Diagram of the proposed Amazon warehouse by the Humboldt County Airport.

PREVIOUSLY

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NOTE: The following opinion piece was written by Humboldt County Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone:

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Is Amazon coming to town? Above is a map of the proposed facility at the McKinleyville Airport Business Park.

For months I have been writing articles about the effects of online shopping and the importance of shopping local. Online shopping takes away much of the sales tax benefits of shopping local as well as a loss of local jobs.

It might seem cheaper but without the local sales tax, we then have less support for our local schools, roads and law enforcement. So if you add up all the effects it is not cheaper.

Local jobs also usually pay better wages and there certainly is lots of information online about low paying jobs by Amazon and less than ideal working conditions for Amazon workers.

Why we complain about billionaires taking over our world and then choose to give them our money through purchasing decisions is a mystery to me. There is a lot of power behind these purchasing decisions.

Many of us choose to not shop online for these and many other reasons. Folks say well there are limited options to buy local and if we choose to continue to shop online then that feedback loop will continue to create less and less options for shopping local. It creates a negative feedback loop.

So what can we do? Get involved and become informed. Turns out this proposed facility in McKinleyville does not qualify as a Distribution Center, so we will not get increased sales tax from its development. While the Airport Business Park was permitted long ago for development, this project will still need to get a Coastal Development Permit requiring some level of CEQA review and there will be a public hearing.

Some have suggested a boycott of Amazon products and services. There are communities like San Francisco and San Diego that have organized and pushed back against these developments. A recent report shows that Humboldt County has fallen behind the state for income equality. The number of folks working full time year-round that are still at the poverty level has doubled recently.

Yes, we need more jobs, but low-wage jobs like what Amazon pays with harsh worker conditions are not what we are looking for. Given the extreme wealth that Amazon has it would not hurt to pay better wages and improve worker conditions.

The Airport Business Park is going to develop, and any development comes with impacts, but we can and should do our best to ask for quality businesses that care about our community. It is not anti-business to ask for living wage jobs and decent worker conditions.

What do you think?