Amazon HQ2 selected - and not Boston

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Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

Coyote137 said:
Listen, the idea that Bezos would pass up being right near the damn White House and Capitol Hill is ridiculous. That's where the power is. There may be smaller little mini-HQs elsewhere, but DC was always going to have a huge leg up simply because of the friggin' power to shape regulations/taxes/etc.
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Fattony hit the nail on the head. You are making excuses that don't line up.

Keep telling yourself that it had nothing to do with Boston's overcrowded and disjointed T system, the lack of a B-R Connection and NSRL. (Not to mention the "iconic" fuel tanks bordering Boston's candidate location......)

Boston CAN change some dynamics - - it is not out of our policymakers' hands. The Metro in and around Crystal City can take 7 minutes to get to a Union Station that can go north and south to other cities with an intestinal blockage in the center of DC.

Don't let Boston/Mass planners off the hook on this - - the DC area isn't flooded with HQs. It is flooded with lobbyist offices.
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

fattony said:
What sense does that make? Then why wasn't Amazon HQ1 in DC from day 1 or at least relocated there when Amazon became one of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world? Why isn't everything in Silicon Valley in DC? Why isn't everything in NYC in DC? Your logic would suggest every company in the US or possibly the world would be headquartered in Crystal Freakin City, VA.

Really, having a large number of employees in physical proximity to Washington has nothing to do influencing policymakers, does it? Sure, K-Street is lined with lobbyists, but the companies themselves don't have to be in DC.

DC/NoVA won for all the same reasons Boston was a front runner. They just had to pick one. I doubt that proximity to federal employees or lawmakers factored in one iota.
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Please. Don't be so naïve. To suggest proximity to federal power didn't factor in "one iota" is just absurd on its face. Amazon can have access to the top talent in various cities across the country, and they will, but there's a deciding factor in Washington's favor that none of the other cities has. That factor could *potentially* have been overcome, but the likelihood was small.

shmessy said:
Fattony hit the nail on the head. You are making excuses that don't line up.

Keep telling yourself that it had nothing to do with Boston's overcrowded and disjointed T system, the lack of a B-R Connection and NSRL. (Not to mention the "iconic" fuel tanks bordering Boston's candidate location......)

Boston CAN change some dynamics - - it is not out of our policymakers' hands. The Metro in and around Crystal City can take 7 minutes to get to a Union Station that can go north and south to other cities with an intestinal blockage in the center of DC.

Don't let Boston/Mass planners off the hook on this - - the DC area isn't flooded with HQs. It is flooded with lobbyist offices.
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By the way, I never said that Boston (or another city) COULDN'T have won - just that there needed to be something to overcome the attractiveness of being close to power. But it's also not really about "planners." It's about our politicians and appointed officials, and what they've done and haven't done over decades. Ole' Bobby DeLeo doesn't even get a challenger in his (my) district, but I imagine he's planted a few people over at MassDOT.
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

Coyote137 said:
Please. Don't be so naïve. To suggest proximity to federal power didn't factor in "one iota" is just absurd on its face. Amazon can have access to the top talent in various cities across the country, and they will, but there's a deciding factor in Washington's favor that none of the other cities has. That factor could *potentially* have been overcome, but the likelihood was small.
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Fattony isn't naive, you are.

Lobbyist offices communicate with politicians, not 50,000 HQ workers.

Corporations set up hired guns on K Street for that......unless you are thinking of an HBO type TV show idea of assigning 10 employees to each pol/regulator to attach the bowling leagues and PTA groups of their families to gain a social "in".

If it had committed to a B-R Connector and NSRL (and had given a location not under the shadows of fuel tanks), Boston would've won this hands down without any tax breaks/incentives whatsoever.

.
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

shmessy said:
Fattony isn't naive, you are.

Lobbyist offices communicate with politicians, not 50,000 HQ workers.

Corporations set up hired guns on K Street for that.
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You guys are talking in general. I'm talking in specific about Amazon. Jeff Bezos is also the guy that bought the Washington Post, if you recall.

Yes, you're both being naïve.
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

Coyote137 said:
You guys are talking in general. I'm talking in specific about Amazon. Jeff Bezos is also the guy that bought the Washington Post, if you recall.

Yes, you're both being naïve.
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So placing 50,000 employees in a federal district is somehow going to influence Chuck Grassley, Lindsay Graham, Steve Mnuchin, or Corey Booker or Elizabeth Warren???? Or any of the heads of the SEC, Treasury, etc?????

Bezos owns the Post and has a house in DC. He owns many companies and houses elsewhere also.

Is Warren Buffet or George Soros, GE, Procter and Gamble, Apple, Tesla, etc all relocating to DC??????

Perhaps you should think this one through.......
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

shmessy said:
So placing 50,000 employees in a federal district is somehow going to influence Chuck Grassley, Lindsay Graham, Steve Mnuchin, or Corey Booker or Elizabeth Warren???? Or any of the heads of the SEC, Treasury, etc?????

Bezos owns the Post and has a house in DC. He owns many companies and houses elsewhere also.

Is Warren Buffet or George Soros, GE, Procter and Gamble, Apple, Tesla, etc all relocating to DC??????

Perhaps you should think this one through.......
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No, you're just stubbornly sticking your head in the sand on this one, for a reason I can't discern. The decisions of George Soros or Warren Buffett are theirs and theirs alone. Bezos' strategy and decisions are his, and he clearly wants a big Amazon influence in the capital. Period.

Again, that wasn't THE ONLY deciding factor for HQ2, which you keep incorrectly insisting was my contention. It was AN IMPORTANT FACTOR.
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

Coyote137 said:
It's also totally a coincidence that Bezos bought two mansions in Washington in January 2017.
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Thanks for the super inside info that no one here was aware of!

He also owns homes in Van Horn, TX, Medina, WA, Manhattan and Beverly Hills.

He bought the Post not to influence government regulators but because it is a media company with wide NATIONAL sway.

If he was so worried about government regulators and such he wouldn't have put such a target on his back with the Trumpster and he would have kissed his ass like Immelt of GE and others last year praising him for his greatness and golf ability. Funny, GE moved to Boston not DC. Yet GE was right there (along with many others who didn't move to DC) in lubricating the President and government officials. Ya know why, Coyote? Because they know you don't have to move to DC for that. So does Bezos. He's choosing NoVa for better transportation, housing capacity, 3 major airports with 35 miles.....and perhaps 5% for the fact he has a home there.

Should we all worry that all those pharma companies in Kendall Square are going to pull up stakes and move to Silver Spring, MD around the FDA?????

Or will it dawn on you that lobbyists do that without any necessity of an HQ present?
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

shmessy said:
Thanks for the super inside info!

He also owns homes in Van Horn, TX, Medina, WA, Manhattan and Beverly Hills.

He bought the Post not to influence government regulators but because it is a media company with wide NATIONAL sway.

If he was so worried about government regulators and such he wouldn't have put such a target on his back with the Trumpster and he would have kissed his ass like Immelt of GE and others last year praising him for his greatness and golf ability. Funny, GE moved to Boston not DC. Yet GE was right there (along with many others who didn't move to DC) in lubricating the President and government officials. Ya know why, Coyote? Because they know you don't have to move to DC for that. So does Bezos. He's choosing NoVa for better transportation, housing capacity, 3 major airports with 35 miles.....and perhaps 5% for the fact he has a home there.

Should we all worry that all those pharma companies in Kendall Square are going to pull up stakes and move to Silver Spring, MD around the FDA?????

Or will it dawn on you that lobbyists do that without any necessity of an HQ present?
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By your logic, yes we should be worrying, because of housing, transport, and airports. Your argument goes both ways.

Also, the decisions of GE management over the past several years aren't exactly an example of what to do right.

Ultimately, I'm not sure why you're so angry about this. We should still invest heavily in improved transportation here, regardless of HQ2. And it was still worth pursuing, regardless of the final outcome. And we should pursue other companies. As a Revere resident, I'm quite "on board" (heh heh) with a Blue-Red connector (and NSRL, etc.).
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

Coyote137 said:
By your logic, yes we should be worrying, because of housing, transport, and airports. Your argument goes both ways.
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We'll have to agree to disagree about Amazon's reasoning.

We can agree, however, that concerns about housing and transportation cut both ways and I do worry that we can/will stretch ourselves too far. I don't think there will be some mass exodus, but I think if things don't improve that Boston may slow or stop attracting new business on the scale is has been for the past decade or so.
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

fattony said:
We can agree, however, that concerns about housing and transportation cut both ways and I do worry that we can/will stretch ourselves too far. I don't think there will be some mass exodus, but I think if things don't improve that Boston may slow or stop attracting new business on the scale is has been for the past decade or so.
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Yes, that is agreed.
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

Amazon in recent years has spent no more than $15 million annually on lobbying Washington.

50,000 employees with an average salary of $100,000 = a payroll of $5 billion.

Talk about a tail wagging a dog.
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

Breaking:

In a surprise move, Amazon.com Inc. intends to split its planned $5 billion, 50,000-worker second headquarters campus between two cities, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday afternoon, citing “a person familiar with the matter.”

Edit:
According to Monday's report, Amazon’s intention is to split the planned second headquarters campus, which is proposed to span 8 million square feet, “evenly between two locations," with 25,000 workers in each city.
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

JANAM said:
Breaking:

In a surprise move, Amazon.com Inc. intends to split its planned $5 billion, 50,000-worker second headquarters campus between two cities, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday afternoon, citing “a person familiar with the matter.”

Edit:
According to Monday's report, Amazon’s intention is to split the planned second headquarters campus, which is proposed to span 8 million square feet, “evenly between two locations," with 25,000 workers in each city.
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According to the WSJ, the decision is based on an inability to find enough tech talent at any single location.
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

stellarfun said:
According to the WSJ, the decision is based on an inability to find enough tech talent at any single location.
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Makes sense. Would have to imagine that Boston is right back in the mix now.
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

Whoever leaked that Crystal City info really screwed 'em big time! Probably couldn't show his/her face there ever again. That's a Bartman x 1,000. :D:D:D:D
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

Wow.....

NYC + DC??

NJ + DC?

Dallas + DC?

Chicago + DC?

Boston + DC?
 
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Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

Coyote137 said:
By your logic, yes we should be worrying, because of housing, transport, and airports. Your argument goes both ways.

Also, the decisions of GE management over the past several years aren't exactly an example of what to do right.

Ultimately, I'm not sure why you're so angry about this. We should still invest heavily in improved transportation here, regardless of HQ2. And it was still worth pursuing, regardless of the final outcome. And we should pursue other companies. As a Revere resident, I'm quite "on board" (heh heh) with a Blue-Red connector (and NSRL, etc.).
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I have no idea why you think I'm angry about this. No need to be touchy because I disagree with your point.

Your point is that governmental location is a major factor in this. It may be for an outpost of lobbyists. You are confusing the needs of an HQ for the needs of a lobbyists office. Simple as that.

The DC area may or may not be chosen for the HQ2 (or a fraction of it) because of the government. That's not an important part of this particular equation. Many other factors are far more integral.

Now if you're talking about Amazon's LOBBYIST office,then you would be on the right track.
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

JANAM said:
Makes sense. Would have to imagine that Boston is right back in the mix now.
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I doubt it. Given that Amazon seems to be fracturing the whole HQ idea.

I think Boston will be a lead R&D center for future stuff: AI, machine learning, voice recognition, robotics, 'big data', medicine and health care. I don't think Bezos had dinner at a restaurant with his family in Kendall Square the other night because he was on a fall foliage tour. From the news reports, it seems he had no public engagements. So my guess, conversations with one.more universities and/or heads of Amazon's current operations in Boston.
 
Re: Suffolk Downs Redevelopment

"HQ2" was always a pretty weird concept. How do you have 2 headquarters? Cutting it half again solidifies that Seattle will remain HQ and there will be 2 new (major) satellite campuses.
 
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