Oh, to be in New York City this morning.
GeekWire reports that Amazon executives got a good tongue-lashing from members of the New York City Council during a meeting about the forthcoming Amazon headquarters in Long Island City, a neighborhood in Queens, on Wednesday. Economic incentives from both the city and state could be worth $3 billion, and not everyone is happy about it.
“You’re worth a trillion dollars,” said New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson. “Why do you need our $3 billion when we have crumbling subways, crumbling public housing, people without health care, public schools that are overcrowded?”
“We got played,” Johnson continued. “Three billion dollars we’re giving away, and we’re avoiding the public review process and giving away public land. I don’t look at it as a competition. They were able to pit city after city against each other to see who would give the best deal in corporate welfare to a trillion dollar company.”
In exchange for billions of dollars in incentives, Amazon has pledged to bring 25,000 jobs to Queens. This might look good from the outside but, as Seattle well knows, is a cause of major concern for people who already live there. Currently, the median household income in Queens is less than $60,000. The average Amazon salary is expected to be $150,000, according to Amazon.
The move to New York, as well as a third headquarters in Virginia, is not expected to reduce Amazon’s footprint in Seattle. Unfortunately.
