- About a fifth of households are in poverty
- Amazon
- New York
- HQ2
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Amazon’s sprawling Long Island City HQ2 plans are displacing plans to build affordable housing for low-income residents
Many New York residents are worried about how the HQ2 will affect their city, particularly the quality of life for low- and middle-income people.
Since Amazon announced this week that they will locate one of their HQ2 offices in Long Island City, many New Yorkers have fretted about how an influx of 25,000 highly compensated Amazon employees will change their city.
"The fact that massive public subsidies are helping eliminate affordable housing units is just the latest reason this bad deal needs to be torn up and thrown away," state Sen. Michael Gianaris, who represents Long Island City, told Politico Pro.
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Developer TF Cornerstone also planned to build on what's now part of Amazon's HQ2 site. That negates at least 250 affordable housing units in Long Island City in an apartment building that would have had 1,000 residences.
These moves echo concerns that low-income Long Island City residents have already voiced.
"What are they going to do for the community? Are they going to guarantee us employment opportunities?" April Simpson, the president of Queensbridge Tenants Association, told the Times. "I’m worried about, when they come, they're not going to have opportunities for people. Not just people from Queensbridge — but other lower- and middle-income people in this area."
Read the entire Politico Pro article here.
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