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Bill de Blasio: The Path Amazon Rejected
New York Times ^ | Today | Bolshevik Bill de Blasio

Posted on 02/16/2019 4:34:20 PM PST by Sub-Driver

Bill de Blasio: The Path Amazon Rejected

It could have answered the concerns of citizens. Instead it bolted.

By Bill de Blasio

Mr. de Blasio is mayor of New York City.

Feb. 16, 2019

The first word I had that Amazon was about to scrap an agreement to bring 25,000 new jobs to New York City came an hour before it broke in the news on Thursday.

The call was brief and there was little explanation for the company’s reversal.

Just days before, I had counseled a senior Amazon executive about how they could win over some of their critics. Meet with organized labor. Start hiring public housing residents. Invest in infrastructure and other community needs. Show you care about fairness and creating opportunity for the working people of Long Island City.

There was a clear path forward. Put simply: If you don’t like a small but vocal group of New Yorkers questioning your company’s intentions or integrity, prove them wrong.

Instead, Amazon proved them right. Just two hours after a meeting with residents and community leaders to move the project forward, the company abruptly canceled it all.

I am a lifelong progressive who sees the problem of growing income and wealth inequality. The agreement we struck with Amazon back in November was a solid foundation. It would have created: at least 25,000 new jobs, including for unionized construction and service workers; partnerships with public colleges; and $27 billion in new tax revenue to fuel priorities from transit to affordable housing — a ninefold return on the taxes the city and state were prepared to forgo to win the headquarters.

The retail giant’s expansion in New York encountered opposition in no small part because of growing frustration with corporate America.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; US: New York; US: Vermont
KEYWORDS: akadeblasio; amazon; berniesanders; billdeblasio; districtofcolumbia; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; freakshow; jeffbezos; mediawingofthednc; newyork; newyorkcity; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; ocasiocortez; partisanmediashills; presstitutes; smearmachine; vermont; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost
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To: Mr Ramsbotham
Exactly.

If I was the CEO of a company in almost any industry outside of banking/financial services, I'd consider it a serious breach of my fiduciary duty to even consider locating a headquarters office in NYC.

61 posted on 02/16/2019 6:29:55 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.")
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To: lodi90

In other words, after one good taste of what dealing with the various factions of hardline, radical Communists - ethnics, homos, unionists, and so on - would be like, they fled screaming.


62 posted on 02/16/2019 6:31:13 PM PST by thoughtomator (Nobody is coming to save the day)
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To: From The Deer Stand

Income and/or wealth gap is almost on par with “climate change” in terms of hoaxes.

You have $100
I have $1000
Gap of $900
Next year you increase 10 fold: $1000. I double my money: $2000
We’re both happy but the “gap” has INCREASED to $1000.
Next year you lose and are down to $90
I lose and am down to $100
We’re both devastated, but GLORY HALLELUJAH, the “gap” is now only $10. SUCCESS!!!! Idiots.


63 posted on 02/16/2019 6:44:08 PM PST by youngidiot (Admiral Mike Rogers is a hero.)
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To: monkeyshine

They also probably didn’t want to be your show pony. They are there to do business, not politicking.

* * *

It’s actually a crying shame. Look at all the marvelous opportunities for Amazon to do virtue signaling. / sarc

Maybe Bezos thought he needed to at least give NYC a chance, knowing that something would blow up.

And it did. Amazon said “yes” and NYC said “no”. So Amazon has the best of both worlds. It escapes a terrible city to do business in and it has an excuse why they were forced to so somewhere else.

Bezos is a sly one. Don’t put it past the guy.


64 posted on 02/16/2019 6:53:37 PM PST by poconopundit
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To: dynachrome
Meet with the Sopranos, that is

Cuomo. probably thought that was an offer Bezos could not refuse.

65 posted on 02/16/2019 7:12:26 PM PST by Veto! (Veto! (Political Correctness Offends Me))
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To: Lockbar

“I think one of the reasons for cancelation is Amazon had time to see the gene pool from which their employees would emerge. Not enough IQ points to get the jobs done at the level they needed.”

One of the problems is certainly related to that - and both sides recognized it: Amazon would’ve been shipping local residents out in cattle cars to make way for the literate, competent workforce they needed. The cattle car passengers understood this as well; they were going to be forced out of their neighborhood so more qualified people could come in and work there.

This is also an issue as Newark NJ desperately searches for sugar daddies; their own work force is practically non-existent, and nobody will re-locate to Newark as long as the current residents run wild.


66 posted on 02/16/2019 7:49:32 PM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: poconopundit

I sure wouldn’t put it past him. I actually thought he wanted to spend more time in NYC and this would give him a good excuse to be at the ‘other headquarters’. Though VA is just as good if not better considering he owns the WashPost.


67 posted on 02/16/2019 8:19:08 PM PST by monkeyshine
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To: seawolf101

It is amazing how quickly this whole story has been scrubbed from NYC news; the enemedia must have gotten the word that average people here are p!ssed off. This whole topic (Amazon moving to Long Island City) has dominated the news here for months, yet after reporting the deal had fallen through on Thursday evening, and showing negative reactions from many people, it is now gone - as though it was all a bad dream. It didn’t help that many opponents were also downcast; they apparently thought Amazon would “get right”, pay up, and just pump billions more into the socialist black hole. The icing on the cake was probably all of the local business owners complaining; they’ve probably been watching their fortunes decline in that deteriorating sh!thole for years and saw a chance to get out without losing their shirts.


68 posted on 02/16/2019 8:28:19 PM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Sub-Driver

Maybe it is Trump’s SALT repeal that made Amazon’s millionaires balk at not being able to write off NY’s massive taxes.


69 posted on 02/16/2019 10:10:41 PM PST by montag813 ("This is Montag, Block 813...")
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