Jeff, We Hardly Knew Ye
NYC just got blindsided when Amazon pulled the plug on their proposed NYC campus after a facing a passionate onslaught from progressive leader and their followers who opposed the deal NY had forged with the online giant.
The original announcement by Amazon to build an expansive campus in Queens would have resulted 25,000 jobs for the city. That of course does include the massive ancillary economic benefits that would have accrued to the region by the presence of Amazon. Following Amazon’s announcement, Kathryn S. Wylde, the CEO of the Partnership for New York City reflected the broader sense of disappointment in the decision when she indicated that the treatment of Amazon by progressive leaders sends a “pretty bad message to the job creators” of the city and the world. “How can anyone be surprised?” Ms. Wylde said. “We competed successfully, made a deal and spent the last three months trashing our new partner.”
Amazon has been on the hunt for their 2nd headquarters since September of 2017. 200 different cities courted the company in hopes of securing a commitment from the online giant. They were driven by the need for additional pools of talent and the increasingly sour relationship has with city officials in Seattle. So it should surprise no one that the ferocity, misinformation and outright disdain some NY officials threw at Amazon in recent months, would cause the company to reevaluate whether the Big Apple was the right place for them.
Gianna Cerbone-Teoli owner of Manducatis Rustica, a restaurant a few blocks from the new Amazon site encapsulated the feelings of all working Joes that saw this as an economic boon for the area when speaking to the New York Times she voiced her opinion directly to those who opposed the deal. “I’m really upset because I don’t think they realized what they did,” she said. “And they’re proud of it? They think they did something lovely? They wanted the political gain, they should have done it in a different way. They get put into office for us, not to work for themselves.”
We agree Gianna, and on a larger scale, we think the anti-business drum beats in both our city and our country are antithetical to the well-being of the American dream every working person in America pursues each and every day.
