Amazon has announced it’s coming back to the “Big Apple’, this time in Manhattan, in a smaller footprint then they tried in Queens….
There was a ground swell of protest against the first Amazon effort ….
It was successful….
But afterwards?
A LOT of people who where silent going in?
Expressed anger with way things went….
New Democratic progressive House member Ocasio-Cortez has grabbed the spotlight on the Amazon bail out….
She is now trying to spotlight again on the new scaled down Amazon deal…
She and a few other local lawmakers against Amazon are now in the crosshairs of those who are after their jobs due to their anti-Amazon actions the loss of jobs, revenue and development …It seems that a majority of New Yorkers actually favoured the original Amazon deal, but THAT was dropped out by media attention to the opposition…
This will be billed as a vote on how far progressives are in Democratic New York City, no less…
Democrats who torpedoed Amazon’s plans to set up a second headquarters in New York City are finding their stance could come back to bite them on the 2020 ballot.
Under pressure from liberal activists, a group of New York Democrats including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won an unexpected victory when they drove one of the world’s wealthiest corporations, lured by the promise of $3 billion in tax breaks and subsidies, to ditch its massive investment plans in Queens.
Now, in at least three 2020 races in the city, Democratic primary challengers are taking on leading Amazon opponents with an explicit appeal to voters who supported the corporation’s bid earlier this year to locate its second headquarters in Queens. In another race, an Amazon opponent is challenging a lawmaker who supported the plan.
Former Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, who is backing City Council Member Donovan Richards in his bid for Queens borough president against anti-Amazon Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, argues the Amazon fight was the tip of the iceberg of a broader anti-development movement holding back progress in the city.
“Amazon sort of is a poster child of the problem. But the problem, I think, runs a little deeper, which is sort of anti-growth, anti-development cancel culture mentality,” Glen told POLITICO.
Democrats who thought they were gaining political capital with the party’s ascendant left wing by fighting the tech behemoth will now find out whether their push translates into electoral support, or political backlash among many voters who favored the promise of thousands of new Amazon jobs, according to polls.
“At the end of the day, those people who are the most vociferous in their opposition to these important projects are not speaking for the majority of New Yorkers who want new jobs and more mixed-income housing,” Glen said. “I think this is fantastic that this is going to be an issue in the next election. It should be.”…
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