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Jeff Bezos appears as your typical and progressive white billionaire. He is brilliant, he has business acumen and uses his fortune to support liberal causes – sometimes. Thus, at first glance, the announcement that his company, Amazon, would build a second headquarters in Long Island City (LIC), a district of the New York neighborhood of Queens, would seem to be a good thing. First, it means that Amazon will generate 25,000 jobs in New York and help fuel the city's local economy. But who will really benefit from this move? Let's break it down.
The promise
Amazon says the average salary of workers at its new headquarters (HQ2) will be $ 150,000. However, the agreement does not guarantee or stipulate that these jobs will go to the premises. In addition, given the technological diversity performance of the technology industry, there is reason to be skeptical about the number of people of color who will actually occupy these six-digit positions. On the other hand, administrative badistants and maintenance workers will earn much less, which will prevent them from living in the LIC region, where one-bedroom apartments located in an older building rent more $ 2,000 a month. while rents in the new LIC towers cost more than $ 3,000 a month.
As part of the deal, Amazon will hire unionized construction workers to build its offices. The tech giant also promises to host events at Queensbridge Houses, the country's largest social housing projects, located nearby. These events include job fairs and workshops, as well as a workforce development program. This is commendable, but it turns out that New York taxpayers will fund the majority of these initiatives. According to the agreement, Amazon will invest $ 5 million in programs, while $ 10 million will come from city and state revenues. In addition, Queensbridge tenants deserve more than vague promises of job fairs that will not necessarily give them the opportunity to compete with the lucrative Amazon jobs.
The global giant is also committed to hiring women and outsourcing minority-owned businesses, but again, there is little information on the exact investments.
Reality
The announcement of the construction of QG2 in New York sparked a frenzy of retaliation and protests from residents of Long Island City and surrounding neighborhoods who fear they will soon be released from their homes. Following the announcement of the transaction, real estate speculators began buying properties, which will further increase rents. It also signals an exacerbation of gentrification in the region, which disproportionately affects black and brown communities. Not only will this likely increase the cost of living in the neighborhood, but Head Office 2 will also replace the city's original plan to build 1,500 affordable housing units.
A similar situation occurred when Amazon built its headquarters in Seattle, Washington, in 2013. In the space of five years, the influx of white techie broos has led to a soaring rents and housing values and accelerated the homelessness crisis. To make matters worse, the $ 1 trillion company helped eliminate a business tax that would have been used to generate revenue to fight the epidemic.
In addition to this, the New York Accord has been configured in secrecy without public participation. As a result, New Yorkers had no influence on the fact that the state and the city gave Amazon a $ 2.8 billion incentive package to attract Big Apple. It is billions of dollars in subsidies that could otherwise have been invested in public schools, social housing, or the city's ruined public transit system.
New York has a population of 8.6 million. Only a small percentage of city-dwellers and transplant recipients will get high-income jobs at headquarters 2. Meanwhile, for the rest of us – good luck finding a place on train 7, while Bezos will fly high in a heliport financed by taxes.
To learn more about the impact of Amazon's QG2 on New York City, click here.
The ideas and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and not necessarily the opinion of Black Enterprise.
Selena Hill
Selena Hill is the digital publisher of Black Enterprise and an award-winning multimedia journalist. She is also the founder and co-host of "Let Your Voice Be Heard!", A political podcast that adds a pinch of trap music, Beyonce, and spicy sauce to unseasoned news.
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