Would you be OK with an Amazon fulfillment center in your neighborhood?
Apr 12, 2021, 3:18 PM | Updated: Apr 13, 2021, 7:23 am
(AP)
(AP)
Amazon is considering building fulfillment centers in three Seattle locations according to a Seattle Times report, including two near the Mount Baker light-rail station, and one in Interbay. Part of the thrust is that putting those fulfillment centers in centralized locations will enable more efficient delivery of packages.
KIRO Radio’s Ursula Reutin posed a question to co-host Gee Scott: “Would you be OK with a fulfillment center being put in down the street from your house?”
“I’m gonna go ahead and be OK with the fulfillment center being in the neighborhood,” Gee responded. “How could I not be excited about the local economy? … That means that there will be some more local businesses that will get more money.”
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As the Times reports, there’s been concern from housing activists that one of the locations could displace space for affordable housing on Rainier Avenue.
For Ursula, an additional concern is the character of the neighborhood changing, and she doesn’t care about packages being delivered any faster at this price.
“Well, I could say no to this much more easily than I would say no to a smaller business in my neighborhood. A fulfillment center would completely change the character of a neighborhood — having all those trucks and those deliveries. Even to this date right now, there’s a number of trucks going through our neighborhood because everyone, apparently, on my street loves to order from Amazon,” she said.
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“Let’s just talk in Seattle. There are some neighborhoods where you can barely get through the middle of your street because there’s parking — no one has garages — so there’s parking on both sides of the street. And now you’re going to have delivery trucks, like fleets of them, coming out,” she said. “… I’m OK to wait a few days for that delivery.”
Gee asked Ursula where she’d put a fulfillment center instead.
“In wide open spaces,” she said, laughing.
Listen to the Gee and Ursula Show weekday mornings from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
