Most New Yorkers Say Amazon HQ2 Loss Is Bad, Poll Claims

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — Most New Yorkers say Amazon cancelling plans for a Long Island City headquarters was bad for the state, a new poll claims.

Sixty-seven percent of voters said it was bad for New York that Amazon decided not to build a second headquarters in Long Island City, according to a Siena College poll released Monday. The poll surveyed 700 voters registered in New York state.

The poll question read: Last month Amazon cancelled its plans - announced in November - to build a second headquarters in Long Island City in Queens. Do you think it was good for New York or bad for New York that Amazon cancelled its plans to build a new headquarters in Queens?

“While some may have celebrated Amazon’s announcement to pull the plug, the vast majority of New Yorkers of every stripe thought it was bad for the Empire State," Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said. "There is an overwhelming feeling that its cancellation was bad for the state."

Higher earners were likelier to say the Amazon cancellation was bad, the poll found. Three-quarters of voters making more than $100,000 said losing Amazon was bad for the state, compared to 58 percent of voters earning less than $50,000.

A third of voters saw local activists in Queens as a villain in the Amazon HQ2 saga, according to the poll.

Leaders from advocacy groups Make the Road New York, New York Communities for Change and ALIGN challenged the poll's findings.

“This new Siena poll fails to capture the real villain here: Amazon, and the fact that its harmful impact goes far beyond its HQ2 plan. Just last week news reports revealed the outrageous working conditions at Amazon with workers even having ‘suicide tendencies’," they said in a joint statement.