WEBVTT - The Amazon HQ2 Decision 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.880 stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:17.159 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:19.800 How Stuff Works, and I heart radio and I love 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:24.040 all things tech. And one of the really big stories 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:30.520 in technology, really in tech business back in that being 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:34.160 this year. It just feels like it was a decade ago. 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:37.839 It focused on Amazon and its search for a second 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:42.680 North America headquarters location, which has finally been decided and 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:46.680 announced and talked about, but the search inspired cities across 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:51.200 the continent to bid for attention with incentives and some 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:55.320 with some pretty silly publicity stunts. At the same time, 0:00:55.760 --> 0:01:00.000 numerous journalists dove into the mix, speculating on how m 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:04.280 Amazon might reshape a city, or, as it turns out, 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:08.760 cities that it would pick for the honor of being 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:14.320 the second headquarters, and also examining how Amazon has affected Seattle, 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:20.800 the location of its main headquarters, and ultimately how Amazon's 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:24.600 whole approach would affect cities not just the ones that 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:27.640 it picked, but the ones that it named as contenders. 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:29.480 So in this episode, I'm going to look at all 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:32.640 of these things and talk about how technology can affect 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:35.800 us indirectly, and why it's important we know about it. 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.760 So let's get the basics down first. Let's set the 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:44.280 ground here. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon dot Com back in 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:49.720 as an online bookstore. The company managed to make it 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:54.480 through some very very lean years, and that included the 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.880 dot Com crisis. The company was not turning a profit 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.680 when it went into the dot com crisis. The way 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:04.160 that Bezos and his company were able to get through 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:08.200 this was that Bezos had some very smart people working 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:12.800 for him, and they were able to establish some critical 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:17.160 financing for the company at various points during its early history, 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:22.520 including just before the dot com bubble burst, before that 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:26.760 crisis had really hit. So Amazon got an influx of 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:30.960 cash when it would need it most, because, as it 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:33.919 turned out, the the rug was pulled out from under 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:38.720 the technology sector in general and the dot com sector 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:43.320 in particular. You could also argue Amazon had positioned itself 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:47.680 well by incorporating elements that later analysts would refer to 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:52.200 as web two point oh features and I hate that term. 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.360 It is useful in the sense that you can group 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:59.520 together some basic components that were helpful for a lot 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:02.240 of site. Remember in the early early days of the 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:04.960 Worldwide Web, a lot of the web pages out there 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.520 were static. There was no interaction. It was just a 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:10.519 place you would go. You would read some stuff that 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:12.640 would never be a reason to go back to that 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:16.000 web page again because it would never change. But Amazon 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:20.200 was one of the companies to incorporate stuff that was 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:22.680 what people would call web two point oh would have 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:28.400 user generated elements like reviews, So an Amazon web page 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.799 would change over time as people left reviews for items, 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:36.920 and you could interact with it. You could improve the 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:41.600 performance of Amazon by giving your input, or at least 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:44.160 improve the experience of people who were using Amazon to 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:48.320 shop for stuff. And of course, the company expanded well 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:51.600 beyond books to carry all sorts of different products. Today 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:55.320 you can buy pretty much anything on Amazon. But Amazon's 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:59.640 first really profitable quarter would not arrive until the end 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.800 of two thousand one, which is interestingly right at the 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:07.880 tail end of the dot com crash. So from when 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:11.040 it was founded to two thousand one, the company was 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:14.680 losing a lot more money than it was earning in sales, 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:17.880 and the dot com crash had done a real number 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.919 on Amazon's stock price, as it had for the stock 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:25.520 price of numerous dot com businesses. So my point that 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.320 I'm trying to make is that I don't think Amazon's 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:32.960 survival was guaranteed by a long shot. You know, you 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:35.520 can look at the success of the company today and 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:40.440 the company's founder, who spoiler alert, is the richest man 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:44.160 in the world. But I don't think that that success 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.240 was a guarantee back in two thousand one. If it 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.640 hadn't been for that financing just before the dot com 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.719 troubles really took off, I think the company might have 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:57.480 joined all those other web based businesses that fizzled out 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.159 in two thousand two thousand one. Now, to be clear, 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:05.880 the company wasn't profitable on an annual basis in the 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:08.200 wake of two thousand one. It just had that one 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:10.960 quarter that was profitable, and then in two thousand two 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.800 it had another rough year. It had losses every single 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:18.400 quarter until the final quarter once again, which might tell 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:22.800 you that holiday sales make a huge difference for a company. Now, 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:27.039 that profit wasn't offsetting the losses of the previous quarters. 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:29.760 So two thousand two as a whole was not profitable. 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.920 It wasn't really until the middle of two thousand three, 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:35.400 and then into two thousand four that the company began 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:40.400 to regularly post profits and turn the corner. There were 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:44.599 also still a couple of very big dips, big losses. 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:47.560 One happened in two thousand twelve, and there were a 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:52.040 couple in two thousand fourteen. But if you skip over 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:54.920 that and then you look at the final quarter of 0:05:54.960 --> 0:06:01.360 two thousand seventeen, it's astounding. The difference is night and day. 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:05.920 Amazon ranked in an income of one point eight six 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:10.839 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of two thousand seventeen. 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:13.800 Not over the year, but in that one quarter. That 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:19.799 is definitely a princely some Now. According to the online 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:23.840 journal Courts, Amazon made as much money in that one 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:27.839 final quarter of two thousand seventeen as the company had 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:33.080 managed to make in the previous fourteen years combined. And 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:36.040 this was helped not just by Amazon's business, which was 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:41.680 doing legitimately really well, but also because the United States 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:47.039 government had just passed an enormous tax cut that was 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:51.680 a huge benefit to Amazon. In fact, that tax cut 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:57.440 added nearly eight hundred million dollars to Amazon's earnings all 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:02.599 by itself. So yeah, politics matter, guys. This is why 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:07.919 we see these big companies lobbying very hard in politics 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:12.080 in the United States because they can end up keeping 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:16.240 so much money it nearly doubles their revenue for a quarter. 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.120 All Right, So you've got Amazon, which is a company 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:23.720 everyone knows it's it's it's omni present. Nearly one hundred 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:27.480 million people in the United States holding Amazon Prime membership, 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:32.000 so the company is regularly getting revenue from people, whether 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:36.560 they're shopping or not. However, the average Prime member is shopping. 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:40.440 Because the average Prime member spends about four hundred dollars 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:45.240 on Amazon every year. The company's name is synonymous with 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:49.000 online shopping. It's by far the most popular online store 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:51.880 by a long shot. And as I said earlier, it's 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:55.840 founder Jeff Bezos is, as of this recording, the richest 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:59.040 person in the world. He pulled ahead of Microsoft founder 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:02.000 Bill Gates a couple of years ago. Bezos is worth 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:08.680 around a hundred twelve billion dollars and that blows my mind. Now. 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:12.400 By two thousand seventeen, Amazon was really writing high as 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:16.000 a company. It employed more than three hundred eighty thousand 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:21.520 people worldwide, and about forty thousand of those employees work 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:27.040 at Amazon's original headquarters, which are in Seattle. Washington. Amazon 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:30.960 has a dominant presence in Seattle. That's putting it lightly. 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.400 And I'll talk more about that in a little bit, 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:37.080 but just to give you an idea of what I 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:41.319 mean by a dominant presence, if you look at all 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:47.200 of the office space in Seattle, Amazon occupies nearly twenty 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:50.040 percent of it. So that means if you were to 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.920 go office to office in Seattle, one out of every 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:59.440 five visits would be to an Amazon office. So that's 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:02.640 in ouible. And meanwhile, Amazon is a company is still growing, 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:06.920 and the company needed more space to grow into, and 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.960 it would also make sense to distribute itself somewhat, to 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:16.320 locate some offices, perhaps in a different part of the country. Uh. 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:18.360 And most people guessed it was going to be on 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:20.960 the East Coast, and as they turned out, they were right. 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:25.719 But we'll get to that. So on September seven, two 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:30.320 thousand seventeen, when Amazon announced it was searching for a 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:35.960 second North American headquarters, cities across North America paid attention 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:38.720 and accorded to Amazon, the intent was to pick a 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:44.680 location and invest up to five billion dollars in building 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:49.400 out a new headquarters a new campus, establishing those offices 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:54.920 and in addition to this new building, in this new campus, 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.120 there would be lots of jobs to the tune of 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:02.080 fifty thousand high tech position ends. According to Amazon, the 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:05.480 estimated average salary for those jobs would be more than 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:09.160 a hundred thousand dollars per year. The company also noted 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.760 that this wouldn't happen instantaneously. It's not like they would 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:17.400 build the building and then without fifty thousand job offers. Instead, 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:20.280 they said this was a a long term process, that 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:24.440 the the ramp up to fifty thousand employees would probably 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:28.280 take between ten and fifteen years. But there was this 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:33.040 really tempting promise there, so it was totally understandable that 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:38.600 numerous city governments and business councils and business organizations jumped 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:42.280 at this news. It would mean wealth would flow into 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.480 the respective community, or at least it would flow into 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:50.079 specific industries within that community. It would boost employment, there 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:52.880 would be a new call for for new housing, for 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:56.480 renovated housing. Uh, that sort of development could encourage other 0:10:56.600 --> 0:11:01.600 businesses to set up shop. We're talking stores, restaurants, entertainment options, 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:04.480 all that other type of stuff that has to go 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:09.079 around with growing communities. So, in other words, landing Amazon 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:13.040 for your city looked like it would be a huge win, 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:16.240 Like it would be knocking over an enormous domino that 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:20.760 was set off to to start a chain reaction of prosperity. 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:25.240 That was the general reaction. Now, Amazon created a formal 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:31.520 request for Proposal, or an RFP in proposal speak. Interested 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.520 in qualified communities were to respond to this RFP by 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:39.960 October nineteenth, two thousand seventeen, so cities had about a 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:44.320 month to put together a package to convince Amazon to 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:49.760 select their home, their city, their community for this second headquarters. 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:53.520 The RFP spelled out some of the requirements that Amazon 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:59.200 had in mind for potential h Q two sites and 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:03.080 the company stay that had a quote unquote preference for 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:07.959 the following. It wanted a place that was a metropolitan area, 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:10.360 so it had to be a place that was a city. 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:12.880 It could not just be in the middle of a state. 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.000 There had to be at least a million people living there. 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:21.000 They wanted a business friendly environment, which is a very 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:23.960 vague phrase. I think it's a nice way of saying, 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.600 we want a place where they're going to be really 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:31.079 good to us. We want incentives, we want tax breaks. 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.080 You scratch our back will scratch yours that kind of thing. 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:40.199 They wanted only locations that were urban or suburban locations 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.960 with the potential to attract and retain strong technical talent. 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:47.280 So in other words, there needed to be a place 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:52.200 where they could draw a pool of talent from, and 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:54.320 there needed to be places for those people to live. 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:59.360 Preferably they would be moving into a city where they're 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:03.120 already as a nice, healthy pool of tech talent, but 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:05.440 if not, it needed to be a city that people 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.920 were willing to relocate too. And it was also looking 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:13.040 for quote communities that think big and creatively when considering 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:17.160 locations and real estate options end quote, which might be 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:21.600 code for we want to see some really nice places 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:24.000 where we might be able to set up shop, and 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:26.880 we don't want to to just point us at that 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:31.320 disused car lot that used to be really popular but 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:35.000 has been unoccupied for ten years. That kind of thing. 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:39.400 In addition, Amazon said that HQ two could be but 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:44.839 was not required to be an urban or downtown campus, 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:48.840 So it could be located deep in a city or 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:53.400 maybe not. It could be similar to layout to Amazon's 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:57.360 existing Seattle headquarters, but maybe not. It could be a 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:01.560 development prepped site the company said, quote, we want to 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:06.280 encourage states, slash provinces and communities to think creatively for 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:10.320 viable real estate options while not negatively affecting our preferred 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:13.679 timeline end quote. So again, this puts the onus on 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:17.760 the responding community rather than Amazon the messages. We have 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:20.120 the upper hand here, so don't waste our time by 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:23.040 showing us substandard real estate than no one really wants. 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:27.720 More specifically, the RFP said that the preference was to 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:31.000 have a site that was no more than thirty miles 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:34.760 outside the center of population for the community. It needed 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.480 to be within forty five minutes of an international airport. 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:40.120 It needed to be no more than two miles away 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:43.160 from the closest major highway. There needed to be an 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:47.000 access to mass transit at the site itself, so there 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:50.400 needed to be public transportation that could go straight up 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:54.720 to wherever the location was. The building requirements included an 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:58.880 initial square foot requirement of five hundred thousand plus square 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:03.400 feet for Phase one and up to eight million square 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.240 feet for twenty twenty seven and beyond. I have more 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:10.080 to say about this whole process in just a moment, 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:12.960 but first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:24.400 The RFP listed more information for those interested in bringing 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.720 Amazon to a specific city. But you can easily read 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.800 the RFP for yourself if you want to. It's available online. 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:33.440 It's only eight pages long, and it's not written in 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:36.760 weird jargon or anything. It's very simple to understand. So 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:39.760 if you want to know the full details, just pop 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:44.440 online and search for the Amazon RFP. So in early September, 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:48.960 Amazon sends out this RFP and gives the deadline for 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:53.720 October nineteenth, seventeen for response, and by that time Amazon 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:57.880 had received two hundred thirty eight proposals from cities in 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:01.480 the United States and Canada. Even at this early stage, 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:06.680 before Amazon had reached that deadline, reporters were gleefully writing 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:10.080 about some of the more let's call them creative methods 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:13.400 that communities were employing in order to get attention. Now, 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:17.680 keep in mind, any city that responded likely had some 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:23.479 hefty incentives wrapped up in those responses and lofty promises 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:28.680 to boot. So all these cities were trying to outdo themselves. 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:30.800 And now get more into that a little bit later. 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:34.360 Now I know there was one city in Georgia that's 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:39.440 technically part of the metropolitan Atlanta area, but no person 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:42.400 who lives in the city of Atlanta would refer to 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:47.000 it as being in Atlanta. I'm talking about stone Crest, Georgia. 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.760 It's technically twenty miles to the east of the city 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:54.840 of Atlanta. Now, if you were to travel down Highway 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:59.200 by twenty from Atlanta to stone Crest, you'd see development 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:03.000 along the entire fire way. It's not like it's a 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:07.479 isolated community, but it is not inside the city limits 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:10.840 by any stretch of the imagination. Stone Crest, however, was 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:15.800 in contention for this consideration, and that made my eyebrows 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:19.200 go up as a resident of Atlanta, because I already 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:22.760 knew what the requirements were that Amazon was asking for, 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:26.000 and I really didn't feel that Stone Crest necessarily met them. 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:29.720 And this is just too specifically illustrate what was going 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:32.920 on across North America. Not just to call out Stone 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:36.280 Crest in particular, but one of the things Amazon was 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:40.520 looking for was mass transit. That's a subject about which 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:44.640 I feel very strongly. Here in Atlanta, there are busses 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:49.000 that go from Atlanta to stone Crest on our metropolitan 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:52.960 transit system. It's called MARTA. It takes about an hour 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:58.960 to go from the closest Marta station to Stone Crest 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:03.159 by bus, and that's a Martestation that's on the outskirts 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.119 of Atlanta itself. If you're talking about moving from the 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:09.840 center of the city, or Heaven help you from the airport, 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:13.160 it will take you much, much, much longer than that. Now, 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:16.080 my point is, I think a lot of cities that 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:21.720 didn't really meet these criteria. We're throwing themselves hard into 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:25.560 this arena and making a lot of promises like, oh no, 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:29.000 we'll make sure that this is bolstered and it will 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.040 meet your expectations. And they were offering up all sorts 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:35.640 of things like huge tax cuts and other odd incentives 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:39.679 in order to get Amazon's attention. So sticking with stone 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:43.800 Crest for just a moment. One of those wacky incentives, 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.000 one of the ones that was treated with more levity, 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.640 was that the mayor of Stone Crest, Jason Larry, said 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:54.479 he would lead a movement to d annex part of 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:57.800 Stone Crest in order to rename that that section of 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:01.240 the city Amazon Georgia up. And on top of that, 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:06.159 he proposed having a special shipping distribution highway and calling 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:10.399 it one thousand Jeff Bezos Parkway. So I suppose an 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:15.600 appeal to vanity was his strategy. But Stonecrest, Georgia was 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:20.200 just one applicant. There were lots of others that included 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:24.240 some publicity stunts with their applications. So another one that 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:28.040 got a lot of people giggling was from Tucson, Arizona, 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:33.200 which shipped a twenty one foot saguaro cactus to Amazon. 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:37.560 Bezos didn't accept it. He donated it to the Arizona 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:41.800 Sonora Desert Museum and said his company could not accept gifts. 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:46.600 In Birmingham, Alabama, the city built three installations that looked 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:51.639 like enormous delivery boxes with the Amazon logo on the box. 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:54.400 These were in various locations around the city. They were 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:57.720 each about a story tall, so like ten twelve feet 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:01.440 tall they were. They were huge. The years from Danbury, 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:06.520 Connecticut and Washington, d c. Each separately made videos as 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:09.800 part of their pitch to Amazon, and incorporated sort of 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:14.640 a joke in which they asked Amazon's voice activated assistant Alexa, 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:18.880 where the best place would be to locate Amazon's second headquarters, 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:23.639 And of course, in those videos, Alexa's response was Danbury 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:29.240 for the Connecticut video and Washington, d C. For DC's video. Also, 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:31.919 the DC mayor pointed out that Bezos already had a 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:34.960 home in the DC area and that he owned the 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:38.760 Washington Post, suggesting that it made sense to bring the 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:41.560 whole HQ two there after all Bezos already had a 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:47.320 presence or In Chicago, Mayor Ram Emmanuel organized a council 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:50.760 of business leaders representing some of the largest companies in 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:55.159 the United States. In New Jersey, the proposal promised seven 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:57.840 billion dollars worth of tax breaks over the course of 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:00.680 a twenty year period. That this was to pennant upon 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:04.840 a proposed law passing in the state legislature first. Other 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:09.600 cities like Philadelphia, San Francisco, which was also partnering with 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:14.840 Fremont and Oakland, Toronto, and Vancouver all applied as well. 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:19.000 Not all the cities included outlandish overtures, but they were 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:23.640 all trying to get noticed. On January two, thousand eighteen, 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:28.320 Amazon announced it had narrowed its selection to twenty cities. 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:44.040 So those twenty cities were in alphabetical order, Atlanta, Georgia, Austin, Texas, Boston, Massachusetts, Chicago, Illinois, Columbus, Ohio, Dallas, Texas, Denver, Colorado, Indianapolis, Indiana, 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:51.880 Los Angeles, California, Miami, Florida, Montgomery County, Maryland, Nashville, Tennessee, Newark, 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:56.679 New Jersey, New York City, New York, Northern Virginia. So 0:21:56.800 --> 0:22:03.879 not a specific city, but like the Arlington area, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Raleigh, 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:09.199 North Carolina, Toronto, Canada, and Washington, d C. Over the 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:13.600 next several months, Amazon officials visited with these various cities, 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:18.119 explored the proposed campus sites. They evaluated the various features 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:22.720 like you know, mass transit, highways, airports. They probably talked 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:25.879 a lot about proposed tax incentives that would make the 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:29.320 deal a little sweeter. I mean, the message was essentially, 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:31.760 if we pick your city, we're going to contribute an 0:22:31.880 --> 0:22:35.200 enormous amount to your local economy. So make this easy 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:40.280 for us and help us decide by sweetening the pot. Now, 0:22:40.320 --> 0:22:44.000 Amazon had said it would pick the new site sometime 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:47.600 in ten but did not give a more specific timeline 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:51.280 than that. So through much of the cities on that 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:54.640 short list were kept waiting and wondering where things stood. 0:22:55.359 --> 0:23:00.119 That's how things went throughout most of I remember in 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:02.720 the summer, there was talk about it getting narrowed down 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:06.879 to just a few of those finalists. I think Atlanta 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:09.720 and Austin seemed to be holding on for a long time, 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:15.239 and then in September. On September, Jeff Bezos spoke at 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:18.399 the Economic Club at Washington, d C. He said the 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:21.359 company would announce a decision by the end of the year. 0:23:22.560 --> 0:23:26.440 A month later, in early November, Amazon announced that rather 0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:30.720 than pick a single location, they were going to pick two. 0:23:31.359 --> 0:23:36.000 H Q two would get split up between two locations. Now, initially, 0:23:36.359 --> 0:23:40.600 Amazon did not reveal where those two places would be, 0:23:41.160 --> 0:23:46.879 but on November that all changed. Amazon announced that New 0:23:46.960 --> 0:23:50.199 York City, specifically Long Island City, which is in a 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:54.199 neighborhood in Queens and not confusingly in the area that 0:23:54.240 --> 0:23:57.399 most New Yorkers referred to as Long Island. It is 0:23:57.560 --> 0:24:02.879 on Long Island, but paradoxly not in Long Island, and 0:24:03.520 --> 0:24:07.480 Arlington County, Virginia, near Crystal City, would be the home 0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:13.080 of these two new headquarters offices. And here's a funny 0:24:13.160 --> 0:24:17.199 coincidence that happens to be two of the locations for 0:24:17.280 --> 0:24:22.360 Amazon's largest East Coast US offices that already exist. Also 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:27.639 equally coincidental. I'm sure Jeff Bezos happens to own two 0:24:27.880 --> 0:24:33.840 really large, really lavish homes, one in uh in Virginia 0:24:34.119 --> 0:24:40.080 near Crystal City, one near Long Island City in Queens, 0:24:40.080 --> 0:24:44.560 New York. Probably just a coincidence. Now, some people living 0:24:44.680 --> 0:24:47.480 in the cities that were passed over felt a sense 0:24:47.520 --> 0:24:50.439 of relief at this news. They were worried about the 0:24:50.480 --> 0:24:54.880 impact Amazon might have on their communities. Others felt disappointment, 0:24:55.080 --> 0:24:58.919 particularly if they were penning a lot of hope that 0:24:59.040 --> 0:25:03.239 Amazon's agreement would mean the community would build out a 0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:06.880 lot of improvements to infrastructure, and that the overall community 0:25:06.920 --> 0:25:11.160 would be able to enjoy those improvements. In other words, 0:25:11.240 --> 0:25:14.880 things like, yeah, we built out our mass transit system, 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:17.640 which is part of the deal we made with Amazon. 0:25:17.760 --> 0:25:21.760 But on the flip side, everyone can benefit from that. 0:25:21.760 --> 0:25:24.800 That would have been awesome. So some people were disappointed 0:25:24.880 --> 0:25:28.240 if their city wasn't picked. There have been several articles, 0:25:28.280 --> 0:25:31.720 mostly ones that are written from a local perspective, that 0:25:31.840 --> 0:25:35.359 revealed some of the details about the various proposals that 0:25:35.480 --> 0:25:40.280 failed to bring Amazon to respective cities. Pittsburgh had reportedly 0:25:40.359 --> 0:25:45.159 included up to ten billion dollars in financial incentives In 0:25:45.240 --> 0:25:48.479 their pitch. Maryland was right behind with eight and a 0:25:48.520 --> 0:25:52.680 half billion dollars, and Newark, New Jersey was, as I said, 0:25:52.720 --> 0:25:57.000 at seven billion. Dallas, Texas proposed building a new higher 0:25:57.080 --> 0:26:02.800 learning facility called Amazon University. Atlanta, apart from having this 0:26:02.960 --> 0:26:07.159 part of Stone Crest renamed Amazon Georgia, had even suggested 0:26:07.200 --> 0:26:12.120 perhaps Amazon would get an exclusive rail car on Marta trains, 0:26:12.560 --> 0:26:15.919 which would have infuriated me had it come to pass. 0:26:16.280 --> 0:26:19.359 I would have hated waiting for a train and realizing 0:26:19.560 --> 0:26:22.639 that the only car that wasn't completely full of people 0:26:23.119 --> 0:26:29.800 was exclusively for Amazon employees. Then uh, Atlanta also had suggested, 0:26:29.840 --> 0:26:32.480 by the way, that there could possibly be an exclusive 0:26:32.560 --> 0:26:36.640 executive lounge at the Atlanta Airport reserved just for Amazon 0:26:36.720 --> 0:26:41.359 executives and their guests. Again, this starts to get very elitist, 0:26:41.600 --> 0:26:47.240 and it tends to get my my rather liberal dander up. Now, 0:26:47.280 --> 0:26:50.200 how much did New York and Virginia offer? After all, 0:26:50.280 --> 0:26:55.000 they won the bids, right the Amazon ultimately chose New 0:26:55.080 --> 0:26:58.200 York in Virginia and there are these other cities that 0:26:58.240 --> 0:27:02.760 were offering incentives of billions of dollars. What did the 0:27:02.800 --> 0:27:07.080 two winning sites offer well? For New York. New York 0:27:07.119 --> 0:27:11.400 offered two point eight billion dollars in incentives, a princely 0:27:11.560 --> 0:27:15.480 some in itself, obviously, but still much less than some 0:27:15.560 --> 0:27:19.560 of the other cities. Virginia's promises were way more modest, 0:27:19.640 --> 0:27:23.359 at five hundred seventy three million dollars. Now, this has 0:27:23.440 --> 0:27:29.920