De Blasio Tears Into Amazon In Angry Breakup

NEW YORK — It's an angry breakup. Mayor Bill de Blasio tore into Amazon on Friday for abandoning its Long Island City headquarters plan – a severe change from the love he's espoused for the project for the past three months.

"To get a call out of the blue saying, ‘See ya, we’re taking our ball, we’re going home,’ it’s absolutely inappropriate," the jilted Democratic mayor said on WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show." "I’ve never experienced anything like this."

"Why did they even bother to choose New York City if they didn’t want to actually be a part of New York City and do the work it takes to be a good neighbor?" he added.

The online retail colossus scrapped its plans Thursday to bring at least 25,000 jobs to the Big Apple after intense criticism of the nearly $3 billion incentive package used to lure the company here.

Opposition from elected officials, labor unions and activists was relentless from the time the project was announced in mid-November, following Amazon's nationwide search for a second home.

But de Blasio said city officials "had no indication" the firm would pull out until Thursday morning, despite reports last week that it was considering doing so.

De Blasio met with a senior Amazon executive Monday evening, he said. He encouraged the company to address critics' concerns about its relationships with labor unions and its controversial work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he said.

There was also a midweek meeting between Amazon and a local advisory board to go over community worries, the mayor said, which included the company's investments in infrastructure. But there was ultimately "no attempt at dialogue," de Blasio said.

"There’s something going on here which is a little lordly, and it worries me, honestly, where this company or any company in corporate America thinks they can just break a deal and walk away and leave a community and leave a city without what was promised," the mayor said.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The mayor's remarks Friday were starkly different from how he had boosted the Amazon deal as a major economic victory for the city. He rolled out the red carpet for the firm alongside Gov. Andrew Cuomo when the deal was announced Nov. 13, saying the company "came forward with a vision."

And just a week ago, he argued the deal would shore up the city's economy in a changing world and support programs such as affordable housing initiatives.

"Things like this Amazon deal, it's not just the 25,000 to 40,000 jobs, which is amazing unto itself and we need, it’s also revenue that allows us to do the kinds of things that create more balance and more justice," de Blasio said on WNYC last Friday, according to a transcript.

Despite de Blasio and Cuomo's support, the deal met fierce opposition from politicians and activists who decried the incentives as a corporate giveaway and lamented the lack of transparency in the negotiations.

The mayor argued the critics were misguided, as polls indicated strong public support for the deal and its death meant New Yorkers would be denied good jobs. But he placed the ultimate blame squarely on Amazon.

"Let’s go to the origin of the whole situation — Amazon started a competition, Amazon agreed to a deal and then in the dead of night, Amazon walked away," de Blasio said.

(Lead image: Mayor Bill de Blasio testifies during a joint legislative budget hearing on local government Monday, Feb. 11, 2019, in Albany. AP Photo/Hans Pennink)