The 25 U.S. Cities With The Highest Murder Rates

The chart above uses statistics from the FBI's 2018 Crime Rate in the United States. It was found at cbsnews.com.

Amazon Cuts The Bidding War For Its New Facility To 20 Cities

(This cartoon image was found at The Contributor.)

Amazon, the mega on-line corporation, wants to build a new headquarters complex. But instead of just searching for a good location, they threw the bidding open -- and over 200 cities entered the fray (offering all kinds of benefits to the corporation -- from land to tax cuts). Those cities wanted the thousands of jobs that likely will come with the new complex.

I'm sure that Amazon considers this procedure to be good business, and the cities consider there giveaways to be worth the new jobs. But those cities overlook the fact that most of their jobs come from small businesses (who get none of the giveaways being offered to Amazon), and the fact that their citizens will have to make up what Amazon doesn't pay in taxes.

To me, this doesn't look like good business or good government. Instead, it reeks of greed and corruption. At the very least, it's corporate welfare.

Here are the 20 cities that have made Amazon's short list, along with what some have offered (offers that will probably be increased now that they made the first cut):

Atlanta: Atlanta's mayor, Kasim Reed, said the city would offer incentives and development that would be worth more than $1 billion. In Stonecrest, a Georgia city about 20 miles east of Atlanta, the mayor offered to rename it "Amazon" and instate Jeff Bezos as the permanent mayor. 

Austin, Texas: Austin hasn't publicly disclosed any type of tax incentive or break for Amazon. In its bid, the city decided to tout its culture, instead. The city's mayor, Steve Adler, said it's offering Amazon a chance to be the "social fabric and future" of Austin. 

Boston: The city proposed an "Amazon Task Force" in its 109-page bid. It would essentially entail paid city staffers whose sole purpose is to represent Amazon's interests to Boston's government. 

Chicago: The city offered $2 billion in tax breaks, and suggested it could go even higher than that.

Columbus, Ohio: The Midwestern city offered Amazon tax breaks for 15 years, including 100 percent property tax abatement, and a 35 percent income tax refund. These offers would save Amazon millions in taxes for more than a decade.

Dallas: Similar to Austin, Dallas is also not offering any major tax break. Instead, it's pushing on its city's merits. 

Denver: The city is offering "performance-based incentives," which isn't exactly a special break for Amazon. It's relying on the state's Strategic Fund Incentive and Job Growth Incentive Tax Credit, offered to any business that comes to Colorado. These incentives can save Amazon more than $100 million in taxes. 

Indianapolis: It's keeping its bid details secret. 

Los Angeles: The Southern California city has kept its offers under wraps, but has indicated it would provide "costs and incentives" to Amazon. There are no specific details on how much that would entail. 

Miami: It's keeping its bid details secret. 

Montgomery County, Maryland: Bethesda Magazine's Bethesda Beat received the bid through a public records request with the government. The state redacted all information on financial and tax incentives. But at least we know there are incentive offers. 

Nashville, Tennessee: The Music City's officials actually frowned on all the tax incentives being offered, calling it "absurd" in one interview. Instead, they're pitching to Amazon based on the city's development and steady population growth.  

Newark, New Jersey: This is the big one. Newark is offering Amazon $7 billion in tax incentives, the largest one among all 238 cities that made a bid. 

New York: Other than the orange light-up show Mayor Bill de Blasio pulled off, the city is also offering lots of space, both for development and housing for potential employees moving there.  

Northern Virginia: It's keeping its bid details a secret. 

Philadelphia: The Philadelphia Inquirer received a heavily redacted document after it made a public records request to the city. But the pitch did offer up 280,000 square feet of office space at the 30th Street Station building, along with up to 4.2 million square feet of development space across the city.

Pittsburgh: It's keeping its bid details a secret, but noted that its tax incentives make a "very competitive package." 

Raleigh, North Carolina: It's keeping its bid details a secret, and has denied 11 out of 15 public records requests from WRAL.

Toronto: Toronto is the only Canadian city listed as a finalist, and a good chunk of its pitch relies on that appeal. There are no tax subsidies in its pitch, but the city's officials point to its lower corporate tax rates compared to the US, as well as its universal health care.   

Washington: The bid noted "significant tax breaks," though details were redacted in the public records provided to WAMU. The records also pitched creating an "Amazon University," which would train and create a direct pipeline of people to work at Amazon.

Number Of Non-Religious Americans Still Growing

The percentage of Americans with no religious affiliation at all (the "nones") has been growing with each new generation. That is just an undeniable fact. The current percentage of these "nones" in the United States as a whole is 22%, but it much higher among young Americans.

The chart above, from the Public Religion Research Institute, shows the percentage in the largest cities in each area of the country. Note that the cities with the least number of self-declared "nones" are in the South. I'm not at all sure that area has less "nones" than other parts of the country -- just that it is harder to be an open "none" in the South, because those people must pay a higher social cost than in other areas.

At any rate, the number of non-religious people has been growing for decades now -- and there is no reason to believe that won't continue in the future.

Police Should Live In The Community They Serve

How would you feel if we imported our police officers from foreign countries -- and didn't require them to become citizens or even become a part of the community they worked in. Do you think they would treat you fairly? Would they understand the problems you face, or the problems affecting the community at large? Probably not -- since they would have no personal investment in your community. And any problems that arose would be compounded if they happened to be of a different race or ethnic culture.

That might sound far-fetched to you, but it really isn't. Something very similar is happening in cities and counties across this nation. The chart at left, from fivethirtyeight.com, shows that many cities in this country are served by police officers who do not live in that city. In fact, the percentage of police officers who live outside the city they serve is more than 50% -- and if you just look at White police officers, that figure climbs to slightly over 60%.

You may not think this is a problem, but it is. When a police officer doesn't live in the community they serve it becomes much easier to view the citizens where they work as being different from themselves. It helps to create an "us" against "them" attitude among the officers -- and that kind of attitude can infect a whole department, and engender a situation where police profile and harass citizens and citizens don't trust the police (much like what has happened in Ferguson, Missouri).

The problem is only compounded when the police are White (and live in a mostly White city), but work in a different (mostly minority) community.

I'm not saying it is impossible for a White policeman to adequately and fairly serve a minority community -- only that it can encourage those with a propensity to view those of another race or ethnicity as being different (and unfortunately, there are many) to act on that view -- making it easier to profile, harass, beat, or even murder those "different" people.

Too often Whites expect all communities to be like the one they live in, and don't understand or recognize that different communities have different problems. It is simply easier to understand the problems of the community where you live, and have a stake in seeing those problems solved appropriately.

I believe police officers should live in the community they serve -- and the the department serving a community should generally have the same racial or ethnic make-up of that community. That wouldn't solve all the problems with policing in America -- but it would certainly be a good start.