https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...president-says
Amazon's Plans in NYC are Still a Go, Long Island City President Says
By Lily Katz
February 12, 2019
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Despite a flurry of speculation over whether Amazon would cancel plans for a major expansion in New York City, for some of those involved with the Long Island City site, it’s business as usual.
“Everybody that is involved on the ground here is all steam ahead,” Elizabeth Lusskin, president of the Long Island City Partnership, said at an industry event Tuesday. “I have no direct indication that there’s any change in that decision.”
Lusskin, who co-chairs a community subcommittee that advises on the new campus, said she spoke with Amazon on Friday and got the sense that its plan to set up shop in Long Island City is “all a go.” Still, New Yorkers shouldn’t take that for granted because Amazon has a lot of other options, she said.
“They have before them fully fledged proposals from a number of places,” said Lusskin. “Those didn’t go in the garbage.”
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I don't think New Yorkers should be concerned about the deal. As I said earlier, Amazon had enough time and suspense to make a decision, and once it was made, its all on Amazon. If they can't handle a little opposition, then maybe New York isn't the place for them. I don't expect they'll go anywhere, but enough with the BS.
https://qns.com/story/2019/02/12/que...cking-of-deal/
Queens Amazon supporters head to Albany to call for state legislators backing of deal
Brendan Levy of The Queens Chamber of Commerce speaks in support of Amazon locating their new headquarters in Long Island City.
By Bill Parry
February 12, 2019
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A coalition of western Queens business and community leaders, CUNY students and tech groups trekked to Albany Tuesday to express their support for Amazon’s expansion to Long Island City.
The supporters held a press conference at the so-called Million Dollar Staircase in the Capitol Building calling on state legislators to back the creation of 25,000 new good-paying jobs.
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“Queens and Amazon are a perfect match,” Queens Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Grech said. “Our diverse talent pool, entrepreneurial spirit, thriving art scene and boundless energy will help Amazon continue to grow and thrive, and Amazon’s presence in our borough will create jobs for local residents, catalyze economic activity, support small businesses in our community, as well as generate tax revenue. We look forward to working with Amazon and stakeholders at all levels of government to ensure that New York City seizes the opportunity to bring tens of billions of dollars of investment to western Queens.”
Several members of the coalition have seats on the Community Advisory Committee that met for the first time last month at the Long Island City Partnership, including its president, Elizabeth Lusskin, a co-chair of the Project Plan Subcommittee.
“Amazon’s decision to locate its new headquarters and tens of thousands of family-supporting jobs in Long Island City is the culmination of over 30 years of work to bring great jobs to LIC and Queens,” she said. “My partners and I — the City, the State, leaders representing 35,000 public housing residents and over 50,000 students, and our local business community, small and large — are now working to ensure that not only is Amazon successful here, but that the neighborhood and its people benefit in lasting ways, too.”
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Richard Khuzami, the president of the Old Astoria Neighborhood Association, also has a seat on the Community Advisory Committee. Khuzami offered a counter-argument to the opposition of Queens elected officials who maintain the nearly $3 billion in state and city tax incentives and subsidies used to lure Amazon would have been better spent on local programs such as affordable housing and transportation.
“I’m supporting Amazon’s decision to join the Long Island City community because I know it will help us build a stronger neighborhood, a stronger borough, and a stronger New York,” Khuzami said. “This project will return LIC to its mixed-use roots — and from building a new park to investing millions in neighborhood infrastructure upgrades, ensuring that as Amazon’s presence grows, our community’s resources will also grow. This is a $3 billion investment that will pay significantly more dividends — it’s a win-win for our neighborhood, and I am proud to support the project, as are many of my neighbors in Western Queens.”
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https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/...212-story.html
Don't scare Amazon away, NYC: Misinformation is fueling fearmongering; we need its jobs and the economic benefit to the wider city
By KATHRYN WYLDE
FEB 12, 2019
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New Yorkers love political theater, but at what cost? Are we really prepared to blow up a deal with Amazon, made by our governor and mayor, that would bring at least 25,000 new jobs to Long Island City?
Misinformation has fueled the Amazon debate. For example, there is nothing extraordinary about their government incentive package. Any company creating new jobs in Queens is eligible for similar incentives, and businesses secure these awards every day without controversy.
Most are tax credits that have to be earned as people are hired and investments made, not funds that could otherwise be spent on subways, or NYCHA repairs, or new schools. Think of the incentives as a small discount off the billions of new taxes that Amazon will bring to New York over the next 25 years — taxes that could pay for subways and other needs. No Amazon, no funding.
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The state has also committed about $500 million in grant funds as part of its competitive offer — intended so that the company will build its campus using union labor. The sum is about the same as Virginia, which was selected by Amazon for its second east coast headquarters. This is significantly less than grants that Albany has awarded to upstate economic development projects — for example, over $5 billion to nanotech in the Capital Region and a billion-plus to Buffalo.
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New York City has more than half the state residents who are living in poverty; our five boroughs deserve job-generating state investments just as much or more than upstate.
Some opponents have claimed that Amazon will displace diverse residents and disrupt the stability of the surrounding communities. In fact, there has been a robust community planning process going on in Long Island City for more than a decade. It has laid the groundwork for just this type of development.
Longtime residents, businesses, educators and nonprofit groups in the community are determined to preserve their community and avoid displacement. But they overwhelmingly support new tech jobs and economic development; polls confirm this.
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Building a vibrant tech sector has been a vision of Borough President Melinda Katz and other Queens leadership for a number of years. Tech development of Long Island City is what was contemplated when the Bloomberg administration selected Cornell University and the Technion Institute to build a top-flight technology and engineering graduate school on nearby Roosevelt Island.
Just as the Brooklyn Navy Yard has created a thriving center of new employment and entrepreneurship on that borough’s long-neglected waterfront, Amazon can be a similar catalyst for economic renewal of Queens.
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Union leaders and other defenders of workers’ rights have raised questions about Amazon’s workplace practices, mostly at facilities that aren’t part of this deal.
New York City and state governments pride themselves on having among the most progressive labor laws, worker protections and mandated benefits in the country. It is hard to imagine that Amazon chose to come here if they don’t intend to abide by them. Certainly, this should be a condition of any public subsidies. It would be foolish for any company to make a substantial investment in the city if they were not prepared to live up to our high standards for worker rights.
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And it’s not just the tech jobs themselves that are at stake, but the thousands and thousands of other jobs in construction, security, catering, retail and so on who will serve the thousands of people working for Amazon.
Half the city’s population are relative newcomers; they tend to take our vibrant economy for granted. Those of us who have been around for a while do not. We are nervous about a slowdown in the financial services and traditional media industries and the instability of the health care sector — the industries that have driven employment growth for the past 30 years. We recognize the importance of diversifying our economy in order to ensure the city’s future. The Amazon headquarters is clearly the best opportunity at hand to accomplish that.
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https://www.timesledger.com/stories/...9_02_15_q.html
Astoria, Long Island City residents blast opponents of Amazon HQ2 proposal
Bishop Mitchell Taylor slammed the opposition to Amazon for allegedly overstepping boundaries at a rally on Monday.
By Mark Hallum
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Bishop Mitchell Taylor and Queensbridge residents rallied Monday to support employment opportunities that the online retail giant could possibly provide to Long Island City and beyond.
Taylor told reporters that negativity from opponents of the proposal does not represent the wants or needs of NYCHA residents or the involvement of their leaders in discussions about Amazon coming to their community. But more than anything, they spoke out against perceived outsiders stoking discontent within the confines of the housing complex.
“I’m incensed when I see people from Connecticut, from other boroughs, from other places, convene upon Queensbridge, knocking on doors telling people because of Amazon, because of this, you’re going to lose your apartment,” Taylor said. “Let me tell you something: if you’re concerned about gentrification, that happened 15 years ago … You cannot speak for us. You haven’t lived here.”
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Taylor’s roots in Queensbridge go deep with his father, also a pastor, first serving a northwest Queens congregation in 1960 and Taylor himself leading worship for 28 years. He is a founder of Urban Upbound, an organization which works to break cycles that keep families in poverty and serves on the Community Advisory Committee for the implementation of Amazon.
“We are negotiating. We are talking. We are trying to figure out what is the best possible outcome for the residents of northwestern Queens and New York City,” Taylor said. “Twenty-five thousand jobs, possibly 40,000 jobs coming to this neighborhood and we want to know how that’s going to happen, how that’s going to benefit our residents. Nobody is cutting any deals here.”
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The bishop challenged the protests of Donnelly Rodriquez, who spoke out during the rally that 400 people had signed a petition against Amazon over the weekend.
“It’s amazing to me how people like this don’t even live here and they want to come to a press conference that we’re trying to have peacefully and they want to heckle,” Taylor said. “We’re not going to allow that to deter us. These people don’t live here. They aren’t from here. They probably moved here two days ago.”
Claudia Coger, president of the Astoria Houses Tenants Association and a resident of 60 years, claimed there had been misinformation circulated through the NYCHA complex in an effort to “stir up” residents against Amazon, but that it was her job as a community leader to dispel rumors and hype.
“One of the things that bothers me the most, is that people do not have the correct information to take into the community or they come in to stir up people and force accusations, we’re not going to stand for that,” Coger said. “You should not go into a community and tell people they’re going to lose their homes unless you have documentation. We need to stop that nonsense now.”
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April Simpson, the president of Queensbridge Tenants Association, said she was born in her parent’s bed in the NYCHA development she still calls home after 57 years.
“I’m not going to allow anyone to come into my community and disrupt and deny them the opportunity for a better life,” she said. “I don’t want to hear from hecklers who came over here like sneaky thieves in the night over the weekend without the courtesy to lets us know they were coming. That’s disrespectful. The information that is being provided is wrong, we’ve been sitting at the table since day one. We’ve been representing our community for years so what makes you think we’re still not going to represent them today with Amazon.”
Elizabeth Lusskin, the president of the Long Island City Partnership, and U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney also spoke in favor of Amazon at the rally while a small group of detractors booed.
“I think Amazon does not care about Queens, Amazon does not care about Queensbridge and they don’t care about Astoria. They’re here to profit,” said Rodriguez, who said he was born and raised in Astoria. “I think the support here is misinformed.”
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https://qns.com/story/2019/02/12/ama...g-island-city/
Amazon takes new poll numbers as ‘clear validation’ that it is wanted in Long Island City
By Bill Parry
February 12, 2019
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Amazon is feeling “validated” after a new poll showed New Yorkers continue to support the e-commerce giant’s plan to build its HQ2 campus in Long Island City.
The new Siena College Research Institute poll released Tuesday morning showed that 58 percent of New York City voters approve of the deal that promised to bring 25,000 over 10 years, with a plan to grow to 40,000 over 15 years to a complex that would be built along Anable Basin. Statewide, the poll showed voters approved the Amazon deal, 56 to 36 percent.
“Even as Amazon is said to be reexamining the deal with New York to locate in Queens, by 20 points New York voters approve of the deal,” Siena College Research Institute Director Don Levy said. “Upstate voters are evenly divided but suburban voters strongly approve and in New York City, where some local activists have voiced opposition, voters approve of the deal by 23 points.”
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“This is yet another clear validation that New Yorkers want 25,000 great jobs, with great benefits, that Amazon is ready to deliver to the community,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “From construction jobs to software engineer positions, the tens of thousands of jobs we plan to create will be available to residents of all education levels and professional backgrounds, and our new headquarters will help improve the city’s economy for generations to come.”
The poll was released the morning after Mayor Bill de Blasio defended the deal during more than two hours of testimony at a state budget hearing in Albany. The mayor and Governor Andrew Cuomo brokered the Amazon deal offering nearly $3 billion in state and city tax incentives and subsidies.
“We never had a single plan, a single agreement that brought us that many jobs,” de Blasio said. “We need those jobs. We need that revenue.”
The deal is projected to deliver more than $186 billion in economic impact to New York over the next 25 years. Amazon was reportedly reconsidering the project due to opposition from Democratic leaders in Queens, according to the Washington Post.
Cuomo accused the opposition, led by state Senator Michael Gianaris, of committing “governmental malpractice.” On Monday, he told reporters that any project of this side will generate such opposition.
“It’s the nature of the beast,” Cuomo said.
After the results of the Siena poll were released, which build on recent polling by HarrisX, commissioned by Amazon, that shows 80 percent of Queens residents, as well as 77 percent of State Senate District 12 residents which is represented by Gianaris, support the corporation’s move to Long Island City.
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NEW YORK is Back!
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
Last edited by NYguy; Feb 13, 2019 at 4:01 AM.
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