Amazon to receive incentives of $1.5B+ over ten years based on creating 25K jobs in Queens, but politicians object, with some saying they will fight the deal
On the west side of Manhattan … Lydia DePillis / CNN : Ocasio-Cortez breaks with Cuomo and de Blasio on Amazon welcome Jeff Jeffrey / Silicon Valley Business Journal : The Amazon effect: Losing cities share lessons learned in hunt for HQ2 Alex Shephard / New Republic : Amazon Scammed America's Hurting Cities Tweets: Tom Gara / @tomgara : The crazy overnight property boom in Long Island City post Amazon: brokers “are renting vans and packing them full of clients eager to view multiple buildings, or holding group tours in Chinese” http://www.wsj.com/... @buzzfeednews : New York is paying Amazon *$1.525 billion* in incentives, which breaks down to $48,000 per job created. And that number doesn't even include separate tax incentives offered through city programs. The final price tag for this deal could end up being around $3 billion. @buzzfeednews : Meanwhile, plenty of people who built tech companies and created jobs in New York are pointing out how they did so for... *zero* billion dollars in subsidies. https://twitter.com/... @brookingsinst : “While yes, Amazon created a positive tech boom in [Seattle], it also led to a rise in homelessness, housing unaffordability and such stark inequality that created a lot of political and community distrust,” said @amy_liuw in the @washingtonpost. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Laura Kusisto / @laurakusisto : If you are buying real estate in Long Island City now thinking it's a good investment you are probably too late: Brokers say they are selling Long Island City units via text message, sometimes sight unseen http://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ @buzzfeednews : Public officials, especially those representing the Long Island City neighborhood where Amazon will open its NYC offices, are already protesting the deal. One state senator and a council member said: “We were not elected to serve as Amazon drones.” pic.twitter.com/NT4W24yhDd @buzzfeednews : Those fears are a bit more realized in New York. The @WSJ reported brokers sold units in Long Island City like crazy — even sight unseen, and via text message — even before Amazon made its announcement. https://www.wsj.com/... Eugene Scott / @eugene_scott : “Gentrification is a huge concern for us if Amazon comes, because Crystal City is close to some of the last places where it's affordable to live, with public transportation and access to jobs. Where do the day laborers, the bar backs, the janitors go?” http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Eric Klinenberg / @ericklinenberg : What if, as a condition for getting between $1.5-$2 billion in tax breaks from NYC, we got @amazon to make a game-changing investment in NYC's branch libraries? Renovations. Expanded hours. New librarians. More programs. @nypl @QueensLibrary @BKLYNlibrary http://www.nytimes.com/... Aaron Nagler / @aaronnagler : Is Amazon going to fix the subway? Because that's the only way this is worth it. http://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Amazon has chosen New York for half of its HQ2 split after late-stage talks with Crystal City, Dallas and several other finalists, locking in more than $1.5 billion in state and city incentives tied to 25,000 jobs in Queens. The announcement lands on ground already prepared by critics: economists had warned months earlier that [[a:926170|the tax-incentive competition Amazon solicited would divert taxpayer funds from education and infrastructure]], and Wired's same-day coverage argues the job promises don't offset the concessions.
The political fault line runs through New York's own leadership — Ocasio-Cortez is breaking with Cuomo and de Blasio, who welcomed the deal, while brokers report an overnight property scramble in Long Island City. What makes this fight consequential rather than local noise is how it ends: Amazon ultimately withdraws, and Cuomo's budget director later calls the pullout a "tremendous loss" with a claimed 9-to-1 ROI — even as Google, Facebook and Amazon itself go on renting millions of square feet in the city anyway.
First-order effects
- Ocasio-Cortez and other objecting politicians move from commentary to active opposition, setting up a legislative fight over incentives Cuomo and de Blasio have already committed to.
- Long Island City landlords and brokers see immediate demand shock — vans packed with clients touring multiple buildings — as speculators price in 25,000 incoming Amazon jobs before any office opens.
Second-order effects
- Runner-up cities that lost the HQ2 sweepstakes face pressure to match or beat New York's incentive package for future corporate relocations, deepening the bidding-war dynamic economists flagged at the start of the competition.
- Amazon's opponents gain a template: if organized political resistance can claw back committed subsidies in the country's largest media market, every subsequent megadeal becomes a test case for whether incentives survive contact with local politics.
Third-order effects
- The eventual withdrawal — and the fact that tech giants kept expanding in New York regardless — suggests the subsidy-for-jobs bargain may be weaker than either side claimed: cities may get the employment without paying, or lose the deal while keeping the talent gravity.
- If the pattern holds, large corporate siting decisions shift from closed-door incentive negotiations toward public political contests, forcing companies to weigh community opposition as a formal deal risk alongside taxes and real estate.
The trend: Corporate relocation deals are turning from negotiated subsidies into public political fights, with cities discovering they hold more leverage — and bear more risk — than the incentive race assumed.