Why does Amazon want to leave Seattle?
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Date: 2021-06-04
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Comments and reviews: 9
fgkpev
Amazon did not improve the city's financial situation nor the quality of life of its residents. It created housing shortages, leading to speculation and homelessness. It pushed higher taxes on people who have no relation to Amazon to fix problems that did not exist before at that scale, such as light rail at any cost (i. e, 60 billion for a not very long light rail corridor) to suit the likes of Amazon, as well as other spending to deal with the newly unhoused. The city of Seattle is in deeper debt and the residents far worse off than they were before Amazon came to save the city, according to you. Because of all the extortion of governments from local corporations, Seattle streets are generally in horrible shape, city services are for the most part dismal compared to cities without those corporate leeches. To answer the question of how the richest man in the world and his successor live in the same neighborhood/city (Medina, it is because Washington has no income tax and no capital gains tax, never mind the big tax breaks large corporations are continuously gifted. Also props to you for pointing out the faulty economics of paying corporations for jobs.
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Amazon did not improve the city's financial situation nor the quality of life of its residents. It created housing shortages, leading to speculation and homelessness. It pushed higher taxes on people who have no relation to Amazon to fix problems that did not exist before at that scale, such as light rail at any cost (i. e, 60 billion for a not very long light rail corridor) to suit the likes of Amazon, as well as other spending to deal with the newly unhoused. The city of Seattle is in deeper debt and the residents far worse off than they were before Amazon came to save the city, according to you. Because of all the extortion of governments from local corporations, Seattle streets are generally in horrible shape, city services are for the most part dismal compared to cities without those corporate leeches. To answer the question of how the richest man in the world and his successor live in the same neighborhood/city (Medina, it is because Washington has no income tax and no capital gains tax, never mind the big tax breaks large corporations are continuously gifted. Also props to you for pointing out the faulty economics of paying corporations for jobs.
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RyanL
Amazon should be paying something extra to help out with building low income housing and homelessness services, but - and this is going to be controversial - homeowners are not any less at fault for these issues. Seattlites have continually elected officials who encouraged this unbalanced jobs to housing growth for decades, and now housing costs have ballooned so much that just about everyone I know who grew up here cannot afford to stay in the long run. The only one who could stay can only do so because their parents helped buy them a condo. Homeowners worried about the character of the neighborhood and property values are actively denying people (even their own children) places to live by hoarding land and fighting new housing and land use changes tooth and nail. This problem was not brought on by Amazon alone. Amazon definitely deserves some blame for supporting campaigns that are anti-housing growth and pro-business and for actively working against anything that would cost the company money, but many residents of Seattle also didn't want to plan for more housing growth while reaping the benefits of Amazon's presence.
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Amazon should be paying something extra to help out with building low income housing and homelessness services, but - and this is going to be controversial - homeowners are not any less at fault for these issues. Seattlites have continually elected officials who encouraged this unbalanced jobs to housing growth for decades, and now housing costs have ballooned so much that just about everyone I know who grew up here cannot afford to stay in the long run. The only one who could stay can only do so because their parents helped buy them a condo. Homeowners worried about the character of the neighborhood and property values are actively denying people (even their own children) places to live by hoarding land and fighting new housing and land use changes tooth and nail. This problem was not brought on by Amazon alone. Amazon definitely deserves some blame for supporting campaigns that are anti-housing growth and pro-business and for actively working against anything that would cost the company money, but many residents of Seattle also didn't want to plan for more housing growth while reaping the benefits of Amazon's presence.
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Defender
ooof envy/socialism has rotted the brain of everyone cities standing up to corporations is so dumb. Detroit is a thing people. We want to keep jobs in cities or we have more Clevelands, Detroits, Buffalos etc. Increasing corporate taxes leads to corporate flight. ITs not being greedy its being logical. In addition all these socialists chasing amazon out are idiots because it will lead to depressed salaries and job opportunities in their own city when the employees of amazon stop spending money there. People are upset about inflated house prices but this is strictly a result of over regulation of the housing market (zoning) another example of how government intervention (which they so desperately want out of envy) is having a tangible negative effect on their own life.
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ooof envy/socialism has rotted the brain of everyone cities standing up to corporations is so dumb. Detroit is a thing people. We want to keep jobs in cities or we have more Clevelands, Detroits, Buffalos etc. Increasing corporate taxes leads to corporate flight. ITs not being greedy its being logical. In addition all these socialists chasing amazon out are idiots because it will lead to depressed salaries and job opportunities in their own city when the employees of amazon stop spending money there. People are upset about inflated house prices but this is strictly a result of over regulation of the housing market (zoning) another example of how government intervention (which they so desperately want out of envy) is having a tangible negative effect on their own life.
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Laughter
The tax breaks given to large private corporations is destroying our cities the same way that unchecked suburban sprawl does. It's an unsustainable slow pyramid scheme. Like Walmart, they'll suck the community dry, ruin a strip mall for 5 to 10 years and then move to some place newer so the old place will rot. Large companies should be honored to repay in heavy taxes for the life-blood they suck out of the communities they destroy. Nobody needs _that_ much windfall profit when they ignore so many people right in their own vicinity who are suffering.
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The tax breaks given to large private corporations is destroying our cities the same way that unchecked suburban sprawl does. It's an unsustainable slow pyramid scheme. Like Walmart, they'll suck the community dry, ruin a strip mall for 5 to 10 years and then move to some place newer so the old place will rot. Large companies should be honored to repay in heavy taxes for the life-blood they suck out of the communities they destroy. Nobody needs _that_ much windfall profit when they ignore so many people right in their own vicinity who are suffering.
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Christopher
This isn't new in the sense that there have been literal towns built around a single employer for decades where that employer basically held the town by its neck (think mining or manufacturing towns for example.
The main difference now IMO is how wealth inequality has emphasized the magnitude of this effect. It's not that a tech company is bringing in workers and being a major employer in and of itself that's the problem, it's the wealth gap between those new tech workers and the average person that causes friction.
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This isn't new in the sense that there have been literal towns built around a single employer for decades where that employer basically held the town by its neck (think mining or manufacturing towns for example.
The main difference now IMO is how wealth inequality has emphasized the magnitude of this effect. It's not that a tech company is bringing in workers and being a major employer in and of itself that's the problem, it's the wealth gap between those new tech workers and the average person that causes friction.
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Louis
I m from northern Virginia and I m currently attending Virginia Tech. Our school is spending tens of millions of dollars on a shiny new CS-focused campus next to the Amazon headquarters in Crystal City instead of focusing on our main campus, which I can point out multiple crumbling buildings in need of repair for. In my opinion, corporations are definitely due for a power check, they can t just sell their people s lives for the needs of corporations. Interested in how the tax will play out in Seattle in the upcoming years.
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I m from northern Virginia and I m currently attending Virginia Tech. Our school is spending tens of millions of dollars on a shiny new CS-focused campus next to the Amazon headquarters in Crystal City instead of focusing on our main campus, which I can point out multiple crumbling buildings in need of repair for. In my opinion, corporations are definitely due for a power check, they can t just sell their people s lives for the needs of corporations. Interested in how the tax will play out in Seattle in the upcoming years.
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LoveStallion
To be clear, Arlington near Washington DC is literally right across the river from downtown DC.
People here have been rightly concerned about property values ballooning because of Amazon, but unlike in Seattle, Pentagon and Crystal City have had expensive real estate long before Amazon became one of many major employers in the area, so I don't think it'll be as bad as some fear.
Amusingly, what's driving property values up even more is the construction of a new Metro station down the road in Alexandria.
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To be clear, Arlington near Washington DC is literally right across the river from downtown DC.
People here have been rightly concerned about property values ballooning because of Amazon, but unlike in Seattle, Pentagon and Crystal City have had expensive real estate long before Amazon became one of many major employers in the area, so I don't think it'll be as bad as some fear.
Amusingly, what's driving property values up even more is the construction of a new Metro station down the road in Alexandria.
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Danner
The problems associated with growth in the Seattle region (housing prices and traffic) have less to do with Amazon and everything to do with the city council, and to some extent, the voters. Want cheaper housing and less traffic? Re-zone single family areas into multi-tenant (looking at you, Queen Anne. Want better traffic? Vote in favor of light rail (looking at you, 1970 mass transit Seattleite voters. Sincerely, a guy who lived in Seattle from 1986 to 2019 and who worked at Amazon from 2016 to 2019.
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The problems associated with growth in the Seattle region (housing prices and traffic) have less to do with Amazon and everything to do with the city council, and to some extent, the voters. Want cheaper housing and less traffic? Re-zone single family areas into multi-tenant (looking at you, Queen Anne. Want better traffic? Vote in favor of light rail (looking at you, 1970 mass transit Seattleite voters. Sincerely, a guy who lived in Seattle from 1986 to 2019 and who worked at Amazon from 2016 to 2019.
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fuckyou666420
I work in a downtown office, which I love because I don't have to drive to work, I can pick up some food or run errands at lunch on foot, we can go out after work really close by, lots of reasons. but, I sometimes heard complaints from workers who had to move out to the suburbs for their family et cetera who hate their 1hr commute (obviously) and they wish the office was there instead. so I wonder how many AMZ employees live east of Lake Washington that would be the better part of job movement.
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I work in a downtown office, which I love because I don't have to drive to work, I can pick up some food or run errands at lunch on foot, we can go out after work really close by, lots of reasons. but, I sometimes heard complaints from workers who had to move out to the suburbs for their family et cetera who hate their 1hr commute (obviously) and they wish the office was there instead. so I wonder how many AMZ employees live east of Lake Washington that would be the better part of job movement.
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