AOC actively protested against the development, which would have brought thousands of jobs & development to her district.
From The Wall Street Journal:
“While polls show that 70% of New Yorkers support our plans and investment, a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envisioned in Long Island City,” the company said.
The decision to abandon its new headquarters in Long Island City marks a stunning reversal. Amazon spent a year conducting a public search for a second headquarters, in which hundreds of locations vied for a shot at a promised 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in investment.
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Amazon stop its search for another headquarters spot. The company decided to add more more “jobs at its other headquarters location in Northern Virginia, as well as offices in Nashville and other tech hubs around the country.”
It's not about AOC. The people in the neighborhood would've been priced out of their apartments with the gentrification which is why they fought against it.
Can you afford to pay $3,000 for a small one bedroom apartment earning $40,000 salary? That's the situation now without Amazon. The headquarters would have made it much worst.
Now housing in Northern Virginia is becoming unaffordable because of the Amazon move and residents are protesting against the company's arrival. Unless you're in the top 1%, I'm not sure why you hate regular people so much and want to see them driven from their homes.
Maybe there's a good reason for resisting Amazon that we aren't privy to, like demanding huge tax exemptions or something. No clue, and no clues given here.
Amazon is killing jobs and avoiding taxes. They treat their warehouse employees like machines.
More power to left-wing Democrats who are (finally) telling these corporations where to go.
By the way, Jeff Bezos is a liberal. Why the fuck are the defending him? Even Trump has amazingly got a much better stance on this issue thsn you, when he demands higher postal shipping rates (his motives might be self-serving, but I still welcome the policy).
Oh yes, these lefties are telling corporations where to go, so that American citizens can wind up like Venezuelans. Thanks but no thanks. Trump 2020. Pence 2024.
And Amazon is killing jobs and businesses, and avoiding paying corporate taxes.
Still, it bemuses me how much you right-wing zealots are shilling for Amazon seeing how much the world's richest man hates Trump's guts and is using The Washington Post to help push the anti-Trump agenda.
I understand her constituents are beginning to believe she cares more about the national stage than the folks in the Bronx. By the time she's up for re-election, she may have a hard fight on her hands.
“'I thought AOC would be our savior, but that’s not the case,' complained Roxanne Delgado, a local activist who said she has tried for months to get in touch with the congresswoman for help saving an animal shelter and to clean up parks in the district.
"Delgado, 40, says she has made numerous calls to Ocasio-Cortez’s offices in Washington and Queens and sent a barrage of tweets after the freshman lawmaker encouraged residents during a recent visit to a Bronx public library to hit her up on social media.
"But she’s heard nothing back.
"'NO email or contact on @AOC’s page except DC number which has full #voicemail and no one picks up,' Delgado tweeted on Monday.
"The Post made several calls to both the Washington and Queens offices last week. The same recording at both numbers gives Ocasio-Cortez’s website and doesn’t allow callers to leave a message." It then goes on to quote other representative constituents who long for the good old days: "Vitaliano told The Post: 'She has to address these local issues. Her district is everywhere else in the US. Her heart is not in the Bronx.'
"By contrast, he said, residents’ needs received much more attention under Rep. Joe Crowley, whom Ocasio-Cortez unseated in a surprise primary upset last year.
"The longtime congressman’s Bronx district representative, Thomas Messina, regularly attended community board meetings, according to Vitaliano.
I think Joe Crowley and his big money backers want "their" seat back. It's the Post, why would you take them seriously? Go ahead and browse their site. You'll get the idea.
As someone who has a little familiarity with the situation on the ground, those constituents who voted for Crowley have been griping about the result since election day. The people who voted for AOC still love her. Stepping back from her positions, compromising too much to establishment Dems with their wealthy donors, that's pretty much the only way she could lose support.
It's a pretty typical reaction for any district when they send someone to Congress and they obviously use it as a stepping stone to a national post. I'm sure she's hoping that the Dems get in soon, and she'll be given a powerful place in the next cabinet. I think she'll be surprised that if a Dem does get in, she's going to be locked out. It's like when Tina Turner fired one of her back-up singers for moves that were cooler than hers. "I didn't hire her to be the star," Tina said. Well, anyone who gets her in their cabinet would know she'd do what she's always done -- everything she can to make it all about her. In Washington, it's actually it's all about serving your constituency, and being a team player.
Anyone in Congress is difficult to get hold of. All you have to do is look at what a typical Representaive's schedule is like, if they actually want to show up for votes and stuff like that, i.e. do their job. I had an issue with the bank that holds my mortgage a few years back and my Rep's office helped straighten it out (it's amazing what a mere letter from a member of Congress will do for an obstinate bureaucrat's attitude) but it took a while for him to get back to me. That was hardly his fault.
You can always find a few disgruntled customers who can't understand these sorts of things. But I suspect any real noise is coming from Crowley's supporters who were never happy about the election results. Amplified by the business interests (corporate media included) who want him back. Can't understand why regular people would support the guy myself. Joe Crowley took huge amounts of money from wealthy donors and always voted their way like a good little dog. He was all but impossible to contact, and hardly even bothered to campaign - as if that seat were his birthright. One less political slickster in DC. What a loss!
I'm telling you, AOC's supporters love the way she goes toe-to-toe with Trump, Fox News, and people like Nancy Pelosi within the Democratic Party - those who like the money fueled status quo and want it to continue. As long as she sticks to her guns, she can do no wrong with the base of supporters who put her there.
The people in the district weren't happy with Rep. Joe Crowley or Ocasio-Cortez wouldn't have been able to beat him. He took them for granted and cared more about taking money from real estate interests who made housing in the area unaffordable. He's also a liar who said he wouldn't run in the general election.
For whatever reason, Republicans are obsessed with her which is why she constantly makes national news.
Jeff Bezos is a poster boy for everything that's wrong with corporate culture. If you work at an Amazon facility, you're nothing but a robot made of flesh. Employees aren't allowed to speak to each other on the floor. If you take longer than average in the bathroom, you get hassled over it. If it takes you longer to carry out a task than they think it should, you get hassled over it. They make you wear a bracelet that not only records your location but tracks your hand movements so they know exactly how much time you spend loading or unloading, pushing a palette, or standing with your hand by your side. Christ, Bezos had to be shamed into paying workers $15/hr to labor in his dystopian sweatshop.
Whenever he moves into a new area he practically forces the local government to bend down and kiss his ring. Give me a list of perks for coming to your city. You've got two minutes to convince me. My time is valuable.
Before anyone who's overly literal "corrects" me, the exact conversation I just described never happened. But that kind of spoiled Hollywood director mentality - that's our Jeffrey. This was an HQ remember. Company bigwigs and middle management from all over the world would've been relocated there. As he's done so many other places, the number of jobs he promises to create for local residents will fall well short. And no one will hold him to account. They never do. The part of the city where he sets up will gentrify big time. People who have lived there all their lives will be priced out and forced to move. Look at San Fransisco if you want a cautionary tale of where this leads.
So if Amazon doesn't even want to make a significant net contribution to the city with their taxes we want them here ... why, exactly? So people from out of town can come and have a job? So Amazon's profits can continue to skyrocket? It's not like this company doesn't have a history. I feel guilty whenever I order something from them, because I know how unethical they are. Some things are almost impossible to get elsewhere though. Including stuff they used to carry in stores but no longer do.