Hempstead Councilwoman To Amazon: Ditch NYC, Come To LI

Hempstead Town Councilwoman Erin King Sweeney blasted Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others who have voiced opposition to Amazon bringing its new headquarters, dubbed HQ2, to Long Island City, and instead suggested the tech giant consider relocating to Hempstead Town.

In an open letter to Jeff Bezos, the president and CEO of Amazon, King Sweeney, a Republican and the Majority Leader of the Town Board, said that she fully supports Amazon bringing its HQ2 to New York, and criticized politicians like Ocasio-Cortez for being against the move.

"Recent news reports detailing efforts to undercut this deal and characterzing it as 'immoral' are an incredibly disappointing and sad effort by an extreme ideological group of politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are more concerned with pandering and catering to anti-business special interests than creating the economic development and jobs that our region needs," King Sweeney wrote. "We should reject those who would undermine progress for New York from within."

Amazon held a "contest" starting in 2017 where municipalities from around the country reached out to the tech giant to say why it should locate its new headquarters within their borders. At the end of the year, Amazon chose two locations — Long Island City and Arlington, Virginia — to split the HQ2. Amazon said it would bring 25,000 full-time jobs to the area, plus all of the construction jobs needed to build the headquarters.

But the project has faced harsh criticism from New York City politicians and freshman Democratic Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, mainly for the tax breaks Amazon is receiving as an incentive to build in Queens. The company is receiving just under $3 billion in tax breaks and subsidies to build in New York, something that opponents say is unnecessary for the company, since Bezos is the richest man in the world, valued at $134 billion, according to Bloomberg.

But King Sweeney sees the opposition to the project as hurtful to New York.

"Despite the immense benefits that this deal will offer to New York in economic development, and new job opportunities for young people, ongoing efforts to derail this deal by Socialist politicians have been unrelenting," King Sweeney said in a statement. "These self-destructive efforts will only hurt New York's economy and make it more likely that these young people will continue their exodus from our region."

Long Island made a bid when Amazon was first seeking proposals for its HQ2 location in 2017, but was not chosen by the company.

In the letter to Bezos, the Councilwoman offered him an alternative: if New York City doesn't want you, come to Hempstead Town. She offered up Baldwin as a possible location for Amazon to locate.

"I am proud to represent communities such as Baldwin, a diverse and hardworking hamlet of 24,000 people within a 45 minute train ride from Manhattan," she wrote. "This would be an ideal location for new development and is in the process of ongoing revitalization and zoning reforms."

King Sweeney said that Amazon should not let "political disarray in New York City" stop it from moving into the area, and hopes to see the company consider Hempstead Town.

"Let's all agree that this project is essential for our region and should move forward regardless of these misguided influences," she wrote." As such, I strongly encourage you to consider bringing HQ2 right here to the Town of Hempstead."

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