Seattle officials warn NYC on effects of Amazon project

KRISTA GMELICH AND SPENCER SOPER

Two politicians from Seattle, home of Amazon.com’s headquarters, traveled across the country to New York to deliver a cautionary message about the company’s expansion in the city.

Lisa Herbold and Teresa Mosqueda, members of the Seattle City Council, are urging elected officials in New York to pass legislation that will address potential housing and transportation issues in the wake of Amazon’s decision to build a new campus in Queens. Both spoke Monday at an event hosted by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union,

● which has been backing efforts to organize workers at an Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island.

“I hope they can learn from Seattle’s experiences and create a set of new expectations for corporate responsibility that can benefit the working poor who work for Amazon and other people priced out of housing in high cost cities everywhere,” Herbold said in an emailed statement ahead of the event.

Amazon announced in November a major expansion in Arlington, Va., and in Queens’ Long Island City neighborhood. In New York, Amazon would spend about $2.5 billion to create an 8.5 million-square-foot campus on the East River waterfront facing Manhattan. In return, the Internet giant is set to receive almost $3 billion worth of state and city incentives.

While estimates say Amazon could generate more than $27.5 billion in additional tax revenue for the city over 25 years, local politicians and community activists have already come out against the deal. Opponents fear that the high salaries promised by Amazon and an influx of as many as 40,000 employees eventually will push out residents in one of the city’s fastest-growing neighborhoods and lead to even more congestion in the already overburdened subway system.

A representative for Amazon could not immediately be reached for comment.

Amazon’s pitch to cities that wanted to be the site of its expansion highlighted the company’s economic contribution to Seattle as a selling point. However, there is a growing backlash against Amazon in Seattle, where the company’s turbocharged growth has exacerbated traffic and led to skyrocketing housing prices. Meanwhile, homelessness has reached crisis levels.

Last year, the Seattle City Council reversed a tax on workers after a public rebuke from the e-commerce giant. Earlier, the council had unanimously approved the tax of $275 per employee in an effort to combat rising homelessness.

Mosqueda was one of two council members who later opposed the repeal.

“This isn’t about being anti-growth or anti-corporation. It’s about corporate accountability and shared responsibility,” Mosqueda said in an interview with Bloomberg News ahead of the event. “These companies do well because of our workforce and infrastructure, and they’ll continue to do well if they invest in that infrastructure.”

Mosqueda said New York must act now with new taxes to generate revenue that will be needed for affordable housing.

She also cautioned against letting philanthropic gestures be considered adequate to address complex and costly problems of housing and transportation.

Politicians in New York, including City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., have already expressed anger over the secret negotiations that led to the Amazon deal. Still, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said New York’s incentive offer was lower than that of many cities and states, including neighboring Newark, N.J., and that the city and state would be getting a 9-to-1 return on investment.

New York’s City Council has few, if any, tools to block Amazon’s deal in Long Island City, although its lawyers may file a lawsuit challenging the deal, which could slow the project’s progress. A $505 million state grant that’s part of the Amazon subsidy package may require unanimous approval of the state’s five-member Public Authorities Control Board, which oversees capital spending. And it’s possible that Democrats who control the state Legislature could block that payment. Cuomo has challenged the assertion that the payment requires board approval, and the issue may wind up in court.