Amazon announced that it will no longer be building a second headquarters in New York City. The major Amazon hub was meant to be built in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens. The plan has been controversial since it was first announced.
The promise of jobs and an injection of investment is always alluring, but some people criticized how much money the city was giving Amazon in incentives (Incidentally, this development came on the same day as a report that Amazon would not be paying any taxes this year, for the second year in a row). Critics also point out Amazon’s less than stellar track record on labor practices. Amazon has consistently been accused of treating employees poorly and not paying a living wage.
But for those who just knew that jobs were on the way, the announcement felt a bit like a rug being pulled out from under them. And many of them are angry at the politicians who had fought against Amazon’s expansion into NYC. Proponents of Amazon’s HQ2 in New York also argue that the issue was bigger than just Amazon, as it could have brought on a wave of other corporate investment in the area as others took Amazon’s lead.
It’s difficult to predict, of course, how something like this would play out. And now it appears we’ll never know.
