BETA
Chapter 1
The grunge-to-gigabyte gear shift
Chapter 2
The urban campus experiment
Chapter 3
The cost of a boom
Chapter 4
Taxes, tensions, and new frontiers
YOUR GOAL
Master of How Amazon rewrote the Seattle story
Ch 4 · Taxes, tensions, and new frontiers
sonia Squeeze tech jobs and housing into the city to discover how rapid growth spikes costs.
sonia Rising Seattle tensions and taxes prompted Amazon to move its worldwide operations team to Bellevue's business-friendly environment.
sonia Tech workers walk past Seattle's biophilic glass domes and roadside tent encampments.
Fun Fact
HQ2 beauty pageant: In 2017, over 230 cities across North America submitted competitive bids to host Amazon's second headquarters.
Glossary
head tax (noun)
A flat tax levied on businesses for each worker they employ. Seattle passed this controversial levy in May 2018, later repealing it amid intense pressure from Amazon.
A flat tax levied on businesses for each worker they employ. Seattle passed this controversial levy in May 2018, later repealing it amid intense pressure from Amazon.
Quiz
To which neighboring city did Amazon begin relocating its massive worldwide operations team?
Quiz
What was the per-employee rate of the controversial 'head tax' passed and quickly repealed by Seattle in 2018?
Quiz
What is the name of the payroll tax Seattle successfully passed in 2020 to fund affordable housing?