Posted on 12/08/2019 2:56:37 AM PST by gattaca
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ran a victory lap after Amazon announced that they were purchasing office space in New York City without any of the subsidies that were offered in the previous deal.
Last year, Ocasio-Cortez expressed outrage when Amazon announced it would split its new headquarters, HQ2, between New York City and northern Virginia. She was frustrated that New York officials had promised the corporation tax breaks to entice them to choose their state for the new campus.
“Amazon is a billion-dollar company. The idea that it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted at the time. After the outrage fanned by the congresswoman, Amazon pulled its HQ2 from New York.
On Friday, Amazon announced that it would still be opening an office in New York City without the subsidies that had previously been promised, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Ocasio-Cortez took the announcement as a personal victory. She tweeted, “Won’t you look at that: Amazon is coming to NYC anyway - without requiring the public to finance shady deals, helipad handouts for Jeff Bezos, [and] corporate giveaways. Maybe the Trump admin should focus more on cutting public assistance to billionaires instead of poor families.”
She also questioned when her “haters” would apologize for criticizing her for chasing Amazon away the first time.
Ocasio-Cortez, 30, represents parts of Queens and the Bronx in Congress. HQ2 was originally going to be located in Queens. The recently purchased office space for the company is located in midtown Manhattan.
They are looking for space for 1,500 employees instead of 25,000; AOC hasn’t been vindicated. Hopefully she’ll still pay a price for her opposition to the original plan.
Why any idiot business idiot would go and put 1,500 jobs in a high-cost environment like NY City is beyond me. They could have just as easily put the jobs in Buffalo for fifty-percent of the salary structure.
In London, KY...you could have placed the jobs there for one-quarter of the NY salary structure.
But what is the cocktail party scene like in London, KY?
“Why any idiot business idiot would go and put 1,500 jobs in a high-cost environment like NY City is beyond me.”
Amazon lost the $10 billion Government contract for “big data” (Amazon Web Services and Cloud storage), that they were moving to the DC area to manage, and now they are positioning for major customer target number two, the financial industry of Wall Street.
But you could have staged only twenty Amazon guys in NY City for the Wall Street ‘Cloud’ management team, and then put the actual ‘cloud’ base in Buffalo (or even southern Colorado). There’s no reason it has to be within five miles of Wall Street itself.
But you could have staged only twenty Amazon guys in NY City for the Wall Street ‘Cloud’ management team, and then put the actual ‘cloud’ base in Buffalo (or even southern Colorado). There’s no reason it has to be within five miles of Wall Street itself.
At this point many of the businesses with offices in NYC keep minimal staff there (due to the costs of office space); I assume they had no choice but to put something there (I don’t know what types of jobs they are). Years ago NJ benefited from a movement of white-collar jobs from NYC to areas just across the Hudson River; the costs in NJ were much lower. Many kept skeleton crews and PO boxes in NYC, but much of the staff left. This was evident on 9/11; the high vacancy rates in the buildings undoubted saved lives on the crowded staircases as they were evacuated. On top of that, the new WTC was delayed for years because there was still no shortage of office space in NYC; they saw no reason to build something that would be half vacant anyway. The state stepped in by putting many government offices in it, but I don’t think it is filled yet.
NYC chased out its middle class and many of its jobs years ago; that is why it is a de facto “sanctuary city”. If they didn’t traffick foreigners to live there, it would have a much smaller population. DeBlasio’s election demonstrated this; his Republican opponent tried fear-mongering by hearkening back to the dark days of David Dinkins’ reign in the early 1990s, and it fell flat because so many current residents hadn’t even lived in the city at the time. In fact, Dinkins’ term as mayor was what really accelerated the flight of wealth to NJ; this was a short-term gain but a long-term disaster. It drove up costs in NJ, while bringing a flood of Dem voters and urban sprawl. Prior to that “boom”, places like Hoboken NJ were cheap, crappy areas, while northeastern NJ still had a lot of undeveloped woodlands; now both are extremely expensive (and filled with libs).
One issue for many lower-cost areas is whether or not they have a workforce in place with skills that match the work; as banking headed to North Carolina from the northeast they had to move many people with it because of that obstacle.
Amazon was going to put that headquarters in Long Island city which not even in her district. I use to live there. Her district extends from Astoria to Sunnyside the goes east. Long Island city is west of that, so basically little Ms. Attention Ho destroyed job opportunities and business income for a district she doesn’t even rep.
If this has anything to do with trading, nanoseconds count, and that means distance is crucial.
I grew up in Queens. The subway will get you from the will get you from Sunnyside to LIC in about ten minutes. From the Bronx in about half an hour, tops.
Her opposition was based on resentment, not principle.
The reporting is that Amazon didn’t get a bribe from NYC and/or NYS to do this. But the denials have been written in such a way they read like non-denial denials.
If Amazon was bribed with taxpayer money and/or given some kind of quid pro quo to do this, a lot of pols will have some splainin’ to do...
Her opposition was meaningless. NYS had just been outted falling into a big budget hole and couldn’t be seen offering a huge bribe. AOC had nothing to do with it.
Amazon got something from NYC and/or NYS to do this. Taxpayers need to know from whom and how much.
We do not necessarily disagree. Read my post again.
Spot on! None of these major companies make an “investment” to locate a warehouse, or office, unless the local gov’t. shares the burden.
AOC is claiming victory, where there is none. Typical lying leftist.
As for waiting for her haters to apologize, nonsense like this is why she has "haters" in the first place.
Does this silly filly not know that she’s bragging about 1500 jobs rather than 25000? She’s just going to draw attention to that, making herself look, again, like a dunce.
AOC for the win. Sure.
“They are looking for space for 1,500 employees instead of 25,000; AOC hasn’t been vindicated.”
25,000 into 1500 equals .06 (6%). 6% out of 100% is not a passing grade from where I come from.
We’ll pat AOC on the back when the remaining 94% of Amazon employees arrive in NYC.
No offense, but you have absolutely no understanding of what the tax breaks were and how they work. And it certainly was explained to you.
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