Queens and Arlington Must Unite Against the Threat of Amazon HQ2
Unless you’ve been living under a rock in the Marianas trench, you’re probably aware that Amazon has announced the site of it’s new headquarters HQ2 (shoutout to these tech geniuses and their really original names for things!) The proposed sites for the space is the Crystal City in Arlington, VA, and Long Island City in Queens, New York.
The HQ2 sweepstakes were framed as a fun competition between cities to see who could throw the most money at the richest man in the world. After months of intrigue and extracting billions of dollars in concessions from politicians parched to do the bidding of a multibillion dollar corporation, Amazon surprised everyone by choosing 2 locations where they will be showered in tax breaks, reshape neighborhoods and get twice as many Senators to fight against antitrust laws.
The announcement was met with excitement by people who decided to give the company billions of dollars in tax cuts to move to two cities that probably need Amazon the least. It even got Bill DeBlasio and Andrew Cuomo to agree on a thing! As we all know, companies never move to the DC or NY areas, and that’s why we had to give Amazon nearly $2 billion for them to chose Crystal City and LIC.
I’m not excited. And, by the looks of it, a lot of people aren’t either. The billions in tax breaks given to Amazon are near criminal, the 50,000 employees they’re going to import into these rapidly gentrifying cities are going to overload the already collapsing public infrastructure and Queens is paying for a helipad so that’s also fun.
As a resident of Arlington and someone who has lived in DC for four years, I’m furious about Amazon moving to Crystal City, which will intensify the already rapid gentrification wiping out swaths of the metro area. As someone born and raised in Queens, I’m furious because this is going to intensify the rapid gentrification wiping out swaths of my hometown. (Also like, how am I supposed to afford an apartment in either place when I’m competing with 50,000 tech bros with six figure salaries, but I digress.)
I’m not going to write about the potentially devastating effects of Amazon moving to both cities. A lot of ink has been spilled on that by people much smarter than me, and quite honestly writing about how bad Amazon is would probably be enough content for a book (Some highlights though: Amazon supports ICE, killed an affordable housing bill in Seattle and has a history of treating workers poorly.) But I wanted to address what it will take to meaningfully resist Amazon taking over the NYC and DMV areas.
Coordinating Resistance
Since the announcement, there’s been a spirited resistance, especially in New York, to Amazon coming and and taking public money to further enrich Jeff Bezos. Community leaders, politicians and the general public have generally reacted with disgust to stunts like “Amazon” Cuomo…well, doing that, and the Empire State Building glowing orange (I mean seriously, you can’t get the Empire State Building glowing orange for anything but the Knicks, you got me excited that Kristaps was coming back or something.) They’re also probably ticked because Gov. Cuomo suggested that the deal might not have to go through City Council. In Virginia, Rep. Lee Carter has been vocal about the Amazon deal, and community groups in the DC area are ramping up campaigns to resist the coming behemoth.
Protesting against the invasion of a tech monopoly in your backyard is great, and fully encouraged. However, seeing as how Amazon just fooled like 200 cities into promising billions in tax breaks, changing entire neighborhoods into company towns and got a mayor to write 1000 five star reviews on random items (instead of… governing), it’s probably not enough to just say no Amazon in LIC or Crystal City (excuse me, National Landing.)
Here’s a scenario, Amazon decides it’s not worth the trouble to move into either Queens or Arlington and just chooses one. This would be a catastrophe for the city that Amazon chooses! They could hold the city over a barrel until they get exactly what they want again, under threat of packing up and going somewhere else. We don’t want to set off another HQ2 sweepstakes, where politicians will willingly toss away taxpayer money to fund Jeff Bezos most dangerous game fantasies (idk, what else do you do with $137 billion dollars.) What we need to do is end the precedent of “smokestack chasing,” and put an end to subsidizing corporations that should be using their billions of dollars to fund badly needed projects like fixing the subway/Metro and housing people. It’s a good thing that people are rising up in Queens and Arlington, but we can’t afford the opposite of an HQ2 competition — two communities competing against each other to burden the other with Amazon.
What we need is cooperation, instead of competition. Queens and Arlington need to coordinate efforts to resist. It’s the only way we stop Amazon from turning [Insert ANY city here] into a tech millionaires playplace. There was one attempt to do this during the HQ2 competition, when several city council members from finalist cities united in a call to end the madness of giving Amazon tax breaks to lure the company. That obviously didn’t work, but it was the only attempt to get Amazon to work for the cities it’s trying to move to, rather than the other way around.
I don’t think I’m the right person to offer a clear path forward. If we’re being completely honest, I’m mostly writing this to vent. However, there’s tons of resources to plug into in your backyard. I just want to stress that, whatever you get involved in, I hope you’re a voice that will connect the struggles of these two cities I call home to resist a tech behemoth that’s going to price me and countless others out of both.
In Queens
There’s been resistance from local politicians, including some that supported Amazon coming to Queens in the past. Trusting politicians in general is not an advisable strategy, but it’s good to know if your local reps are working for you rather than Jeff Bezos. I’m putting together a spreadsheet to gauge politicians stances on the issue of HQ2 here.
The Working Families Party is petitioning against the billions in tax giveaways.
Queens Neighborhoods United is completely opposed to the project, released a statement in opposition and is organizing against the project.
Resist Amazon — Long Island City Community Forum, on December 10. Hosted by NYC Democratic Socialists of America
Join this Community Action Group to get updates on the campaign to resist Amazon
The Queens Anti-Gentrification Project has been really on point with the movement to fight against Amazon
Obviously, Queens is a borough of 2.7 million people and it’s hard to tabulate all the different groups and individuals mobilizing against Amazon. Plug into wherever you can!
In Arlington
Here’s that spreadsheet of politicians again.
No Deal with Amazon: Speaking to the Arlington County Board, on November 19. I believe this is being hosted by Our Revolution Northern Virginia.
Presumably, if New York DSA is part of the campaign to resist Amazon, Metro DC DSA will probably be doing the same in the area, thought that’s just a hunch based on past actions.
Again, there’s a really good chance I’m not even scratching the surface of organizations and individuals that are mobilizing against Amazon, especially at this early stage. Hopefully, this list will continue to grow as more people become aware of the potential effects of Amazon in their neighborhoods.
