LONG ISLAND CITY – Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris issued the following statement on Amazon’s decision not to proceed with the plan to build its second headquarters in Long Island City:
“Today’s behavior by Amazon shows why they would have been a bad partner for New York in any event. Rather than seriously engage with the community they proposed to profoundly change, Amazon continued its effort to shakedown governments to get its way. It is time for a national dialogue about the perils of these types of corporate subsidies.”
Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY-12), co-chair and co-founder of the Congressional Hellenic Caucus, also issued a statement on Amazon’s decision via Twitter:
“Disappointed that NYC won’t be home to 25K+ new jobs from HQ2 & that LIC will lose out on infrastructure improvements that would have accompanied this project. This is not the Valentine that NY needed.
“The deal could have been improved. There were legitimate concerns raised and aspects that I wanted changed. I was ready to work for those changes. But now, we won’t have a chance to do that and we are out 25K+ new jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in new investments.
“As I said on Monday [Feb. 11], ‘With 25K well-paying jobs coming to the neighborhood, the residents of Queensbridge, Ravenswood, Astoria Houses, & Woodside have good chances for the future. We need to make sure that… opportunities lead to jobs.’
“I’ll continue working with the residents of Queensbridge, Ravenswood, Astoria Houses, & Woodside and all #LIC & #NY12 to strengthen our economy & bring good paying jobs to NY.”
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