Partnership NYC prez: ‘Not all New Yorkers’ oppose Amazon

Kathryn Wylde, the president of Partnership NYC, said the open letter she and other business, labor and union leaders sent to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos makes the point that not all New Yorkers opposed the online retail giant’s plan to build a second headquarters in Queens.

“We wanted to express to Amazon and Jeff Bezos that it’s not all New Yorkers who are giving them a hard time,” Wylde told John Catsimatidis Sunday on his AM 970 radio show. “We wanted to make one last-ditch effort: Can we get them to rethink and come back and work with us rather than leave us in the lurch?”

Wylde, who signed the letter that ran last month in the New York Times along with around 80 business owners and local officials, said the state and the city provided a number of financial incentives to lure the tech giant to Long Island City.

“Remember, if they don’t come, we get nothing. It’s a total loss,” she said. “There’s a fundamental fear that is driving this political hysteria. Some people are taking advantage of it … for political reasons. But I think the fear is real and we all have to do a better job of addressing that.”

Amazon abruptly announced on Feb. 14 that it was pulling out of a deal brokered by Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio to build a second headquarters – known as HQ2 – because of strident local opposition to the plan.

Opponents of the deal argued that the state and city were giving away billions of dollars in incentives to a company run by the world’s richest person and that the project would drive low-income residents out of Long Island City because of rising rents.

Since then, Cuomo and de Blasio have reached out to Bezos to reconsider.

Wylde said like other cities across the country, New York has to sweeten the pot to entice companies to locate their business – and jobs – here.

“I think people do not understand our economic development programs very well,” she said. “We have very high taxes in New York. If we’re going to attract big investment, big commitments of jobs from firms that are used to operating in an environment that is not as highly taxed, we’re going to have to give them some incentive.”

“What Amazon got is no different than what many, many other companies get all the time, particularly if they’re moving into one of the outer boroughs,” Wylde added.

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