Amazon’s announcement to plug the plug on half of its second headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, on February 14, 2019, made local, national, and international news.
It was a very personal and professional soul crushing defeat in my over 20 years in IT. My personal and professional dealings with Amazon have been good and memorable, respectively. I like being an Amazon consumer. On a professional note, I have dealt with Amazon in my last data center job in lower Manhattan. I received one of the most memorable calls of my life on Halloween (October 31), 2017, at 4 pm.
Me : “This is Tom. How may I help you?”
Amazon : “Is your office on lockdown?”
Me : “Pardon me, what are you talking about?”
Amazon : “There has been a terror attack in lower Manhattan.”
Me : “Please hold, let me check with security.”
Me : “Thanks for holding. No, our building is NOT on lockdown. Let me take your name and number to keep you posted. Thank you very much for the heads-up.”
An ISIS bomber killed 8 people and injured 15 others while driving a Home Depot truck down the West Side Highway. At 3:04 pm, he was stopped by the NYPD on Chambers and Broadway less than a mile from where I work. I had fortunately returned from lunch at 3:01 pm. I normally take lunch somewhere on Chambers but was able to go to the Farmers (Green) Market on Broadway and Chambers before I got to work. I fortunately took lunch near the South Street Seaport so that bought me a few extra blocks and minutes. One of my friends was on the bike path but fortunately took a different way home from Chelsea Piers. Another friend was near the high school at the end of the terrorist’s path. Timing is everything. I am saddened for the families of the victims.
I updated my west coast teammates including the main office in Seattle. My former employer rented out data center space to Amazon in their West Coast data centers. I prepared to evacuate as I had to a few months earlier on June 29, 2017, when a bomb was possibly on a bus right outside our building. On Halloween 2017, it was safer to stay than to go. “Should I stay or should I go...” lyrics by The Clash echoed in my head during both incidents.
(2) I wanted to write about Amazon’s decision right after it was announced on February 14, 2019. However, I was busy temping for the first time since the data center NOC (Network Operations Center) was closed and the headcount was moved to northern Virginia on April 30, 2018. My manager, 2 co-workers, and I were laid off for business reasons. Virginia offered better tax incentives. For instance, my former employer gets more tax credit per employee in Virginia rather than New York. Therefore, our headcount was a means to achieve that goal. We could have moved in Virginia but would have made less money as the jobs were re-classified. I had lived in DC for a year in the mid 1990s and still have some friends there. However, the rents are getting as expensive as NYC and I would need to get a car again. I haven’t driven a car on a regular basis since April 1996 after I left it Upstate.
At Hudson Yards on Presidents Day Weekend, I spent the weekend speaking to friends and colleagues about the lost Amazon opportunity for all of us. I felt bad for myself and even worse for “Ron” (name changed for privacy reasons.) Ron had worked for Fresh Direct in Long Island City was offered a job with Amazon. He was about to leave his current job as a vendor for the City. In addition to getting an incredible pay raise, Ron would have gotten much better benefits and stock options. He doesn’t get paid on Holidays such as Martin Luther King Day, Presidents Day, etc. when the City is closed.
(3) I reviewed the opponents critique of the Amazon plan. I think the City , State , and Amazon worked together in good faith. It was a good deal that offered great paying union jobs during the construction phase. The average salary was more than $150,000 per person. The opponents need to realize how hard it is to bring good paying jobs to high tax areas such as NYC. This is an Open Letter from the New York State Budget Director Robert Mujica.
I am have seen first hand the population loss over the past few decades in Upstate New York. Buffalo lost many steel and other manufacturing jobs. For example, there were only 300 people left at the Bethelem Steel plant in Lackawanna when I arrived in 1990. It was 99 percent less than the 30,000 people who worked there about 10 to 15 years earlier according to my neighbors. The Buffalo area also had to deal with the Love Canal Superfund toxic site which was about 15 miles away in Niagara Falls. Many people were diagnosed with Leukemia and other cancers.
Rochester was home to Kodak and Xerox; Kodak lost out on digital cameras. Syracuse lost lots of defense jobs after the end of the Cold War. Canajoharie used to be the home of Beech-Nut baby food. Schenectady lost thousands of jobs after General Electric relocated. I could go on but I think you get the idea.
My home area of Oneonta - Cooperstown was in the epicenter of the fracking debate for the last 10-15+ years. There are about 15 towns along the New York - Pennsylvania border who are interested in leaving New York and joining Pennsylvania People were willing to risk their drinking water to get jobs.
Suburban counties in Long Island and New Jersey are under duress from the high property taxes. Residents are leaving according to Allied and other moving companies reports. Amazon could have helped keep some of those people around. Amazon isn’t a nuclear plant, fracking, or a prison.
PRISON : On a related note, drug kingpin El Chapo was convicted in Brooklyn a day before Amazon’s announcement. He became my neighbor on January 19, 2017. He resides at Metropolitan, a super maximum security federal prison, only a 1,000 feet (300 Meters) from the data center I used to work at. Shortly after his arrival, I saw a Univision TV crew near my office and the prison. I would have commented in Spanish on the issue but some of the words would not be family friendly so I continued onto work.
I have no issues with El Chapo and have never taken drugs. “Give hugs, don’t take drugs” is one of the mottos I tell my nephew and Goddaughters. I wish El Chapo was housed elsewhere. It was too risky to deal with security him, the First Family and the protesters. Helicopter was NOT an option after the 1981 escape attempt. The Subway is too slow and unreliable as well as risky as in “The Taking of Pelham 123” with Denzel Washington and John Travolta. Driving would also be too risky plus too slow because of traffic. There is also a nearby school so that has a kidnapping risk for the kids there. There is the risk of transporting him from Manhattan to Brooklyn by water. He should have been tried at the Southern District Courthouse right across the street from Metropolitan.
After his conviction, El Chapo is probably going to the Alcatraz of the Rockies in Florence, Colorado The residents of Florence were SO DESPERATE FOR JOBS that they collected $160,000 to buy the land for the building of the prison.
Some Amazon employees would have exercised their stock options and started their own businesses a few years down the road. That would mean more tax revenue and new jobs. It would be a money multiplier affect to the real estate, services, construction, and other business sectors. Even if I didn’t get a job with Amazon, it would have helped Ron and about 25,000 to 40,000 people.
