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Three months after selecting New York City as the site of a sprawling new headquarters, Amazon got cold feet. “We’ve decided not to move forward with our plans,” the company said on Feb. 14. “For Amazon, the commitment to build a new headquarters requires positive, collaborative relationships with state and local elected officials, who will be supportive over the long-term.”
Amazon announced in November it would split its next headquarters, and 50,000 jobs, between Virginia and the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens. The decision followed a yearlong search conducted like a beauty pageant for American cities and widely criticized in the press. New York state governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio cheered Amazon’s decision, in a rare show of allegiance. Local polls showed Amazon had wide support.
In a city like New York, though, never is everyone happy. Predictably, activists showed up to protest Amazon and everything it stands for in their minds: poor labor practices, mercenary surveillance, the outsized power and influence of technology giants. A handful of local politicians joined them, as did firebrand congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Amazon is famous for its take-no-prisoners approach. In the mid-2000s, it extracted better terms from publishers by throttling their book sales until they capitulated to its demands. This past summer, Amazon halted construction on a new tower in Seattle after the city council passed a business tax to fund homeless shelters and low-income housing. It resumed once the council backed down and repealed the measure.
But New York is not easily steamrolled. When Amazon dug in its heels—on labor, tax incentives, and Bezos’s helipad—so did the local opposition. What began as a secretive search process was dragged into the ugly spotlight of New York politics, and Amazon was shockingly unprepared. If the company wanted to be welcomed as a job-creating hero, it could have picked any other US city. Instead, made complacent by years atop the corporate food chain, it chose New York, a rare place that needs Amazon less than Amazon needs it. —Alison Griswold
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The surprising explanation for the rise of helicopter parents. Parents who attempt to manage every aspect of their kids’ schedules, academics, and extracurriculars get a bad rap. But helicopter parenting is a rational response to rising inequality, according to the new book Love, Money, and Parenting. As Jenny Anderson explains, parents get pushier as opportunities for jobs and college admissions grow more scarce. Conversely, in more equal societies like Sweden, parents can afford to be more chill.
Arboreal haiku. Bonsai cultivation is an art form, a philosophy, a horticultural tradition, and a tribute to nature. Growers of these potted trees take the ancient skill of slowly coaxing miniature growths very seriously. A recent bonsai theft in Japan, which has left its cultivators bereft, highlights the emotional bond humans develop with these natural statues. Ephrat Livni looks at the roots and branches of the practice.
Four-day work weeks aren’t about employee wellbeing. They’re a productivity policy, suitable for just about any workplace in any industry to adopt on at least a trial basis. So says a New Zealand business owner who spoke with Cassie Werber about how he made shorter work weeks work at his own firm—and why he’s putting out a white paper to help other companies test the policy themselves.
Teaching kids critical thinking isn’t enough. In the face of mounting evidence that fake news can influence the democratic process, educators are attempting to help students learn to spot bias and misinformation. As Annabelle Timsit reports, that’s no easy proposition. One possible solution? Teach kids to go beyond critical thinking and act more like fact-checkers—that is, to practice “lateral learning,” which involves cross-checking sources and operating under the assumption that all texts have some bias.
Google Translate is the manifestation of language theories from the 1950s. Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein argued over 60 years ago that there are no standard, fixed meanings to words; instead, their meanings lie in their use. Words, he wrote, must be understood by their “family resemblance” to other words. Today, Olivia Goldhill writes, the artificial intelligence behind Google Translate provides a practical example of his hypotheses.
Five things elsewhere that made us smarter
Why Ford hired a furniture maker as CEO. Many in Detroit were puzzled by the choice of Jim Hackett, who previously ran the office-furniture maker Steelcase, as the head of the automaker in 2017. But Hackett is a design-minded master of the user experience, and as Jerry Useem writes in the Atlantic, Ford is betting that nailing the interaction between man and machine will prove more important than making the best chassis or software.
2019 is year zero for Chinese sci-fi blockbusters. In China, The Wandering Earth grossed a record-breaking $349 million in its first week of release earlier this month. It also demonstrated that Chinese filmmakers are capable of creating big-budget sci-fi spectacles without Hollywood. For the Ringer, Ben Lindbergh ponders the implications, noting that a genre once dominated by the West and suppressed by Chinese censors now seems aligned with Beijing’s future-oriented outlook.
The year since Parkland. The US media is quick to mobilize when there’s a “big story” mass shooting, such as the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida a year ago. But it does relatively little to cover the chronic gun violence plaguing children in some neighborhoods every day. To counter that, the new Since Parkland website, powered by teen reporters, tells the stories of children who were shot dead in the past year.
The neo-Nazi who became a Slovakian governor. In 2013, the Banská Bystrica region of Slovakia became the first place in modern Europe to elect a person widely regarded as a neo-fascist to a major office. Turns out Marian Kotleba’s surprise victory foreshadowed the rise of right-wing populism across the region. For the Guardian, Shaun Walker reveals the now-familiar strategies that Kotleba, currently running for prime minister, used to gain power.
Midwest companies are looking to Puerto Rico for workers. With employment rates high, many US firms are rushing to secure low-skilled foreign workers, but demand for the required visas far outstrips supply. Increasingly, Midwest manufacturers recruit from Puerto Rico, a US territory with a struggling economy. For the Wall Street Journal (paywall), Erin Ailworth and Arian Campo-Flores examine the trend—and the awkward experiences of Puerto Ricans adjusting to small Midwestern communities.
Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, bonsai seedlings, and design-minded CEOs to hi@qz.com. Join the next chapter of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. Today’s Weekend Brief was edited by Steve Mollman and Kira Bindrim.