Amazon In NYC: Many Aren't Sold On The Idea

LONG ISLAND CITY, NY — Cities and states have fawned over the possibility of luring Amazon's second headquarters to their confines. But now that the online retail giant has reportedly set its sights on Long Island City, several Queens figures aren't quite ready to put the project in their carts.

"Before anything is confirmed with Amazon, we've got to make sure that we could handle this and that sustainable infrastructure would be put in place to prevent our communities from being overwhelmed," City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents the neighborhood, said in a statement Thursday.

Amazon launched a nationwide search for its second headquarters, also known as HQ2, in September 2017, drawing interest from more than 200 cities apparently eager to land the up to 50,000 high-paying jobs the $5 billion project promised.

Long Island City was one of four neighborhoods New York City proposed for Amazon's second home. The city was named one of 20 finalists in January.

While Amazon has not confirmed its plans, The New York Times reported Monday that the company plans to split HQ2 between Long Island City and Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C.

The news comes amid massive growth for Long Island City, situated just across the East River from Manhattan. It's the city's top neighborhood for new development, with about 3,000 units completed in the first half of this year and 3,300 more expected to hit the market by 2020, according to the data analysis website Localize.city.

"(I)f any area in New York is poised for a major influx in residents, it’s Long Island City, where a building boom is already remaking much of the area and where residents have been grappling with how to meet the demands of thousands of new people," Localize.city urban planner Stephen Albonesi said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged that HQ2 would create "real development pressures to be navigated," but said the project holds "extraordinary possibility" for the city. Infratructure investments would be needed if it becomes a reality, he said.

"I believe the tech community finally consolidating here for the long term is mission critical to the future of New York City, to our economy, jobs, tax base, everything," the mayor said Wednesday at an unrelated news conference. "And I think this is the sort of last piece of the puzzle."

But Long Island City already suffers from an "infrastructure deficit" and continues to face overcrowding issues, said Van Bramer, a Democrat. He asked what Amazon's massive project means for residents of the Queensbridge Houses, the nation's largest public housing development.

"It is a neighborhood that is bursting at the seams," state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) said in a Wednesday interview on WNYC. "The 7 train is already overcrowded. We don’t have enough schools for people in that community. I don’t know where all these people are going to live that they are trying to plop down in locations that we don’t know where it would be."

Queens politicians also worry about giving Amazon a form of corporate welfare through big tax breaks, which New York and other jurisdictions have offered.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said the state has a "very strong" incentive package for the company. Its size has not been disclosed, but Rochester and Buffalo offered hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks in their unsuccessful bids, the Democrat & Chronicle reported in March.

De Blasio has said the city doesn't offer corporate subsidies. But his administration recently unveiled an investment strategy to support Long Island City's growth that involves $180 million in new city funding.

The state already has a poor record of giving away billions of dollars to big corporations without getting much in return, state Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens) said in a letter to fellow lawmakers.

And Amazon has had negative effects on its home base of Seattle, where home prices and homelessness have increased and the company has resisted corporate taxes, according to an op-ed Kim wrote with Zephyr Teachout, the law professor and recent Democratic candidate for state attorney general.

"It would be a special insult in New York City to sell out to a company so closely identified with squashing small merchants, stifling workers’ rights and undermining the publishing and ideas industry," Kim and Teachout wrote Friday in The New York Times.

But de Blasio defended the role Amazon could play in building the city's economy. The city has been committed to protecting affordable housing through public housing, rent-regulated homes and other programs, he said.

"A strong economy, a strong tax base, allows us to fund those affordable housing programs and to fix our public housing and do a lot of things that our economically diverse city needs," de Blasio told WNYC's Brian Lehrer on Friday. "So I do think Amazon is part of helping us create a strong New York in the future."

(Lead image: The Long Island City waterfront and skyline are seen on Nov. 7, 2018. Photo by Mark Lennihan/Associated Press)