“Amazon wants to make all the rules and weaken democracy in NYC”: Brad Lander on Amazon’s HQ2 deal

Tensions over Amazon’s HQ2 deal have been on a rise in New York ever since Amazon decided to bring 25,000 jobs to a new campus in New York City. Why? Because according to The Guardian:

“Amazon is bad. It is monopolistic. It works its blue-collar and white-collar employees to the bone, prompting frequent exposés of its awful working conditions. New York City is a union town; Amazon is an anti-union company. Its owner should have his immoral hoard of wealth forcibly expropriated by the state before his power grows so great that all of society is warped by it. Jeff Bezos’s money should immediately be put to use helping the public; instead, he cackles from inside his cartoonishly large mansion as cities and states desperately compete to shower his company with the maximum amount of public subsidies, in order to secure a glorified satellite office.”

Last week, after the Washington Post’s article revealed that Amazon could possibly back out of this deal due to political factors, tensions have surfaced among the political masses in New York. However, two people with direct knowledge of the matter acknowledged that the post had “gone too far and Amazon had no plans to back out”.

New York Times reports that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo says, that the project’s political opponents were being unreasonable by not supporting the deal and that the situation is “absurd”. Increasing the pressure on political opponents to accept the idea, the governor has warned that if Amazon did pull out of the deal, the political opponents will face the wrath of voters as tens of thousands of jobs would be at stake.

Cuomo said at a news conference on Long Island, "For the state Senate to oppose Amazon was governmental malpractice, And if they stop Amazon from coming to New York, they're going to have the people of New York state to explain it to. It is irresponsible to allow political opposition to overcome sound government policy."

New York Times reports that according to two people familiar with the deal, Amazon executives have grown increasingly frustrated that the company has not received a positive response in New York as it has received in Virginia and Nashville. Amazon is also riled up because of the selection of an Amazon opponent to a state board with the potential power to make or break the deal.

Brad Lander, NYC council member posted his views about Amazon in a thread on Twitter. He called their alleged decision to back out as ‘threats’ and has stated in very plain words that Amazon doesn't play by NYC’s rules, pay their taxes in full, are not good neighbors, and do not play their part in our democracy. He calls out their business model as “evading taxes from the start”. He further says that “They want to hold all the cards & make all the rules… and destroy democracy”. His thread gives sufficient examples to support his claim against Amazon. Taking a stab at the Governor, he says that “It is not surprising Cuomo is happy to subordinate our democracy to their corporate power and would take part in Amazon’s efforts to bully opponents into silence.”

Citizens have depicted contradictory views on these statements- some in support of Amazon’s deal and some against it.

https://twitter.com/PhilipSundstro3/status/1094455450882445312

https://twitter.com/WillieMitts/status/1094457824292290560

It would be interesting to see the outcome of this public and political backlash on Amazon’s deal in NYC. You can head over to CNBC for more insights on this news.