noglider 

It's an unusual event. You might enjoy it, but it is not a typical sample of the New York experience.

If I remember right, registration opens in January, and it fills up immediately.

If you want, I can give you a cycling tour instead to see how people live and cycle here. I'll make you a nice brunch.

Papa Tom

Tom R: Are you in Manhattan, or one of the other boros? I have always assumed you are in Manhattan and that, when you speak of New York City, Manhattan is what you are referring to.

JonathanGennick 

Registration is already open: https://www.bike.nyc/events/td-five-boro-bike-tour/

noglider 

Nope. I am neurotically precise in my choice of words, though I do sometimes mess up. So when I say New York City, I mean the five boroughs. When I want to refer to Manhattan, I name the island. I might not be precise when referring to Marble Hill.

I forgive people in Queens when they say they're headed into The City. That's an idiom, and those people know fully well that they are already in the city.

Suburb? Uh, no. Long Island City is a section (or neighborhood) of Queens. Queens isn't even a suburb.

Papa Tom

Wait...I was just reminded by your profile that you live in the West Village, so in my mind, you are in New York City! Queens, to me, is a suburb, because it's right on the "sub" of the "urb" that is Manhattan. These days, we call Nassau County, where I live, a suburb, but when I was growing up, it was "the country."

I guess I sometimes throw terms around a little haphazardly, but I will try to remember whenever I am in a thread with you to be a little more careful. Anyway, my point was that, in my head (and I haven't ventured west to cycle in about 3-4 years now), the bicycling infrastructure in the area of Queens where Amazon wants to set up shop is not quite on the level of the network of lanes and paths in Manhattan.

noglider 

@Papa Tom, I'm not asking anyone to be more precise, just saying that I am precise.

The western parts of Queens seem pretty darned urban to me, even though I'm a Manhattanite. I grew up on the upper west side.

Papa Tom

But how would you compare the bicycle infrastructure in Queens to the bicycle infrastructure in Manhattan? I can only base my comments on what I remember from a few years back, so I'd like your point-of-view. To me, LI City, Queens, is not a place that's built for bicycle commuting, but with Amazon coming, I'd be interested to hear otherwise.

noglider 

OK. I've always found Queens to be annoying to cycle in. I'm not sure it can be fixed with bike lanes. The last time I was in LIC, I didn't look at it from a cyclist's perspective, so I don't know. In summer of 2014, I raced at Kissena Velodrome. Almost every time, I rode from my home to the track, on a track bike. Ouch. I even took 34th Ave, which is not terribly congested, and it has bike lanes. But overall, it was unfun.

Manhattan is no paradise, either.

It's amazing how many New Yorkers put up with New York. I moved back here from NJ in 2013, so when I did, it felt both old and new to me, meaning that the pleasures and the punishments were vividly felt. Depending on the route, bike commuting can be better here than it used to be. One reason is that drivers are used to seeing us on the streets, and that includes all boroughs. I've even found taxi drivers to be a ton more cautious than before.

jack002

noglider, you must be familiar with Bikemanforu? He has a youtube channel and I think he lives in Queens

noglider 

I know of him but haven't met him. Actually, I once spotted him in the bike lane but I didn't catch up to him. I thought he was in Nassau or Suffolk County, but I don't know why.

vol

So news has it that two senior Amazon employees bought condos in the new HQ2 area right before the news broke. "One brokerage told the Journal that it had sold 150 condos in the last four days, 15 times its normal volume."

Papa Tom

Do you mean they bought the buildings to lease condos to future employees, or they just bought condos for themselves? One is news, the other...not so much!

base2 

Not that I know anything about New York or DC, but here in Seattle I think Amazon is a huge benefit to the economy of our entire region. 300,000 new residents moved to Seattle and surrounding areas last year.

This is what happens when a long term plan to tax yourself, invest in infrastructure, and balanceed budgets meets meeting the needs of the governed. Suddenly long term predictable plans can be made by a prospective employer whose been attracted by good infrastructure and cheap resources and a dynamic educated diverse workforce. Soon they scramble for talented labor. That sucking sound is the workers from the fly-over states looking for greener pastures and fully funded schools for their children.

Yes, there is growing pains. Those on the fringe tend to get pushed out. But that's not Amazons fault a worker is unemployable. The homeless "crisis" costs $90 million in the Seattle budget alone, but compare that to the 300,000 new residents (this year) the broader economy supports. It's a no-brainer. Amazon is a net positive for Seattle, and Seattle/King County budget philosophy is seeing pay off in it's long term plan.

Amazon Market place in particular (as opposed to Wal-mart/Target/et al.) provides a store front to thousands of mom&pop retailers that otherwise wouldn't exist. That's a good thing.

Maybe the cities that lost the competition would do well to ask why they didn't make the cut.

Papa Tom

I think what RedPath is looking for are comments about the effects of Amazon on cycling infrastructure in the Long Island City and Crystal City area. We could go on and on about the economic, social, and political ups-and-downs of Amazon moving to these places, but that's all for a different forum.

vol

Condos for themselves:

salad_goat

All that tax payer subsidy

fietsbob

So will taxing the workers, hired, make up for the generous tax wavers
put out to attract the company..

This does not sound fair , but is business as usual..




...

base2 

Oh, I see you are right. It seems I took cycling infrastructure (or lack of it) to be the canary in the coal mine regarding a suitable place to live & to run a business. I just took it for granted. The oversite is mine & I'm at a loss how to edit to that effect, but trust me, re-read my post through the lense of my intent: Cycling infrastructure is evidence of a dynamic vibrant community & dynamic vibrant communities are a smart place to do business.

Maybe Amazon is being truthful in their disclosure of why they chose the cities they did. Given their corporate culture, I'm inclined to believe them.

alan s 

Gresp15C

In my view, nothing is real until it happens. Here in Wisconsin, we just cut a deal with Foxconn to subsidize development of a manufacturing plant. The deal included:

1. Declaring prosperous working farms to be "blighted" so they could be seized by eminent domain.

2. Exempting Foxconn from environmental regulations

3. Large taxpayer subsidies in a state whose roads and bridges are crumbling

Within months of the deal being announced, it has already been scaled down, and nobody knows what if anything will get built.

So, I'm not holding my breath. Sure, the sites are ideal for their proximity to the advertising and government contracting industries, so I'm not surprised by the choices.

Papa Tom

Maybe the new employees will fly those Amazon drones to work.