PRIMED FOR A FIGHT
As details of Pittsburgh’s Amazon bid are kept from public view, protesters rally to demand more information
P4 and HQ2 don’t add up to a winning equation.
At least that was the message delivered by a group that rallied outside Downtown’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center Thursday to voice concerns about the impact that online retailer Amazon’s second headquarters, or HQ2, could have on Pittsburgh — and to urge the region’s political and civic leadership to come clean about what’s being offered to secure it.
With chants of “Amazon is not for us,” the rally was timed to coincide with the P4 Pittsburgh Conference — whose guiding principles are People, Planet, Place and Performance — taking place inside the convention center.
“We’re here today to say that Amazon HQ2 fails the P4 test, that there’s not a world in which you can have this set of principles and say that Amazon HQ2 — a secret bid that people don’t have an opportunity to weigh in on — complies with those principles,” said Laura Wiens, director of Pittsburghers for Public Transit.
But in a statement released later, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto preached patience to the 40 or so people who attended the rally and others upset over of the refusal of local political leaders to release the region’s HQ2 proposal.
“Should we win, every iota of the bid package will be subject to multiple public and community approvals, before every local, county and state government body and agency with an interest in the matter,” he said.
Beyond the secrecy, Ms. Wiens argued that the arrival of Amazon would spark a “massive housing crisis” in a city already wrestling with affordable housing issues.
She cited Seattle, home to Amazon’s headquarters, where housing prices and rents have skyrocketed over the past decade as the e-commerce giant’s
footprint has grown.
“We know this because the evidence shows in Seattle what has happened to the housing market is devastating. In the last month alone, housing prices, median housing prices, have increased $43,000,” she said.
“This is East Liberty times one hundred.”
Carl Redwood, board president of the Hill District Consensus Group, said landing HQ2 in Pittsburgh would further accelerate affordable housing problems, particularly for African-Americans and low-income residents.
At the same time he feared that HQ2 would result in the “disappearance and destruction” of many small businesses that exist in Pittsburgh, creating more negative impacts on the region.
Mr. Redwood chided Amazon for what he called the “public auction” it had set up to get cities to bid for the second headquarters, which could bring as many as 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in investment over 17 years.
After announcing its plans last fall, Amazon received 238 proposals from cities, regions and other jurisdictions. It culled that to 20 finalists, including Pittsburgh. It plans to select a winner this year.
The competition has touched off a bidding war with cities offering billions of dollars in incentives. Maryland has offered $8.5 billion — the largest of the publicly known bids. New Jersey is next at $7 billion.
“It’s almost like Amazon is the king sitting on the throne and all the cities are giving offerings to the king in return for favors in the future. This pledge of allegiance to Amazon is something we shouldn’t have to do because it’s not in the interests of the vast majority of people,” Mr. Redwood said.
While fears of displacement dominated much of the rally, the other major complaint involved the secrecy surrounding the proposal that the city, the county and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development offered Amazon.
Jules Lobel, a University of Pittsburgh law professor who is a member of the recently formed Community Power Movement, said the secrecy runs contrary to Mr. Peduto’s pledge of transparency when he took office.
“Why is the mayor hiding, refusing to debate, refusing to release the bid they have developed to bring Amazon here?” he asked, adding that Pittsburgh by his count is only one of five cities among the 20 finalists that has released no information about its proposal.
The Community Power Movement plans to file a friend of the court brief in support of media organizations, including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, that have won decisions from the state’s open records office declaring the bid should be made public. The city and county have appealed the rulings to Common Pleas Court.
Mr. Lobel said state and local subsidies being offered could total billions of dollars based on what other cities are offering and involve taxpayer dollars that could be used for other needs, whether it’s affordable housing or bolstering small businesses.
Pennsylvania reportedly is offering at least $1 billion in incentives, although that has not been publicly disclosed.
“The people in Pittsburgh have a right to know what those subsidies are and to debate them and to decide whether we want that,” Mr. Lobel said.
The secrecy surrounding the bid limits the ability of residents to negotiate community benefits agreements or other deals to help take advantage of or blunt the impact of HQ2, he argued.
“Basically, this is way governments operate when they want to do something in secret and get a deal done and then present it as a fait accompli.”
In his statement, Mr. Peduto justified the secrecy to date by arguing the region’s bid is “uniquely structured, with features competing regions would steal if it were made public.”
“The very reason we are working so hard on it is to benefit communities that have been passed over for economic opportunity,” he said.