A lie for a lie and your soul for sale

[sovay]

Mayor Curtatone finally made a public decision I don't agree with, but he picked a doozy: "Somerville is preparing a regional proposal for Amazon's new headquarters." First of all, I have hated since the start of this process the very idea that Boston has to court Amazon, has to flatter the largest internet retailer on the globe into gracing our brick-and-mortar backwater with its $135 billion presence; Bezos' ego doesn't need the extra stroking. Second, I don't want Amazon in Boston: I don't want to become the Seattle of the East Coast or, God forbid, the San Francisco. I don't want to live in a company town. I especially don't want to live in a company town with Amazon's well-documented, exploitative employment practices. And I really, especially don't want to see Somerville, which is struggling enough with costs of living and gentrification and rents approaching asymptote, turn into an exploded shell of itself with the neutron star of Amazon at its core. When I feel less like a bomb went off in my head, I will try to write some less furious version of the above and send it to the city. I cannot see any way in which an Amazon "campus" in Somerville ends well, except for Amazon.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Oh no! While I grew up in Cambridge, I haven't been back in Somerville in a long time. Has it managed to maintain its down-to-earthitude, or is gentrification creep winning?

[sovay]

Has it managed to maintain its down-to-earthitude, or is gentrification creep winning?

Gentrification creep is not winning, but inflation due to fevered expectation of the Green Line Extension has not helped. It still feels like a real city where people live. I don't want that to change.

[gwynnega]

Ugh. I hope this doesn't come to pass.

[sovay]

Ugh. I hope this doesn't come to pass.

Thank you. I truly don't think it would be good for the city.

[ethelmay]

Massachusetts may be safe due to its taxes. Bezos is notoriously anti-tax.

[sovay]

Massachusetts may be safe due to its taxes. Bezos is notoriously anti-tax.

I hope you're right. I don't want him to be offered loopholes as enticements.

[dewline]

Ottawa's mayor is looking into competing for "HQ2".

[moon_custafer]

If it’s any reassurance (and I’ll understand if it isn’t), I think pretty much every city in North America is trying for Amazon, so all our chances of being stuck with it are pretty low...

[sovay]

I think pretty much every city in North America is trying for Amazon

I do not understand why.

[alexxkay]

Similar reasons to the Olympics, perhaps? (Allegedly, prestige; actually, huge opportunities for graft.)

[sovay]

Ottawa's mayor is looking into competing for "HQ2".

I wouldn't wish Amazon on Ottawa!

[dewline]

We've got enough problems with the consequences of being the national capital making us a "one of a relative handful" kind of "company town" to be sure. Whether having Amazon around would make that situation better or worse, I don't know. Also, we - as a country - still like our labour unions somewhat more than seems to be the case in the States and we're redeveloping an appreciation for the details of our tax laws. If fear of Trump becomes enough to make Amazon go along to get along up here...?

[phi]

I haven't gotten past spluttering fury myself. Especially that Curtatone had the chutzpah to say Amazon will bring "good jobs" to blue collar Somerville residents. Bull-fucking-shit. Amazon offered me $130K to work for them and I turned them down because my price for enduring 60-70 hours a week of constant abuse is at least an order of magnitude higher than that, thank you very much, and that's at the white-collar tech employee end of the spectrum. From everything I've read work conditions for physical labor are far worse. Augh. Still incoherent spluttering fury over here.

[sovay]

Amazon offered me $130K to work for them and I turned them down because my price for enduring 60-70 hours a week of constant abuse is at least an order of magnitude higher than that, thank you very much, and that's at the white-collar tech employee end of the spectrum.

That matches everything I've read. If you want to bring jobs into your city, why the hell would you seek them out from a company that has been repeatedly written up for abusive labor conditions? From a company that is actively anti-union? That makes no secret of its competition-discouraging practices—imagine what that'll do for local businesses? Even in the improbable best-case scenario where Amazon is a benevolent corporate behemoth and pays its people as much as they're worth, which it has heretofore shown no signs of doing, I can't see a good result for the people who live in this city and don't work for Amazon, so can't match the inevitably soaring costs of living. I can't see a good result for the city if Amazon decides one day that it's not getting the expected bang for its buck from Boston and pulls out all its money, like a one-company dot-com bubble. I can't see a good result if it decides that it's getting exactly what it wanted and stays, like a coalfield. I have had a near-migraine all day and I've still been shouting about this. It would be like an Olympic bid, only without even getting to watch the athletes.

[justice_turtle]

Oy. *offers good wishes and, if wanted, hugs*

[sovay]

*offers good wishes and, if wanted, hugs*

Much appreciated.

[redbird]

Fortunately, I get to vote against him in less than a month. (I doubt my vote will make a difference, though.)

[sovay]

Fortunately, I get to vote against him in less than a month.

I generally, really like him as a mayor. I just want him to realize what a terrible idea this is and back off it.

[heliopausa]

I despise Amazon. They want to reduce the entire world to shopping in the company store.

[sovay]

They want to reduce the entire world to shopping in the company store.

I wind up with "Sixteen Tons" stuck in my head.

"But he can always go to the company store and draw flickers or scrip—you know, that's little brass coins that you can't spend nowhere, only at the company store . . ."

[thistleingrey]

I too hope they don't hit Boston. I wish San Francisco had not become its current self, but these things shift; here's hoping that they don't shift worse, is all.

[sovay]

but these things shift; here's hoping that they don't shift worse, is all.

Amen.

[ashlyme]

Oh for fuck's sake. Crossing everything that this doesn't happen.

[sovay]

Oh for fuck's sake. Crossing everything that this doesn't happen.

Thank you. I just can't see a single good reason for it.

[genarti]

OH NO UGH. WTF, Curtatone?? Here's hoping the pushback is loud and clamorous and gets him to change his mind promptly. What a terrible idea; the results would be awful for Somerville.

[sovay]

Here's hoping the pushback is loud and clamorous and gets him to change his mind promptly. What a terrible idea; the results would be awful for Somerville.

I will say as much in public meetings if there are any. He was certainly getting negative Facebook response.

[kore]

DW ate my comment for the SECOND TIME IN A ROW, but scuttlebutt is it was all a giant ploy to get WA state to suck his dick even more than now, which is hard to imagine.

[sovay]

scuttlebutt is it was all a giant ploy to get WA state to suck his dick even more than now, which is hard to imagine.

By "his" I assume you mean Bezos?