The economic power that Amazon wields is kind of frightening. I work in a really rather crappy neighborhood. It is a mix of trailer parks and low level industrial space. The county’s largest homeless shelter is about a block away from us so we have a VERY large homeless population in the area. Being close to the shelter all of the smaller streets in the area have motor homes and trailers parked on them. It has been that way for the entire 10 years we have been here though it has gotten really bad in the last 4-5 years. We have had issues with drug and stolen merchandise being sold from some of them. We even had one that was running prostitutes out of it. We have had some of the trailers that dump their wastewater and other waste material into the gutter. When they move large volumes of trash are left behind, most times forming an outline around where they have been. We have also had vehicles stripped and in a couple of cases burned on the street. The city for the most part was unresponsive to calls to do anything. On occasion they might engage the most egregious of the offenders and every 6-9 months they might tag a few of the less mobile vehicles but that was the limit of it.
About 3 months ago Amazon opened a distribution hub about ½ a block away from us. In short order we started to see parking enforcement coming around and tagging trailers after 3 days. We also saw the city sending work crews out to pickup garbage left behind when the motor homes moved on. It used to happen about once every 6 months but then we started seeing it within 2 hours of the vehicles moving. We have had work crews out as much as 3 times a week on our block alone. Here we are 3 months in and there isn’t a trailer or motor home 2 blocks of the Amazon facility. We are thankful that we are under the giants protection and our street is clear but it is kind of sad. The city ignored the state of the area, ignoring both the citizens and the businesses in the community. Nothing changed until Amazon moved into the area and brought their economic influence with them. We were lucky that this time they used it for good but what happens when their motives become more self serving?
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