Coinciding with a buck wild , ego - put out “ op - ed , ” Governor Andrew Cuomo went on WNYC ’s The Brian Lehrer Show this morning to double down on his decision to provide Amazon , one of the largest retailers in the domain , a oversupply of incentive estimated to total$4.6 billion . The consultation was a rousing success — if his intention was to make irate New Yorkers even more furious about a massive corporate handout .
One of the biggest concerns for residents of the city , and Queens in particular , will be the impingement a turgid number of extremely - pay tech actor will have on trapping prices , subway congestion , and other currently strained municipal service . “ We have done that math roughly ” Cuomo , who jokingly offered tochange his first name to “ Amazon”to fasten the deal , told Lehrer . When pressed further he impart , “ We do n’t have the full number — what would the 25,000 people expect in police protection , fire protection — no . ” One wonder how Cuomo is so quick to sell “ the Amazon transaction ” as a final positive when it seems the due diligence calculations still have n’t been completed .
Cuomo also describe the area around Vernon Boulevard that Amazon plans to occupy as “ essentially a vacant while of existent estate in Long Island City that has baby-sit there for 10 . ” Perhaps , but in the thick of what he has readily admit is an affordable housing crisis , he handily failed to mention that the some of that plot of state was antecedently reserve for affordable housing — about 1,500 unit of measurement , grant toPolitico .
Had Amazon made any promises about diversity and inclusion in its program for these 25,000 prospective jobs , Lehrer asked ? “ Amazon has a good lead record in that regard , ” Cuomo enjoin of a company lately that ’s integral boardis snowy , and which recently receive backlash for building an AI hiring tool which systematicallydisadvantaged char . “ I do n’t believe that we have any specific additional conditions , but I ’d have to stop , ” he added .
It seems Amazon did not even make any specific hope to rent topically . “ These people who come to New York at $ 150,000 income , they are going to be net positive degree , not net negative , ” Cuomo explained , later backtracking to say “ my assumption is the 25,000 people are here now ” and that HQ1.5 does not stand for “ a aggregate encroachment from outside the state , ” though if any concession were made my Amazon to that end , the governor was not forthcoming with details about them . “ You may take one of those jobs , ” he told Lehrer , “ I may take one of those jobs . ”
All he would reassert in the scope of Amazon ’s commitments to the hoi polloi of New York were design to partner with a nearby public housing complex to hire an unspecified number of multitude , and plans to build a technical school incubator — which seems to serve Amazon ’s interests a great lot more than the residents of Long Island City . This boondoggle will forever and a day be consort with Amazon Cuomo ’s administration , though he ’ll be out of situation long before its defective event are felt .
There was one thing Cuomo got right in his op - ed ( a point he regurgitate in this sunrise ’s audience ): “ One could fence that in a staring man no city or state would be legally allowed to offer incentive and there would be no rival for individuals or business , ” he wrote , as though the sickening show ofprostrationfor Amazon jobs caused him to lose any sleep . One could also argue that in a perfect world New York would have a better regulator than Andrew “ Amazon ” Cuomo .
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