New Yorkers are surprisingly happy Amazon is moving in
Contrary to what government officials, public protesters, and tweets suggest, New Yorkers would love to have Amazon as their new neighbor.
About a month ago, Amazon announced it would plop one of its massive new headquarters in Long Island City, Queens. And it turns out New York City residents overwhelmingly approve of the deal, 57-26 percent, a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows.
The decision to put one Amazon HQ2 in Queens and another in northern Virginia sparked concerns over how New York's already crumbling transit system would support 25,000 new workers. But that didn't seem to worry the borough's residents, with 60 percent of Queens respondents approving the deal and 26 percent opposing it. They also didn't have a problem with New York enticing Amazon with a few billion dollars in tax incentives, approving of that 55 to 39 percent. Queens and the Bronx largely support the incentives, while Staten Island and Brooklyn are divided. The only borough opposed is Manhattan, where 52 percent of resident oppose the tax breaks and only 39 percent support them.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Some government officials and advocates took issue with New York's leaders paying a multi-billion-dollar company to move in, rather than funding education and public services. Reflecting that, 38 percent of New Yorkers disapproved of how Mayor Bill De Blasio (D) and Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) each handled the Amazon deal, the poll shows. Just 31 percent approved of De Blasio's actions, but another 30 percent said they didn't know.
Quinnipiac surveyed 1,075 New York City voters from Nov. 27 through Dec. 4 with a 3.8 percent margin of error.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
Venezuela: The ‘Donroe doctrine’ takes shapeFeature President Trump wants to impose “American dominance”
-
Giving up the boozeFeature Sobriety is not good for the alcohol industry.
-
Minnesota fraud: Walz takes the hitFeature Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will not seek re-election due to state welfare fraud scandal
-
TikTok secures deal to remain in USSpeed Read ByteDance will form a US version of the popular video-sharing platform
-
Unemployment rate ticks up amid fall job lossesSpeed Read Data released by the Commerce Department indicates ‘one of the weakest American labor markets in years’
-
US mints final penny after 232-year runSpeed Read Production of the one-cent coin has ended
-
Warner Bros. explores sale amid Paramount bidsSpeed Read The media giant, home to HBO and DC Studios, has received interest from multiple buying parties
-
Gold tops $4K per ounce, signaling financial uneaseSpeed Read Investors are worried about President Donald Trump’s trade war
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B dealspeed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
