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NY Gov. Cuomo, NYC Mayor DiBlasio run a full page ad in the New York Times begging Amazon to come back to Long Island City
- Thread starter Invisible Cities
- Start date
That's kind of what I was thinking as well. Amazon is the exact kind of company that would latch onto a city like a parasite while doing very little to actually help the community at large.
Polls showed Amazon building HQ2 was popular. The deal itself was not popular.
https://www.businessinsider.com/poll-most-dont-support-amazon-hq2-style-deal-2019-2
You don't think the city/state was taking $3 billion away from something and handing it over to amazon, do you? Does anyone understand what tax breaks are?
I'm aware that the HQ would primarily be paid for in tax breaks and not an actual check. It doesn't change the fact that Amazon is a parasite that would get way more out of that deal than LIC would.
Do long time New Yorkers not understand that gentrification is accelerated because of rent going up in the neighborhoods that are mostly white transplants, which sends a percentage into the real neighborhoods with people who have been living there for fifty years getting evicted as the rent on their entire block goes up?
The deal was EXTREMELY popular with developers in the area who wield a large amount of power over these two. LIC and the area around it has been booming for a decade and possibly facing being overbuilt with luxury apartments.
So sad.
New York City having to beg like some third rate Midwestern city where the only attraction is some Thrillist Instagram burger outpost...I hate this so much.
If Amazon is gonna be here, allow unions, employ CUNY grads, pay taxes and invest in public transit. Straight up.
New York City having to beg like some third rate Midwestern city where the only attraction is some Thrillist Instagram burger outpost...I hate this so much.
If Amazon is gonna be here, allow unions, employ CUNY grads, pay taxes and invest in public transit. Straight up.
Hell, even before I left, they were already in the process of doing exactly that. I lived two blocks up 31st Street from Queens Plaza and the entire area was being blown up and knocked down to make room for new high-rise apartment complexes.
I understand that but for Cuomo and De Blasio to go hat in hand groveling to Amazon there has to be more than that.
Edit: We are talking about the governor and mayor of NY/NYC.
There was so many question about this deal that I had that I dont believe there were answers for....
Was most of the employees going to be from local LIC residents? Or brought in?
Would there be rent control put in place for the deal so all the property values spiking doesn't displace the residents living there now?
Was Amazon going to contribute its own money to renovating the city area and giving MTA a stimulus?
Was Amazon going to create a proper pipeline for jobs so that people in the area can get educated and be employed by the company as it grows?
New York wanted to give them subsidies to get started but when would those end and when does all that money come back to New York City?
Just letting Amazon walk in for free is not the move.... where is the damn business plan?
Was most of the employees going to be from local LIC residents? Or brought in?
Would there be rent control put in place for the deal so all the property values spiking doesn't displace the residents living there now?
Was Amazon going to contribute its own money to renovating the city area and giving MTA a stimulus?
Was Amazon going to create a proper pipeline for jobs so that people in the area can get educated and be employed by the company as it grows?
New York wanted to give them subsidies to get started but when would those end and when does all that money come back to New York City?
Just letting Amazon walk in for free is not the move.... where is the damn business plan?
I did have several cab drivers tell me how much they were in favor of the Amazon deal, stating there is no way New York would let itself be taken advantage of and that such a massive construction enterprise would be good for the unions.
Not sure I believe the former at all.
Having friends with money is useful for when Cuomo eventually runs for President.
Not sure I believe the former at all.
Having friends with money is useful for when Cuomo eventually runs for President.
At least when I left in 2013, LIC's "local community" was upper-middle class yuppies -- whether single, relationship, or at most one newborn -- living in new luxury buildings.
So, drawing from the "local community" would be drawing from that base.
LIC itself was warehouses and docks on the waterfront, so there wasn't much in the way to displace in the first place.
So, drawing from the "local community" would be drawing from that base.
LIC itself was warehouses and docks on the waterfront, so there wasn't much in the way to displace in the first place.
Money and pride. Nothing more important to people like this. "Amazon" Cuomo especially came off looking dumb and is determined to get that W back.
If they really wanted his attention, they would have spent those thousands of dollars on the full page ad in the Washington Post, instead.
LIC extends north into the southern fringes of Astoria, too, though, and there are plenty of underprivileged people just a few blocks north of Queens Plaza who WOULD get displaced if they start building even more yuppie housing like they clearly want to. They were already doing it when I left in 2016.
A huge chunk of the neighborhood is working class especially as you start moving away from Queens/boro Plaza. Not to mention the effects it would have on surrounding neighborhoods such as Astoria and Sunnyside.
They did this after is came out that Amazon threatened Seattle about a bill they wanted to pass, Seattle cancelled those plans, and Amazon abandoned anyway?
https://www.seattletimes.com/busine...mazon-had-leased-is-reportedly-put-on-market/
Amazon about to get an even better offer from these clowns.
https://www.seattletimes.com/busine...mazon-had-leased-is-reportedly-put-on-market/
Amazon about to get an even better offer from these clowns.
What pride? They just fucken took out an ad and begged Amazon/Bezos to reconsider. Cuomo and De Blasio could have done all of this in the background, like politicians normally do, without ever reaching out to the media and exposing themselves to criticism and ridicule. They are burning a ton of political capital on what most of us consider trivial corporate favoritism.
I think he's trying to portray himself as fighting for jobs while also fending off the appearance of a failed dealmaker.
Both of these putzes have Presidential ambitions.
Is there any article reporting on how the train congestion would increase and become worse if HQ2 was in LIC? Kinda curious.
Actually I'd love to see a pros and cons list based in data.
Actually I'd love to see a pros and cons list based in data.
Amazon basically made a handful of soft promises that nobody is realistically going to hold them accountable for.
Qualify this statement or don't make it
Fucking pathetic. This is why we'll never get anywhere, politicians always bending backwards for corporate overlords.
Framing of the study and also people taking the jobs number at face value, and not understanding that majority of those jobs would end up in the hands of transplants, who would displace their communites.
It's easy to say, we're creating 25k jobs! It's much more difficult to be nuanced and say, "ok look, a lot of these jobs will be given to wealthy transplants relocating closer to the office, and will drive up rent and congestion for the area, sorry."
That narrative didn't really catch hold until the protests, and people are simply relying on information from ads run by Amazon, as well as Cuomo and de Blasio's sugar-coated speeches on the matter.
They're not. Deblasio is gone come election time, Cuomo is in till he decides he doesn't want to run anymore. With all the shit that's gone on his still won last year.
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I'll try to go through these one-by-one.
Fuck no. Like any major company that moves into a city their interest isn't in hiring locals. Like when Prudential and Panasonic moved into Newark, the overwhelming majority of people who would end up working for Amazon will be transplants.
Not if landlords and developers have any say in the matter. We already saw a buying spree of people trying to get in on that market because the people who would move into these areas would be making tech salaries which would in turn jack up rents in the area because "demand is high and this is what people are willing to pay."
Amazon's activities in Seattle would suggest no.
New York would never see that money. The claim is over the next 25 years all the people making more money will generate tax revenue for the city. So litterally what we're talking about is people shouldering the tax burden of Amazon which will receive $3 billion in subsidies, with potentially more from federal programs. They claim that there would be a $27.5 billion profit for the city and state in the long run but it's based on a lot of ifs, including the idea that 107k indirect jobs will be created as an effect of Amazon being there. Basically retailers/restaurants/etc. moving in to cater to the new clientele.
Like I mentioned in the above, it's based on a whole lot of ifs and high hopes. Amazon doesn't have any incentive to hire people locally. They don't have any incentive to help the city with infrastructure. The city, like Cuomo and deBlasio are doing now, would come crawling on their hands and knees to suckle at the teet of Jeff Bezos asking for money to help out with their pet projects and MAYBE actually try to do something with the MTA/LIRR/BQE. And Bezos would have all the leverage here and demand more tax subsidies or special treatment. Basically the plan is to give Bezos free reign over the city in hopes that he may grace it with a handout here or there. But again, as we saw in Seattle, don't you dare pass any legislation or plan that Amazon doesn't approve of regarding your city that could potentially negatively impact their bottom line.
