US House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wasted no time in declaring victory after Amazon backed out of a $3 billion deal that would have seen the Jeff Bezos-led tech conglomerate establish its much-coveted HQ2 in New York.
Writing on Twitter, the freshman congresswoman said that the grassroots campaign to kick Amazon out of Queens had demonstrated that “anything is possible.”
She said:
“Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world.”
CCN previously reported that Ocasio-Cortez, along with a variety of other local politicians and interest groups, had spearheaded resistance to Amazon’s plan to place half of its second corporate headquarters in Long Island City. That complex would have housed 25,000 employees.
“Can everyday people come together and effectively organize against creeping overreach of one of the world’s biggest corporations?,” she asked last week. “Yes, they can.”
Ocasio-Cortez and others vehemently criticized the nearly $3 billion in tax incentives that state and local officials had agreed to give Amazon in exchange for opening a sprawling corporate campus in Queens.
Still, supporters including New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that HQ2 would bring the region significant benefits, including economic diversity. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio argued that the deal would yield a staggering 9:1 return on investment.
Over at Curbed, Diana Budds has a suggestion for how the government should spend that money instead: fix the subway.
Amazon still plans to build a second 25,000 employee complex in northern Virginia’s Crystal City but claims that it will not reopen the search for a location to place the other half of HQ2. That likely won’t stop Jeff Bezos and company’s former suitors from lining back up to win its affections.
