Amazon takes another step out of Seattle

With a workforce of 45,000 still in the city, Amazon’s announcement that it’s pulling 1,800 employees out of one of its many downtown buildings isn’t huge news, but the reason for the move: crime, ought to concern the city’s politicians.

Amazon’s been retreating from Seattle for several years now: in 2019 it unveiled plans to build an office tower in Bellevue Washinton, just 10 miles or so to the east, at a time when it already had 10,000 employees in that city. Seattle has been treating Amazon as a hated golden goose for at least the past ten years, and now it’s unleashed a mob of criminals to swarm the streets; the haters may well get their wish, and they can go back to the hollowed-out city I saw in 1971. But at least rents will be cheap.

Here's what Amazon's statement on the decision to close the office said:

"Given recent incidents near 3rd (Ave) and Pine (St), we’re providing employees currently at that location with alternative office space elsewhere,” an Amazon spokesman said in an emailed statement. “We are hopeful that conditions will improve and that we will be able to bring employees back to this location when it is safe to do so."