Posted on 02/15/2019 1:46:56 PM PST by NoLibZone
The deal drew opposition even before it was officially announced.
The news that Amazon picked Queens as one of its coveted second headquarters in exchange for nearly $3 billion in tax subsidies broke the day before the 2018 midterm elections, and negative reactions from a newly energized left wing grew quickly in New York City.
The company, valued at $800 billion as of early February, hosted a beauty pageant of a search for what was believed to be a single headquarters, only to split its workforce and settle on two already-thriving East Coast cities. New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, out of favor with his party’s progressive wing, joked about changing his name to “Amazon,” a not-so-subtle wink and nod to selling out that sounded particularly tone-deaf to his Queens constituents. Most significantly, the deal was approved through a process that prevented city officials and residents from weighing in at all — let alone vetoing the plan.
The opposition to the project united an array of advocacy groups, elected officials and activists rallying over concerns about affordable housing, infrastructure, environmental causes and labor. Among the opponents were officials such as Ramos and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), part of a crop of liberal lawmakers who unseated centrist Democrats during the primaries last summer.
The opposition also included local chapters of the progressive groups that have grown since President Trump’s election, such as Indivisible, True Blue and the Democratic Socialists of America, the same organizers who propelled Ocasio-Cortez to a surprise victory in her race for Congress. The group held a town hall in Astoria about the deal; hundreds of people packed the venue.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You are a “Glass is Half Full” kinda guy I bet......
It was NOT on Long Island, my dear. It was in Queens. Long Island City is in Queens, which is part of NYC. But yes, it's very congested over there, impossible to find parking, people living right on top of one another.
One thing that is not well known is that the area of NYC where Amazon was going to locate (Long Island City) has been the subject of several major rezoning efforts by the New York City government over the last 2-3 decades.
(FULL DISCLOSURE: I have a professional familiarity with this from earlier in my career.)
The biggest factor in the local opposition to the Amazon project was the radical transformation that the area has seen since the early 2000s. Long Island City has historically been a light industrial hub in the city, and the NYC council took great care to protect the industrial character of the area as it went through several rounds of rezoning.
When the original rezoning was approved in 2001, they envisioned a core area of 5 million square feet of office space and 300 residential units in condo/apartment buildings. The rest of the area was to remain zoned for the light industrial businesses that have been there for decades.
With two major housing bubbles after 2001 and a major effort by the DeBlasio administration to develop affordable housing in NYC, the actual development that has occurred in Long Island City has been very different. Only about 30% of the projected office space was built, and instead of the original 300 housing units there have been more than 10,000 built in residential towers.
The Long Island City area can't handle 25,000 workers in new office buildings under the original zoning plan. If Amazon moved there, the neighborhood would be getting more than 5 million square feet of NEW office space ... on top of the 1.5 million already there ... on top of the 10,000+ residential units that were never envisioned when the area was rezoned. So everyone in the neighborhood around the original rezoning area knows that the small industrial and commercial buildings occupied by local businesses were going to be sold and demolished to make way for the new Amazon campus.
Not a guy, anyway. :-)
Long Island City is in the NYC borough of Queens. "Long Island" is usually understood to mean Nassau and Suffolk Counties -- the two counties east of Queens that are not part of New York City.
However, it should be noted that the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens are located geographically on the large island known as Long Island.
FWIW, I think it’s more about a certain $2.3 billion shortfall...
There may have been $2.3 billion in tax breaks extended to Amazon, but I don't know that this would be considered a "shortfall" when all the numbers are added up.
Surely Amazon had to know that too.
Do you think there may have been some sleight of hand on the part of Amazon for some uknown to us reason and they didn’t really intend to put a center there at all?
And I’ve wondered from the beginning whether the HQ2 thing wasn’t really a ruse to try to screw more tax money out of Seattle and/or Washington state. If, in the next few weeks, months we hear that Amazon is getting some additional tax relief from either, both, guess we’ll know.
“Welcome to the world you helped create”
Kind of like Californians and Oregonians voting for more taxes and then leaving the state because of the high taxes.
Cuomo: State facing $2.3 billion shortfall
We can't afford Amazon.
Maybe. But I would put this out there for your consideration:
1. What exactly would they gain by doing this?
2. The scenario you presented is certainly a possibility when you remember that Amazon was supposed to be looking for a second headquarters location -- not two of them. Maybe the selected two -- just to see which one would generate more public support locally?
3. The "sleight of hand" I'm almost certain Amazon has done here is the whole tax break negotiation process. They had all these cities falling all over themselves offering tax breaks to Amazon ... but I'm willing to bet Amazon would have made their ultimate decision about the second HQ even if they didn't get a single penny in tax breaks.
This may have been all about screwing Seattle’s and/or WA’s taxpayers outta more tax money.
The $2.3 billion shortfall is from declining income tax revenue. I would think adding 25,000 new high-paying jobs to New York would help RAISE additional income tax revenue.
Very good point.
And pols everywhere are happy to go along with the charade for one reason: It’s not their money.
Empire Zones, NY's failed aid to companies, still costing taxpayers: $3 billion plus
Aid. Snort.
Leaving aside the moral hazard involved, bribery doesn't work for long.
Thank you for a thoughtful reply.
I agree with your points.
Do you think this has anything to do with the impending divorce proceedings?
Maybe they didn’t want to tie up capital?
Just curious. The timing of this wrt the divorce announcement seems to have a bit of synchronicity.
Best part: If the whole thing really was a ruse, then the only thing that dingbat, AOC, can really take credit for is providing Amazon the perfect cover so nobody suspects.
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