If corporations continue to be able to take public subsidy as the price of locating in an area, maybe the debate isn't whether to offer subsidies but simply how and for what to offer them. Here’s one incentive that might actually benefit communities.
About 20 cities nationwide remain under consideration as the site for what Amazon has billed as the search for its second headquarters.
Philadelphia, one of the finalists, has offered the online retailer a package of tax breaks and other benefits totaling in excess of $1 billion dollars. New Jersey (for a Newark-area site) has offered subsidies several times that amount. These offers are not dissimilar to those made by more than a dozen other jurisdictions, indicating just how willing political leadership is in these communities to compete for Amazon’s presence.
However, support for these subsidies has not been without criticism. Some are opposed to the idea of giving up funds for badly needed public resources to one of the world’s richest companies, and some economists have questioned the economic efficiency of corporate tax breaks altogether, and proposed alternatives that would better strengthen communitiesand local economies.
Nevertheless, if corporations continue to extract public subsidies as the price for locating in a community, perhaps the debate is not whether to offer subsidies but rather to reconsider how and for what specific purpose such subsidies are to be provided.
FULL STORY: The Amazon Opportunity to Revitalize Urban Communities
In Nantucket, where over half of homes are for seasonal use, workers struggle to find affordable housing
The island is short roughly 892 to 1,081 rental units.
A South Dakota hospital is funding a new subdivision for its employees
Some employees see investing in housing as the only way to stem the loss of workers moving away due to high housing costs.
California 'strongly encourages' coastal city to fast-track farmworker housing
The state wants Half Moon Bay to approve a farmworker housing project initially proposed in 2022.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association