Amazon’s HQ2 (x 2)
The New York Times reports that Amazon is finalizing their HQ 2 plans with the intent to split their second headquarters’ 50,000 employees between two East Coast cities – neither of which is Atlanta:
The company is nearing a deal to move to the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, according to two of the people briefed on the discussions. Amazon is also close to a deal to move to the Crystal City area of Arlington, Va., a Washington suburb, one of the people said. Amazon already has more employees in those two areas than anywhere else outside of Seattle, its home base, and the Bay Area.
If it’s done right – thoughtfully, comprehensively, and if it draws from successes and missteps in Seattle – HQ2 is a an economic golden ticket with a halo effect that will profoundly impact education, infrastructure, and employment opportunities for whichever region it chooses.
And if when it is confirmed that Atlanta is, indeed, not the future home of 25,000 high-salary employees, there will no doubt be postmortem conversations at the local, regional, and state level about why we didn’t make the final cut. Atlanta has a better airport than any in Seattle, New York, or D.C., and our housing prices are significantly more affordable (and that’s saying a lot, because housing affordability is absolutely a major challenge across the Atlanta region) than any of those cities. Off the top of my head, though, I can think of one major differentiator.
About Author
Teri
Teri Anulewicz is a Democrat who represents House District 42 in the Georgia General Assembly. She previously spent nearly a decade on the Smyrna City Council. A native New Orleanian and quasi-Texan, Teri graduated from Agnes Scott College in 1998. She's been a front page contributor since 2015, and she compiles each Tuesday's Morning Reads.
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Haven’t had time to ask around but talk about HQ2 here chilled a couple of months ago. Got business to take care of tomorrow (and a Special Session!). There’s plenty of time to pick the bones here once an announcement is official. But at least everyone can let themselves down easily now.
I prefer to think of it as the upcoming Very Special Episode of the Georgia General Assembly (but it may just be that my GenX is showing and also it’s been a long election season).
Agree that our inadequate public transportation is a factor, especially given our traffic issues. While I’m actually kind of glad we didn’t get it, here’s hoping not getting HQ2 will spur a commitment to expanding transit. And by transit I mean rail.
Any connection between this and the (sorta) sudden Gulch approval?
Seattle is 80% or more Democratic. https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/elections/elections/past-elections.aspx
And those Democrats tend to be pretty liberal (personal experience only from visiting).
Employees in the Seattle headquarters will be given the opportunity to relocate to the new headquarters. https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/05/tech/amazon-hq2-update/index.html
I wonder, to what extent, the conservative culture warriors in the State of Georgia alienated what one would presume to be a much more liberal constituency of Seattleites?
Campus carry, religious liberty, blind loyalty to the NRA, etc. Perhaps Amazon thought to themselves, “Metro-DC and/or Metro-NYC share the values of our company and employees more so than Metro-Atlanta.”
Any government can offer tax benefits and other incentives. But the socially hard-right government that controls this State can’t offer them the culture they prefer.
I don’t know if that’s the case. Seattle : Washington State :: Atlanta : Georgia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Washington_(state),_2016
This link here shows that the State of Washington has voted for the Democratic nominee for President every year since 1984:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_elections_in_Washington
I think it’s a fair statement that Washington State is a more liberal state than Georgia.
Obviously the City of Atlanta is a liberal island in Georgia, but Seattle has liberal kindred spirits in state government. There are few folks in state-wide power in Georgia who share the liberal cultural values of the majority of Atlantans.
Queens and greater DC. Seems as if there’s a current office-holder who’ll take personal credit for both decisions but his name escapes me now.
Reminder, owner of Amazon(and the failing Washington post is HATED by a specific current office holder.