Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Low Housing Costs Are A Priority

I think the impacts of Amazon showing up to a city (good and bad!) were largely exaggerated. In my urban hellhole, people were fretting over FIFTY THOUSAND JOBS altering the place entirely, and my basic point was that if I said "job growth over the next 5 years would average 10,000 annually" no one would have thought it excessive. That's not to say that sticking 50,000 in jobs in essentially one spot wouldn't have some impacts, just that the city in the aggregate could handle that. (I also didn't think Amazon showing up would be especially good, just didn't care).

But the one thing that stood in Amazon's spirit quest was that they were interested in more affordable housing costs. Places that could actually absorb those jobs.. So, you know, congratulations on putting your major white collar presence in [checks notes] Seattle, San Francisco, and now the DC area, and New York City.