via Amazon
Feb. 14, 2019 By Nathaly Pesantez
Amazon has pulled out of its plans to build a campus in Long Island City, the company said today in a bombshell announcement.
The e-commerce giant released a lengthy statement on its blog earlier this morning that said the reasoning was tied to the opposition the project faced since the official HQ2 announcement in November.
“For Amazon, the commitment to build a new headquarters requires positive, collaborative relationships with state and local elected officials who will be supportive over the long-term,” the statement reads.
Amazon referred to polls that showed strong support for the Anable Basin campus and the deal that brought it to the table, but said the staunch opposition, especially by state and local politicians, made it clear that the project was doomed.
“We are disappointed to have reached this conclusion—we love New York, its incomparable dynamism, people, and culture—and particularly the community of Long Island City, where we have gotten to know so many optimistic, forward-leaning community leaders, small business owners, and residents,” the company said.
Amazon thanked Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who supported the project from the start and spoke to the benefits it would bring to New York’s livelihood and vitality.
“Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio have worked tirelessly on behalf of New Yorkers to encourage local investment and job creation, and we can’t speak positively enough about all their efforts.” Amazon said. “The steadfast commitment and dedication that these leaders have demonstrated to the communities they represent inspired us from the very beginning and is one of the big reasons our decision was so difficult.”
The company said it does not intend to reopen the HQ2 search at this time, and will proceed as planned in Virginia and Nashville.
This is a developing story, check back for more information.
For complete Amazon coverage, please go to LICPost.com
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93 Comments
This is just a taste of the progressives agenda. They have no problem inviting the homeless into the area. Those who voted for Cortez should be ashamed of themselves.
The front page of the February 8 Woodside Herald showed the majority of calls and emails going to Van Bramer’s office were against Amazon. The polls prior to the Amazon announcement all favored Amazon. I just counted the posts here and the majority are in favor of Amazon. Sorry, Jimmy, looks like you just lost any hope of becoming Borough President. And Gianaris and AOC, you have lost any hope of being re-elected.
Nah polls were against Amazon according to my own fake sources.
“Like a petulant child, Amazon insists on getting its way or takes its ball and leaves,” said Mr. Gianaris, a Democrat, whose district includes Long Island City. “The only thing that happened here is that a community that was going to be profoundly affected by their presence started asking questions.
“Even by their own words,’’ he added, pointing to the company’s statement on the pullout, “Amazon admits they will grow their presence in New York without their promised subsidies. So what was all this really about?”
https://amazonchronicles.substack.com/p/the-bridge-is-over
There are a lot better places in New York City to build that campus than in an area where the transportation and housing are already stretched to the max. The Brooklyn Navy Yard, Staten Island, The South Bronx. Moving it across the Hudson to Newark would have revitalized an area that has been in a long decline. And let’s remember. Google, who is rapidly becoming the number one employer in NYC, just announced an expansion into Hudson Yards that will bring in up to fifteen-thousand jobs. They didn’t ask the City for anything to do it, let alone a three-billion dollar tax break. And for all those bemoaning jobs, you are aware of how many new jobs will be created once the new Cornell University Graduate School comes online on Roosevelt Island. For once I think the politicians did the right thing here and I applaud them.
a spokesperson from Amazon said today they basically got nothing but hostility from Van Bramer and Ocasio, and they didnt want to meet and discuss anything. Grown politicians shouldnt act like this, Im severely disappointed that they have such closed one sided point of views and we, residents of LIC, got the shaft.
Is it 2021 yet, so we can NOT vote for Jimmy for any other public office ever and his vote yes for the change in law so he could have three terms in the City Council is finally over? So many low income people in LIC and Astoria were looking for these new Amazon positions. Instead, you listened to the higher income people in LIC and, as usual, went with any position which your financial backers would want. If LIC is too crowded with not enough infrastructure with schools and mass transit, why do you continue to support all these high rise buildings before schools were built and then get upset with the City for not having the schools pre-built? You should have not supported new high rise buildings until then. But with Amazon a reversal. Now so many low income people in Queensbridge, Ravenswoods, Woodside, Astoria Housing have lost out. As well as, all the educational programs Amazon was going to pay for in LIC Sunnyside public and parochial schools and LaGuardia College. Once again, is it finally 2021?
Nice..this is going to look amazing on my unwilling to work resume.Protested 25000 jobs and 1000s of spinoff jobs!! By the way AOC and Jimmy when you’re finished celebrating and tweeting and Instagraming and destroying opportunities where do I send my resume.. holla back y’all!!
It was a pleasure watching Jimm Van Bramer squirm on New York 1 last night. He, Ginaris, and Cuomo deserve each other. Jimmy has no clue on how to run a business. He can go back to shelving books at the library.
buh bye van bramer and ocasio-kotex. talk about painting a political target on your back. who could ever be this dumb?
Sexist.
The number of jobs Queens just lost is greater than the number of people who voted for AOC. Way to go lefties.
Jimmy who would of thought. You grew up in the US and you end up turning into a socialist. A private company wasn’t going to come here and fix your city’s infrastructure problems. It came here to work, profit and “spread the wealth.” In a capitalist manner.
You wanted to dictate how it runs it’s company as would any other socialist authority. You threw your temper tantrum at a thriving business which employs half a million people and screwed a lot of low income people who could of finally had an opportunity to do something more productive. Who knows, maybe one of those people could of grown out to be something bigger from that opportunity.
You picked the wrong fight. All for political reasons. For your personal benefit. You didn’t fight against the leaders in your party who made the deal in the first place which gave amazon the incentive to proceed in this manner. Your (and many others) idealistic realities will bite everyone in the ass one day & it will be too late.
oh i cant wait for the backfire to begin. its gonna be epic funsies. there’s no running away from this one.
See a lot of Republicans in here angry we aren’t paying Amazon welfare. Queens wins.
If this is corporate welfare, why did the NY Senate put these policies in effect prior to the Amazon headquarter search. They wanted encourage economic activity in zones that were being left behind . How come Ocasio and JVB did not ask Amazon to wave the subsidies . How about a negotiation ? I don’t Bernie Sanders would have acted this way and he clearly a Socialist .
It was Amazon was unwilling to negotiate. They were and remain always free to come here without the corporate welfare. Or to negotiate a deal out in the open, like they existed in a democracy. Instead they negotiated a secret backroom deal that bypassed the very people who would be most affected by them coming to LIC.
And when they were called on that deal, rather than negotiate a compromise, like the lightweight bullies they are, they just took their very expensive ball and went home crying ‘unfair’.
The New York State government is among the most corrupt in the country, that’s how.
This secretive process was part of Amazon’s race to the bottom from the very beginning.
It’s one thing to be socially progressive. I applaud that. But the economic policies of the Clintons & Obamas of the world–centrists and pro corporate entities–are what have resulted in so many angry people voting to “blow it all up,” and elect the moron we currently have as president.
When the systems continually screw most people at the expense of a few wealthy elites (not cultural elites, the corporate honchos like the Davos crowd) they lose faith and vote for charlatans like Trump.
The governor said it best ,they get 3billion tax break, we get 24billion. That simple. Now, we get nothing . Great deal aoc, go back to tending bar.
end corporate welfare
End Welfare.
Fixed it for ya.
End illiteracy. The saddest thing about this entire ordeal is that it takes about 5 minutes of skimming the actual proposals to realize that the comments like yours are utterly ignorant and misinformed. A 12 year old would be embarrassed.
Every decision this city’s politicians make is to protect illegal aliens from displacement and to ensure they get to continue to live in Queens at the shrinking middle class’s expense.
Would it be that terrible if Queens developed and more professional, educated people worked and lived here? Why is that a bad thing?
Queens needs more diversity, in every sense.
Amazon is against labor unions. Those unions are made up of people like you and me: citizens, middle class citizens.
lol. you realize that people in New York have actually worked with unions, right? Try that line back in your college town.
Im happy for all the people who said “oh, great! My house will be worth double or triple now” but complain the property tax went up. Or even better, “lets overpay and live in suckyside, the housing will boom over here because of amazon and we can make a killing on rents” hahahaha good for all you greedy creatures. I hope the property values drop and your all in the financial mess you wanted to put others in . Hahaha this is the only good thing about Amazon not coming.
Let me get this right, I am immigrated here legally, a person of color. We are Democrats. My wife and I worked two and sometimes three jobs ( porter, taxi cab driver and kitchen work, hotel cleaner). Bought a home in Sunnyside, sent our three kids to college and paid for it without student loans. We just helped buy our first child a coop in Sunnyside and I am so how greedy because I hoped Amazon would come and bring economic vitality to the area. Mind you, my three kids are in technology related careers. It would seem to me that you are the greedy one who wants to suck the life out of someone else and these politicians no longer represent me.
All of us who are or have in the past struggled economically are in favor of this sort of development. It is only the idle middle class who are thinking only about themselves and their immediate conveniences who opposed it. Yes, that includes the likes of AOC, who grew up in Westchester with an architect dad making 100k, but pretends to be from the block. I’m not surprised that people who brazenly lie about their lives will also make such poor political decisions – you should not be surprised either. Integrity counts when the chips are down and we’ve all just paid the price for tolerating people who lack integrity in our government. Vote for anyone else!
i still hope your rent triples. just because. i need a good laugh. plus you really REALLY deserve it.
What happened to the Democrats who support the working people, blue collar ? Instead we get Ocasio Cortez begging for welfare and illegal immigrants, pushing for a “green new deal” that’s never going to happen. She should snap out of that dream, come back down to earth and help the people in her district.
And look at those crazy faces she makes. What is she on?
I don’t think she’s on anything, she just aiming a little too high being someone who just got that position in gov. You sound like a junkie though .
Yeah, Trump doesn’t make faces or anything.
You think Bernie the Socialist from VT would turn away 25,000 jobs?
How do you think Denmark and Finland pay for their extensive social programs? The are actually pro capitalism but they get taxed up the – – -.
Its wind farm jobs for the kids of Quensbridge!!
Thank the bartender!
I feel as if we lost out on an amazing opportunity! QBP will look like a dump, QB and Greenpoint Ave, will still be filled with subpar restaurants and stores. The good ones struggle to stay open. We would’ve had cool tech people in our space. I could’ve had a job there, even unskilled, or skilled. I could’ve capitalized on the influx of money coming in to offer them a service or a good. And now nothing. And for all the people that don’t understand business, “it takes money to make money” and a rebate of $3Billion, means we stood to make a lot more! Jeff Bezos is a self made man!
“Jeff Bezos is a self made man!” who made it by treating his worekrs like serfs. Bow down to your overlord.
you think you can be an angel after crawling to the top? you have no idea.
Just for the record i know people that made enough money to buy a home, not rich not poor by working for “the overlord”. You guys nees to stop villafying Bezos and should look at all the wealth and opportunity he created. Giving someone one job is no small feat. Ask yourself how many jobs have you created?
Small Business restaurants and stores are all struggling. Only stores on Queens Blvd. are better. Amazon can bring more quality residents and workers to Sunnyside and LIC ….
Personally happy that Amazon is not comming. A decent 1br in sunny side is 1800. A lot of people can barely afford this. How many people truly believe that all those jobs were going to New Yorkers?
Your ignorance is exactly why someone like you should not be in charge of making these decisions. Stop for five seconds ask yourself if Amazon is going to bring in a bunch of jr accountants, PR admins, IT support, etc, from “somewhere else” rather than just hire locally? Do you realize that the primary reason to locate here is because they want to hire the people that LIVE in New York? Nevermind the fact that much of the money paid to these employees, no matter where they came from, will be spent patronizing the OTHER businesses in the area such as restaurants, theaters, dry cleaners, furniture shops, etc?
Progressives are Regressives,
Have destroyed the Democratic Party, It is a disgrace who we elect to run our lives.
Nashville is a hot move. Good for Amazon.
Now my gym and yoga studio won’t get overcrowded.
These politicians who made this happen or allowed it to happen clearly don’t represent this voter or the long term economic interests of NYC. I no longer have confidence in their leadership. The political disconnect that now exists deserves a response. This Amazon fiasco it just a symptom. Perhaps our yellow vest moment is near .
The Amazon campus would’ve pushed the low class people further away from Queens. Or anybody is gonna tell me that, they were gonna pay more than 20 per hour. Does anybody remember the affordable housing problem we got at L.I.C. I agree with mysterious fires happening in Queens and corps buying buildings, and pushing people who work hard but can’t get good paying jobs above 20.
Makes Andrew Cuomo look like the fool he is
So move? What makes you entitled to live on a particular block for your entire life? There is literally nowhere else in the country where one can even pretend to have such a right. And if you want rents to stay low, SUPPORT HOUSING CONSTRUCTION. It’s not lost on us that the same people who complain about rents being unaffordable are the ones who bring out the pitchforks whenever someone wants to, you know, build housing to meet demand. Population growth is driven largely by immigration – opposing that is your other option to lower rents. Turning your neighborhood into a slum devoid of employment opportunities is a piss-poor strategy.
Democrats are not like they used to be, they used to be for jobs and working people. Let a few psychos swing the party even more to the left and its TRUMP 2020
Aside from climate change issues, democrats are brainless. Nothing they do makes sense and they cannot win a debate because their views are baseless. Sad but true. That’s why Trump is in office. (in other words – people who consider themselves democrats are really just people who have no clue what is actually going on in the world – for instance they don’t understand the foreign threats we face or the basics of economics). And were too lazy to build a career and too careless to save for the future.
If you are interested in actually researching those climate positions you’ll quickly discover that they’re even more brainless on that topic! The “runaway green house effect” that is responsible for all of the scaremongering about man-made global warming was disproven by the late 1990’s. Really, look it up. Makes you go hmmmm.
They’re for jobs that pay a decent wage and offer benefits. Amazon is a union crusher and it was looking for permission to develop technology that would eliminate jobs. Robots don’t complain.
Cuomo and DeBlasio are both Democrats, no? The rise of the extreme leftists like AOC is a direct response to the extreme right-wing policies going back to the Tea Party that have driven up income inequality to levels not seen since the Great Depression. The policies of the Democratic party are still much more pro-working class than the fantasies of the “trickle-down” (which doesn’t work and never has) Republicans.
The way I understood the deal was that Amazon would have had a tax bill(property tax, payroll tax, corporate tax) owed to the city of $30 billion over 10 years if they executed their proposed plan.Then the city would give them a tax credit of $3billion, aka the “incentive” or discount. Something like the tax credit every parent gets for having children. Gianaris, Van Bramer, and AOC were a little bit disingenuous when the claimed that the NY was paying them a bribe to come here. So, instead of $27 billion, NY gets nothing. As far as driving rents up in Woodside and Jackson Heights, the politicians should have first done some research and learned how many of the glass towers in LIC are vacant now. I suspect many of them are and high salaried Amazon employees might have been gullible enough to move there. Or Amazon just could have bought Uber and privatized it for their employees. Amazon was not going to raise your rent, which is what many of my educated colleagues seemed to believe. Yes, Amazon is not unionized now. That why we have union organizers, or we used to, anyway. The politicians should have actually studied the plan in detail but I am afraid they are just shortsighted and a little lazy. Mr. Van Bremer has proven his expertise in organizing dog runs with my tax dollars but he did not do the homework necessary to understand the big picture. I’m not sure which was worse – his grandstanding to drive away Amazon or the jungle noises he spent our money on to drive away the pigeons from the 52nd St. #7 station. Do you even remember that? That’s the best he could do to help us with transit? Please.
Yes, I remember that noise. The pigeons were less bothered by the noise than we were. Amazon would have been great but van Beamer blew that. Considering Long Island City is not his area, he should have shut up just as AOC should shut up.
Somewhere along the line the politicians have forgotten who they work for. We’ll need to remind them on election day.
It’s not AOC’s district, either. People should REALLY be wondering why they’re sticking their nose in other people’s neighborhoods and pretending to represent them? This was a huge mistake and I won’t be at all surprised to see the people involved lose their next election. The magnitude of this error is insulting and provides a compelling reason for people to vote who normally don’t bother. Be one of those people!
Att gregoo. Why in the world would we want that kind of income?
Capt clueless. amazon is anti union, and that $150K avg salary is just that an AVG, a complete farce. That’s the suits making a few million each and a majority of barely minimum wage jobs with zero benefits. the deal was done without input from the main stakeholders, the LIC/Qns community. they paid ZERO federal taxes last year. amazon cried like a little baby and ran home because they were being criticized. Boo-hoo. Ask the people of Seattle how they feel about amazon. We dodged a bullet as we deserve a better partner than that. I’m glad my tax dollars went to the dog run! Maybe you can start your own pet project? A section of the park for whiners. We can build it with cardboard amazon boxes, you can drink your coffee and complain all day.
There is not enough infrastructure for this boondoggle of a plan. Amazon was not going to assist in that in any way, nothing they ‘promised’ was on paper, nor part of the original plan. They caved because they didn’t want to do the real work of working with the community.
you live in an absolute fantasy land.
Amazon paid $0 in federal taxes for the last 2 years. We can safely assume that they would have paid $0 to the NYS and NYC as well.
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-not-paying-taxes-trump-bezos-2018-4
Amazon hasn’t paid federal taxes on its profits due to carryforwards. The $27B of projected revenue to NYS+NYC was to come from income taxes that its employees would pay, not from Amazon itself. The head of the MTA projected that $40B is needed to fix the subway. Sad to see $27B that could have gone towards this disappear into thin air.
This man is right. Jungle noise may not work on birds but it sure works on Amazon! And now Queens has the WHOLE jungle to itself.
One day the idiots who pushed for this will realize just how ridiculous they really were.
Amazon is anti-union? Sure. But if you want to change that wouldn’t you have more leverage if they were headquartered in your backyard? (Godfather say: keep friends close but enemies closer…..)
Think you gave them too much of a tax rebate? Look at the new buildings on Roosevelt Island, they all have 25 year tax deferments. Provide minimal jobs.
You Queens residents who hated overpaid techie bro’s coming town, well guess what, they might need wives……sorry gals.
Don’t like smartie pants’ competing for your blue collar space? Fine. But would you want your kids to learn how to get jobs like theirs in the 21st Century economy? Well now, they can vie for a nice old-fashioned job or just take a welfare check…..
Ginanaris, Van Bramer and AOC? Send them to the dog pound where they belong.
PS Amazon doesn’t even make their real money from eCommerce or deliveries (the managing of which is the main job of most NY concierge/doormen), they make it from advanced cloud services. Not a union gig but one that could have transformed New York’s future economy. Not to worry, though, socialism and Harvard lawyers like Gianaris are here to the rescue!
Wonderful news. I like Queens the way it is. We do not need to sacrifice everything here to provide jobs for people who do not live here and would never have lived here until REBNY got their fangs into LIC. They despise us! Don’t you get it? We are the ones they want to sweep away! Wake up.
I’m glad. JVB is a flip flopper and a weasel with his bike lanes and shelters, but this was the right move. Eff Amazon
Jimmy van Jobkiller.
Guess who will be returning to overpaid job as community liaison for the Queens Library now that his political career has ended with today’s Amazon announcement?
This is all on you, Jimmy & Mikey. What a lost opportunity for Queens.
Im sure they can put up a few more homeless shelters in its place.
Anyone else not really heartbroken about this? To hear some accounts, we’re all going to become homeless and starve because of the loss of 25K jobs. It’s like they don’t know that NYC already has jobs and millions of people. Is anyone else upset that $3B of our taxpayer money isn’t going towards paying for Dr. Evil’s divorce or next yacht?
NYC was never giving them money. We currently collect zip from Amazon. They were going to get a break in future taxes which would have been far offset by payroll taxes, income taxes, etc generated by all the new jobs. That is not giving them money.
Only the people with enough brain power and motivation to understand what happened are upset about it. For example, I personally dislike Amazon, avoid their products, and would never work for them even though I absolutely could. I also live in an area whose rents would almost certainly increase after that development was built-out. With those personal considerations in mind, I still can’t justify opposing this at all. It was an enormous and RARE opportunity to use a company’s to really cement a 30-year effort to turn Hunter’s Point from a warehouse slum into a vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood. This is what you need to do if you want the city to grow, improve, and keep pace with housing demand. You won’t see another opportunity like the one Amazon was presenting for decades. This blunder will go down in the annals of local history and will be used as a lever against “progressive” requests for handouts for the next 40 years. You lose both the battle and the war by misplaying your hand in the world’s most incompetent shakedown.
I’m very sorry to hear AMAZON WILL NOT BECOMING. TO OUR TOWN OF LIC,NY. HOWEVER, I WILL CONTINUE TO BE A LOYAL CUSTOMER, GOOD BYE AND GOODLUCKdianekennedy@gmail.com
So Jeff Bezos is still worth 135 billion and lic got 0 jobs… well played jimmy van b!!!
How could you not want amazon? The neighborhood is heading this way no matter what big company moves here. Its already in place, if its not Amazon it might be 2,3,or more smaller companies but its going to continue to happen so this was simply the community leaders dropping the ball. A.o.c. is a joke. She makes some crazy looking faces too
That went right over your head… it’s called sarcasm
wow, hahah, right?
I just did what every Queens resident should do – called up my local rep and gave him a polite earful concerning how upset I am he drove Amazon from our community. This is a terrible result – the tax revenues from Amazon could have really improved the area and moved a ton of high paying jobs to our neighborhood. And as a property owner (I know this is a mortal sin to some readers) I was of course going to be able to sell/rent my home for more than I ever could now.
I totally understand that people were unhappy with the process Amazon, Cuomo and the City used to ram this project down our throats and give giant tax breaks to one of the largest company’s on the planet. I didn’t like it either. But our politicians should never have driven Amazon away. Push for a few concessions sure, but refuse to work with Amazon at all – that just makes no sense.
Queens had just won a lotto ticket and these knuckleheads ripped it up.
There will be some interesting primaries in 2020, that is for sure.
Our local politicians has failed our community. This politics is not acceptable in our forward thinking city. I intend to vote this mind set out of a job ASAP!!
I bet there will be less businesses mysteriously burning down from now on.
Came for the comments. Where they at?
WTF!!!! THANKS TO JIMMY VAN BRAMER, COREY JOHNSON AND GIANARIS – THEY GET TO KEEP THEIR JOBS – THEY DEPRIVED AN ENTIRE GENERATION OF NEW YORKER’S FROM GOOD PAYING JOBS. THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY FOR THIS. I WAS NEVER POLITICALLY ACTIVE BUT THIS IS A RALLYING CRY FOR MANY OF US IN LIC AND SUNNYSIDE TO TAKE OUR NEIGHBORHOOD BACK FROM SHORT SIGHTED, POLITICAL HACKS LIKE JVB AND GIANARIS. THEY DON’T REPRESENT US.
Yes! Quickly! To the Barricades! Someone has to save the richest man on the planet and his behemoth corporation!
Corporations represent us better than our elected officials!
How dare they ask questions of our corporate overlords?
Oh please. Gianaris refused to even meet with them. This was just absolutely bungled by elected officials. The $3b of tax incentives are available to all companies who move at least ONE job here, not just Amazon. It just sounded bigger because of the number of jobs. They were getting very little special treatment, and we as NYS/NYC were going to get roughly $27B in additional tax revenue, a new school, and a training program for Queensbridge. Now we get almost none of that.
This is despicable. No name politicians like Van Brammer and Gianarris cost NYC and LIC in particular a lot just to advance their stupid meaningless careers. Cities all over the country are dying to get Amazon. Polls have showed that the majority of people want it but Jimmy and the other guy blew a huge opportunity for the city. Total morons.
Mike Gianaris: a jobs killer and a baby killer to boot! New York: the state of infanticide and fleeing tax payers as well as idiots such as the Ocasio-Cortez woman and her red lipstick.
good riddance.
If we cared about Seattle’s opinion we’d be a city of 600k with a rinky-dink light rail system and ALL of the homeless and addiction problems one can imagine. Don’t forget to toss in a serial killer problem and a government equally corrupt to our own and even less responsive to its citizenry. If you like the way Seattle does things, please feel free to live there, it’s unquestionable a beautiful place. It’s not New York city, however, and doesn’t want to be, and the relationship between Amazon and Seattle has zero comparison to what was happening here beyond the thinnest branding. People like yourself, who can’t even be bothered to skim past the headlines, really need to step back and understand that your VOICE is not helping. There is a time to step back and recognize when you’re out of your element, and that time is now. Putting someone with your critical reasoning skills into a position to make these decisions would be like hiring a man in a wheelchair to fix a leak on your roof.
Here’s Jimmy Van Bramer’s phone number: His Phone Number: 718-383-9566
His Email address: jvanbramer@council.nyc.gov
Let him know he screwed up BIG TIME! From Homeless Shelters, to Bike Lanes, and now this. How about if we organize a Protest in front of his house in the Sunnyside Gardens? We won’t forget this Jimmy. Your political career is over.
great, I can call to thank him! JVB #1!
Well now will out Elected officials now tell us how the state/city going to make up all the lost tax revenue. Please we are waiting…..
Good – big embarrassment to the awful Andrew Cuomo.
As tempting as it is to revel in watching Cuomo get a well-deserved comeuppance, I simply cannot find any joy in that part of it. What was lost here was just too big for too many people who I care about. There are hundreds and hundreds of people in the city right now, including our neighbors, who just saw part of their future go up in smoke. The peripheral effects of this development would have provided economic gain for 100k people in New York City, most of them regular people who just call this city home.
New York has been dangling these incentives for years because people wanted to see development spread to the outer boroughs after many decades of overly-Manhattan centric city and state focus. When someone comes along who wants to perform literally the best-case-scenario, we let a bunch of drooling idiots try to shake them down for a few handouts scuttles the deal. Amazon, for their many flaws, are known to be extremely competent. They demonstrated that this week by taking their ball and leaving. It was the right decision for them, but a real missed opportunity for all of us in New York.
Gianaris: a job killer and a baby killer at the same time! Wow! On the bright side, I think he and Jimmy Van Bramer are in hot water and Andrew can forget about running for president now.