Feeling lucky

Acity that’s 473,000 jobs short of pre-pandemic totals, where swaths of Manhattan’s commercial core remain hollowed out, should be chuffed that one of the world’s most dynamic companies is making a bet on its future. So here’s a heartfelt thanks to Google for spending $2.1 billion to buy the St. John’s Terminal in lower Manhattan, cementing New York as a thriving tech hub for years to come — and staving off the chances that work-from-home will doom business districts into becoming shells of their former selves.

And how fitting it is that the building Google is transforming into a nerve center for the information age used to be the end of the High Line freight railroad that ferried farm produce into the city (and which would much later become a park).

Of course, one can’t mention Google’s new commitment without wincing at the memory of how, more than two-and-a-half years ago, Amazon pulled the plug to put half of its second headquarters and 25,000 or more well-paying jobs in a blighted part of Long

Island City after being slapped around by supposedly progressive pols.

The zealots who chased the tech giant out of town had a pile of incoherent arguments. Among them was that Amazon was pocketing public subsidies — some that it was owed as-of-right, some customized for the online purveyor. Of course, $9 would’ve been returned to the public coffers for every tax dollar foregone.

The anti-Amazon crowd now cites announcements like Google’s as supposed proof that they were right all along: See, New York doesn’t need doesn’t enticements to lure job creators — it’s a natural electromagnet.

Don’t buy it. While there’s nothing wrong with smartly redesigning incentive programs, and while it’s true that Google is foregoing the two for which it qualifies, ICAP and REAP, it has the luxury many businesses don’t. Besides, it is only growing its workforce in the five boroughs marginally, from about 12,000 to 14,000. That’s apples and oranges with a city-changing deal like Amazon’s.