WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES FEBRUARY 28, 2019 13
LETTERS AND COMMENTS
NEED FOR BETTER
CORPORATIONS
With all the news about Amazon
walking away from building a campus
in Long Island City along with its
promise of 25,000 well-paying jobs,
it’s given me an opportunity to refl ect
on corporate responsibility and my
personal experience that began in
June 1971.
Specifi cally, how did a high school
graduate from Astoria grow up to have
a good career, become a homeowner in
the historic neighborhood of Broadway-
Flushing, and become an activist?
There is no doubt that my parents
played the most signifi cant role in
my personal development, but a
very special corporation played an
equally signifi cant role in my fi nancial
wellbeing and acceptance of social
responsibility. That corporation was
Citibank and Citicorp, although when I
started my career it was known as First
National City Bank.
The bank as a leading corporation
was tapped by local, state and federal
offi cials to help solve business problems
and support efforts to revitalize
the city such as the 42nd Street
Redevelopment Corporation, help the
city from declaring bankruptcy, or
purchase the fi rst bullet-proof vests
for the city’s police force. Again, way
too many other amazing things at all
levels of government to mention.
In my opinion, corporations helped
build and expand the middle class of
New York City. The fi nancial stability
of my early employment at the bank
was a spring-board to other career
opportunities which not only helped
financially, but demonstrated by
example how to be socially conscious.
How did corporations go from
helping to build a stable middle class to
demanding billions of dollars to build
a campus with the promise of highpaying
jobs? When did corporations
forget it’s not just about creating jobs,
but instead helping to build lives and
lend their immeasurable skills and
profi ts to improving New York City?
I am sorry that some will say that
corporations only respond to their
shareholders, are only in business to
make a profi t, and employees should
be grateful to simply have a job.
I say once upon a time there was a
better way for corporations who used
a bit of their profi ts to enhance the lives
of their employees, who understood
how to build corporate loyalty,
and who accepted their corporate
responsibilities to make our city better
not worse. I hope another corporation
deserving of setting up a campus in
New York City will learn there is a
better way to do business in our city.
Maria R. Becce, Flushing
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SNAPS
LONG ISLAND CITY
STREETSCAPES
PHOTO VIA INSTAGRAM @rochdalian
OP-ED
Lamenting LIC’s loss
BY ROBERT MUJICA As just about everyone in
this state, if not the country,
knows by now, Amazon has
terminated its plans to bring its second
headquarters to New York State. It is a
tremendous loss for New Yorkers and I
hope that at a minimum, we understand
the lessons learned.
People have been asking me for the past
week what killed the Amazon deal. There
were several factors.
First, some labor unions attempted
to exploit Amazon’s New York entry.
The RWDSU Union was interested in
organizing the Whole Foods grocery
store workers, a subsidiary owned by
Amazon, and they deployed several
“community-based organizations” (which
RWDSU funds) to oppose the Amazon
transaction as negotiation leverage.
It backfired. Initially, Whole Foods
grocery stores had nothing to do with
this transaction. It is a separate company.
While Amazon is not a unionized
workforce, Amazon had agreed to union
construction and service jobs that would
have provided 11,000 union positions.
Second, some Queens politicians
catered to minor, but vocal local political
forces in opposition to the Amazon
government incentives as “corporate
welfare.” Ironically, much of the visible
“local” opposition, which was happy to
appear at press conferences and protest at
City Council hearings during work hours,
were actuality organizers paid by one
union: RWDSU. (If you are wondering if
that is even legal, probably not).
Even more ironic is these same elected
offi cials all signed a letter of support for
Amazon at the Long Island City location
and in support of the application. They
were all for it before Twitter convinced
them to be against it.
While there is always localized
opposition, in this case it was taken to a
new level. The state Senate transferred
decision-making authority to a local
senator, who, aft er fi rst supporting the
Amazon project, is now vociferously
opposed to it, and even recommended
appointing him to a state panel charged
with approving the project’s fi nancing.
Amazon assumed that the hostile
appointment doomed the project. Of
course the governor would never accept
a senate nomination of an opponent to
the project and the governor told that to
Amazon directly.
Furthermore, opposing Amazon was
not even good politics, as the politicians
have learned since Amazon pulled
out. They are like the dog that caught
the car. They are now desperately and
incredibly trying to explain their actions.
They cannot. They are trying to justify
their flip-flopping on the issue with
false accusations that it was a
“backroom deal.”
In working with New York City, we
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Queens Snaps).
advanced Long Island City’s application
with the signed support of the area’s
local elected officials, including state
Senator Mike Gianaris and New York City
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer. Both
Gianaris and Van Bramer fl ip-fl opped
on this position aft er Long Island City
was chosen, distorting the facts of the
agreement and mischaracterizing the
tax subsidies as ‘a cash giveaway.’
Third, in retrospect, the state and
the city could have done more to
communicate the facts of the project and
more aggressively correct the distortions.
We assumed the benefi ts to be evident:
25,000-40,000 jobs located in a part of
Queens that has not seen any signifi cant
commercial development in decades and
a giant step forward in the tech sector,
further diversifying our economy away
from Wall Street and real estate.
Incredibly, I have heard city and state
elected offi cials who were opponents of
the project claim that Amazon was getting
$3 billion in government subsidies that
could have been better spent on housing
or transportation. This is either a blatant
untruth or fundamental ignorance of
basic math by a group of elected offi cials.
The city and state “gave” Amazon
nothing.
Make no mistake, at the end of the day
we lost $27 billion, 25,000-40,000 jobs and
a blow to our reputation of being “open for
business.” Nothing was gained and much
was lost.
This should never happen again.
Mujica is the New York state
budget director.
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