纽约时报 亚马逊第二总部花落谁家(4)（在线收听）

Then after Virginia officials submitted the proposals in October 2017, things went quiet.

弗吉尼亚官员2017年10月提交提案后，他们又没什么动静了。

A few months later, Victor Hoskins, the director of Arlington Economic Development, was walking up to the stage at a conference with other development officials

几个月后，阿灵顿经济发展局局长维克多·霍斯金斯在与其他发展局官员出现在了某会议的舞台上，

when their phones started buzzing with news reports that Virginia, Washington and Maryland were among Amazon’s 20 finalists.

因为他们的手机已经不停收到新闻报道，称弗吉尼亚州，华盛顿州和马里兰州已经进入了亚马逊前20入围名单。

“It quickly became, ‘Hey, we got three locations in that list of 20, we’ve got a good chance here,’” Mr. Hoskins said.

“之后不久，形势又变成了‘嘿，这个名单上有三个地方机会比较大，’”霍斯金斯说到。

Crystal City is a neighborhood filled with dated office buildings developed in the 1970s for military contractors.

水晶城则是一个遍地都是20世纪70年代为军火承包商开发的那种旧式办公楼的地方。

Much of it has sat empty since the Pentagon reorganized in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“911事件”发生，五角大楼重组之后，那些办公楼大部分都已经闲置了下来。

The developer JBG Smith had recently acquired much of the land and buildings there and was trying to spruce up the staid streets.

开发商“JBG史密斯”最近收购了那里的大部分土地和建筑，并试图修整那些古板的街道。

Ahead of Amazon’s first tour in late February,

2月底亚马逊对该地进行首次考察之前，

it wrapped buildings in colorful patterned fabrics, and hired muralists to decorate long construction walls and parking lots,

他们就用花布将那些建筑包了起来，还雇用了壁画师去装点那些长长的建筑墙和停车场，

trying to show how the neighborhood could be reimagined.

意图向对方展示该地区能够焕发出新的生机。

Amazon visited several times, at one point going up to the top of a tower, near Reagan National Airport, for a bird’s-eye view of Crystal City.

亚马逊对该地进行了多次考察，一次还登上了位于里根国家机场附近的某塔的塔尖俯瞰整个水晶城。

But it was more down to business than New York.

不过，对水晶城的考察相比对纽约的考察谈的正事更多。

Catering was ordered in.

他们还要了餐饮。

“Talent was at the core of a tremendous amount of our conversations,” Mr. Hoskins said.

“人才是我们那次谈话的核心话题，”霍斯金斯先生说。

He said Amazon never discussed the incentives or proposals other locales offered.

他说，那次，亚马逊自始至终都没有提及其他候选地提供的商机或提案。

Mr. Carney said inside Amazon, the team running the search decided at a meeting in August

卡尼先生（亚马逊高级副总裁）对亚马逊内部说，负责搜索地址的团队在8月的一次会议上裁定，

that it would be easier to hire the number of workers they wanted if they split the headquarters into two.

如果将总部分成两个，他们就能更轻松地招到他们想要招聘的那么多员工。

(An Amazon spokesman later said the meeting happened the first week of September.)

（某亚马逊发言人后来表示会议举行于9月的第一周，不是8月。）

“We also think that 25,000 as a floor is easier for the communities to absorb,” Mr. Carney said.

卡尼说：“我们也认为，以2.5万名员工为最低限度的话，周边的社区对我们的企业吸收起来会更容易。”

The company did not tell the cities about the split immediately.

该公司没有立即告诉各城市他们的分裂计划。

When Mr. Hoskins first heard about it, he was conflicted.

所以，第一次听说这件事时，霍斯金斯先生感到很矛盾。

“You want the 50,000, but you know what, hey, 25,000 is a huge number,” he said.

“你明明想要的是5万名员工，但你知道嘛，2.5万其实已经很多了，”他说。

By early November, local officials were feeling good.

到11月初，当地官员都感觉良好。

A small stage went up on an empty lot in Crystal City for the announcement, only to take be taken down quickly.

为了宣布这一消息，水晶城的一块空地上搭起了一个小小的舞台，但很快又被拆掉了。

It was premature.

现在宣布还为时过早。

After a final round to address the last details, on Monday,

在最后一轮解决了最后的细节之后，周一，

Mr. Moret was driving through rural Virginia when he signed the final state agreements digitally, his cell reception cutting in and out along the road.

莫雷特（弗吉尼亚州经济发展合作组织总裁）在开车行驶在弗吉尼亚乡村的路上用电子签章签署了最终的协议，一路上，他的电话信号时好时断。

“We had a call from them just an hour after we executed it saying we won,” he said.

“我们敲定协议一个小时之后就接到了他们的电话，说我们从名单中胜出了，”他说。

The company said it would start hiring in New York, Virginia and Tennessee next year.

亚马逊表示，它将于明年开始在纽约，弗吉尼亚和田纳西州为新总部招聘员工。