Also, until Republican pro-business candidates stop loosing primaries to social-conservatives, bug business wanting to park in one of those states might fear getting drawn into some state level social issue.

The problem is who do pro-business conservatives get the voters to hate? With social-conservatives that's easy. Social conservatives and radical capitalists both benefit from economic anxiety. But bug business and pro-business cons have only one common enemy: the worker ants.

Red Ants, clearly.

Great; here in Northern VA and the West side of the DC Beltway, (right between two geographically enforced bottlenecks, the Wilson and American Legion bridges over the Potomac) already consistently in the top 10 most congested roadways in the country, another 25,000 commuters is exactly what we need. I66 Eastbound into Crystal City was charging $40+ one way during peak hours over the summer, and there are few alternative ways into that part of town in the morning.

I already try to get to the office before 6:00 am and leave by 2:00 pm to avoid the 3.5 to 5.5 hour long "rush hours" that can easily double or triple travel time. There's no way I would have accepted this job if I had to be here for normal office hours.

Don't worry, if there's one thing these companies are known for, it's providing a wealth of resources towards local infrastructure. ;)

Same in LIC. It's not prepared, nor will it be at $3-4B a subway station, to handle that kind of commuter traffic. That's not even mentioning the gentrification of neighborhoods that support manhattan in the service industry. They'll just move further away as rents and ownership is way out of reach. Average salary's they say will be $100K/ Year. No way in hell anybody that lives in adjacent neighborhoods will be able to afford what, $2-3,000 / month rents. Landlords have $$$ for eyes.

The 7 train was a nightmarish mess 20 years ago. Now it is WTF bad. What is a terrible choice.

There is an entire rust belt with infrastructure that can support this HQ with affordable housing, mass transit, uncongested highways, trains, planes and waterways. Sucks that No. VA is going to get even crazier. I can't imagine why they would want to build in that crowded area.

If you own property, the value will probably go up, and if you can tough out another 25000 commuters on an already congested system for 4-5 years you can probably sell and flee. Sucks if you don't own property becasue it will rapidly price people out of buying like it has here in SO-CAL.

The Rust belt voted Trump.

Do you think Bezos will give ANYTHING to a place that voted for a guy who attacks him constantly?

If it was going to be in the US, NYC was always the only player in the game. The Northern Virginia HQ is just to remind DC who controls the money in America.

Bezos cares as much about what The Rust Belt thinks as Trump does.

That it's crowded is exactly why they want to be there. The rust belt doesn't have the people they want to hire, and they don't want to move there.

I thought people were supposed to re-locate to where the jobs are. Make lots of money, and save it because the cost of living is lower. This is supposed to attract young workers. NYC and DC are filled with trust fund babies that don't care what shit costs.

In a buyers market they are, but the people Amazon wants to hire have plenty of people bidding on them where they are.

The cost of living is only lower if you don't have the resources to leverage it. It sucks if you have to rent, but if you're buying it's just another investment.

Amazon is also opening an operations center in Nashville, for what its worth.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2018/11/13/amazon-nashville-operations-center/1987289002/