https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/technology/amazon-finalists-headquarters.html

1/18/2018 9:49:22 AM

Lack of large scale public transportation in Raleighwood: - 2



On the other hand the DMV was represented heavily, with DC, NOCA, and MoCo listed.

[Edited on January 18, 2018 at 10:03 AM. Reason : Hh]

1/18/2018 10:02:30 AM

lol, Amazon is playing cities against each other so hard in a race to the bottom

1/18/2018 10:04:45 AM

^^ I think the current traffic in DC, NOVA, etc is already bad enough

1/18/2018 10:10:38 AM

No kidding. But that's not going to stop anyone

1/18/2018 10:41:22 AM

I really do see places like Raleigh or Austin winning out, just because of the massive amount of cheap land. I mean, it doesn't have to be city center, there are places zoned for development in RTP that have yet to be touched.

1/18/2018 10:50:52 AM

they want it city center though

i can see raleigh winning just because of the influence amazon could exert over a city of this size

1/18/2018 10:58:25 AM

lulz City Center DC...good fucking luck.

1/18/2018 11:07:36 AM

W-S has prime real estate available right in downtown. Obviously was a long shot at best, and now that the final 20 have come out, I can see that there was no chance. No international airport, low population size, lack of good public/rail transit doesn't help the cause.

1/18/2018 11:38:08 AM

I believe that Amazon is fully planning on building in Austin. The city not only has the location and talent they seek, but Amazon also has existing infrastructure there thanks to their purchase of Whole Foods. They don't need 3 HQs. I suspect this list is out to evaluate options and let Austin know that they need to play hardball as well.

1/18/2018 12:07:17 PM

Good, I hope they do choose fucking austin.

I dont want that shit here. We have enough people already.

1/18/2018 12:25:37 PM

it seems like that is the consensus opinion, i hope the cities in this list don't negotiate with amazon

1/18/2018 12:26:05 PM

In your face Charlotte

1/18/2018 12:32:31 PM

I thought they already unofficially decided on Boston though. I saw an article a few days ago where they were searching for a bunch of land there.

1/18/2018 6:02:19 PM

i'd ask why would they want to set up in that icy cold wasteland, but well...

1/18/2018 6:13:57 PM

i don't see why any company sets up in the NE the amount of $$$ they have to blow on winter alone is mind boggling. I thought bloomberg put the odds on Atlanta which i think is ridiculous since they run out of water every 5 years already so why not add 50k people.

1/18/2018 8:10:54 PM

boston has by far the best feeder schools and general combination of criteria. cheap land was not one of the criteria. raleigh has reltively poor infrastructure and community life compared to most cities on the list.

I'd expect it to be Austin, LA, or NY if its not boston. Incentives are the only thing that could catch any other city up to those. raleigh better throw in killer incentives to try and win this. time to become a real major city.

1/18/2018 10:19:02 PM

do not want

1/19/2018 9:36:27 AM

Pretty sure this is the 2nd round of cuts technically. I know they eliminated all of the immediate ones that didn't match their base criteria.

I saw at least one report with RDU being the favorite to win it, but I'd put the top 2 on ATL and Austin.

I honestly don't think NYC or LA have a shot. I know some rumors of Chicago and Boston but if they follow their criteria for "affordable" land and a million sqft...I just don't see how Chicago fits that.

I know part of our package was the plan to put in mass transit, but I'd love to see that plan even if we're eliminated in the next round.

1/19/2018 9:38:43 AM

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2018/05/30/raleigh-ranks-no-1-for-housing-quality-of-life-in-new-amazon-hq2-site-study/

Interesting to see Raleigh rank so high compared to other areas being considered, but I'd like to find a copy of this report. I don't understand how Montgomery County, MD and Northern Virginia can score 93.6 and 58.4 in Environmental Hazard Risk, yet DC located in between them gets a 2.12 in that category.

5/30/2018 1:32:00 PM

it's funny seeing all these people who hate change naysay this thing

5/30/2018 3:09:41 PM

you a fan of traffic and high living expenses or something?

5/30/2018 3:29:12 PM

Apple -> Yay.
Amazon -> Ugh.
Apple + Amazon -> FUUUUUUUCK.

[Edited on May 30, 2018 at 3:39 PM. Reason : >]

5/30/2018 3:38:58 PM

you hate jobs and higher property values or something?

[Edited on May 30, 2018 at 4:50 PM. Reason : ]

5/30/2018 4:50:06 PM

Higher property values - yes (higher living cost)
Jobs that probably won't be local - yes

5/30/2018 5:45:43 PM

While I do like the upside of my property value will go up, I'm not sure it outweighs the potential negatives(traffic congestion, higher property taxes, higher cost of living, likely increased homelessness with raised property and rental values, etc).

5/30/2018 9:43:40 PM

Apple -> Ugh.
Amazon -> Yay.

5/30/2018 9:49:56 PM

I hate Apple products and I really like Amazon, but 10,000 jobs vs. 50,000 jobs is a fairly significant difference to me.

Thus why I welcome Apple and it's "modest" 10,000 jobs.

5/31/2018 10:15:53 AM

Quote :

"Higher property values - yes (higher living cost) Jobs that probably won't be local - yes"

yeah they will import talent for the good jobs. the local jobs will be the ones that involve peeing into gatorade bottles on the factory floor because you don't have time to use the bathroom.

and whichever city gets HQ2 will do so through taxpayer-funded corporate handouts

5/31/2018 11:03:23 AM

where are we getting this info from that they'll be "importing the good jerbs"?

[Edited on May 31, 2018 at 11:05 AM. Reason : ]

5/31/2018 11:04:04 AM

republicans are all about jerbs, until it messes with their traffic, population diversity, political affiliation diversity, etc.

5/31/2018 11:34:38 AM

^
You realize this argument is coming from two socialists, right?

Here is how the high-paying jobs will be filled:

https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/other/unprecedented-hiring-could-make-the-amazon-hq2-shortlist-much-shorter-84115
http://www.kxan.com/news/business/does-austin-have-the-employees-training-to-fill-50000-amazon-jobs_20180312080028609/1031515470

And here's some info on the predatory, non-union, local jobs that Amazon offers:

https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2017/01/AmazonLaborFactSheet_FINAL.pdf
https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/16/17243026/amazon-warehouse-jobs-worker-conditions-bathroom-breaks

Amazon is shit and Bezos is a psychopath. Keep him away from your city.

[Edited on May 31, 2018 at 11:47 AM. Reason : .]

5/31/2018 11:46:09 AM

how the fuck do you add jobs without adding people??? LULZ

5/31/2018 11:46:10 AM

Quote :

"Bezos is a psychopath"

lol

5/31/2018 12:42:37 PM

you may want to read up on working conditions at Amazon before laughing at that

5/31/2018 12:51:52 PM

I look at the HQ2 deal as 50,000 jobs, and I assume MOST of those are going to be people moving into the area(you really think Amazon is going to just hire all of those jobs from new college grads? Give me a break, they'll just pull in free work with co-ops).

So you're looking at 50,000 people, and let's say they're married but we'll eliminate kids just because most of those might not be married. You're talking about potentially 100,000 people moving into the area.

That's a fucking ton, especially if the recent "news" out of WRAL that Amazon covets downtown Raleigh and NOT RTP. That's going to be a fucking nightmare.

5/31/2018 12:56:53 PM

i'm hearing apple will be in temporary leased space in cary to begin with

5/31/2018 1:13:49 PM

Yeah we've already got too many damn people for the infrastructure as it is and the housing price bubble is getting ridiculous where people are buying up houses and just bulldozing them inside the beltline to put up bigger more expensive ones.

If I thought salaries would jump up in proportion then maybe but there's no way they would improve that much.

5/31/2018 1:15:15 PM

^^^^

Quote :

"psy·cho·path 'sik??paTH/Submit noun noun: psychopath; plural noun: psychopaths a person suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior. synonyms: madman, madwoman, maniac, lunatic, psychotic, sociopath; More informal an unstable and aggressive person."

I'm familiar with the working conditions. They don't make Bezos a psychopath.

5/31/2018 1:59:32 PM

The other way around, perhaps.

5/31/2018 2:02:50 PM

There are conflicting reports on the impact HQ2 will have on housing and income.

Quote :

"Fitch Ratings says in a new analysis that it expects Raleigh would see little impact on housing and rental prices or salaries if it prevails among 20 finalists for the Amazon HQ2 project and its $50,000 jobs."

Quote :

"Fitch, which along with Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s make up the “big three” of rating services, did forecast some impact on worker wages since 50,000 jobs with an average wage of $100,000 would be equivalent to more than 7 percent of Raleigh’s workforce."

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2018/04/30/credit-rating-agency-little-impact-on-raleigh-housing-if-amazon-hq2-comes-to-town/

Quote :

"And here's some info on the predatory, non-union, local jobs that Amazon offers:"

There are a lot of good reasons to be against Amazon HQ2 in Raleigh (all mentioned in [user] LudaChris[/user] post above), Amazon's supposed awful working conditions is not a good argument. Both of those articles are protectionist propaganda that can be easily refuted with a freshman level understanding of economics.

Quote :

"whichever city gets HQ2 will do so through taxpayer-funded corporate handouts"

I saw a report that one of Amazon's stipulations was a 30 year tax holiday, which is insane considering our taxes are certain to increase to support the growth.

Is it too late to pull our name from consideration?

5/31/2018 2:22:39 PM

Quote :

"Is it too late to pull our name from consideration?"

Is that on your to-do list?

How are the cuts going to work from here on out?

I can't imagine we'll beat out VA

[Edited on May 31, 2018 at 2:39 PM. Reason : ]

5/31/2018 2:38:30 PM

Sorry, I meant to say sociopath.

Quote :

"Both of those articles are protectionist propaganda that can be easily refuted with a freshman level understanding of economics."

Refuted? No. Explained? Sure. It's pure, cold, capitalism - treating workers as commodities and squeezing every bit of value out until it's cheaper to replace them through automation.

5/31/2018 2:55:13 PM

Quote :

"you really think Amazon is going to just hire all of those jobs from new college grads? "

umm...no. never said or thought that. we have a workforce already present here as well. why wouldn't people who live here potentially get a job?

5/31/2018 4:21:19 PM

Quote :

"the recent "news" out of WRAL that Amazon covets downtown Raleigh and NOT RTP. That's going to be a fucking nightmare."

That's the best case scenario for Raleigh. A campus downtown would encourage light rail to get built downtown, and the shitty parts of South Saunders would get gentrified into condos and renovated houses.

Quote :

"I can't imagine we'll beat out VA"

Of the three DC area options, I would think NOVA is in last place. Montgomery County had the sense to push developers into establishing conservation easements 50 years ago, so they don't have the urban sprawl problems that Loudoun County has now. The only advantage I could see with Loudoun County is being slightly closer to Dulles, but MoCo could place them equal distance to Dulles, BWI, and Reagan

[Edited on May 31, 2018 at 4:47 PM. Reason : .]

5/31/2018 4:32:24 PM

8 million square feet of office space is a bunch.

5/31/2018 7:25:29 PM

This just in. Atlanta wins again

5/31/2018 7:30:33 PM

I think people are mistaking workers’ complaints for facts. Speaking as someone who has managed people in both factory and agricultural settings, disgruntled employees will say anything to badmouth the company, especially if it gets them attention. At the plant we had 2 ten minute breaks and a 36 minute lunch break. Employees would use their 10 minute break to smoke a cigarette and then ask to be relieved from the line to go to the bathroom, and get mad when they were called out for it.

5/31/2018 10:05:27 PM

^^ in having the most racist state-owned tourist attraction in the country?

5/31/2018 10:22:10 PM

^^ no

6/1/2018 6:16:44 AM