9 Comment

• commonsense October 20, 2017 at 9:41 am

  Re: Housing Equity
  Housing Equity proponents use that word as Equality (equal rewards/outcomes) but equality and fairness are not the same. Equality is inherently Unfair. People have vastly varying contributions to society (whether by skill or dumb luck) and hence must receive unequal rewards. Our current system of Inequality is the Fairest system in existence.
• Old School October 20, 2017 at 12:21 pm

  Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. WOMH should cut a deal fast to make major sound mitigation improvements before the court and the City shuts them down. People on both sides of I-45 are hopping mad about the concert last night. It is a huge roll of the dice to expect a bunch of jurors to say: “yeah, a big concert venue in the middle of a residential neighborhood is no big deal”.
• HEBisbetterthanKroger October 20, 2017 at 12:46 pm

  Re: Amazon
  If Texas loses, it would be nice for Bezos to make a statement about the reckless conservatism our state has. Huge difference between Washington state and Texas.
• WR October 20, 2017 at 2:25 pm

  In Texas’ case “conservatism” is a misnomer
• i35 October 20, 2017 at 3:52 pm

  Why would Bezos do that? Texas was always really good to him, and by all accounts Seattle and Amazon are an across-the-board incredibly poor fit for each other. Seattle’s only possible benefit to Amazon when it was founded was the presence of a skilled labor force, which to Amazon’s credit Amazon took full advantage of. Both Austin and Dallas have that, in addition to the massive tax breaks Amazon craves, and DFW at the very least seems to legitimately want the company to move there… https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2017/09/11/jeff-bezos-texas-ace-hole
• AxolotlRose October 20, 2017 at 4:52 pm

  WoMH needs to be forced to move their stage indoor or be shut down permanently. Last night’s show was a huge middle finger to every resident around them. I live a mile away on the other side of 45 and could clearly understand the vocals INSIDE my home windows closed. They’re about to go to court and this is by far the loudest show they’ve had to date… And a weeknight. Unbelievable arrogance. Move it inside or GTFO trust fund babies.
• Cody October 20, 2017 at 5:04 pm

  HEB: What about conservatism is incompatible with Amazon or any other company? I think Texas is a great fit for Amazon (though I’m admittedly biased)
• TheNiche October 20, 2017 at 9:55 pm

  @ HEB>Kroger: Bezos recently paid $13.7 billion for a subsidiary that is and will remain headquartered in Texas. Bezos also developed a spaceport in west Texas (where new rocket engines were tested this week) and intends to manufacture those rocket engines in a huge new factory in Alabama. The guy has principles and is attuned to politics, but he has a track record of putting business first. What, you think that this whole dog and pony show is being done because it is ethical!? No, he is in it for the money.
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  I’m betting that HQ2 goes to DFW or Atlanta, with dark horse candidates being Chicago (if cost or business environment are weighted as relatively less important criteria) or Austin (if the airport, commuting/transit, or workforce size are relatively less important or if quality of life factors are more important). In some ways, Austin seems like a clear and obvious alternative to the West Coast…but if you look at Amazon’s checklist, it’s all business and pragmatism.
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  As forgettable and unexciting as DFW most certainly is, DFW — more than any other place in the United States — has proven itself able to lure very nearly any kind of company and to accommodate their workforce. DFW added 143,000 people last year. (Atlanta was #4, behind Houston and Phoenix, at +91,000.) It could accommodate Amazon’s long-term vision in even just a few short years without radically changing anything about how the city functions or grows. Amazon couldn’t possibly transform DFW into a ‘company town’ — it isn’t big enough. Amazon would have a seat that is the buffet of DFW’s workforce and its choice of urban or suburban sites, and nobody could single it out and blame it and it alone for gentrification, inflation, or any other sort of ailments.
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  New Jersey is counting on their positively ridiculous subsidy offer to lure Amazon. I sincerely doubt that that and that by itself is good enough. The NYC metro area is stagnant in terms of its population, with domestic out-migration buoyed only by foreign in-migration; the desirable parts of it are very expensive and the big companies that are there tolerate that to be there; also, the result of Amazon flagrantly taking a huge subsidy from a figure like Chris Christie to contrast its shiny new HQ2 campus against the gritty reality of Newark could by itself have a chilling effects on the politics of corporate subsidy and result in blowback at every level. No, no, no, if you want to talk about a toxic political environment, there are red flags all over that option. And what of “quality of life”? Well if people actually from NYC are clamoring for the exits, what does that say about QoL? What does it say about the relative importance of identity politics to QoL insofar as it matters to big corporations that Texas Triangle is the gleaming buckle of the Sunbelt?
• lesserwestlake October 20, 2017 at 11:43 pm

  Well Amazon is making huge inroads into advertising and it seems like NYC is the place for that. If DFW doesn’t get it then it seems like New Jersey is seriously in the running.