Omaha Forums

TitosBuritoBarn wrote:Meh, it's still a long shot...

I'm mildly annoyed that the author believes New Orleans is in the midwest.

Uffda wrote:Interesting article about Amazon's effect on Seattle

One walk through Seattle's 'Amazonia' neighborhood made me very uneasy for whatever city gets HQ2

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-h ... equences-6

TitosBuritoBarn wrote:

Uffda wrote:Interesting article about Amazon's effect on Seattle

One walk through Seattle's 'Amazonia' neighborhood made me very uneasy for whatever city gets HQ2

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-h ... equences-6

As much as I believe Business Insider is Buzzfeed for news, he makes a couple good points. First, it's never a good idea to let one company dominate the local economy and be responsible for the majority of jobs. Because when that company leaves or declines, and it almost certainly will, the city/region of the city goes with it.

Second is the issue with Amazon attempting to control everything. If true what he reports about Amazon requiring businesses to stay open at night, there will be a lot of turnover unless they balance out the daytime and nighttime activity. A substantially greater number of residents as well as cultural institutions are needed to achieve a proper daytime/nighttime balance. That's usually easy (but slow) to fix.

Many of the other issues are just products of growth and can become major positives (which he does allude to) when sorted out better. If there weren't problems to fix, I wouldn't have a job.

--

What I'm hoping they do is locate to a city that has fallen on hard times like St. Louis, Detroit that has the infrastructure for growth already in place and could handle the influx of a large new employer. In St. Louis, we have an entire airport terminal we don't use, a light-rail system that is rarely congested, an urban housing stock that is ripe for investment as much of it as abandoned or underutilized, and a downtown with enough building stock and vacant lots to absorb at least what Amazon is proposing.

Uffda wrote:

TitosBuritoBarn wrote:

Uffda wrote:Interesting article about Amazon's effect on Seattle

One walk through Seattle's 'Amazonia' neighborhood made me very uneasy for whatever city gets HQ2

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-h ... equences-6

As much as I believe Business Insider is Buzzfeed for news, he makes a couple good points. First, it's never a good idea to let one company dominate the local economy and be responsible for the majority of jobs. Because when that company leaves or declines, and it almost certainly will, the city/region of the city goes with it.

Second is the issue with Amazon attempting to control everything. If true what he reports about Amazon requiring businesses to stay open at night, there will be a lot of turnover unless they balance out the daytime and nighttime activity. A substantially greater number of residents as well as cultural institutions are needed to achieve a proper daytime/nighttime balance. That's usually easy (but slow) to fix.

Many of the other issues are just products of growth and can become major positives (which he does allude to) when sorted out better. If there weren't problems to fix, I wouldn't have a job.

--

What I'm hoping they do is locate to a city that has fallen on hard times like St. Louis, Detroit that has the infrastructure for growth already in place and could handle the influx of a large new employer. In St. Louis, we have an entire airport terminal we don't use, a light-rail system that is rarely congested, an urban housing stock that is ripe for investment as much of it as abandoned or underutilized, and a downtown with enough building stock and vacant lots to absorb at least what Amazon is proposing.

I noticed within his article he had links to other articles. The author was kind of putting it all in one spot.

bigredmed1 wrote:STL would be a good space for that much development, but I think they will head to the cool kids club towns like Austin.

damonhynes wrote:

bigredmed1 wrote:STL would be a good space for that much development, but I think they will head to the cool kids club towns like Austin.

STL is the antithesis of cool, to be sure.

Albuquerque is the new Austin. Mark my words.

Coyote wrote:The 20 potential cities include Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, Montgomery County in Maryland, Nashville, Newark, New York City, Northern Virginia, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Toronto and Washington D.C.

Taco wrote: ↑Mon Nov 05, 2018 10:00 pm Appears it was NY and DC that have won. Interesting, I thought they would have gone for more geographic diversity.

iamjacobm wrote: ↑Tue Nov 06, 2018 8:14 amThey only thing keeping Amazon from a trillion dollar market cap and two trillion is regulation.

ricko wrote: ↑Tue Nov 13, 2018 1:02 am Amazon will officially announce, next Tuesday, that HQ2 will be split between Long Island City, NY and Crystal City (Arlington County), Virginia. At least it will be a good 25 miles from me, and not next to Dulles Airport, but adjacent to National Airport. Crystal City is a massive aging office complex near the Pentagon that until recently housed offices for the Navy. At least it has a Metro stop. "Crystal City" is also a metaphor used by the locals to describe a soulless concrete wasteland. Maybe Amazon can liven the place up. I used to work in an office building on the north end of the neighborhood. The only cool thing, though, is that all of the buildings are connected by an underground shopping mall with no chain stores----all of the stores and restaurants are local. It's kinda' like a mini version of the Montreal Underground.

ricko wrote: ↑Tue Nov 13, 2018 1:32 am
Amazon will officially announce, next Tuesday, that HQ2 will be split between Long Island City, NY and Crystal City (Arlington County), Virginia. At least it will be a good 25 miles from me, and not next to Dulles Airport, but adjacent to National Airport. Crystal City is a massive aging office complex near the Pentagon that until recently housed offices for the Navy. At least it has a Metro stop. "Crystal City" is also a metaphor used by the locals to describe a soulless concrete wasteland. Maybe Amazon can liven the place up. I used to work in an office building on the north end of the neighborhood. The only cool thing, though, is that all of the buildings are connected by an underground shopping mall with no chain stores----all of the stores and restaurants are local. It's kinda' like a mini version of the Montreal Underground.

iamjacobm wrote: ↑Wed Nov 14, 2018 9:03 am 5000 jobs to Nashville too. Amazon anchoring this mixed use development.



Nashville is ripping hot, but they have some major growing pains in the near future.

Louie wrote: ↑Wed Nov 14, 2018 10:42 pm

iamjacobm wrote: ↑Wed Nov 14, 2018 9:03 am 5000 jobs to Nashville too. Amazon anchoring this mixed use development.



Nashville is ripping hot, but they have some major growing pains in the near future.

What kind of growing pains?

Garrett wrote: ↑Wed Nov 14, 2018 12:56 pm

ricko wrote: ↑Tue Nov 13, 2018 1:32 am
Amazon will officially announce, next Tuesday, that HQ2 will be split between Long Island City, NY and Crystal City (Arlington County), Virginia. At least it will be a good 25 miles from me, and not next to Dulles Airport, but adjacent to National Airport. Crystal City is a massive aging office complex near the Pentagon that until recently housed offices for the Navy. At least it has a Metro stop. "Crystal City" is also a metaphor used by the locals to describe a soulless concrete wasteland. Maybe Amazon can liven the place up. I used to work in an office building on the north end of the neighborhood. The only cool thing, though, is that all of the buildings are connected by an underground shopping mall with no chain stores----all of the stores and restaurants are local. It's kinda' like a mini version of the Montreal Underground.

Aren't they already trying to rebrand the area as "National Landing"?

Omababe wrote: ↑Thu Nov 15, 2018 9:01 am There's actually been a lot of grassroots pushback in the LIC area. Much of it is centered around the issues of the further-declining affordable housing market in the area and the tremendous concessions made to a firm that does not need said concessions.

Garrett wrote: ↑Thu Nov 15, 2018 9:58 amAnd the fact that the 7 Train is at full capacity already, and most of the MTA isn't doing too hot.

Omababe wrote: ↑Fri Nov 16, 2018 6:58 am

Garrett wrote: ↑Thu Nov 15, 2018 9:58 amAnd the fact that the 7 Train is at full capacity already, and most of the MTA isn't doing too hot.

I would think that the IND trains in the area (8th. Ave, whatever letter they run out there now. E?) and the G would be most impacted. I also heard some news chatter that there's a possibility of adding a closer LIRR station. This is, of course, not considering the helipad.

ricko wrote: ↑Sat Nov 17, 2018 12:55 am Aside from making miserable traffic even more so, the 25K new jobs at $100K-150K a pop would be a minor blip on the local economy. A $150K household would get you a $600K house----think 1800 SF home in a neighborhood like Westgate. Virginia is shelling out somewhere between $500 and $750 million for the honor of landing Amazon, one of the wealthiest companies on the planet. That's like T.I.F. on steroids. Many years ago I had an economics professor who described such an arrangement to be a key element of Facism. These corporate shakedowns are getting really tiresome.

Louie wrote: ↑Sat Nov 17, 2018 5:38 pm

ricko wrote: ↑Sat Nov 17, 2018 12:55 am Aside from making miserable traffic even more so, the 25K new jobs at $100K-150K a pop would be a minor blip on the local economy. A $150K household would get you a $600K house----think 1800 SF home in a neighborhood like Westgate. Virginia is shelling out somewhere between $500 and $750 million for the honor of landing Amazon, one of the wealthiest companies on the planet. That's like T.I.F. on steroids. Many years ago I had an economics professor who described such an arrangement to be a key element of Facism. These corporate shakedowns are getting really tiresome.

Agreed, this was not a company we would want to land for the long term good of the local economy.

ricko wrote: ↑Sat Nov 17, 2018 12:55 am Aside from making miserable traffic even more so, the 25K new jobs at $100K-150K a pop would be a minor blip on the local economy. A $150K household would get you a $600K house----think 1800 SF home in a neighborhood like Westgate. Virginia is shelling out somewhere between $500 and $750 million for the honor of landing Amazon, one of the wealthiest companies on the planet. That's like T.I.F. on steroids. Many years ago I had an economics professor who described such an arrangement to be a key element of Facism. These corporate shakedowns are getting really tiresome.

NovakOmaha wrote: ↑Sun Nov 18, 2018 6:31 pm

ricko wrote: ↑Sat Nov 17, 2018 12:55 am Aside from making miserable traffic even more so, the 25K new jobs at $100K-150K a pop would be a minor blip on the local economy. A $150K household would get you a $600K house----think 1800 SF home in a neighborhood like Westgate. Virginia is shelling out somewhere between $500 and $750 million for the honor of landing Amazon, one of the wealthiest companies on the planet. That's like T.I.F. on steroids. Many years ago I had an economics professor who described such an arrangement to be a key element of Facism. These corporate shakedowns are getting really tiresome.

Let's do some math.

25,000 jobs at $125,000 average is $3,125,000,000 annual payroll with the better part of that recycling into the local economy. The state income tax on $125,000 is about $6,733. That would put $168,325,000 into state coffers. Assuming no other use of the money but paying back the $750,000,000 it would take less than five years. In my book that's a really fast return on investment, not to mention the recycling of over THREE BILLION DOLLARS into the local economy.

Now, given that some of you call BS on the above paragraph, your professor seriously needs to spend time outside the classroom. To call economic incentives a key element of facism, IN MY OPINION, is a lie. What it is is capitalism. A locality wants to create more jobs and incentives can help make that possible. It is no different than paving streets or building a park to make an area more desirable. Facism? FACISM? I can feel my blood pressure going up. I weep for higher education.

I get that those areas that didn't get selected are now justifying why they are better off for not getting the Amazon headquarters but seriously, most of the comments around the country are some form of sour grapes.