# Explain the Amazon HQ withdrawal from NYC

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-amazon-hq-withdrawal-from-nyc/829550>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 14, 2019, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-amazon-hq-withdrawal-from-nyc/829550 "2019-02-14T20:08:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-amazon-hq-withdrawal-from-nyc/829550/61 "2019-12-07T04:00:13Z")

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Isn’t that something?  
Apple, Google, Amazon are all evil. How did we get to the point where Microsoft are the good guys?

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-amazon-hq-withdrawal-from-nyc/829550/62 "2019-12-07T04:28:01Z")

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Everybody involved knew very well that Amazon didn’t need the tax breaks. The entire exercise was to pit cities against one another to offer the best bribe. Well, not the entire exercise. A piece of it that wasn’t much discussed (I’m not rereading the thread so I don’t know whether it was touched on here) was to gather reams of economic and demographic data on all the cities via the application process.

Hate Amazon all you want, but from a business standpoint what they did was utterly brilliant. It will be written up in textbooks forever.

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**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-amazon-hq-withdrawal-from-nyc/829550/64 "2019-12-07T22:46:41Z")

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Amazon already has a substantial operation in NYC. My son-in-law works for them there. I’m not sure exactly where his office is but he said it is two blocks from Penn Station. I guess that could be Hudson Yards.

NYC already has a serious housing problem. My daughter and SIL had to leave Manhattan for Brooklyn a dozen years ago and their rents are still enormous. How could a major installation of this sort not made it worse?

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**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-amazon-hq-withdrawal-from-nyc/829550/65 "2019-12-08T19:24:38Z")

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335,000 sq ft is not that much space for Amazon. That is enough space for about 1,500 people. Significantly smaller than they the space they were looking for HQ2.

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**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-amazon-hq-withdrawal-from-nyc/829550/66 "2019-12-08T20:18:07Z")

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That’s true but the 25,000 employees that were expected as part of HQ2 wasn’t all at once. That’s the number of employees Amazon expected to add over some period.

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