Amazon’s HQ2 Failure of Imagination: New Report Shows Public Locked Out of the Process

Amazon’s very public search for a second headquarters, dubbed “HQ2,” sharpened an existential question for cities around the country: what kind of future do we want? The sheer scale of the project Amazon is advertising — 50,000 jobs, $5 billion in investment — would leave even the largest city transformed. But transformed how? It’s a juicy question.

But then, as a new report from Good Jobs First shows, the company suddenly shut down its public discussion and demanded silence from the 20 “shortlist” cities. Amazon has reportedly required officials in these cities to sign non-disclosure agreements, barring public officials from sharing with the public what they’re negotiating — theoretically on our behalf. Good Jobs First reports that:

• Almost none of the shortlist cities have shared unredacted initial bid documents with the public, we have only partial or leaked information for most, and we know almost nothing about six of the 20 bids.
• The public is hungry to be part of the process. Coalitions to shape or oppose HQ2 have emerged in at least 6 cities, the Toronto bid-- one of two released-- has been downloaded over 12,000 times, and 16,000 people have signed a Change.org petition urging cities to cooperate, not compete.
• There are proven processes and tools to ensure that development benefits — and does not steamroll — existing communities, and both local governments and Amazon have a role in supporting these processes.

By shutting us out of a process that could profoundly change our neighborhoods, schools, housing costs, and shared culture, Amazon demonstrates, at best, disinterest in our vision and, at worst, a belief that it can unilaterally impose its own vision on the living, breathing places we call home. Dispatches from Seattle and Silicon Valley stand in stark contrast to our vision for prosperity for all: we don’t want skyrocketing rents or a local economy that bends to the desires of a single industry that reproduces and deepens racial and income inequality.

But we are imagining our own futures, with and without HQ2. Over 130 organizations from 25 states wrote an open letter to Jeff Bezos in October, sharing our vision for cities where we all have safe and affordable homes, work that sustains us and our communities, and the ability to build local wealth, rather than wealth for corporations. We also lay out what Amazon will have to do if the company wants to be our neighbor.

Our friends at ACRE have pointed out not just what the chosen HQ2 city should do to protect against racial inequality, but also a silver lining for anyone living in one of the 237 bidding cities that doesn’t get HQ2:

“The HQ2 bids that were submitted tip the hands of these cities. Every city where Amazon does not go, people should be at their city halls and state houses demanding the millions of dollars their officials were willing to give away to Amazon be invested back into their communities.”

Good Job First’s report shows just how little is known about what cities are offering Amazon, which makes it impossible for communities to truly be part of the conversation. We don’t want our cities’ futures delivered on our doorsteps, wrapped up in neat box. We want to build it together.

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The Partnership for Working Families is part of the Our Neighborhoods, Our Future coalition, a collection of racial justice, labor, community and environmental groups united to stand up against corporate giveaway and privatization plans, and to win the infrastructure we need to be free and healthy.