Amazon's Queens HQ2 Pullout Spawns Cheers, Jeers Among Opinionated New Yorkers
Amazon scuttled plans to establish a second headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, Thursday after saying last week (see 1902080046) it was focused on “engaging with our new neighbors.” The company doesn’t plan to reopen its HQ2 search “at this time,” it said. It will proceed as planned in Northern Virginia and Nashville and “continue to hire and grow across our 17 corporate offices and tech hubs in the U.S. and Canada." Amazon has more than 5,000 employees in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island and plans to continue expanding those teams, it said.
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The company cited the need for “positive, collaborative relationships with state and local elected officials who will be supportive over the long-term,” which didn’t appear likely after two combative hearings with local officials (see 1901300048) on HQ2.
“Defeating an anti-union corporation that mistreats workers" and works with Immigration and Customs Enforcement "in terrorizing immigrant communities is a victory,” tweeted New York City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, D-Queens, Thursday. His District 26 is where HQ2 would have been. “Defeating an unprecedented act of corporate welfare is a triumph that should change the way we do economic development deals in our city & state forever.”
At a Jan. 30 council oversight hearing, Van Bramer called the agreement to bring Amazon to Long Island City a “union-busting deal.” He also grew irritated with Amazon executives during questioning about the facial-recognition Amazon sells ICE. If the agency uses the technology to track down undocumented immigrants, that's not in keeping with New York's standing as a sanctuary city, he said then.
Council Speaker Corey Johnson, D-Manhattan, looks forward to “working with companies that understand that if you’re willing to engage ... and work through challenging issues New York City is the world’s best place to do business.” Johnson hopes this is “the start of a conversation about vulture capitalism and where our tax dollars are best spent. ... I’d choose mass transit over helipads any day.” A section of a November memorandum of understanding between Amazon, New York City and New York State said a helipad at the Long Island City waterfront was written into the Amazon development plan. That was a much-derided portion of the MOU among Johnson, Van Bramer and other critics.
Amazon Thursday cited polls showing 70 percent of New Yorkers support its HQ2 plans, but “a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project.” It thanked Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) for their invitation to locate in the city.
De Blasio blasted the e-tailer Thursday, tweeting: “We gave Amazon the opportunity to be a good neighbor and do business in the greatest city in the world. Instead of working with the community, Amazon threw away that opportunity.”
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D) expressed disappointment New York won’t be home to more than 25,000 new jobs and that Long Island City, part of her 12th congressional district, will lose out on accompanying infrastructure improvements. She said the deal “could have been improved” and cited “legitimate concerns raised and aspects that I wanted changed.” Maloney was “ready to work for those changes," but said, "now, we won’t have a chance to do that and we are out 25K+ new jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in new investments.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (D), whose 14th congressional district is adjacent to Long Island City, seized victory, tweeting: “Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world.” Ocasio-Cortez has said that under the Amazon deal, New York was subsidizing the promised jobs and if the city and state were willing to give away $3 billion to Amazon in tax incentives, that money could be invested elsewhere.
Ocasio-Cortez’s policy adviser Dan Riffle tweeted that Amazon is “still perfectly welcome to build in NYC ... They just have to give up the bullying. You can't have a ‘positive, collaborative relationship’ with a community if your terms are 'pay our $3B bribe or we're out.'” The Teamsters responded that “Labor won’t build a union-buster’s HQ.”
A strong proponent of the Amazon deal, Cuomo blasted politicians for putting “narrow political interests above their community,” pegging the number of potential jobs lost at 25,000-40,000 along with nearly $30 billion dollars in new revenue “to fund transit improvements, new housing, schools” and other quality-of-life improvements. Amazon’s presence would have “diversified our economy away from real estate and Wall Street,” and strengthened the area’s status as an emerging tech center, the governor said.
TechNYC Executive Director Julie Samuels called Amazon’s decision a “blow to the local economy” and “disappointing” for the city’s ambitions as a global tech hub. “Bad politics got in the way of good policy here," she tweeted.
EMarketer analyst Andrew Lipsman still expects Amazon to increase its business in New York “significantly” in coming years: Its “continued emergence as a media and advertising powerhouse will make it increasingly critical to have a strong physical presence at the nexus of these industries.”