Measuring impact of Amazon projects
Protesters rally against Amazon's plan for second headquarters in Long Island City in January 2019. Credit: Charles Eckert
Regarding Victor Ocasio’s article “Amazon’s NYC exit: 1 year later” [News, Feb. 17], I believe the industrial development agencies have been ripping off local governments for years. In return for tax givebacks, companies promise to provide a specific level of employment money for local people, only to fail to live up to their end of the bargain. Without audits to check compliance, businesses get away with this cheating.
Local governments cannot be relied upon to enforce the agreements.
That’s why I applauded when protesters forced Amazon to abandon striking a rip-off with New York City. The forgiveness of $3 billion in taxes was to be justified by “an estimated” 25,000 new jobs. That doesn’t sound like a good deal to me.
Kevin Law, president and chief executive of the Long Island Association; other proponents of IDAs; and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio can complain all they want. New York City should be an object lesson to Nassau and Suffolk counties: Do not be beguiled by the promises of “possible jobs” offered by the companies. They’re blowing smoke.
Tell them to take their IDAs and scram.
Robert Boos,
Plainview
Enough suburban whining about Amazon. Queens is not Nassau County. Unlike Nassau, a majority of city residents are renters. Looking at the Virginia area that Amazon chose, property values have shot up. New York is expensive enough, but a run-up in costs would result in housing becoming even less affordable. Nassau would be the beneficiary of property value increases at the expense of New York City renters.
The Queens site would have added 25,000 riders to overcrowded trains and subways. I wonder how area residents would feel about traffic problems if the Carle Place Amazon warehouse site goes ahead as planned. It is a half-mile from the intersection of Glen Cove and Old Country roads, one of the county’s busiest intersections.
Finally, Amazon is slowly having staff trickle into New York City (as is Google) without tax breaks. I’m curious whether Nassau will be giving tax breaks for the Carle Place facility to a company that usually pays nothing in federal taxes.
Tony Smolenski,
Little Neck
