.jpg)
The Amazon HQ2 "competition" is finally over. Jeff Bezos' national ego ... um ... campaign to see what kind of sweetheart deal he could squeeze out of cities and states has ended in a ... tie?
Well, not so much a tie as two victories for Amazon and half a victory for each city:
[H]aving two finalists gives Amazon the opportunity to continue to negotiate a better deal and more incentives, but also to mitigate any backlash by threatening to move all or part of its headquarters to the other city.
Congratulations to Long Island City (LIC) in Queens, NY, and Crystal City in Northern Virginia. You will split the prize, but at full price. Essentially the opposite of shopping with Amazon. We don't know yet just how much each state gave away to Bezos, but you can bet it's a lot.
Per the above CityLab piece:
Amazon has played cities like a fiddle ... [b]ut America’s mayors and governors—including leading progressive politicians in blue states and cities—are the bigger culprits ... they’ve offered up hundreds of millions, and in some cases billions, of taxpayer dollars. This money could be used to fight poverty, improve schools, or build affordable housing instead of being placed in the hands of a trillion-dollar corporation.
I have seen these "competitions" up close during my time in government and I've seen them as a sports fan when cities give away the farm to franchises in an effort to make wealthy owners wealthier. Sure, those owners claim their stadium deals will create jobs for the community, but what kinds of jobs?
As PBS NewsHour reported:
Teams tout new jobs created by the arenas but construction jobs are temporary, and ushers and concession workers work far less than 40 hours a week.
Part time and seasonal jobs without benefits are still jobs, of course, especially if you are unemployed, but we could do better with investments in long-term solutions that create full time jobs with benefits and a living wage.
Also, there's this:
Bloomberg calculated that the $17 billion in tax-exempt debt used to build stadiums since 1986 would cost taxpayers $4 billion.
Let's not even get into the debacles that are Olympic and FIFA giveaways. That's Beijing's Olympic beach volleyball facility in the photo. Not exactly an active, revenue-generating venue. Go check out Brazil's empty billion-dollar soccer stadia for more evidence.
But back to Amazon and its winners. The cost in tax subsidies is going to be immense and taxpayers will pay the price -- literally and figuratively.
Just take a look at Seattle for a preview of what awaits LIC and Crystal City. During the two years I spent working at the Gates Foundation in the early 2010s, I would travel out to Seattle once a month for a week or two. That was right around the time Amazon was beginning its expansion and the rents were starting to skyrocket. Since then?
I've lived in Washington D.C. (a few miles from Crystal City) and here in NYC. Rent prices are already out of control. They will only get worse.
You know what else you need when you drop 50,000 new employees into an area (or 25,000 in two areas in this case)?
Better transportation and improved infrastructure.
I am sure New York's MTA and DC's Metro will be just fine, though. They are among the world's best systems already. What's that you say?
Oh.
But, hey, there's always our nation's commitment to investing in infrastruc ... oh, right.
Look, I get it. No politician ever got punished for trying to create more jobs for their constituents. And what pol wouldn't like saying they brought 25,000 jobs to their city/state?
But there's always a price for these deals. And it isn't a discounted one. Nor will the true impact show up at our doors in two days. Let's check back in five to ten years and we'll have a truer sense of what Bezos has just gifted these two cities.
What do you think? Are the 25,000 jobs worth the giveaways and impact on local communities?
Comentarios