Amazon Scraps Plan to Build a Headquarters in New York City

Amazon Scraps Plan to Build a Headquarters in New York City
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Amazon said it’s axing plans to build a new corporate campus in New York City, bowing to fierce opposition from some residents and politicians, according to Bloomberg.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio lobbied hard to bring the deal to the city, with the governor even jokingly offering to change his name. They touted the promise of as many 40,000 jobs in the city over the next two decades with an average salary of $150,000.

But local opposition was fervent from the beginning. Lawmakers resented being excluded from negotiations for the deal, and decried the $3 billion in government subsidies offered to a company run by Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, while the city itself is facing budget cuts. Community groups feared rising rents in the neighborhood would push out long-time residents, and that the influx of workers would strain an already overburdened subway system.

In a series of City Council meetings in recent weeks, Amazon executives were grilled about their view on unions, specifics about jobs in the neighborhood and the fact that their chosen site is located in an opportunity zone, enabling it to qualify for federal and state tax breaks there. Amazon said it wouldn’t claim the break. One executive hinted at the exasperation within the company, saying Amazon wanted to be in a community that wanted it.

Besides the public backlash in New York, tension was building at Amazon headquarters in Seattle. High-level executives with several Amazon teams were notified within the past few weeks that they would have to relocate to New York, which caused unrest, according to two people familiar with the matter. Several executives who were told they’d have to leave began job hunting to avoid relocating their families, said the people, who requested anonymity.

While Amazon’s withdrawal was a major blow for de Blasio and Cuomo, whose enthusiasm for the project was one of their only points of agreement, the progressive politicians who so vocally opposed it declared it a win. One of the those was was New York State Senator Michael Gianaris, a Democrat who represents Long Island City. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose surprise election last year helped push her party to the left, also claimed victory.

With several polls showing that a majority of New Yorkers favored Amazon’s arrival, de Blasio had previously suggested that those officials could face their own backlash come the next elections. Indeed, many of the people who reacted to Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet expressed anger.