The billionaire’s neighbors don’t see him as part of the community
Turns out being the world’s second richest man doesn’t make you automatically a good neighbor, as the community surrounding the Amazon founder’s new home isn’t too happy with his (lack of) actions.
Jeff Bezos is known for being a rather mixed figure, as his neuroscience-backed morning routine shines a positive light on the Amazon founder, but he has also received heavy criticism for his polluting contributions.
It’s clear that, as one of the wealthiest individuals in the world, Bezos doesn’t have a whole lot of spare time, and often finds himself between different businesses and investments.
Part of these are his numerous mansions, which include three houses in Miami and eight in Seattle, estimated in total to be around 420,000 acres of land.
Bezos has recently announced that he’s making a permanent move from Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, returning to Miami where he lived when he was younger.
Part of the motivation for this is to move closer to his parents, and also to the operations hub of Blue Origin, his aerospace company.
He might want to speed up the move, however, as it seems like his neighbors at his current $37.5 million estate in Seattle aren’t too happy with the billionaire’s invisible presence within the community.
Located in Hunts Point, it’s understood that this small area just outside Seattle is home to less than 400 people who consider themselves to be close – at least mostly close if you count Bezos.
One key community event that brings the residents of Hunts Point together is a regular Cleanup Day, where homeowners join forces and take care of the surrounding area.
Bezos, however, is seemingly never present, and this has created a lot of frustration in the eyes of his neighbors.
“He’s not much of a neighbor,” claimed one resident when talking to Business Insider, “he’s so busy with all this national stuff.”
Another pointed out that his gates are always closed, and the billionaire is rarely seen in the area.
One neighbor event went as far to point out: “I’ve seen a billionaire pick up track. Not Jeff Bezos.”
The Amazon founder does apparently donate to fundraising for a local youth charity, but fails to attend the events organized by residents – although that’s hard to be too mad about.
Perhaps they would rather have lived next to Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, who has become renowned for her incredibly generous philanthropic actions following the pair’s divorce.
They won’t have to deal with him for much longer as Bezos will shortly be moving to Miami with his current fiancé Lauren Sánchez, but whether he ends up selling his Hunts Point estate is still yet to be seen.
Venice locals could crash Jeff Bezos $10,000,000 wedding as activists plan major protests
Crowds plan on brigading Bezos on his special day
Jeff Bezos’ special day could be spoiled by local protests, as Venetian residents plan major action as residents of the floating city disagree with the billionaire’s commandeering of the area.
Being the third richest man in the world with a net worth of over $234 billion, it is no surprise that Jeff Bezos likes a bit of luxury.
His fortunes, build primarily off the back of the success of Amazon, have allowed him to splash the cash on multiple houses, mega yachts, and more, but his latest spending spree has left some key individuals angry.
Bezos proposed to his fiancée Lauren Sánchez back in May 2023, and once you learn about the lavish nature of their Venice-bound wedding it’s easy to understand the two year gap between engagement and the big day.
As reported by the Telegraph, their wedding is set to cost roughly $10,000,000 across three days at the end of this month, and will be attended by many of the world’s biggest and richest names.
Bezos and Sánchez will make a big entrance on their $500,000,000 superyacht – which is complete with a figurehead of the Lauren herself at its helm – before taking over large parts of Venice and its many luxury hotels.
While this might be great for the ultra-rich pair, it has angered many local residents who have coalesced to take action against the multi-billionaire, planning protests on the day of the wedding.
Under the ‘No space for Bezos’ campaign, protesters are planning to march along the city’s iconic canal banks and piazzas with banners, chants, and even flares to detract from the celebrations.
Their slogan – ‘No space for oligarchs, no space for Bezos’ – isn’t just a clever play on Bezos and Sánchez’s recent Blue Origin space exploits, but is a clear statement that pushes back against the notion that Venice at large can be ‘bought’ for the right price with celebrations like these.
“The whole of Venice, all of the people who live here, need to do something to protest against Bezos, argued Alice Bazzoli, who is part of the anti-Bezos campaign. “It’s not about him personally, it’s about the consequences that the wedding will have for the city.”
Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro has opposed action by the ‘No space for Bezos’ campaign, claiming that much of the information surrounding the wedding is speculation and ‘fake news’.
“We are mutually working and supporting the organizers, to ensure that the event will be absolutely respectful of the fragility and uniqueness of the city,” Brugnaro has outlined, but others remain still unconvinced.
The campaign argues that festivities like this significantly disrupt the daily life of local Venetians, making it hard for them to move around and bringing very little benefit to their lives during the period.
“He’ll pretty much take over the city for his celebrations, paying a huge amount of money for the privilege,” Bazzoli continued. “It will compound all our problems – daily life is already hard for locals in Venice because of the impact of mass tourism.”
While there is still no outline of the festivities themselves, there’s little prospect of Bezos moving his wedding away from the iconic city, and instead he’ll have to face targeted posters and the furore of locals upon arrival – from the safety of his 410ft yacht, of course.
Jeff Bezos revealed ‘modest’ salary he earned for decades at Amazon and strategic reason he never took a raise
A not-so-surprising strategy from one of the world’s richest men
Despite being one of the wealthiest individuals on the planet, Jeff Bezos has revealed he took home a relatively modest salary for decades during his time as Amazon’s CEO — and it was entirely by choice.
Currently worth an eye-watering $246 billion, Bezos could easily have awarded himself a multi-million-dollar pay packet. Instead, he kept his annual salary at just over $80,000 (£62,000) for years, choosing to prioritise the long-term value of his Amazon shares.
Bezos told The New York Times: “My view was I was a founder”.
“I already owned a significant amount of the company and I just didn’t feel good about taking more.”
While his earnings on paper were far from extravagant, his wealth was quietly soaring. According to calculations from Inc.com’s Jeff Haden, between 2023 and 2024, Bezos effectively made $8 million (£6.2 million) for every hour of the year. That was all thanks to his stake in Amazon.
Bezos explained: “I had plenty of incentive”.
The billionaire added: “I owned more than 10% of the company. I just felt, how could I possibly need more incentive?”
It’s a clear reflection of Bezos’ founder-first mentality. Rather than accumulate wealth through annual bonuses or executive perks, he focused on increasing the value of the company he helped build.
Calling entrepreneurs like himself “owner-operators,” Bezos said they generate wealth “not by getting more equity, they just want to make the equity they have more valuable.”
It’s worth noting that his compensation strategy wasn’t entirely self-sacrificial. Bezos admitted: “I asked the comp committee of the board not to give me any comp,” adding that he would have “felt icky” otherwise and that he’s “very proud of that decision.”
Even so, the decision had financial upside. A 2021 report from ProPublica, which analysed decades of tax data on America’s wealthiest figures, found that Bezos paid no federal income tax in both 2007 and 2011. This was in part due to reporting investment losses that exceeded his small salary.
And he wasn’t alone. Fellow billionaires Elon Musk, Warren Buffett and Michael Bloomberg reportedly utilised similar tax strategies. While the top federal income tax rate in the US sits at 37%, ProPublica found many of these individuals were paying well under 4% when considering their total income, investment growth, and taxes actually paid.
From 2014 to 2018, Bezos’ “true tax rate” came in at just 0.98%, with Buffett’s even lower at 0.10%.
This is largely due to how wealth is taxed — or rather, how it often isn’t. Since assets like Amazon stock only become taxable when sold, Bezos could watch his net worth skyrocket without triggering a tax bill. By not taking a large salary, he further avoided tax liabilities.
In recent years, Bezos has started to sell portions of his Amazon shares, aiming to offload around 25 million by the end of 2025 — a move that will inevitably generate tax, but also free up significant liquid capital.
For Bezos, the choice to limit his salary wasn’t just a personal statement. It seems like it was also a long-term strategy rooted in ownership, growth, and wealth preservation.
People mind-blown after video reveals how Jeff Bezos gets furniture delivered to his $80,000,000 penthouse
People are stunned after a video reveals how Jeff Bezos gets furniture delivered to his $80 million penthouse.
The Amazon founder had built up quite a substantial portfolio of real estate over the years.
Unlike Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who became the world’s first trillionaire to live in a modest prefab home for less than $50,000 that he rents from SpaceX, Bezos splashes his cash on properties across the East and West coasts.
In 2023, Bezos announced he was relocating permanently to Miami after spending three decades in Seattle.
Since then, the Blue Origin founder picked up several properties on Miami’s Indian Creek Island, which is worth an estimated $237 million and has been nicknamed ‘Billionaire Bunker.’
But that’s just one part of his property empire.
@thompsonferrier_nyc Jeff Bezos delivering furniture
Bezos also owns homes in California, Washington, D.C., Maui and Texas. His Texas estate doubles as the headquarters for his aerospace company, Blue Origin, which was launched in 2000.
But viewers were shocked to get a glimpse into the billionaire’s way of doing home delivery.
TikToker Thompson Ferrier shared an inside look at what it takes to move furniture into one of Bezos’ Manhattan penthouses.
The property in question is a trio of adjoining apartments overlooking Madison Square Park in Manhattan that Bezos spent a whopping $80 million on in 2019. The extravagant purchase included a three-floor, 10,000-square-foot penthouse complete with a grand ballroom, a library and a marble and glass fireplace.
Additionally, there is a seven-room main suite, a three-bedroom unit below that with marble countertops and a connected four-bedroom apartment with panoramic views.
“you wanna see how Jeff Bezos delivers his furniture?” Ferrier begins his video, then turns the camera to reveal a giant crane towering over the streets of New York City. “Let me show you.”
The TikTok shows the crane hoisting up a piece of furniture up to the top floors of Bezos’ apartment building in central Manhattan.
Ferrier sarcastically commented on the fact that this delivery process is pretty ‘standard,’ whilst highlighting around ’40 movers, police escorts’ and ‘street closures’ in the area.
Naturally, TikTok users poured in to poke fun at the billionaire’s lavish approach to everyday tasks.
“Amazon prime delivery, billionaire subscription,” one TikTok user wrote.
“Meanwhile me living in nyc and ordering Amazon they leave my delivery in the street,” another added.
Someone else joked: “Totally relatable. Did this 2 weeks ago”. Others shared more positive remarks, commenting: “At least he’s providing jobs for all those people.”
Jeff Bezos’ neighbors give brutally honest response when revealing what it’s like living next to him
Just like it’s fascinating to learn about celebrities’ lives before they had their claim to fame, it’s also intriguing to hear what others have to say about them.
Especially if they live next to one.
Well for Jeff Bezos, one of his neighbours didn’t have much positive to say about living next to the Amazon CEO.
Bezos owns three homes in Miami and eight in Seattle, where he used to live.
In November 2023, he announced he was officially moving to Miami to be with his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez.
But before the move, in 2019, the 60-year-old purchased a $37.5 million waterfront estate, along with three smaller properties nearby for his staff, according to a Business Insider report.
It’s unclear why he bought such an expensive place since, as neighbours pointed out, he was rarely ever there.
“He’s not much of a neighbour,” said one person living there. “He’s so busy with all this national stuff.”
The property is located in Hunts Point, an affluent area just outside Seattle known for its wealthy and famous residents.
It’s actually quite a tight-knit community – less than 400 people live there and they often host events like an annual clear-up day.
Residents of all statuses come together to collect trash, plant trees and so on.
However, one neighbour said: “I’ve seen a billionaire pick up trash on Cleanup Day. Not Jeff Bezos.”
On top of that, the Amazon founder also failed to attend the residential Fourth of July party and fundraising events for a local youth charity.
One resident did confirm that Bezos donated to the charity though.
While Bezos rarely showed his face, his staff became familiar faces in the neighbourhood.
His security team lived in a house that overlooked the neighbourhood’s only entrance and exit.
The same resident explained that they were pleasant neighbours and made the place feel more secure when they were there.
“We did feel a lot more secure knowing that he had all these people watching his property,” another resident described.
However, that extra protection layer did create some extra problems.
For instance, on two occasions, Bezos security guards called the police about suspicious individuals, who later turned out to be employees or contractors for other wealthy residents in the area, according to 911 call records obtained by Business Insider.
One neighbour stated that Bezos’ security presence could feel a bit overwhelming at times: “Jeff Bezos acts like he owns Hunts Point.”
