[thinkingtoilet]

So other people's back yards it is! What a wonderful philosophy.

As for Amazon HQ, I don't know what NY's deal was but I was in Boston when it was a consideration and the amount of tax breaks they wanted was insane and would have been a huge net loss for the city. I'm very glad it wasn't moved there. It doesn't matter if you create a few thousand jobs if you get literal billions in tax breaks, it's a net loss for the state.

[alpha_squared]

If I remember correctly, reporting at the time just after DC was selected was suggesting that it was always going to be DC to be in close proximity to government and that the whole fiasco was a way to extract as many concessions as possible from the city in its efforts to "compete" for the new offices. What even is an "HQ" if the actual headquarters that disproportionately houses more office workers than anywhere else is still in Seattle?

[jcranmer]

Hell, after the 'competition' was announced, many commentators observed that it was pretty much written with Arlington, VA in mind, and the competition was less a serious competition and more a ploy to try to get a lot of subsidies for what their plans already were. It's also worth noting that the bids that were accepted (Arlington and New York) were some of the most miserly bids.

[bloppe]

The biggest possible tax break is zero tax, which is what you get when they move out of state

[thinkingtoilet]

Again, it would have been a net loss for the city. So walking away with zero is a huge win.

[bloppe]

How do you figure? Curious as to where the costs come from

[sincerely]

Well there are plenty of places that aren’t in anyone’s backyard

[beart]

"Backyard" is obviously not to be taken literally. Anywhere you put one of these things is going to have an impact on the region. But perhaps you can provide some examples of places that are not in anyone's backyard?

[kube-system]

"in [someone's] backyard" is a colloquialism that refers to "those who are in that area"