Amazon HQ2: Washington, DC residents are upset about possible arrival

A
homeless person tries to stay warm at the entrance of a subway
station near the White House in Washington,
DC.
Kevin
Lamarque/Reuters

• Experts
  predict that Amazon will locate its second headquarters
  somewhere in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
• As cities await the company’s announcement, DC residents are
  bracing for the potential negative impacts on their communities.
• Many neighborhoods are up in arms over Amazon’s lack of
  transparency and questionable labor practices.
• Others are fearful that the new headquarters will exacerbate
  congestion and the lack of affordable housing in DC.

As
Amazon grows closer to announcing the location of its second
North American headquarters, HQ2, insiders have
narrowed the company’s shortlist to the Washington, DC
metropolitan area.

Whether the company locates in Montgomery County, Maryland, DC
proper, or — as
many speculate — the neighborhoods of Northern Virginia,
its impact could be widespread throughout the region.  

With its new headquarters, Amazon expects
to introduce 50,000 employees and tens of
thousands of additional jobs in construction and operations. That
could amount to up
to 1 million new residents over the span of ten to
15 years, depending on how many employees already live in
the area. 

Many worry that the region won’t be able to handle a major
uptick in population size. Already, DC suffers from a
crumbling metro system, rampant gentrification, and some of
the
worst traffic congestion in the country. 

While local startups are touting the
new talent and opportunity Amazon may bring to their
ecosystem, some residents are singing a different tune — one of
fear and frustration. 

HQ2 is already affecting residents

If Amazon wants to locate in the heart of DC, the city has
offered up a
few possible locations. As the advisory neighborhood
commissioner for Hill East, an area on the edge of
Capitol Hill, Denise Krepp lives directly across from
Reservation 13, one of the proposed Amazon sites. 

The impact of an Amazon headquarters in the area, she said, would
be disastrous. 

“I’ve been in this community now
for 20 years,” said Krepp. “Our infrastructure is failing. We have roads
that are collapsing on themselves. We have water coming out of
the streets in the middle of winter because the pipes are
bursting. … We have
a metro system that doesn’t work.” 

Adding a new crop of workers to the area could put increased
pressure on an already-waning transit system, she believes.

Residents are also concerned about the potential for a more
acute shortage of affordable
housing, similar to what has happened with Amazon’s
first headquarters in Seattle.

Three days before the Amazon bid
was announced in September 2017, Krepp attended
a community meeting with the
DC mayor’s office. At the time, she said, the office claimed
there was no plans to further develop the parcels of land in her
neighborhood. Days later, the city offered up the land to Amazon.
Now, Krepp suspects that land is being held vacant in
anticipation of the company’s arrival — a claim the
city’s Deputy Mayor of Planning and Economic Development has
strongly denied.

If Amazon were to take over the
land, the company would occupy valuable space for affordable
housing, Krepp said. 

Some say rotten, others say ripe 

Not all residents agree with this
assessment.

“DC is like any city,” said John
Coplen, a real estate professional who lives in Eckington and
works in Logan Circle. “It’s dealing with its own challenges …
but I think DC is really trying.”

What Coplen finds exciting about
the Amazon headquarters is its potential to rebrand the city as
more than a politics town. While he acknowledges that
“
a lot of people are
really concerned” about the company’s arrival, he sees it as an
opportunity for the region to grow and diversify its industry
makeup. 

As a member of the real estate
community, he’s also not worried about soaring housing costs.
Compared to other capital cities, he said, DC is “way behind” in
terms of property
values.

Other experts tend to agree.
“Politics may not always be stable here, but property
values are,” Nela Richardson, the chief economist of Redfin,

told the Washington Post in April.

Even after Amazon’s arrival,
Coplen anticipates that residents and commuters won’t concentrate
in a single area.

“
No matter where [Amazon goes], there’s going
to be this cross-stream of commuters that want to live somewhere
else,” said Coplen. “
If
they locate in Montgomery County or Virginia, they’ll have a
whole mass of people who want to live in DC.”

But Krepp sees a lack of
available land as a main contributor to the city’s affordability
issues. 

“It’s not like ‘poof,’ there’s a
lot of space,” she said. “We have a finite
amount of space that can’t be doubled overnight simply because
Amazon wishes it.”

‘Treat them like any other business’

Still others are worried about an increase in local taxes. In
April, DC ranked at the bottom of a list of cities that said
they’d pay
higher taxes to lure Amazon, with only 14% of residents
saying they’d be willing to endure a tax hike. 

Though DC and Northern Virginia have yet to reveal
their incentives packages, Montgomery County,
Maryland has already offered the biggest known package of
any HQ2 city: $8.5 billion in tax
breaks and infrastructure incentives. 

For Justin McCarthy, a Glover Park resident
and advisory neighborhood commissioner, that’s a major
concern. 

“I don’t think the district
should be in the business of handing out massive corporate tax
breaks,” he said. “
I don’t
really want to see my tax dollars going to subsidize the richest
corporation in the history of mankind.”

Krepp agrees: “Why would
neighbors support giving property and tax incentives to an
entity, when we could we be using that money to shore up our
schools?” 

But kowtowing to major
corporations is typical of both the DC Council and mayor’s
office, McCarthy said. While he finds that people in his
neighborhood aren’t vehemently opposed to Amazon’s arrival, they
do have one request of the city: Tr
eat the company like any other
business.

“When we make these
mega-businesses pay their fair share, it makes it easier for us
to actively accommodate smaller businesses in the district,” said
McCarthy. 
That’s a
key priority in Glover Park, which — like many DC neighborhoods —
is witnessing the closure of beloved mom-and-pop
stores. 

A secretive bid process

While residents are aware that Amazon is being
wined and dined by the mayor’s office, they’re not quite sure
what to expect. Amazon has requested that all 20 of the finalist
cities
sign a nondisclosure agreement that protects the company’s
proprietary information, including their future plans.

In 2017, dozens of civic groups from across the country wrote
an open
letter outlining three positive changes that Amazon
could make in its new host city. At the top of the list was
transparency, including ongoing reports on the impact of
potential projects. 

It’s a request echoed by citizens across the DC metro. But in
Glover Park and East Hill, residents are frustrated by a lack of
communication.

“There hasn’t been any sort of
public engagement,” said McCarthy.

Even council members are blind to
what their city is offering. In Montgomery
County, officials
responded to a request for information by sending an entire
document of redacted material. 

Though Amazon hasn’t commented on the secrecy surrounding its RFP
process, the Seattle Times
reports that employees at its current headquarters are
surprised by the degree of silence. 

According to Krepp, the lack of
communication is causing local residents to “lose their
minds.” 

Moral qualms

Fueling this frustration are reports of Amazon’s questionable
labor practices.

In September, Business Insider
spoke with more than 30 current or recently employed
Amazon drivers about their experience delivering packages.
Several of them said they had endured unfavorable, and at times
abusive, conditions, including a lack of overtime pay, missing
wages, intimidation, and favoritism.

McCarthy cites Amazon’s
“reputation for poor working conditions” as one of his reasons
not to embrace HQ2. “From
a moral perspective, I have significant objections,” he
said. 

At the very least, Glover Park
residents are insisting that Amazon hire local construction
workers and ensure
 robust labor agreements prior to
rolling out new development. These demands are reflected in
the open letter
signed by DC Jobs with
Justice, Common Cause Maryland, and
the Washington Interfaith Network, which calls for
“safe, family-sustaining jobs” that respect workers’
rights. 

Is there anything the city can do?

With Amazon staying mum on its
final decision, DC may still have time to address
concerns.

Some residents suspect that HQ2
is already motivating
the city to make necessary improvements to transit and
infrastructure.
According to Coplen, the city has
indicated both a “desire and demand” for new
investment. 

But 
McCarthy doesn’t expect the city to be much
help.

“Are there things they could be
doing? Yes. [But] realistically, I don’t even know if that’s a
worthwhile question to ask, given the current state of politics,”
he said.

When posed with the same
inquiry, Krepp laughed. “That’s a pipe dream,'” she said.
“The city knows our core is rotten.”