Amazon Gives To End Homelessness? Cold Comfort To The New Homeless in NYC, DC
Amazon Gives to End Homelessness? Thats Rich. By Laura Flanders, Common Dreams, Nov. 28, 2018. They call it Giving Tuesday, and weve just marked the seventh annual this week. Its supposed to kick off a season of charitable giving, but the way some corporate robber barons use it for public relations is enough to turn your stomach.
So lets rename it Stomach-Turning Tuesday. This years prime stomach-turner was Amazon, of course. This year, they announced theyll give half a million dollars away in toys and throw in an additional $1 for every mile their #DeliveringSmiles trucks drive during their holiday giving tour. Whom will Amazon give those extra dollars-on-the-mile to? The National Alliance to End Homelessness. Thats rich.
This is the same trillion dollar corporation that just extracted billions of taxpayer dollars in what amount to bribes from two cash-strapped states: Virginia and New York. Those public billions could have gone to public housing or transit or other public services. Instead, theyll go to Amazonone of the world's richest companiesto defray their costs for doing business.
Whats in store for local residents? Well, Amazons first home, the city of Seattle, is now the third most expensive housing market in the country. When Amazon arrived, it wasnt even close. According to the real estate site Zillow, home prices in Seattle rose 73% in the last five years and rents another 31%. Call me cynical, but Id bet those Giving Tuesday dollars that Amazons giving to fight homelessness will come as cold comfort to those in Long Island City and Crystal City who are about to be made homeless. Dont get me wrong, Im all for giving. But this isnt charity, its feudalism. . . .
More, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/11/28/amazon-gives-end-homelessness-thats-rich
More, Amazon's HQ2 Could Drive Up Homelessness in New York And Washington, DC, Greenwich Time
https://www.greenwichtime.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Amazon-s-HQ2-could-drive-up-homelessness-in-New-13425157.php
The donations hail from Bezos' Day One Fund, a $2 billion philanthropy initiative that focuses on homelessness and education. Both issues have become key concerns for residents of New York and DC, which are already plagued by rising homelessness and overcrowding in public schools. With Amazon introducing around 25,000 new employees to each metro over the next decade, these issues could become even worse.
flotsam
(3,268 posts)They're bad guys because they're going to increase real estate values?
appalachiablue
(41,056 posts)existing home owners. In Arlington Co., Va. currently a 1-bedroom apartment rents for approximately 2K per month. That will change drastically and impact many lives in the coming years.
With the new 'Silicon Valley East' move by Amazon, housing costs in NoVa and NY will increase dramatically. Home prices in the DMV region are already unaffordable for most workers largely due to the ongoing real estate boom in DC for the last 20 years. Many Metro DC workers live far out, commuting 2+ hours daily, from Prince William Co., Va. and other sprawling communities in NW Va.
The author is criticizing the explosive rise in housing costs that has characterized Seattle particularly since Amazon's rise. It's the same with tech industry growth in Silicon Valley and San Francisco where a 2BR apartment rented for 6K per month, 10 years ago.
The proliferation of homelessness particularly in Western Coastal states is a financial and humanitarian crisis. San Francisco's streets are filled with homeless people. Seattle, San Diego and other CA cities possess countless communities of people living in cars, encampments or on the street.
Plenty of others have found fault with Amazon's handling of bidding for its new HQ2 location over the last year. Many articles on the subject have been posted here recently. Amazon accepted proposals from numerous US cities only to decide on NY and DC at the end which they claim is where their employees want to live. And massive, $billion tax incentives and cuts/'giveaways' to Amazon will hurt NY and VA funding for infrastructure, schools and more, as noted by the author.
Queens, New York will be impacted like Arlington, Northern Va. Those areas will see a staggering increase in the number of homeless people. Posters on this board from NoVa have recently commented that they will need to move from the area because of this news. I'm unable to pay 6K a month for rent, so I'll be one of them.
Seattle homeless encampment:
San Francisco homeless:
mahatmakanejeeves
(56,906 posts)I live in Alexandria. I can't see any advantage to having Amazon move in.
appalachiablue
(41,056 posts)Alexandria is wonderful, I worked in Old Town and the west end for many years with the city historic office.
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D.C. traffic is worst in the U.S., Metro study, WAMU 2012. (Photos, Arl./NoVa highway)
appalachiablue
(41,056 posts)This home in the 6000 block of Little Falls Road in Arlington currently is on the market, listed at $1,145,000 by Christine Rich of Long & Foster Real Estate.
Arlington single-family homes continue to sell, on average, for more than $1 million as the market moves deeper into the competitive spring-summer season.
More, https://www.insidenova.com/news/arlington/average-arlington-single-family-home-sale-again-tops-million/article_8b0ad12e-5535-11e8-b584-e76ee61f9526.html