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New York’s city council holds its second hearing questioning the city and state’s deal that gave Amazon three billion dollars to move a second headquarters to Long Island City in Queens. City council members criticized Amazon for its anti-union policies and its alleged cooperation with immigration authorities.
Facing a chorus of protests from Gianaris, other New York politicians, and neighborhood activists, Amazon on Thursday decided against building part of its so-called HQ2 in Long Island City. The company said it will continue to build its planned headquarters in Virginia and its other planned location in Nashville, Tennessee.
“While polls show that 70 percent of New Yorkers support our plans and investment, a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envisioned in Long Island City,” Amazon said in the statement Thursday.
Not all New York Democrats were against the deal. U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, whose congressional district includes Long Island City, told CNBC in a later interview on Friday that she’s disappointed Amazon pulled out. “It’s a terrible loss to the city’s economy and jobs for its people.”
Maloney, ranking member on the Joint Economic Committee on Capitol Hill, said the $3 billion in subsidies for Amazon would have only materialized if the company kept its promises on job creation and other economic development metrics. Just because Amazon left doesn’t means there’s an extra $3 billion that can be spent elsewhere, she added. “There is no money if Amazon doesn’t come to New York. There’s not a pile of money.”
Gianaris opposed the incentives offered by the city to seal the deal. “When Amazon who doesn’t need the money is squeezing the government for billions of dollars just to show up, we’ve got a problem.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents the area near Amazon’s formerly planned headquarters, took the company’s move as a positive sign, saying “dedicated, everyday New Yorkers [and] their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed.”
Maloney said she hopes the city can go back to Amazon to try to get the company to reconsider because the city needs to diversify its economy and technology could be a key driver. “We’re overly dependent on business services and financial services.”
— CNBC’s
Matthew Belvedere
contributed to this report.
