28 THE QUEENS COURIER • DECEMBER 12, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
editorial
What are we celebrating?
Th e news that Amazon has agreed to
lease offi ce space in Manhattan’s Hudson
Yards for more than 1,500 employees
stirred up some ghosts along Anable
Basin on the Long Island City waterfront.
Amazon had planned to build its massive
Credit: QNS File photo
As some celebrate Amazon’s agreement to lease offi ce space in Manhattan, we remember the missed opportunity of the failed Long Island City deal.
STORY: New comedy series ‘Awkwafi na is Nora From
Queens’ starring Flushing actress slated to premiere in
January 2020
SUMMARY: Before she became a bonafi de Hollywood
movie star, Nora Lum, known by her stage name
Awkwafi na, was just a YouTube rapper in 2013 living
in Flushing. Now, she’s returning to her roots for a new
Comedy Central show based on her life in Queens.
REACH: 16,440 people reached (as of 12/9/19)
HQ2 campus in Long Island City and
promised to bring 25,000 jobs over the
next 10 years, until facing fi erce opposition
from elected offi cials, who said off ering
$3 billion in tax incentives was feeding
corporate greed. A signifi cant coalition of
community groups concerned with gentrifi
cation, technical support for ICE, and
anti-union policies led the e-commerce
giant to scrap the plan last February.
“Amazon is coming to New York just
as they planned,” state Senator Michael
Gianaris said. “Fortunately, we dodged a
$3 billion bullet by not agreeing to their
subsidy shakedown earlier this year.”
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio
Cortez joined in the victory lap with a
frivolous post on Twitter.
But 1,500 jobs in Manhattan do not
equate to the 25,000 jobs promised and
lost in the failed Amazon LIC deal.
Crunch the numbers every which way,
and 1,500 will never be equal to 25,000.
It’s simple math.
So we fail to understand, as Governor
Andrew Cuomo does, the victory lap over
the Manhattan Amazon deal. Cuomo, the
main broker of the HQ2 deal chastised the
opponents of the HQ2 plan in a recent AP
interview.
“Th is is crumbs from the table compared
have a problem bringing businesses to
THE QUEENS
PUBLISHER & EDITOR
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CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
PRESIDENT & CEO
VICE PRESIDENT
to a feast,” Cuomo said. “We don’t
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
BOB BRENNAN
ZACHARY GEWELB
NIRMAL SINGH
EMILY DAVENPORT
ANGELICA ACEVEDO, JENNA BAGCAL, KATRINA MEDOFF,
CARLOTTA MOHAMED, MAX PARROTT, BILL PARRY
CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI
DEBORAH CUSICK
CELESTE ALAMIN
MARIA VALENCIA
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
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Manhattan but we have been trying for
decades to get that Queens waterfront
developed.”
Th e lease Amazon inked at Hudson
Yards is for existing offi ce space, not
the HQ2 campus that would have created
more than 10,000 union construction
jobs.
So Amazon has come in, without getting
a taxpayer dime, and decided to create
1,500 jobs in Manhattan. Th at’s nice.
Th at doesn’t, however, make up for
the lost promise on the Long Island City
waterfront. It could have been something,
instead it got a bum rap from politicians
who couldn’t see the forest from the trees.
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