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Amazon’s HQ2 was a prime one-sided deal
Opinion
Amazon’s HQ2 was a prime one-sided deal
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As more details are released about the new Amazon headquarters in Virginia and New York, citizens of Raleigh should breathe audible sighs of relief that we dodged the Amazon bullet. From the start of the process, Amazon established itself as the party with all the leverage. Cities across the nation engaged in a nationwide talent show to draw the attention of the multi-billion-dollar company. Offers for landing the tech giant ranged from promises of a “blank check” in Maryland to 0 percent property taxes for 15 years in New Jersey. Wake County offered its largest-ever tax incentive to Amazon at $277 million to entice the company.
Ultimately, Amazon chose northern Virginia and Long Island as the spots to construct its new headquarters. These two states have given Amazon more than $2 billion in combined tax incentives. Amazon will massively benefit from these huge government subsidies that were used to lure the company, which had to contribute fairly little in return. These subsidies offered by the state government are not free of cost. The taxpayers are the ones who must pony up the price of such large incentives.
Closing on such deals sets a dangerous precedent for future companies looking to establish themselves in such cities. Companies will take notice of the tax incentives Amazon was offered and will request similar deals.
In a state such as North Carolina that desperately needs tax dollars to improve our government functions like education and infrastructure, a $2 billion tax break to an already extraordinarily wealthy company would be an incredible waste of opportunity.
In addition to being burdened with paying for Amazon’s tax subsidies, residents in these cities will have to bear the cost of having their cities rapidly converting to tech hubs. The influx of employees to these areas will cause the demand for housing there to skyrocket. Additionally, the property taxes in these cities
are sure to be inflated by the appearance of the retail giant. Raleigh has already entered what many describe as an affordable housing crisis, with the cost of homes in Raleigh being exorbitantly high. A struggling Raleigh Housing AuthorKevin Moye Staff Columnist ity is doing little to nothing to provide truly affordable housing options to lower-income people in the area. Allowing Amazon to develop its new hub here would have greatly exacerbated the problem we are currently seeing. The prices of homes in Seattle, where Amazon’s main headquarters is located, have soared by around 73 percent in the past five years, with rent also rising by about 31 percent. In a city that is already struggling to combat gentrification, the development of a headquarters for a mega-company like Amazon would ensure that gentrification has no end in sight. Amazon promised to bring 25,000 jobs with an average salary of more than $150,000 a year. Such a promise is great for “In a state such as highly-skilled workers, but for low-skilled workNorth Carolina that ers, the vow only means higher costs of living with desperately needs tax stagnated wages. Amazon would have dollars to improve our brought fortunes to many government functions qualified workers in the area, but the presence of like education and the company would have also devastated the lives infrastructure, of many small business owners within Raleigh. a $2 billion tax Small or medium-sized break to an already tech firms in Raleigh would have taken sizeextraordinarily able hits to their applicant pools with the entrance of wealthy company Amazon into the city. The costs associated would be an with bringing Amazon to incredible waste of Raleigh would have been clearly defined. Taxpayers opportunity.” would have been subsidizing the company’s movein, and low-income citizens would have economically languished for the foreseeable future. The benefits of Amazon coming to New York and Virginia, however, are still nebulous and will continue to be until the process is actually materialized. Raleigh should be glad to have missed out on such a one-sided arrangement, but it should remember this lesson for the next time a mega-company expresses interest in our city.
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PAGE 6 • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2018
Thoughts from our readers:
A selection of comments sent to us from readers in short form over the past week, with their sources listed below. In response to “The importance of RuPaul’s Drag Race”
In response to “WebAssign should be grade for completion only”
“Are we just going to sweep RuPaul’s comments about gender affirming surgery and hormone treatment being equivalent to performance-enhancing drugs under the rug? RuPaul’s Drag Race is hardly a flagship for trans visibility and actually has a history of discrimination against trans queens. This surely is worth mentioning in a piece like this.”
-Carl Colglazier, via Facebook
“I disagreed with the headline at first but the article makes a lot of sense. Math homework is most beneficial when the student makes a full attempt to complete the assignment, then the answers are gone over in class and explained without having each individual answer count towards the grade. Students who don’t try to get the answers right don’t learn from it and are wasting their own time, and won’t do as well on the test as the students who put in that effort.”
-Ben Mazur, via Facebook
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Opinion
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PAGE 7 • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2018
Excessive use of bricks is unsafe
NC STATE SHOULD CONSIDER OTHER MATERIALS FOR WALKWAYS
Bricks have been a part of NC State’s identity from the beginning, back when bricks to build Holladay Hall were donated by the local prison. Since then, bricks have been used throughout NC State’s campus. There are about 588,060 bricks in the Brickyard alone. Until the late 1960s it was mostly grass, with non-brick pathways crossing it. Today, it is little more than a lumpy eyesore and a convenient place to host Shack-A-Thon.
Options other than bricks should be used to construct new pathways on campus and should be considered when repairing or renovating existing pathways.
It’s tradition to steal a brick from NC State when you graduate. Attempts to avoid this issue by giving people bricks instead obviously haven’t solved the problem. The tradition isn’t to take a freely offered brick; it’s to steal one, regardless of whether or not it’s right. As a result, there are missing bricks all over campus that pose not only a tripping hazard, but also a hazard for people who ride bikes, scooters and skateboards, especially at night.
While steps are being taken to increase the amount of light on campus at night, I can say from personal experience that it can be extremely difficult to see the ground when riding after dark. After late nights at the library, I would ride my longboard across the Brickyard, hoping that a brick wasn’t missing or sticking up at a weird angle, because I couldn’t actually see them.
In addition to bricks being a tripping hazard, they also get very slippery. Even in boots, I find myself having to be very careful with my footing when I’m walking around in the rain. I’d like to believe I’m not a very clumsy person, but I recently fell off my bike when the bricks were still wet after a rain. Despite having relatively new tires, my rear wheel slid out from under me during a fairly typical turn.
Walking around after it has snowed on campus is even worse. Other pathway materials may or may not solve this problem, but walking off the paths is how I avoid slipping in the snow. Unfortunately, the Brickyard is entirely paved. Because of this, it almost feels like an impromptu ice rink, and we’re all walking along the ice without skates on.
Now, there are two frequent counterarguments I hear. The first is that riding a bike in the rain or at night is unsafe. Sure, that’s valid. However, I personally feel safer riding my bike at night than I do walking. Students also ride bikes around at night for fun.
The second argument is the more problematic one, centering on bricks being a part of NC State’s culture. People have even half-jokingly told me that I shouldn’t have come to NC State since I don’t like bricks.
The most important decision people make when they decide where to go to school isn’t what the pathways are made of. The education, community and price tend to be among the most important factors. We don’t pay the absurd amount of money we do just so we can coexist alongside a certain type of building material for a few years.
In contrast to main campus, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of non-brick there was on Centennial Campus, including cement and green space, in the brief time I lived there this past summer. There was plenty of green space outside my apartment, and the use of brick was tame.
Every corner of campus doesn’t need to be ripped up today just to change the building material that is used. However,
Dan Gilliam
Assistant Video Editor options other than brick need to be used in the future when it comes to repairing and renovating existing pathways and creating new ones.
GRAPHIC BY ANNA LEE/TECHNICIAN
Mountaintop removal coal mining and headwater alterations along U.S. Appalachia
The Appalachian Mountains span most of the Eastern United States and are home to many functional and culturally important species, as well as coal mining operations. A common method of coal mining is mountaintop removal, a process in which the top portion of a mountain is fractured and moved into the adjacent valley to gain access to horizontal coal seams. The fragmented mountain rock (mining spoil) often buries headwater streams, the originating source of streams that merge to become larger rivers downstream.
Therefore, the quality and quantity of water at the headwaters plays a large role in downstream water quality and quantity; the systems are interrelated. Because water generally flows from high to low elevation, most streams originate in the mountains; consequently, most headwaters are also found in the mountains.
Headwaters are functionally important in controlling the paths that streams follow, the length of time for pools of water to refill, and the length of time for water to remain in pools, for example, groundwater and reservoirs. Some headwaters contribute as much as three-quarters of average annual water flow.
Water that flows vertically into the ground and is stored below the land is called groundwater, which supplements rivers year-round and provides a greater fraction of the river’s flow during droughts.
Some studies have looked at how mining has altered the fraction of precipitation that flows into the ground, flows overland into tributary streams, or evaporates into the atmosphere. Removing vegetation from mining sites and compacting soils have decreased rates of water flowing into the ground and led to more water flowing overland.
In places like heavily urbanized landscapes, more water flowing overland increases the likelihood of downstream flooding after precipitation events, and less water absorbed by the ground. Placing mountain spoils over headwaters has also shown an increased concentration of
metals leaching into streams, decreased health of stream organisms, and persistent sulfate pollution. Stream health has become increasingly degraded near mining sites and downstream. Therefore, mining companies, regulaDajana tors, and the pertinent fields of scientists Gaube-Ogle should come together to comprehensively Guest Columnist research the effects of mountaintop removal on overall stream health (both changes in water quality and quantity). This would enable them to create policies that allow coal mining in such ways that the stream environments are less likely to become degraded. It would allow downstream public utilities to make informed decisions with science-based knowledge of future water supply quality and quantity.
