Amazon broke up with New York City on Valentine’s Day. The retail giant announced it was cancelling plans for a second headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, after a backlash by activists and lawmakers. Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio were waved off by Jeff Bezos.
Theirs was a stormy relationship from the beginning. Cuomo and de Blasio wooed Amazon executives with a nearly $3 billion incentive package. Cheers quickly devolved into jeers as New Yorkers realized they overpaid. Local politicians once on board with the deal, such as Long Island City-area State Sen. Michael Gianaris, became vocal opponents as the deal-making process bypassed them. And unions ginned up protests to claim their share.
And then, Amazon took it all away: “After much thought and deliberation, we’ve decided not to move forward with our plans.” Cuomo and de Blasio were effectively told “it’s not you, it’s me.” But for a few “state and local politicians,” Amazon’s statement read, voters were enthusiastic for HQ2.
Polls bear this out: more than half of New Yorkers supported Amazon’s headquarter siting in Queens, with support strongest among black and Latino voters. Skepticism was reserved for the size of the deal. And voters wanted to feel they had a voice.
But the only voices that ultimately mattered here were not New York’s most powerful politicians, or even the world’s richest man. It was that of the Queens Democratic machine and its union allies. And having once been defeated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, now her progressive cohort was on the machine’s side too.
Let’s be clear: this is also simply straight-up NIMBYism. This debacle should be a reminder that the opposite of Amazon HQ2 is not some quirky and charming Long Island City neighborhood preserved forever in affordable bliss.
New York City’s backlash is exactly what Amazon was trying to avoid: another Seattle. NYC shot itself in the foot to make a point for progressive activists — who are, by and large, white elites.
To be fair to the city, Bezos also screwed up in making his company’s search for a second headquarters a national beauty pageant. Did Amazon need 13 months to tell the world’s richest man he should invest in New York City and Washington, D.C.? And Bezos certainly didn’t need to remind 238 applicants that Emerald City, Long Island City and Crystal City are winners in today’s winner-take-all economy. So when losing cities were left at the altar, and winning cities got more than they bargained for, Amazon faced a growing backlash.
If NYC’s Amazon HQ2 fight heralds a decisive turn against “bribe-and-grow” economic development, that will be a net positive for America. Bribe-and-grow strategies are a suckers bet — the only sure thing is that taxpayers lose. Thing is, even most companies don’t care for them as much as states think! It’s often not even about growth, but screwing another state, claiming a jobs number, and cutting a ribbon.
In the end, everything will be fine. Amazon will be fine, except for the wasted opportunity to invest in cities that needed their money. New York City will be fine, except for the city’s increasingly tenuous revenues and a lot of unlucky speculators in LIC. Nashville and D.C. will be more than fine — they are the real winners, in fact! And this country will be fine, except for all of the cities suckered into showing off for Amazon.
The big losers here are Cuomo and de Blasio, obviously. The deal failed, and now everyone is turning on everyone else: Cuomo blames Gianaris, de Blasio blames Cuomo and Amazon. New York has become lethargic and complacent after years of growth, backsliding into the same dithering that drove the city to the brink before.
And us New Yorkers are the losers here, who instead of enjoying billions of investments and tens of thousands of jobs from Amazon are left with short-sighted politicians and beggaring unions leaving only a legacy of cronyism and attempted graft.
We should expect more from our elected leaders. More transparency for incentive deals, for one thing. But also more of a focus on doing the basics well, like fixing our subways and fixing our finances.
But perhaps New York City’s greatest lesson here is that Jeff Bezos doesn’t have time for political shenanigans, and neither should we.
This piece originally appeared at New York Daily News
______________________
Michael Hendrix is the director of state & local policy at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.
This piece originally appeared in New York Daily News