<story><title>It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/technology/nyc-tech-startups.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>code4tee</author><text>The backlash was mostly about the tax breaks and government subsidies that would have been given. The argument was that New York is New York and doesn’t need to bribe companies to put big offices here.</text></item><item><author>TuringNYC</author><text>I realize the anti-Amazon movement was a limited (but loud) group of individuals, but if their level of influence has lasting power, NYC tech is in trouble.&lt;p&gt;Consider NYTimes&amp;#x27; own article on the amazon exit. Half the people angry at Amazon were commenting that Amazon wasn&amp;#x27;t going to pay living wages (thinking that corporate HQ2 jobs are fulfillment jobs.) The other half were angry that Amazon was going to pay &lt;i&gt;too much&lt;/i&gt; and would drive up rents. &lt;i&gt;Which one is it?&lt;/i&gt; I don&amp;#x27;t know, but both sides banded together.&lt;p&gt;One major issue AOC had with Amazon was the fear that Amazon couldn&amp;#x27;t guarantee they would only be hiring local NYers  -- since when did NYC become a country? Where could&amp;#x2F;couldnt workers come from -- would it be only from Queens? Would Brooklyn be OK? What if someone commuted from NJ? What if someone commuted down from the suburb? At what point does someone who moves to NYC become a NYer? This type of in-city protectionism was shocking and completely ignores how local economies work.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vonmoltke</author><text>&amp;gt; The backlash was mostly about the tax breaks and government subsidies that would have been given.  The argument was that New York is New York and doesn’t need to bribe companies to put big offices here.&lt;p&gt;If that is the case, where are the calls to end the Industrial &amp;amp; Commercial Abatement Program[1], the Relocation and Employment Assistance Program[2], and the Excelsior Jobs Program[3]?  That is where the vast majority of the credits came from.  The backlash was because it was &lt;i&gt;Amazon&lt;/i&gt; that wanted to take advantage of those programs, and do so after that ridiculous and condescending dog-and-pony show they called a search.&lt;p&gt;Now, some subset of opposition surely is from people who think no company that wants to build a large complex in LIC with 25,000 employees deserves billions in subsidies.  If that is the case, those people need to work against the root causes and stop acting like this $3B package was some special deal for Amazon.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www1.nyc.gov&amp;#x2F;site&amp;#x2F;finance&amp;#x2F;benefits&amp;#x2F;benefits-industrial-and-commercial-abatement-program-icap.page&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www1.nyc.gov&amp;#x2F;site&amp;#x2F;finance&amp;#x2F;benefits&amp;#x2F;benefits-industri...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www1.nyc.gov&amp;#x2F;site&amp;#x2F;finance&amp;#x2F;benefits&amp;#x2F;business-reap.page&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www1.nyc.gov&amp;#x2F;site&amp;#x2F;finance&amp;#x2F;benefits&amp;#x2F;business-reap.pag...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;esd.ny.gov&amp;#x2F;excelsior-jobs-program&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;esd.ny.gov&amp;#x2F;excelsior-jobs-program&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>It Started With a Jolt: How New York Became a Tech Town</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/technology/nyc-tech-startups.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>code4tee</author><text>The backlash was mostly about the tax breaks and government subsidies that would have been given. The argument was that New York is New York and doesn’t need to bribe companies to put big offices here.</text></item><item><author>TuringNYC</author><text>I realize the anti-Amazon movement was a limited (but loud) group of individuals, but if their level of influence has lasting power, NYC tech is in trouble.&lt;p&gt;Consider NYTimes&amp;#x27; own article on the amazon exit. Half the people angry at Amazon were commenting that Amazon wasn&amp;#x27;t going to pay living wages (thinking that corporate HQ2 jobs are fulfillment jobs.) The other half were angry that Amazon was going to pay &lt;i&gt;too much&lt;/i&gt; and would drive up rents. &lt;i&gt;Which one is it?&lt;/i&gt; I don&amp;#x27;t know, but both sides banded together.&lt;p&gt;One major issue AOC had with Amazon was the fear that Amazon couldn&amp;#x27;t guarantee they would only be hiring local NYers  -- since when did NYC become a country? Where could&amp;#x2F;couldnt workers come from -- would it be only from Queens? Would Brooklyn be OK? What if someone commuted from NJ? What if someone commuted down from the suburb? At what point does someone who moves to NYC become a NYer? This type of in-city protectionism was shocking and completely ignores how local economies work.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>TuringNYC</author><text>They definitely didn&amp;#x27;t need to bribe Amazon. There was a time to argue against that. &lt;i&gt;True leadership&lt;/i&gt; would have been to have these protests when the incentives package was put together, not later when we already bagged the win and would lose everything.</text></comment>