At the start of 2018, everyone loved Amazon. The company had very recently announced a Willy Wonka-ish contest that would deliver a brand new headquarter to one special city in the United States. In one act, a mercurial and generous Jeff Bezos would bestow a city with riches beyond their imagination: an all-American tech company, tens of thousands of jobs, and $5 billion in investments.
By the time a winner was actually announced last month, reality had sunk in. Amazon had no plans to revitalize a struggling metropolitan area in the next great tale of the American Dream, as many believed it would. Instead, its presence would reshape the very character of wherever it moved, likely driving out longtime residents and replacing them with...