Politico does a piece from the view that many in NYC looked the Amazon deal….
That the company brokered a hard deal at a hungry New York Governor and New York City Mayor….
That some in the city government (Other than the Governor or Mayor) wanted more concessions from the company and more than anything else?
Wanted something Amazon is loath to do….
Embrace the cities union’s….
There IS a growing feeling that the ‘Big Apple’ with the help of some Progressives was able to turn away a cheap corporate giant….
There IS also a bit of a blowback against this view from those looking at the money and job side of this…
But the Politico piece frames this a David vs Goliath fight that went down with the giant turning tail and running from the tough world of the Biggest American City….
‘If you can make it here…You can make it anywhere…It’s up to You New York …New York!’…..
Amazon thought it had locked down support for a new headquarters in Queens, New York by wooing a feuding mayor and governor. What it failed to anticipate was how the neighborhood’s politics would sweep it up in the growing split between establishment Democrats and the party’s insurgent progressive wing.
The e-commerce giant on Thursday abandoned development of an HQ2 in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, a stunning reversal after announcing the project to great fanfare just a few months ago following a more than year-long national search.
The company had secured the backing of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, two normally fractious Democrats who put aside their political rivalry to support Amazon’s bid and its promise of 25,000 jobs and $2.5 billion in investment. But Amazon wasn’t prepared for the groundswell of opposition by progressives, who criticized the idea of giving $3 billion in taxpayer subsidies to one of the world’s biggest companies, headed by the world’s wealthiest man, Jeff Bezos. They also worried that Amazon’s arrival would burden local transit and worsen the scarcity of affordable housing.
“I do think Amazon misread New York. They assumed their consumer popularity translated into a free ticket to gentrify and instead got their lunch handed to them,” said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a nonpartisan watchdog group that promotes accountability in economic development.
The anti-corporate dynamic, always an undercurrent in union-friendly New York City, was supercharged with the phenomenon of Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her social media-fueled rise. Her primary win last year in a Queens-Bronx district upended local party bosses and gave new heft to progressive causes in New York and across the country.
She took a victory lap after Amazon’s announcement Thursday.
“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 tweeted.
Any notions Amazon had of a warm welcome after its November announcement of the New York headquarters were swiftly disabused by a months of protests led by unions and their elected allies. But the low point was a recent City Council hearing where Amazon officials said they would not remain neutral should workers attempt to unionize, a position that sparked outrage from council members.
“This is a city that was built on unions, a city that loves unions,” Council Speaker Corey Johnson told Amazon executive Brian Huseman. “This is not a way to come to our city.”
“Shame on you,” said Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer…..
Snaposhot…
The ‘deal’ was done principally by Governor Cuomo, who had brought New York City Mayor de Blasio in afterwards…
It involved three parcels of land..Not just one site…Bceause some of the land was on NYC property NOT state property?
New York City had to give an ok for the deal…
Amazon people where poorly prepared to deal with city that has TONS of heavy hitter companies and was NOT gonna walk by the ‘what’s in it for us’ thing that the Governor’s people could care less about….
Cuomo’s people made a mistake….
The City’s lawmakers seized on that and Amazon had no stomach for it and packed their bags and left…
One could see this coming with the defensiveness from the Amazon people when confronted with some they rarely see when shopping around their companies ability to bring jobs to places….
New York Governor Cuomo is pissed.…
New York Mayor De Blasio is not…..
He in fact has called Amazon out for not being tough enough to do business in the ‘Big Apple’…..
And it wasn’t the Mayor’s deal after all, eh?
image…WSJ.Com