f{"id":11125,"date":"2019-02-16T10:36:25","date_gmt":"2019-02-16T18:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=11125"},"modified":"2019-02-16T11:09:34","modified_gmt":"2019-02-16T19:09:34","slug":"new-yorks-rejection-of-amazon-could-be-a-turning-point-for-corporate-welfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2019\/02\/16\/new-yorks-rejection-of-amazon-could-be-a-turning-point-for-corporate-welfare\/","title":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s rejection of Amazon could be a turning point for corporate welfare"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Amazon\u2019s HQ2 debacle is the latest sign that the public has gotten wise to corporate subsidies4<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

By Jeff Andrews<\/a>  Feb 14, 2019 (Curbed.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When Amazon announced<\/a> the long-awaited \u201cwinners\u201d of its search for a second headquarters last November, the swift and visceral<\/a> backlash<\/a> from residents and local officials of New York City seemed destined to fizzle with time, just like similar outrage every time a city gives out half a billion dollars to build a stadium<\/a> or lure a manufacturing plant<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this time was different. Amazon endured three months of negative publicity in New York before giving up the $2.8 billion in subsidies<\/a> the state and city offered the company in return for a new campus in Long Island City, a neighborhood in the midst of a development boom<\/a>that\u2019s already the priciest in the borough of Queens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a similar fate has not met Amazon\u2019s other HQ2 location in Crystal City, Virginia,<\/a> and a smaller operations center in Nashville, Tennessee<\/a>\u2014at least not yet\u2014New York\u2019s victory over a company as wealthy and powerful as Amazon will no doubt embolden residents of other cities to rise up the next time an elected officials tries to give a sweetheart deal to a corporate entity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it was no small victory. At the time of the announcement in November, Amazon\u2019s deal with New York stood to become the fifth-largest corporate welfare subsidy in American history, according to a Curbed analysis of data from\u00a0Good Jobs First<\/a>. It would have made Amazon the fifth-highest recipient of corporate welfare behind only Boeing, General Motors, Intel, and Alcoa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n