I can’t do bunk but Amazon could and I can’t do anything about that really.
I mean, $10B is a lot of money anywhere, even NYC. That’s why every big city in the country sent in an application. I can’t imagine Amazon bulldozing the convention center, and Memorial Auditorium is a state historic site. We don’t have enough hotels for the current convention center, why would we build a new one? And why would Amazon use its own money to replace an existing, government-funded structure?
IF Amazon comes here, and IF we’re lucky, it will be similar to what happened in Charlotte, where Wachovia and then Wells Fargo funded the construction of several new cultural centers to augment what they already had. For example, right now the NC Museum of History is trying to figure out how to expand, and maybe Amazon cuts a check at some point. Corporations aren’t in the business of planning new cultural centers, but they are in the business of letting civic planners come to them with offers to slap their name on a new cultural center or expansion.
For instance, some day the NC Museum of Natural Science might have a Jeff Bezos Center for Space Exploration or a Tim Cook Computer Science Exhibit.
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Just offering examples of how much power and control Amazon will have if they move here. Scary amounts. With a corrupt state government, never say never. Sorry guys, I’m not Jeff Bezos in disguise.
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Sorry, my post wasn’t meant as an attack. You’re absolutely right, if Amazon comes here, Raleigh will be one big company town. But, it will manifest itself in other ways, principally through legislation aimed to placate Amazon, as we just saw in Seattle. Given the difference between Seattle and Raleigh, I imagine Amazon and its employees would probably give a lot of money to cultural and entertainment groups/facilities, but it would be with their own employees’ quality of life in mind. That would be the soft power to the hard power of overt lobbying, cajoling and campaign contributing.
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Influence is one of the big reasons Amazon would want to come here. Bullies have more power over weaklings than they do over strong people. Being able to leverage not just the local government but the state government has to be a huge factor for them in their deliberations. It’s one of the reasons why DC itself might lose. Maybe the biggest reason. It’s a lot easier to bribe (donate to) state senators than the president and the Congress (who make the laws in DC).
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Agree. This is why Georgia should not be considered, they do not treat or support their own home grown largest employer in Georgia (Delta) with respect!!
How do you think they will treat Amazon?!
BTW: I would rather have no light rail in place right now then have Atlanta’s MARTA.m (it’s average at best - have been on it many times - not efficient).
Triangle will be moving forward with rail soon, Amazon can be part of planning and building it to meet THEIR EMPLOYEE AND DOWNTOWN RALEIGH/URBAN NEEDS.
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Our chances for either Apple or Amazon drop markedly every day the Legislature is in session. I would not be surprised if Legislature sabotages both company’s HQ relocation- which would bring thousands of urban progressives. Stand by for nasty Constitutional Amendments in next 5 days.
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Raleigh will have *commuter rail and maybe Orange and Durham will pull a rabbit out of their tail end and put in light rail, but Raleigh will not likely have light rail in our working lives even if the legislature went blue majority in November.
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Raleigh will not likely have light rail in our working lives even if the legislature went blue majority in November.
Sadly, I agree -and this has been Wake County’s position since 2015. According to someone in their Transit Advisory Committee via a WUNC article back in the day:
We have a duty, I believe, to give the best bang for the buck to the tax payers who are investing in this. And [a light rail route through Raleigh, in light of an extensive GoTriangle study,] is significantly more expensive for the benefit that you would get
If anything, I also don’t think it make much sense to do that for two reasons: economics (not as in “I think this looks cool and people/businesses will be attracted to this!”, but like “GoTriangle [and therefore us taxpayers] won’t go bankrupt by building this thing”) and logistics/technology (if you want to avoid a half-assed streetcar like Atlanta, we have the wrong street geography for it and you’ll need at least hundreds of millions to dig your own right-of-way)… As much as BRT isn’t as “cool”, it looks promising when it comes to getting the job done and enabling the connectivity Amazon needs.
Speaking of Amazon,…
Our chances for either Apple or Amazon drop markedly every day the Legislature is in session. I would not be surprised if Legislature sabotages both company’s HQ relocation
They’re doing exactly the number-one thing both companies are looking for, with the “transformative”-class incentives, though? Also, state Republican leadership has been pretty cooperative about this bid (in isolation, at least). I think it’s important to think beyond personal political opinions and try to look at it from their shoes more; gotta keep in mind that they have their own means to an end.
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Sad … Just sad. 
Heard a rumor yesterday that Apple may actually be considering the Spring Hill (at least I think thats what its called) site between Dix and Centennial Campus. Just a ‘RUMOR’ so I have not clue how valid it is.
Where did you hear that? That would be an excellent location for Apple!
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Spring Hill would seem to be a much better fit for Apple than RTP.
Well, it definitely looks like Apple is talking with Wake County. Does Apple have any big, urban campuses? The ones I know of are kind of isolated from their surroundings.
There’s certainly nothing urban about their campus in California, let’s put it this way.
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It’s such a strange phenomenon that large swaths of CA have these very large square blocks of road, that look like great urban centers from space, but are terrible on the ground experiences and super suburban in building orientation, size, and makeup.
FWIW. Geekwire did an informal survey of which Amazon HQ2 city people would most like to live in.
https://www.geekwire.com/2018/asked-geekwire-readers-amazon-hq2-city-live-not-expected/
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Ultra dense, car dependent suburbia is the worst of both worlds in my opinion.
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Great Seattle folks just voted Raleigh number one location for HQ2 in GeekWire.
Seattle, One of my top five favorite cities!!
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Raleigh First Impression: Air - Cool Airport, then drive through forest to reach cities (no billboards on major interstates in WD&O counties, regulated to some industrial areas), Train - eventual opening of Union Station on doorstep of DTR. Geeks get it right.
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