Arlington, Virginia, residents packed a county board meeting on Saturday to protest an incentives package for Amazon to build a headquarters facility in the the Northern Virginia suburb. Despite the meeting repeatedly being disrupted by protesters who shouted “shame,” the board unanimously approved a $23 million incentives package. The vote was the final action granting local and state subsidies to the online retail giant. Amazon has said they will create at least 25,000 jobs over 12 years in the region. The vote came at the end of six hours of testimony in which supporters touted the project’s economic benefits, while opponents warned that an influx of highly paid workers would raise housing prices, displacing lower income residents.
