They’re expanding their footprint in the Boston and the burbs:
http://www.patriotledger.com/news/20180430/amazon-on-braintrees-doorstep
Nashville voted down the big proposed transit plan yesterday, which I would expect rules us out (thankfully).
MOWC, I was hoping that transit might pass, but knew it would be a long shot with all the upheaval politically. However, I don’t want Amazon in Nashville as I hope to move there in a few years when I retire and traffic is bad enough already. I expect any transit plan they finally pass to take years to implement. I feel like traffic has gotten so much worse just trying to get down I24 past Clarksville these days and with Google coming in there, it will only increase.
Wow, even David Horsey is up in arms against the proposed head tax!
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/seattles-proposed-head-tax-would-affect-more-than-amazon/
Amazon just announced that they are putting their Seattle expansion on hold because of the stupid tax.
See the Forbes story on the head tax also. Sleeping giant Amazon has finally woke. :))
http://fortune.com/2018/05/03/amazon-seattle-building-homeless-tax/
Good. Maybe my ears will get a temporary reprieve from all that construction noise. The city council is just nuts. Nuts.
Local news says Amazon was in Pittsburgh today, so they may not be done touring. We have cheap housing but lousy public transportation and highway infrastructure. Many people don’t want them to come, fearing housing/rent price increases.
D is very excited to hear about the probability of Amazon moving into the Boston Seaport and hiring in her intended CS focus (Machine Learning). And the commute isn’t too bad from the south, apparently there is water transit available.
How would a commute from the south be easier? It’s packed now.
@lookingforward, via water transit from Hingham. The jammed traffic patterns generally start around the Hanover area where you would get off (if not before) for the water transit option, yes? I have friends who live in the Marshfield area who use the commuter boat on a daily basis and don’t think its too bad. I think they pay about $15/day RT.
Amazon doesn’t care about employee commutes, they care about commute times to national/international airports.
The Seaport will provide a water shuttle to Logan to accomodate Amazon. Door to door it will be roughly 10 minutes max.
I don’t think that’s quite right. They certainly do care about commute times to airports. But published reports say that as Amazon officials are going around to visit the finalist cities, they’re spending a lot of time interrogating local officials about the strengths and deficiencies of their public transit systems, and what they will do to make both transit and bike commuting routes more available to Amazon employees. This also relates to the “quality of life” selection criterion. They want to go someplace they can attract and retain the talent they feel they need, and they seem to be convinced that both public transit and bicycling are key elements in the mix.
No, the main reason they talk about transit is because the issue came to bite them in the rear here in Seattle. Amazon definitely contributed to the local traffic issues and gridlock, and now the city is trying to go after Amazon’s $$… having the plan in place will save Amazon from future headaches and clashes with the city officials.
In Seattle HQ, they give employees free transit passes, have a number of shuttle buses to the further commuting areas, and comp about 10 days per month free parking in their HQ garages for those occasionally needing a car. DS would have taken the job no matter what, but he’s pleased to be able to walk to work and has taken frequent advantage of the transit pass. He also appreciates being able to drive from underground apartment garage to underground work garage (and underground grocery garage).
It is one thing to provide bus passes for the employees and free parking… it is a completely different thing when buses are so packed they can’t pick up all who needs a ride or when traffic is at a standstill on I-5.
The Seaport site which has already been announced will concentrate on Alexa. The most likely Boston contender for HQ2 is the old Suffolk Downs racetrack site which has two MBTA blue line stops associated with it, one of which is literally the Suffolk Downs stop. Suffolk Downs is four stops from the airport on the blue line. The park and fly lot and some of the airport hotels are within a half mile or so of the Suffolk Downs site. The bigger issue for Boston is that the site isn’t in a very walkable neighborhood and housing might be tight, meaning people who don’t take the T might have to commute from other parts of the city through already heavy traffic.
Transportation has been a part of the search process since the initial RFP. It’s not just a getting to the airport thing if you read the RFP for HQ2.
And name me the desirable living areas around Suffolk Downs.
Or the environmentally safe areas where you’d build a planned community.
I can see the lure of the seaport, if that were for hq2. Not counting traffic. I think the current ferry service is geared to present demand. Is it feasible to expand? Could there be sufficient parking at the residential end? Is a ferry the “it?” (And how many do they think will live in that Hingam/South Shore area?)
Road traffic from say, Braintree/Quincy . Is a logjam (with the rush hour period expanding.) Sure it’s on the Red Line, which would need a total overhaul.
@lookingforward East Boston and Chelsea, yes Chelsea, are gentrifying. Revere would be next with its ocean frontage.
Please not Austin…were good without it …