Amazon's Reality Check for MD

[Anonymous]

Well as an Anne Arundel Co resident I am thrilled. MD offered an absurd deal and I’m deeply relieved they weren’t called on to follow through. My county has steady sustainable growth, agree nothing is wrong with the management of Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugggh. You remind me of the excellent candidates who telephone obsessively to demand how they "came up short" when they were not selected. It's not a failure. Someone/Some place had to be chosen.

Yet you care enough to open the thread and post a comment. Losing doesn't equate to failure. But make no mistake, Montgomery County/MD lost this bid to a local competitor, and if that doesn't concern you in the least then stay content.

In my opinion, Montgomery County won.

And this is how the ostrich buries it’s head in the sand.

No. It means that $8.5 billion for Amazon would have been a terribly wasteful use of public money.

Or perhaps more aptly, the grapes are too sour.

No, really. It means that $8.5 billion for Amazon would have been a terribly wasteful use of public money. Had Amazon decided to locate at White Flint without the economic incentive package, I would have been really happy. For $8.5 billion - no way.

[Anonymous]

Amazon is just evidence of Moco’s wider problem with attracting and retaining businesses. There are hundreds or thousands of businesses that elected to go elsewhere that we never head about. I think this ties in with the problems in Moco’s schools. More takers and fewer makers is a recipe for disaster, and the county doesn’t seem to care — it is living in the past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s montgomery county VOTERS who need to have the ‘come to Jesus’ moment. We are absolute idiots and vote in people that just spend spend spend and who have created a huge welfare state in ourcounty and just tax residents to pay for it.

Baltimore, afterall , has a huge new amazon warehouse so it’s not like Maryland has a problem it’s moco.

As far as Amazon hq2 goes, CC was the best choice because of location, ie, proxmity to DC and DCA. It had nothing to do with taxes. That's why the other hq2 is NYC where taxes are higher than MoCos.

Business real estate rules are the same as home real estate rules - location location location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s montgomery county VOTERS who need to have the ‘come to Jesus’ moment. We are absolute idiots and vote in people that just spend spend spend and who have created a huge welfare state in ourcounty and just tax residents to pay for it.

Baltimore, afterall , has a huge new amazon warehouse so it’s not like Maryland has a problem it’s moco.

As far as Amazon hq2 goes, CC was the best choice because of location, ie, proxmity to DC and DCA. It had nothing to do with taxes. That's why the other hq2 is NYC where taxes are higher than MoCos.

Business real estate rules are the same as home real estate rules - location location location.

You're interfering with the PPs' "Montgomery County is horrible and it's all their fault!1!!!" narrative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugggh. You remind me of the excellent candidates who telephone obsessively to demand how they "came up short" when they were not selected. It's not a failure. Someone/Some place had to be chosen.

Yet you care enough to open the thread and post a comment. Losing doesn't equate to failure. But make no mistake, Montgomery County/MD lost this bid to a local competitor, and if that doesn't concern you in the least then stay content.

In my opinion, Montgomery County won.

And this is how the ostrich buries it’s head in the sand.

No. It means that $8.5 billion for Amazon would have been a terribly wasteful use of public money.

Or perhaps more aptly, the grapes are too sour.

No, really. It means that $8.5 billion for Amazon would have been a terribly wasteful use of public money. Had Amazon decided to locate at White Flint without the economic incentive package, I would have been really happy. For $8.5 billion - no way.

DP here. Honestly, MoCo winning Amazon would've been more of a marketing advantage to attract other businesses here. It would've been cool for like a month until the reality sunk in that we just gave away billions of dollars with already overcrowded schools and one of the worst traffic in the nation. Not to mention it's not like all those jobs would've gone to Marylanders anyway. The cool thing about the DMV is that it's easy to get a job in DC, MD, NoVa, regardless of where you live. No thanks. We dodged a bullet. I'm all for businesses coming here but this wasn't the right deal for us. Arlington at least has the metro lines and the VRE to handle the transit issues. We have the red line and crazy 270.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s montgomery county VOTERS who need to have the ‘come to Jesus’ moment. We are absolute idiots and vote in people that just spend spend spend and who have created a huge welfare state in ourcounty and just tax residents to pay for it.

Baltimore, afterall , has a huge new amazon warehouse so it’s not like Maryland has a problem it’s moco.

As far as Amazon hq2 goes, CC was the best choice because of location, ie, proxmity to DC and DCA. It had nothing to do with taxes. That's why the other hq2 is NYC where taxes are higher than MoCos.

Business real estate rules are the same as home real estate rules - location location location.

You're interfering with the PPs' "Montgomery County is horrible and it's all their fault!1!!!" narrative.

I know. People, especially those in NoVa, don't seem to realize that MoCo is *ONE* county, and yet it is compared to *three* counties in VA. It's ridiculous.

That said, MoCo does need to attract more businesses that pay well and stop building so many new housing. There is business growth in MoCo in the form of expansion of existing businesses, but housing growth should mirror job growth, and right now, from what I can see, there is a lop sided growth towards housing. This leads to too many people needing to commute far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugggh. You remind me of the excellent candidates who telephone obsessively to demand how they "came up short" when they were not selected. It's not a failure. Someone/Some place had to be chosen.

Yet you care enough to open the thread and post a comment. Losing doesn't equate to failure. But make no mistake, Montgomery County/MD lost this bid to a local competitor, and if that doesn't concern you in the least then stay content.

In my opinion, Montgomery County won.

And this is how the ostrich buries it’s head in the sand.

No. It means that $8.5 billion for Amazon would have been a terribly wasteful use of public money.

But you're missing one key point: Maryland CHOSE to offer that $8.5 billion incentive package. There had to be a feeling it was the only way to stay competitive, and just about every local and state official praised the deal - saying it would all be worth it to land the biggest economic prize in the country. Now obviously that was based on getting the whole thing, all 50k jobs. But still, doesn't it say something that they felt they had to offer that much? Imagine if Amazon split HQ2 between Arlington and MoCo ...and Maryland residents found out their neighbors to the south bid 1/8th of what they did for the exact same prize?

[Anonymous]

The biggest issue is the American Legion Bridge. There needs to be a large new bridge connecting Moco to the jobs in Nova, and Moco will continue to lose if it's too difficult to get to where all the jobs are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s montgomery county VOTERS who need to have the ‘come to Jesus’ moment. We are absolute idiots and vote in people that just spend spend spend and who have created a huge welfare state in ourcounty and just tax residents to pay for it.

Baltimore, afterall , has a huge new amazon warehouse so it’s not like Maryland has a problem it’s moco.

As far as Amazon hq2 goes, CC was the best choice because of location, ie, proxmity to DC and DCA. It had nothing to do with taxes. That's why the other hq2 is NYC where taxes are higher than MoCos.

Business real estate rules are the same as home real estate rules - location location location.

You're interfering with the PPs' "Montgomery County is horrible and it's all their fault!1!!!" narrative.

I know. People, especially those in NoVa, don't seem to realize that MoCo is *ONE* county, and yet it is compared to *three* counties in VA. It's ridiculous.

That said, MoCo does need to attract more businesses that pay well and stop building so many new housing. There is business growth in MoCo in the form of expansion of existing businesses, but housing growth should mirror job growth, and right now, from what I can see, there is a lop sided growth towards housing. This leads to too many people needing to commute far.

Thank you for being the voice of reason on the thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

But you're missing one key point: Maryland CHOSE to offer that $8.5 billion incentive package. There had to be a feeling it was the only way to stay competitive, and just about every local and state official praised the deal - saying it would all be worth it to land the biggest economic prize in the country. Now obviously that was based on getting the whole thing, all 50k jobs. But still, doesn't it say something that they felt they had to offer that much? Imagine if Amazon split HQ2 between Arlington and MoCo ...and Maryland residents found out their neighbors to the south bid 1/8th of what they did for the exact same prize?

Yes, it says that they were afraid of the possible political ramifications of being accused of losing a bidding war.

But if Amazon had chosen Maryland, they would now be facing the possible political ramifications of WINNING the bidding war. Just like Cuomo and de Blasio are right now. Every locality in the country should have joined together to decline to play Amazon's little game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The biggest issue is the American Legion Bridge. There needs to be a large new bridge connecting Moco to the jobs in Nova, and Moco will continue to lose if it's too difficult to get to where all the jobs are.

-There are already companies in MoCo, lots of them, but yes we need to do a much better job attracting big name companies.
-Yes, the bridge is a pain but no, not everyone commutes to VA for jobs.
-People commute to DC too. People also take the red line or the Marc train.
-People also travel to Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rockville, Gaithersburg, Frederick, Germantown, College Park, Greenbelt, Baltimore, and many more MD cities for work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The biggest issue is the American Legion Bridge. There needs to be a large new bridge connecting Moco to the jobs in Nova, and Moco will continue to lose if it's too difficult to get to where all the jobs are.

x100000 either a new bridge or train over the bridge. Right now, if you want to take metro from Gaithersburg, for example, you have to take the red line to DC, then switch trains there to get into VA. That adds serious time to the commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest issue is the American Legion Bridge. There needs to be a large new bridge connecting Moco to the jobs in Nova, and Moco will continue to lose if it's too difficult to get to where all the jobs are.

-There are already companies in MoCo, lots of them, but yes we need to do a much better job attracting big name companies.
-Yes, the bridge is a pain but no, not everyone commutes to VA for jobs.
-People commute to DC too. People also take the red line or the Marc train.
-People also travel to Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rockville, Gaithersburg, Frederick, Germantown, College Park, Greenbelt, Baltimore, and many more MD cities for work.

Have you seen the traffic going from Moco over the bridge to VA? It's a nightmare. Yes, there are jobs n MoCo and DC, but there are also many in NoVa, which is why so many people from MoCo and up clog that bridge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest issue is the American Legion Bridge. There needs to be a large new bridge connecting Moco to the jobs in Nova, and Moco will continue to lose if it's too difficult to get to where all the jobs are.

-There are already companies in MoCo, lots of them, but yes we need to do a much better job attracting big name companies.
-Yes, the bridge is a pain but no, not everyone commutes to VA for jobs.
-People commute to DC too. People also take the red line or the Marc train.
-People also travel to Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rockville, Gaithersburg, Frederick, Germantown, College Park, Greenbelt, Baltimore, and many more MD cities for work.

Have you seen the traffic going from Moco over the bridge to VA? It's a nightmare. Yes, there are jobs n MoCo and DC, but there are also many in NoVa, which is why so many people from MoCo and up clog that bridge.

Yes, I've seen that traffic but honestly that bridge is insane- even on the weekends going both ways. To be fair, a lot of people use that bridge to go to DC too. My husband takes it when he has to drive to his job at Constitution ave.