February 14, 2019

Amazon Sends a Message to America’s Cities

The Amazon Urban Campus in Seattle.Paul Gordon/ZUMA

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After three months of steadily growing vitriol, Amazon has decided to kill its proposed New York headquarters:

Amazon on Thursday canceled its plans to build an expansive corporate campus in New York City after facing an unexpectedly fierce backlash from some lawmakers and union leaders, who contended that a tech giant did not deserve nearly $3 billion in government incentives.

The company’s decision is a major blow for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had set aside their differences to bring the company to New York. But it was at least a short-term win for insurgent progressive politicians led by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose upset victory last year occurred in the area where Amazon had planned its site. Her win galvanized the party’s left flank, which mobilized against the deal, and on Thursday she seemed to revel in the company’s retreat.

I have seen many takes on this, but I haven’t yet seen the one that I think is correct: Amazon did this to send a message. Public outcries over huge development projects are hardly a big surprise, after all. Amazon must have been prepared for brickbats and legal battles no matter where it went. But they didn’t need New York all that badly, and pulling out this fast makes it clear to other cities that Amazon plays hardball. If they decide to relocate their HQ2 to, say, Chicago, you can bet that the City of Broad Shoulders will tread very lightly before letting complaints get out of hand.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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