7 horrible things that could happen to cities if they win Amazon's HQ2 bid

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Cities and states are coughing up billions of dollars in incentives to win the bid for Amazon's second headquarters, dubbed HQ2.

The tech giant has promised that the $5 billion campus will bring economic prosperity to its chosen location. Seattle — where Amazon planted its first headquarters in the late 1990s — has seen this financial boost first-hand.

Now Seattle's largest employer, Amazon employs 40,000 people at its headquarters and has served as the catalyst for the city's booming tech industry.

At the same time, the company has transformed Seattle's culture as well as its physical landscape. In March, local governmental and business leaders debated whether Amazon has been good for Seattle.

The Seattle Times reports that the leaders echoed many of the concerns that residents have voiced regarding Amazon's role in several issues now facing the city, including gentrification, rising housing prices, and unrelenting construction and gridlock.

The HQ2 city could also end up dealing with some of these less-than-positive changes, explained below:

Skyrocketing rents

Amazon's dominance has contributed to making Seattle's housing less affordable for some longtime residents, who have accused the company of perpetuating income inequality in the city.

As Amazon grew between 2005 and 2015, Seattle's median rent went from $1,008 to $1,286, an increase nearly three times the national median. Recent data shows Seattle's median home price hit $730,000 in mid-2017, up nearly 17% from a year ago.

As Marketwatch notes, Amazon may have also contributed to rent hikes in nearby towns, as residents search for more affordable housing outside downtown Seattle. For example, rents in Tacoma, Washington — an hourlong metro ride from Seattle's center — increased nearly three times the national average in 2017, according to a recent report by the real-estate website Trulia.

Housing experts worry that HQ2 could lead to increases in housing prices in the chosen city as well. However, as Zillow Senior Economist Aaron Terrazas told BI, Amazon's presence will likely not be the sole cause of a rise in rents.

More traffic

The expansion of the city's tech industry (most notably Amazon) has clogged roadways, according to The Seattle Times.

Seattle drivers spent an average of 55 hours in traffic in 2016, placing it among the top 10 worst US cities for congestion, according to the most recent analysis by Inrix. In June 2017, King County Metro even added more buses to accommodate Amazon's summer interns.

HQ2 is expected to create 50,000 jobs, which may encourage an influx of new residents using the chosen city's roads.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.

Prolonged construction

With wealthier citizens willing to pay higher rents, Seattle has seen a construction boom.

"As the city transforms with taller and taller buildings, Seattle this summer had 58 construction cranes reshaping the skyline — more than any other city in the country, according to recent data," The Seattle Times reported in 2016.

In fact, crane count-tracker Rider Levett Bucknall found that Seattle had a whopping 18-crane lead over second-place Los Angeles.

Amazon says it will invest $5 billion in the construction of HQ2, a project that will likely spur other redevelopment efforts in the undetermined city.

In a statement to Business Insider, an Amazon spokesperson touted the impact the company's headquarters has had on the city of Seattle.

"Amazon has invested over $4 billion in its urban campus in Seattle and paid more than $25 billion in compensation to its employees over the last seven years," the spokesperson said.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider