Lesson from Barclays Center Deal: Good Riddance to Amazon

The Amazon Deal was a bust before it left the room filled with political cronies, and real estate lobbyists. The backdoor deals made by our Mayor and Governor were brokered with half truths, political favors and media acrobats. The sell or pitch is a age old ploy: promise jobs in depressed communities, economic opportunities for small and minority own businesses and create an economic boom for the city/state economy- all for a cost of $3.6 billion.

As New Yorkers we heard this pitch before and in the words of Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg in reference to candidate Trump, “as a New Yorker I know a con artist when I see one.” New Yorkers know a con when they see one

The Barclays Center Deal is a reminder of the smoke and mirror approach that politicians and corporate piranhas use to dupe citizens into destroying its own community and undermining depressed communities for corporate greed and more insidiously to shift the political power in the borough through gentrification.

Jobs were a central feature of the Barclays campaign Ratner launched in 2003 to remake the 22 acres surrounding the Atlantic Terminal yards between Flatbush and Vanderbilt; “Jobs, Housing, Hoops,” went the slogan for a pro-arena group that demonstrated in support of the project. And they got their way.

Today, hundreds of Barclays Center employees are struggling just to survive in New York City. About 300 of the arena’s approximately 2,500 employees work full time. Ushers and security guards, who typically make $12 to $15 an hour, very rarely get benefits like health insurance. Food vendors at Barclays Center, find it difficult to get the hours needed to qualify for basic benefits.

Small minority black business owners promised a home in the Center after selling their property soon found out that this promise would never be kept. The initial agreement with Barclays when it opened in 2012 was that as the arena built up business, it would provide good jobs for hundreds of people in the immediate community and around the city, with an understanding that there would be a substantial core crew of ushers, ticket takers, security and other facilities workers, who would have good jobs to support their families, with the ability to raise their pay rates and have access to benefits — including health insurance. The reality is most Barclays Center employees work part-time jobs with few benefits and have to work two to three jobs to live in the community they call home for decades.

Similar to the Barclays Deal, the Amazon deal would have reportedly supposedly generated at least 25,000 jobs over the next decade—with an average salary of $150,000. Another 1,300 jobs were in the pipeline for construction and some 107,000 in total direct and indirect jobs were anticipated.

So let’s speak of these 25,000 jobs promised. Similar to Barclays whose management looks nothing like the community residents, it is highly unlikely that many of Queensbridge residents would be hired for many of the top tier jobs. Amazon’s U.S. race and ethnicity numbers are similarly white dominated. Overall its U.S. workforce is 60 percent white but this rises to 71 percent of U.S. managers. Although 15 percent of the U.S. Amazon workforce is black, Just 4 percent of U.S. Amazon managers are black. Amazon’s business has a large number of warehouse fulfillment jobs and that a relatively large proportion of its workforce are black and hispanic employed in these less well paid, lower skilled roles. Claiming the the average job pays $150,000 is disingenuous to say the least. Calculating the average salary of $150,000 depends on the salary range. Hiring resident for $35,000 a year which is barely enough to sustain a family and bringing in mid and senior management staff from out of state or other boroughs at $250,000 a year will give you an average salary of $150,000. The pitch of $150,000 was carefully nuanced as ‘average’ but it a great sell to a depressed community. Giving them hope then throw pennies at them as it’s better than nothing is the attitude.

For the construction jobs, though their is a bidding process and a policy that direct companies to hire minority own businesses there are ways to skirt around awarding blacks and Latinos companies lucrative contracts. Nevertheless these jobs are often temporary and many of these companies are notorious in their treatment of unemployed blacks and Hispanics. Workers are often paid off the books, underpaid or are victims of wage theft. Without a union they are vulnerable to these unscrupulous hiring practices.

The remaining 107,000 in direct and indirect jobs are often seasonal, temporary work or low wage jobs which do not help lift people out of poverty.

Compound the piss poor job prospects for the community residents another piranha in the deal are greedy real estate developers who have already began to build, buy up property and poise a real threat to the residents of Queensbridge. The majority of the new jobs proposed will not be enough to cover the rising rent, food prices and other conveniences in the community. New schools may likely be built or improved as the neighborhood begin to change but not for the benefit of Queensbridge residents.

Amazon is a corporate piranha. It pays zero in federal taxes and yet corrupt or naive pols want to give $3.6 bil from the taxes we have to pay to Amazon. Take it from Brooklynites duped by Barclays false promises this deal was all smoke and mirrors. Real New Yorkers know a con artist when we see one.