Former New York Times reporter Alex Bernsen discusses blocking Amazon from selling his book and Big Tech censorship.
The area in the Long Island city where Amazon is building its new headquarters.
In Long Island City, it was an incurable scar.
Two years after Amazon pulled out of plans to build a massive headquarters on the Queens Strait, the site is a blank slate – and for many locals, the worst economic prospect of a corona virus outbreak is even more painful.
“The site is empty. This is horrible,” said Donna Driver, owner of the Matte LIC Art Gallery and Gift Store. “We’re in the middle of an epidemic. People say, ‘If only we had Amazon, we’ would get nothing. ‘
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Democratic Socialist Representative Alexandria Ocacio-Cortes and State Sen. The world’s largest e-tailer abruptly canceled its planned 25,000 employment complex after being shocked by fierce opposition from local polls, including Mike Giannoris.
Nearly two years later, the massive site remains a dilapidated reminder of wasted energy, while COVID-19 has devastated the city’s economy, including the LIC-Western Queens area, which has benefited from customer visits to the area.
Amazon’s loss to LIC merchants and residents surviving during epidemics is now haunting the community even more.
“What’s going on is so crazy. The city has no solutions. We have a mayor who does nothing,” said Eric Benim, CEO of Modern Space Realty, who lives next door and whose office is near the barren site.
I sell AOC’s rich t – shirts for $ 58 a tax when businesses leave New York. That is the solution of AOC. Who is going to pay $ 58 for a t-shirt when you leave work? Said Benim.
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An alternative project called “Your LIC”, which includes residential-commercial towers in the area, was recently shot down in the absence of my backyard protest and City Hall support. The project is said to create 26,000 jobs, open space and cultural facilities.
Your LIC consortium includes New York City with Manufacturer Blocks, the main property owner of the Waterfront site.
It should not be.
“Their plans are not going to bring enough benefits to the community, and we will not allow private developers to neglect their obligations to New Yorkers,” said Mitchell Schwartz, a spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The driver has vented his anger for leaving the neighborhood in a local poll.
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“AOC, Gianaris, Van Brammer [local councilman Jimmy] – Wake up! ”She said. “People are leaving. Businesses are closing. ”
Gianna Cerbon, owner of the Montecadis Rustica restaurant with deep roots in LIC, said the “delusional” Democratic Socialists and Gentrifiers have kidnapped West Queens – not the best.
“I get angry at nonsense. Everyone is afraid of the AOC who does not know what she is doing. Opposing the Amazon has benefited other communities. Imagine if the AOC had done something positive with its big mouth, ”Cerbone said.
Sen who he has known for many years. He said that Gianaris was a very surprising betrayal.
“I trusted Kianaris. Mike trusted the community until he got on top of AOC’s ass and she couldn’t get him out, ”Salt Restaurant said.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor, pastor of Hope International Church, near the Queens Bridge homes, said Amazon’s failure following the epidemic was a double whammy for LIC’s poorest residents.
“We were living in the 1970s. Now things are worse for poor people,” Rev. Taylor said.
“The Amazon project gave a lot of people a ray of hope. We don’t want a manual. The country’s largest public housing project wanted the opportunity to do business with the country’s largest retailer, ”he said.
The head of the neighborhood side’s business group said it was time to build the Waterfront site.
“Coming out of COVID-19, implementing this area is more important than ever to help the surrounding community. Because of the size, you can actually create significant new opportunities for jobs, housing, culture and open space, and connect the entire West Queens Strait so that our neighbors can be closely integrated into one community. Can, ”said Elizabeth Luskin, Lang’s leader, of the island’s joint venture.
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One of the biggest complaints about the Amazon project among critics was that it was secretly caught up with the government’s Andrew Cuomo and Di Blasio, which offered $ 3 billion in tax breaks and other subsidies to the planet’s richest company, while nearby people said the campus would be expensive.
The Occasio-Cortes, who told New Yorkers that they had used their power in Albany to block the Amazon deal in their district, were backed by the state Senate deputy majority, Gianaris and Cuomo.
Giannaris said he had proven himself – referring to the Amazon lease on Hudson Yards and the purchase of the Lord & Taylor building in the Midtowns to create city jobs – after withdrawing its planned headquarters at LIC.
“Over the past two years, Amazon has already announced more New Color jobs in New York City than are called for in the HU2 program, all of which are without massive public subsidy,” the senator said.
He added that “many good projects” are being discussed for the waterfront site that the city should consider, including your LIC project.
AOC spokesman Lauren Hit said, “Both of our primary and general election challenges in this issue, in the midst of the epidemic, have run millions of campaigns, and both have failed to resolve.”
The Amazon program “would have given [residents] In exchange for a campus that made no promises about hiring local workers or contracting with local businesses, the hard-earned tax dollars for one of the richest people in the world, ”the spokesman said.
The congresswoman said housing costs have risen in the DC area where Amazon has set up a new campus and has reduced the company’s labor and safety records during epidemics.
Abandoned Amazon is a divisive issue – even among merchants in the LIC neighborhood. Not everyone is in this project.
Shawn Dixon, owner of Otis & Fin Barbershop on 44th Road near the Waterfront site, said he was opposed to the Amazon plan because he leased his space and feared it would be priced when his lease was renewed.
“We could have had a double whammy of COVID and market speculation,” Dixon said.
He stressed that infrastructure improvements were not fast enough with the growth of LIC and that this issue was not enough in the Amazon plan.
Dixon had his own idea: “Why didn’t the government give Cumo a tax holiday to help traders reach winter?”