Amazon HQ2 RFP

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Bezos has been holding an annual conference for several years now. Its mostly about the future. A NY Times reporter was invited this year.

....Amazon is eager to buoy its reputation in artificial intelligence, a focus of the conference, amid tight competition with Google.

For Mars, Amazon and Mr. Bezos handpick the roughly 200 attendees, most from the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics and space. There are astronauts, philosophers, rocket scientists, Nobel prize winners and gravitational-wave astrophysicists.
....
There was one clear rock star: A yellow four-legged robot named SpotMini that strutted back and forth on stage as a sea of smartphone cameras focused in. It was the newest invention from Boston Dynamics, the Defense Department -funded firm that Google recently sold to SoftBank. After the presentation, Mr. Bezos and SpotMini led the crowd to lunch.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/...icists-astronauts-other-brainiacs-and-me.html
 

Maryland bid for Amazon’s HQ2 likely beats any incentive package from Mass.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/busines...g-big-bucks/L3TpsDIJobIOAToEi30nRL/story.html

By Jon Chesto GLOBE STAFF APRIL 05, 2018

Maryland lawmakers just promised Amazon an incentive deal worth up to $8.5 billion, the largest in that state’s history. This potential bonanza raises the logical question: What about Massachusetts?

We’re among 20 finalists for Amazon’s HQ2, a prize that could (someday) mean up to 50,000 new jobs. Amazon reps are more than halfway through their magical mystery tour of the various locations. (They’ve already made a Boston stop.) A huge public incentive package -- some might call it a bribe -- could be what sets Montgomery County, Md., above the crowd. Especially when that crowd includes Newark and its $7 billion lure.

Don’t expect Beacon Hill to respond to Annapolis, dollar for dollar. It’s hard to imagine anything that state officials cobble together here being remotely close in size. For perspective, the biggest corporate incentives offered in recent years include roughly $150 million (state grants and local tax breaks) to GE and $46 million (state tax credits) to MassMutual.

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The Maryland financial package basically consists of taking state income taxes paid to Maryland by Amazon employees and diverting them to Amazon, rather than depositing them into the state treasury.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...9fe3c675a89_story.html?utm_term=.afbba1a0e662

However, the Maryland incentives are contingent of Amazon hiring at least 40,000 employees with an average salary of $100,000. Amazon's HQ2 is divided into two phases, with Phase 2 being more tentative and long-term. If Amazon does notant to commit to phase 2 to secure the Maryland incentives, then Maryland;s financial incentive package is essentially zero. The $2 billion transportation package is undefined.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-amazon-package-passed-20180404-story.html

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The different owners of the proposed site (the largely closed White Flint mall) are in court battling each other, with the minority owners claiming the majority owners are trying to screw them financially.
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Meanwhile,
Microsoft said on Tuesday that it was splitting up its Windows engineering team and that the leader of its Windows business was leaving.

The moves, analysts said, were part of a reorganization intended to accelerate Microsoft’s emphasis on newer, faster-growing businesses like cloud computing and data-fueled artificial intelligence.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/...lights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

IMO, Maryland's bid would be more competitive if the state spect $500 million to bolster IT programs at the University of Maryland.
 
Our lawmakers really don't understand capitalism or financial freedom. Very stupid people that have sold out our nation's soul to the corporations.

Keep paying these bozos their unlimited pensions and healthcare benefits.
For Christsake McCain has brain cancer and has not been at the Senate for months but won't step down. Incredible.

America is Mathematically bankrupt because of all these deals with corporations and Trade deals with other countries.

Boston does not need Amazon. Amazon needs Boston innovative talent pool.
Whatever happened when the developers/corporations used to give the towns incentives?
 
That is so incredibly reactionary... Shows the deep relationship between the state and capital for what it is, hardly in contradiction but really in complete cooperation. Take a percentage of wages bosses already extracted value from and give it back to the bosses?

Contrary to the post above this one this is the logic of the capitalist state at its purest. The state's role under capitalism is to facilitate accumulation for the capitalists by facilitating extraction of value from resources and controlling the population to enable exploitation. This is a perfect example.
 
Look out everyone. Coleslaw just went to a TED Talk on the dangers of unfettered capitalism....
Coleslaw, I'm sure there are message boards out their that deal with economic disparity and welfare issues. Most of us just come here to jerk off to BeeLine's pictures and have a lighthearted discussion on architecture Boston development.
 
AmericanFolkLegend said:
Look out everyone. Coleslaw just went to a TED Talk on the dangers of unfettered capitalism....
Coleslaw, I'm sure there are message boards out their that deal with economic disparity and welfare issues. Most of us just come here to jerk off to BeeLine's pictures and have a lighthearted discussion on architecture Boston development.
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Agreed. Particularly on a non-political forum, its quite tedious to see the same message over and over from one source.
 
McCain, McConnell, Ginsburg & Pelosi are among the finest representatives of the evil that pervades American politics in these final days of the Republic. We'll be 100% run by the Democrat mafia within 10 years. Some people think this will be great. Be careful. Socialism unchecked decays rapidly into Soviet commie style rule. We won't buck the trend.
 
odurandina said:
McCain, McConnell, Ginsburg & Pelosi are among the finest representatives of the evil that pervades American politics in these final days of the Republic. We'll be 100% run by the Democrat mafia within 10 years. Some people think this will be great. Be careful.
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We need to give Microsoft and Facebook 200Million in tax incentives to build in the Backbay which will have only 1% vacancy at the time "but its to support jobs". As they are working on artificial intelligence to replace jobs with automation.
 
Not sure what the moderation strategy should be here. On the one hand there's "stick to sports" but on the other, this thread isn't about a building or district and there's no architecture to discuss per se. Which really only leaves the civic, social, economic, and political dimensions until something concrete happens. So either lock the thread or keep it open and let people talk about what they want.

Interesting when the comments crop up to stick to the architecture though, since again there's literally no architecture to stick to.
 
I don't think this thread should be on the development forum. It won't be a development until Amazon possibly announces Boston as the location of HQ2.
 
cadetcarl said:
Not sure what the moderation strategy should be here. On the one hand there's "stick to sports" but on the other, this thread isn't about a building or district and there's no architecture to discuss per se. Which really only leaves the civic, social, economic, and political dimensions until something concrete happens. So either lock the thread or keep it open and let people talk about what they want.

Interesting when the comments crop up to stick to the architecture though, since again there's literally no architecture to stick to.
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Imd say there’s plenty of daylight between “what should MA/Boston be willing to do to get Amazon to build here?” and “how terrible is capitalism?”
 
cadetcarl said:
Interesting when the comments crop up to stick to the architecture though, since again there's literally no architecture to stick to.
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I don't think people are saying "We can only talk architecture on Arch Boston". At least I'm not. There are whole threads devoted to urban planning and transit. But railing against capitalism is not germane to this development. Talk about finance, urban planning, the impact on transit, whatever. Just talk about this development.
 
tysmith95 said:
I don't think this thread should be on the development forum. It won't be a development until Amazon possibly announces Boston as the location of HQ2.
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Hmm. i think at a minimum, we're already the unofficial HQ3! Maybe we go even higher. btw, i find a fun discussion about Amazon HQ w/ a few detours about the philosophy about winning way less of a disturbance than a clash between rulers and ruled. This thread is great.
 
odurandina said:
Hmm. i think at a minimum, we're already the unofficial HQ3! Maybe we go even higher. btw, i find a fun discussion about Amazon HQ w/ a few detours about the philosophy about winning way less of a disturbance than a clash between rulers and ruled. This thread is great.
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It seems like this thread is rehashing tired arguments about the same stuff without any new news. It hasn't gotten as bad as the Harbor Garage yet, but it's close.

My opinion is that HQ2 is not a development project yet. We already have a thread for seaport square and Amazon's smaller building in Boston.
 
I feel like all of the news stories trying to "predict" HQ2 are blowing smoke and don't have anything legit or concrete.

I don't think that Amazon would announce the relocation to thousands of employees before they make it public, it's most likely just a small group researching it.
 
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