{"id":400091,"date":"2019-03-18T08:01:05","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T07:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/arlington-officials-face-outrage-after-approving-23m-in-incentives-for-amazon\/"},"modified":"2019-03-18T08:01:05","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T07:01:05","slug":"arlington-officials-face-outrage-after-approving-23m-in-incentives-for-amazon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/arlington-officials-face-outrage-after-approving-23m-in-incentives-for-amazon\/","title":{"rendered":"Arlington Officials Face Outrage After Approving $23M in Incentives for Amazon"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Anti-Amazon protesters in Arlington County, Virginia were outraged Saturday after the county board dismissed outright their concerns over the corporate giant\u2019s decision to build a headquarters in Crystal City\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/virginia-politics\/arlington-board-plans-vote-on-amazon-hq2-incentives-after-lengthy-hearing\/2019\/03\/15\/604977e8-4507-11e9-8aab-95b8d80a1e4f_story.html?utm_term=.2fe6a4cb3393\">voting unanimously<span> <\/span><\/a>to approve $23 million in tax incentives for the company.<\/p>\n<p>The 5-0 vote followed hours of testimony by Amazon representatives, supporters, and opponents of the plan, with critics arguing that the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/09\/04\/technology\/amazon-stock-price-1-trillion-value.html\"><span> <\/span>trillion-dollar company<\/a><span> <\/span>has no need for financial incentives and that its presence in Crystal City will negatively impact lower-income residents and public services.<\/p>\n<p>One resident, Chelsea Yu, called attention to Amazon\u2019s actions in its current hometown of Seattle, where in addition to contributing to<span> <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/expo.masslive.com\/news\/erry-2018\/07\/830aa6b1514011\/how-amazon-has-impacted-seattl.html\">skyrocketing housing prices<\/a>, it has actively<span> <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2018\/09\/13\/after-pressuring-seattle-forgo-corporate-tax-fund-affordable-housing-bezos-commits\">fought against<\/a><span> <\/span>a corporate tax that would have funded affordable housing.<\/p>\n<div class=\"truth-post-content-high  inline-callout-container\" id=\"truth-673339186\">\n<div class=\"truth-post-content-high\" id=\"truth-335452924\">\n<aside class=\" inline-callout inline-callout--subscribe inline-callout--dark\" id=\"truth-888790596\">\n<h2>Uncompromised, uncompromising news<\/h2>\n<p>Get reliable, independent news and commentary delivered to your inbox every day.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cYou claim Arlington is a place for all, for immigrants, for equality, [and] clamor for the attention of a company that does the opposite,\u201d said Yu. \u201cNever have I seen a company so reviled by the city it occupies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span>Opponents also decried Amazon\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2018\/10\/23\/amazon-met-with-ice-officials-over-facial-recognition-system-that-could-identify-immigrants\/?utm_term=.9a0b503ce105\">work<\/a><span> with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to develop facial recognition technology and said that its presence in Crystal City would accelerate gentrification, which has already pushed many Black and brown residents out of Arlington County.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Arlington Co is already pushing people of color out! It is one of three counties w at least 100k residents nationwide that have seen decline in black and brown people, with an increase of white population. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/StopGentrification?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#StopGentrification<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ForUsNotAmazon?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ForUsNotAmazon<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kxPBp0jDJ3\">pic.twitter.com\/kxPBp0jDJ3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 LaColectiVA703 (@LaColectiVA703) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LaColectiVA703\/status\/1107047970032230402?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 16, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>Protesters held up signs reading \u201cSchools and housing for us, not Amazon\u201d and \u201cAdvocate for us, not Amazon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Arlington <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Amazon?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Amazon<\/a> &#8220;public&#8221; comments break along economic lines. The 1% is in favor of the 1%. <a...<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/arlington-officials-face-outrage-after-approving-23m-in-incentives-for-amazon\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anti-Amazon protesters in Arlington County, Virginia were outraged Saturday after the county board dismissed outright their concerns over the corporate giant\u2019s decision to build a headquarters in Crystal City\u2014voting unanimously to approve $23 million in tax incentives for the company. The 5-0 vote followed hours of testimony by Amazon representatives, supporters, and opponents of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-400091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}