Finally, after months of private negotiations over billions of public dollars, Amazon has announced it will pass on Pittsburgh as the location for its second headquarters. It is reported that Pittsburgh’s bid would have given enormous tax incentives and decision-making power over where their tax-dollars would be spent. All without any public input or transparency. That’s not how taxes work. That’s not how we create equity.
Pittsburghers for Public Transit led the call with a number of other community organizations and news outlets for more transparency and public process around the bid. We continue to assert that the Amazon bid does not measure up to goals outlined in the Mayor’s own p4 guidelines for equitable development.
At this point, we are relieved that some of our region’s most pressing issues (like our shortage of affordable housing, and access to quality transit) will not be exacerbated by Amazon’s arrival and the billions in public subsidies that would have been given to them. However, Pittsburgh’s Amazon HQ2 bid continues to be most egregious example of our City & County administrations actively choosing to stifle a public process in favor of backroom deals.
What we need now is for PGH HQ2 bid to be made public in order to rebuild community trust in this administration, and begin creating truly democratic processes that allow residents to identify collective priorities and spend shared resources.
Check these stories below with PPT quotes about Amazon’s November 2018 announcement:
- WPXI: What did Pittsburgh offer Amazon? City’s HQ2 proposal revealed
- WESA: Pennsylvania Was Prepared To Offer Amazon More Than $4B
- Incline: Pittsburgh is not Amazon’s HQ2 site
- Next Pittsburgh: After months of refusal, Pittsburgh’s Amazon HQ2 bid is released. Read it here.
Check our ‘Amazon ≠ p4’ campaign webpage for background on PPT’s organizing.
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