[ad_1]
Breaking News Emails
Receive last minute alerts and special reports. News and stories that matter, delivered in the morning on weekdays.
By Daniella Silva
Amazon remains a hot topic in New York.
Dozens of community groups on Friday criticized elected officials and corporate executives who urged Amazon to rethink its plan to overthrow the construction project of a New York headquarters.
The groups issued a statement in response to a full-page ad published Friday by The New York Times newspaper and asking executives and executives to invite Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, to review its project to create the headquarters.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said Thursday at a press conference that he had "a lot of conversations" with Amazon and hoped that he would reconsider his withdrawal, but "until now, we we have seen no change in their position ".
The governor has aggressively pursued the company, including a personal speech in Bezos and phone calls to other leaders over the last two weeks, according to a newspaper article in the newspaper on Thursday.
"Cuomo's call to Amazon to return to New York and the open letter that appears today in the New York Times do not accurately reflect the desires of immigrant communities, communities of the class." workers and communities of color, "he added. organizations said on the Friday medium blogging site.
"Amazon left the first time because of fierce vocal opposition and this opposition remains," they said. "We defeated them recently and we will do it again."
Corbin Trent, director of communications of Alexandria representative Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Criticized the elected representatives who sought to change the ideas of Bezos. Ocasio-Cortez, whose district is adjacent to the neighborhood where the siege was built, was an opponent declared on the plan.
"If elected officials spend half as much time talking to the community as they do to Jeff Bezos, we might have reached an agreement," Trent said in a statement to NBC News on Friday.
The Make the Road New York defense group, which also signed the joint response, issued its own statement Thursday criticizing the alleged actions of the governor.
"Andrew Cuomo must stop crawling from companies and billionaires and start listening to our communities, who overwhelmingly reject this deal," the group said.
The letter published in the Times, paid for by the nonprofit Partnership for New York City, states that Cuomo "will assume personal responsibility for the project's approval by the government" and that Mayor Bill Blasio "will work with the governor to manage the community development."
Cuomo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
De Blasio, who initially supported the deal, but later criticized the retailer for his canceled plans, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the mayor told the New York Times that de Blasio was aware of the preparation of the open letter.
On February 14, Amazon announced that it was abandoning its plans to build the headquarters in the Long Island City district of Queens after protests and the rapid opposition of some politicians, including the Ocasio-Cortez representative. as well as unions and community groups.
A coalition of activists and policy makers in Virginia has since followed suit, calling for the rejection of Amazon's plan to build a new headquarters in Arlington.
By the time he pulled out of New York, Amazon blamed local officials and elected officials who "opposed our presence and would not work with us."
Many activists feared that the project would aggravate congestion in the area and lead to gentrification and rising housing prices. They also criticized the $ 3 billion in incentives offered to businesses by states and cities.
Proponents of the agreement underscored Amazon's promise to create 25,000 jobs in New York, making it a leading technology center.
[ad_2]
Source link