Comments

1
Noooooooooooo! Dear Seattle, we have enough Amazon. Please don't make them cause another tidal wave of population, which only dilutes our "Seattle culture", and bump our rents higher.
Thanks!
Slow down techbro immigration!
2
"This does not leave a good taste in anyone’s mouth."

Neither does sucking off Jeff Bezos.
3
Seriously, how much more can we collectively bend over backwards for Bezos? He already owns about half the commercial property between Pioneer Square and Lake Union, he's importing tens of thousands of drones - er, coders and support staff - to fill up all that real estate, and developers are falling over themselves in a rush to tear down any structure more than 40 years old to erect generic $700,000 hamster cages in which to house all of them. He's getting the kind of tax breaks a late 19th Century Robber Baron would have wet themselves over, and he has almost single-handedly transformed Seattle into his personal vision of what a "world class city" should look like. I mean, what more are we supposed to do - rename the place Bezosville? Make him King of the City? Sacrifice a few-score former Whole Foods, Kiva, and Twitch employees to further appease him?
4
My theory (which means exactly nothing and is based on nothing than a mannequin's intutition) is that Amazon wants to move the retail operation to another city that is more affordable and keep the technology here (why pay marketing schmucks Seattle Tech wages?). They've invested - and continue to invest - too much money in real estate here to give it up.
6
Five spineless cowards.
7
What part of Jeff Bezos does not a 'leave a good taste in the mouth?' Its their letter, not mine. They should be urging Amazon to move jobs out of Seattle and offer to facilitate the transition.
8
Amazon go away.
9
God god are these people dumb. Do they not actually read the business section?

Amazon isn't leaving. They are expanding because they have to given their insane business model.

Now, they might collapse. Or at least greatly contract. That is certainly possible. They don't do anything special somebody else couldn't come along and do.

But no. They are not going to pull up stakes in Seattle.
10
Kudos to you, Heidi! Superbly crafted.
11
Hamster cages!!
LOL!
12
When they do leave, (and they all do sooner or later) do we get our balls back, or they planning on keeping them??
We may need those balls again so we can put our city back the way we had it!
13
Pish posh! You won't find my signature on this list.
14
Cami dear, the city will never, ever go back the way "we" had it, whoever "we" are. If it were up to me, There'd still be opportunity to dine at The Golden Lion or see a show at the Westlake Room (two late, lamented hotel restaurants The Stranger's restaurant critic obviously knows nothing about), dressed in our finest from Frederick's, I. Magnin, or Klopensteins. Or we could all lounge about the pool at The Olive Crest (my former Capitol Hill headquarters, demolished in 2010 or so), or maybe gyrate wildly at The Monastery or Shelly's Leg, with a late night breakfast at the Ballard Denny's.

There is only the future, and that future points to an ever increasing affluent Seattle, where robots do menial work and we have a small group of professional poor that we treat as beloved pets to show how we're a "real" city. Whether or not that future includes Amazon is anyone's guess. Who'd a thunk Boeing would ever leave us, yet here we are in the longest divorce ever.
15
Does anyone know what the spending power will be of Amazon employees, once their HQ is finished and filled up?

How many ancillary jobs are created because of the employees presence and spending power?

Anyway you look at it, the financial impact will be huge. The city is gonna make hella tax dollars off of employees spending on everything that can be sold to them.
16
The city of Seattle wants to insert itself into Amazon's business, and let them be a stakeholder on yet another Seattle committee? The city will say Amazon was part of the process then freeze them out of any policy input, standard operating procedure. Why is the Stranger pissed, the city is still doing its best to drive the local economy into recession, be patient.
17
@2 for the win.

"The elected officials say they want to expand students' access to internships and curricula for science, technology, and engineering as well as the arts."

What's stopping them? Nothing. Tick, tock.

Please wait...

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