HOW TO THINK ABOUT IT
Playing the game. Amazon first unveiled its plans to pick a second headquarters through a national competition in 2017, promising 50,000 jobs and $5 billion worth of investment to the winner. It lured 238 proposals, which it later shortlisted to 20 before announcing it would evenly split HQ2 between New York and northern Virginia. But as local governments scrambled to compete, critics complained that Amazon was gaming the system by pitting cities against one another for the spoils. However, as OZY reported at the time, localities also learned a thing or two while pitching the tech giant: Ontario, for one, realized that its plan to boost STEM graduates by 25 percent over five years could have long-term benefits even without winning Amazon’s bid.
Pushing back. Championed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, Amazon’s choice of uber-expensive but pro-labor New York quickly attracted vocal opposition from a key coterie of local officials and advocacy groups. Besides Ocasio-Cortez, that group included State Sen. Michael Gianaris, several city councilors and an army of grassroots activists who warned local residents, door-to-door, of the crippling rent hikes they’d soon face. Together, those critics accused the company and its political supporters of ignoring community interests and failing to consult local experts. The overarching goal? To stage a high-profile challenge against corporate welfare. And in the end, it worked: “They killed Amazon,” city politics specialist and Baruch College professor Douglas Muzzio told Reuters, “the biggest beast around.”
Who’s winning? While progressives are hailing Amazon’s about-face, supporters of a New York HQ2 lament what they say could be a major long-term economic loss for their city. Besides the 25,000 jobs with annual salaries topping $150,000, that also means a dearth of more than $27 billion in tax revenue over the next quarter-century. One union chief suggested that politics had taken a front seat to “a once-in-a-generation investment” in the local economy, while ex-Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein accused progressive Democrats of both derailing progress and — citing poll data that showed the majority of New Yorkers actually supported HQ2 — acting undemocratically. “Victory lap for them,” he tweeted, “not for NYC.” Others, meanwhile, claim Amazon’s sudden departure amounts to a PR disaster that casts the company as rigid and unresponsive to local resistance.
The bigger picture. As impassioned supporters of either side continue their tussle, Amazon’s New York reversal will likely leave observers pondering several important takeaways. First, that while Jeff Bezos giveth, he can also taketh away: Some say local governments have learned just how little Amazon is apparently willing to compromise with local actors. But it’s also a victory for campaigners, signaling that tech giants may not be as mighty as they once seemed. Scott Galloway, a professor at NYU’s Stern Business School, told CNN: “The idolatry of tech innovators — and their firms — has peaked.”
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