Good for them ... I guess. Whew, it's not like the traffic, congestion, and cost of living isn't already brutal in both of those areas. Can it even get worse? I guess we will find out. Perhaps Amazon employees can same-day deliver themselves back and forth between home and office.
Can confirm that it is. Those millions that Virginia has promised won't even cover what we need now, much less when 25K Amazon folk move in.
Why do people always assume that those jobs won't go to people already living in the area? I would sincerely hope that at least 50% of the jobs are going to locals. Ideally, almost all of them would be local which at the very least, would take pressure off of housing availability and prices.
IMO, the biggest problem in Long Island City is transportation. There's really only one subway station near where I think the Amazon location would be and it's already packed to the gills.
25,000 jobs @ $100K each = $2.5 billion in salaries per year. That's fantastic. And if that's real, $120 million of tax credits per year over the next 10 is not a bad deal. On the other hand, why is there $1.2 billion of funding available to Amazon, but there's little money to fix the subways?
I'm sure some will. Let's be generous and say 2/3. But, that remaining 1/3 has families, no? When administrations are transitioning, there are like 5,000 new people in the area, and that has a notably bad impact until the transition is over.
And, if Amazon wanted local techies, they'd have gone to Boston. We have some, but not nearly as many as the Boston tech corridor does.
You have volunteered to house a witness against you in your house (and it won’t be limited to murder cases, believe me). Wait til the IRS or Homeland Security or other Federal agencies start subpoenaing recorded information. Or lawyers in divorce proceedings...
So are you saying the police aren’t allowed to gather evidence in a double-murder investigation? Or that the IRS isn’t allowed to go after tax fraud? Or that Homeland Sexurity somehow isn’t allowed to, you know, secure the homeland? Or are you worried that your Echo might implicate you in stuff that you otherwise would have been able to hide?
You have volunteered to house a witness against you in your house (and it won’t be limited to murder cases, believe me). Wait til the IRS or Homeland Security or other Federal agencies start subpoenaing recorded information. Or lawyers in divorce proceedings...
So are you saying the police aren’t allowed to gather evidence in a double-murder investigation? Or that the IRS isn’t allowed to go after tax fraud? Or that Homeland Sexurity somehow isn’t allowed to, you know, secure the homeland? Or are you worried that your Echo might implicate you in stuff that you otherwise would have been able to hide?
I think the whole process was a ruse to squeeze incentives from the areas. NYC in particular gave away the store as they are desperate to steal tech jobs from the Left Coast and Massachusetts.
Cannot fathom why anyone would rather live in DC or NYC than the Emerald City. They are both as expensive as Seattle with a much lower quality of life. As to Nashville, it voted down a public transit system and is a sprawling mess. Developers are tearing down whole neighborhoods to build bigger and more expensive homes.
I think that you are right. When Amazon kicked this off they said they were looking for a location with more affordable housing. That certainly is not NYC and the DC metro area is supposed to be up there too. I image that housing is cheaper in most every other location considered. Maybe they got it because of the transportation (subways and buses).
im just glad they are not coming to South Florida/Miami. I really expected Chicago, Atlanta, or Dallas to win.
Sheer stupidity.
Let's move to two cramped, congested areas and compete for talent/space/housing.
Were it me, I'd have went with Columbus OH, Bloomington/Normal IL, Memphis TN.
Places that would value the investment, have room/roads/housing/universities and little competition for talent.
5,000 jobs with an average salary of $150k in Nashville? Wow.
Have you been to Nashville lately, I have been, traffic is horrendous there. The built this new highway years ago but over the last 5 yrs the growth has been so high it takes 45 minutes to go 10 miles.
Not sure what Amazon was thinking, put these new operations in places which there is so much traffic. yeah you are making lots but spend most of your free time in traffic. or you pay a fortune for housing so not to commute. in one case you have not time to spend the money in the other you have time but no money.
Public transportation was a key factor in Amazon’s decision. No where between the two coasts, besides Chicago, has any real public transpiration to speak of. Chicago was probably the only city outside of the northeast and the west coast that actually had a shot. Most cities between DC and Boston have extensive bus and subway and/or light rail, plus the cities are all linked by Amtrak. Additionally, New York has extensive commuter rail linking the city to all the suburbs in NY, CT and NJ.
Amazon doesn’t want to build a massive campus in the middle of a field with 50k parking spaces for people driving a car into work everyday. Corporate America has been moving away from that mid 20th century era office model for the last decade or so and cities with good public transportation networks are poised to benefit from this shift.
As much as I’d like to say “yay” for Amazon rewarding cities that provide decent public transportation it would simply ring hollow. The very best American public transportation systems are cute little boutique projects compared to even mid level systems in Europe and Asia. I’ve long since thrown in the towel and accepted that no matter how abysmal the commutes are for so many Americans, not only in large metropolitan areas but even medium sized cities, Americans have cast their lot with the automobile and will cling to it even if they have to sleep in their cars because the commute time exceeds the time before they have to be back at their post. I’ve long admired the public transportation systems I’ve experienced inGermany, Switzerland, Belgium, Great Britain, Singapore, and Japan only to return to the USA and feel like I’m stepping back 50 years in transportation evolution. Yeah yeah, what’s good for GM is what’s good for America, I guess. Cough cough cough. At some point you simply have to concede that we gotten exactly what we deserve and Amazon can’t save us from ourselves.
We don’t want or need huge public works projects which represent expansions of state power in America.
This country needs to spend a lot more on infrastructure especially public Transportation. I’m happy that my county just voted for a new dedicated transportation tax.
Sheer stupidity.
Let's move to two cramped, congested areas and compete for talent/space/housing.
Were it me, I'd have went with Columbus OH, Bloomington/Normal IL, Memphis TN.
Places that would value the investment, have room/roads/housing/universities and little competition for talent.
5,000 jobs with an average salary of $150k in Nashville? Wow.
Have you been to Nashville lately, I have been, traffic is horrendous there. The built this new highway years ago but over the last 5 yrs the growth has been so high it takes 45 minutes to go 10 miles.
Not sure what Amazon was thinking, put these new operations in places which there is so much traffic. yeah you are making lots but spend most of your free time in traffic. or you pay a fortune for housing so not to commute. in one case you have not time to spend the money in the other you have time but no money.
Public transportation was a key factor in Amazon’s decision. No where between the two coasts, besides Chicago, has any real public transpiration to speak of. Chicago was probably the only city outside of the northeast and the west coast that actually had a shot. Most cities between DC and Boston have extensive bus and subway and/or light rail, plus the cities are all linked by Amtrak. Additionally, New York has extensive commuter rail linking the city to all the suburbs in NY, CT and NJ.
Amazon doesn’t want to build a massive campus in the middle of a field with 50k parking spaces for people driving a car into work everyday. Corporate America has been moving away from that mid 20th century era office model for the last decade or so and cities with good public transportation networks are poised to benefit from this shift.
As much as I’d like to say “yay” for Amazon rewarding cities that provide decent public transportation it would simply ring hollow. The very best American public transportation systems are cute little boutique projects compared to even mid level systems in Europe and Asia. I’ve long since thrown in the towel and accepted that no matter how abysmal the commutes are for so many Americans, not only in large metropolitan areas but even medium sized cities, Americans have cast their lot with the automobile and will cling to it even if they have to sleep in their cars because the commute time exceeds the time before they have to be back at their post. I’ve long admired the public transportation systems I’ve experienced inGermany, Switzerland, Belgium, Great Britain, Singapore, and Japan only to return to the USA and feel like I’m stepping back 50 years in transportation evolution. Yeah yeah, what’s good for GM is what’s good for America, I guess. Cough cough cough. At some point you simply have to concede that we gotten exactly what we deserve and Amazon can’t save us from ourselves.
We don’t want or need huge public works projects which represent expansions of state power in America.
This country needs to spend a lot more on infrastructure especially public Transportation. I’m happy that my county just voted for a new dedicated transportation tax.
Good for you, but the individual States in the US determine their expenditures on public transportation, except for the Federal highway system. Public works projects are almost always late and massively over budget. We trust our private businesses more due to the rigors of competition.
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im just glad they are not coming to South Florida/Miami. I really expected Chicago, Atlanta, or Dallas to win.