiss their ass with free money.
16   Goran_K   2019 Feb 18, 12:32pm  

Rin, New York’s tax revenues are short by 3 billion this year and it doesn’t look like it will get better.

You really think the Amazon HQ would have been more harmful to the New York economy?
17   Ceffer   2019 Feb 18, 12:57pm  

I don't really believe AOC is the whole story. I think that pursuing further due diligence, that Amazon found something really FU about the New York deal, in spite of the incentives. Whatever they found was the deal breaker.
18   Rin   2019 Feb 18, 1:49pm  

Goran_K says
You really think the Amazon HQ would have been more harmful to the New York economy?


NYC went through the whole bankruptcy thing back in the 70s. Unfortunately, as a city, they don't have their act together. That N/R line and the transit system circa the Queenborough bridge was a disaster for ages. If it happens again, as in bankruptcy, well, that's their lot & then hopefully, ppl will stop treating Manhattan real estate as the City of London/Greater London, the USA version.

And I'm not saying this to prop up Boston's cultural value over NYC. It's just that I don't see any cultural value of NYC esp given the prices of everything there w/o legalized hoeing like in London, Amsterdam, Sydney, etc.

Amazon HQ would have made that entire LIC region impassable and sure temporarily, some 10K-25K jobs would be added but just like Fidelity, they'll duly plan an exit for greener pastures once the incentives are used up.
19   Shaman   2019 Feb 18, 2:02pm  

Bezos used to be a stock broker trader type in NYC, and I wonder if some form of nostalgia or that NYCpride thing that people from there seem to always wave about was the reason for choosing a location there? It makes no fucking sense otherwise! The area is already too built up and too expensive. They should pick someplace nice on the mid-east coast maybe Raleigh or Charlotte or even Atlanta where things are not as far along, but they still have the requisite amount of culture to draw the talent to work there.
20   Rin   2019 Feb 18, 2:12pm  

Quigley says
that NYCpride thing that people from there seem to always wave about was the reason for choosing a location there?


Yeah, that's fine and dandy, kinda like getting a corporate HQ on Sixth Ave, the Avenue of the Americas, for prestige.

Still, the headcount for those places seldom exceeds 1-2K. Most companies have their real work centers in other locales and VA or DE are close enough to the major east coast power cities that they suffice for that kind of stuff.
21   Rin   2019 Feb 18, 2:40pm  

Speaking of New York's cultural value, do ppl really live and sleep at the Met, the Guggenheim, or Broadway? The way ppl talk about NYC is that there's this major faction which lives in these enclaves, not accessible to any other American city.

In reality, a few tourists go there and others who loiter around, are wannabe cultural snobs, not too different from the cougars at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts who're desperate for a younger man or any man with a fat wallet, if not a fat dick.

Another cultural trend are Trust Fund babies, who hang out in Williamsburg Brooklyn, pretending to be artists.

In contrast, not only does Montreal have fine cuisine but also 'full contact' strip clubs, and legal escorting.

22   Patrick   2019 Feb 18, 8:45pm  

@Rin Did you take that picture?
23   Rin   2019 Feb 19, 8:32pm  

Patrick says
@Rin Did you take that picture?


Not mine
24   AD   2019 Feb 19, 10:00pm  

I can see Amazon filling up a lot of vacancy in Pentagon City / Crystal City , Virginia left by Naval Air Systems Command and Naval Sea Systems Command when they all exited for Pax River, Maryland and the Washington Navy Yard, respectively.

There is plenty of Metro (subway and bus) capacity at Crystal City.

They can also move into all the new condos and townhomes going up near the Washington National stadium in Anacostia.

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