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Most new Yorkers supported the project even when told about the subsidies. It's a vocal minority that sank the project https://www.wsj.com/articles/majority-of

by bko 8y ago

Most new Yorkers supported the project even when told about the subsidies. It's a vocal minority that sank the project https://www.wsj.com/articles/majority-of-new-yorkers-support-amazon-project-in-queens-new-poll-shows-11549967400 https://www.wsj.com/articles/majority-of-new-yorkers-support...

jcranberry 8y ago
How about New Yorkers who lived in Queens?
- sammycdubs 8y ago
  I live in LIC and I've not met anyone who supported it, especially the $3BN of incentives. No wonder Gianaris, who represents our district in the NY Senate, was such a strong opponent.
  - rhegart 8y ago
    Majority of the incentives are from Amazon’s taxes. 27B in economic activity for 3B in tax breaks for just 10 years is wayyy better than almost every other corporate deal. Better than Tesla for sure. That 3B will no longer be generated. You want a net 24B or a net 0B? New Yorkers chose 0
    - wolco 8y ago
      Other businesses can move into those spaces and will end up paying more in taxes. Property values will go up slower. Having one company move in sounds great but diversity might be a better longterm strategy.
      - smsm42 8y ago
        > Other businesses can move into those spaces and will end up paying more in taxes The first is likely, the second is very unlikely. For the simple reason that Amazon would not plan such project in a market that is so hot that is able to generate tax income at the same rate as concentrated investment project of the Amazon HQ size. Surely, it won't turn into a barren wasteland, but I would not expect it to produce more in tax revenue than big development like Amazon HQ would.
        Apocryphon 8y ago
        Time will tell.
    - Q6T46nT668w6i3m 8y ago
      Except it isn’t 0. It’s far from 0! LIC’s growth is really impressive without Amazon.
      - Androider 8y ago
        The waterfront is slowly getting nicer, but as soon as you go even a few blocks inwards it's still sketchy and/or industrial. An anchor like Amazon HQ would have had a ripple effect of improving the whole area (like maybe we could finally get a decent grocery store? It's cheaper to take the train into Manhattan and go to Whole Foods than visiting the local LIC Food Cellar and Key Food markets!), especially the more eastern neighborhoods within walking distance, which really aren't seeing much of any development today.
        betterunix2 8y ago
        I guess the huge Citigroup office does not count? Also when last I looked a bunch of high rises were going up near Sunnyside Yard which is pretty far from the waterfront. When I was 16 LIC was a pretty sketchy place, but as of a few years ago when I lived there it was completely different. There is still some light industry related to food trucks and taxi cabs, but you have to walk pretty far to get to anything more significant. The only sketchy area I can think of is the Queensbridge projects but that is north of the 59th st. bridge and pretty far from the rest of the neighborhood.
        jtms 8y ago
        I know the Key Foods you are talking about - I used to live nearby it roughly 10 years ago. I can’t believe that it’s still really the only choice. Something is holding back LIC’s development to where it doesn’t seem to be keeping pace with surrounding areas. I think amazon could have been a big boon to getting things like a Whole Foods or other, better grocery stores into the area.
    - sammycdubs 8y ago
      It's New York City, we don't need to give the largest company in the world a huge discount to do business here. It's not like the economic development of NYC is dependent on Amazon. It's a central hub to so many industries because of its infrastructure, talent, connection to capital markets etc, not because of handing out discounts.
      - smsm42 8y ago
        > we don't need to give the largest company in the world a huge discount to do business here Looks like you do, because now we have - no discount, no business. > It's not like the economic development of NYC is dependent on Amazon Of course, losing several billions of added value and 25K jobs won't kill the economy of the size of New York. Just as shooting oneself in the foot won't kill most healthy people. But keep at it, and sooner or later there would be a surprising development that the health is not what it once was...
        1986 8y ago
        Amazon is already in New York and their own statement today says they will continue expanding those teams despite not moving forward with HQ2. No discount, still business. "There are currently over 5,000 Amazon employees in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Staten Island, and we plan to continue growing these teams."
        smsm42 8y ago
        > No discount, still business Not the business that was conditional on the discount.
        nihonde 8y ago
        NYC generates about 10% of US GDP, already houses Amazon, Google, and every other global player. We have our fingers in everything already. We don’t need to play this kind of needy urban development three-card monty nonsense to continue kicking ass economically all day and night long.
    - anth_anm 8y ago
      I'll choose that 0 over giving away 3 billion every day. I don't care how you try to justify this sort of corruption.
      - smsm42 8y ago
        There was no "giving away" anything. There was "not taxing Amazon as harshly as others". It's like I tell you "I want to rent space on your frontyard for my sign" and you say "ok, $100 per day would do nicely" and I say "I need it for the whole month and $3K it too much, maybe $1.5K would do it?" and you say "I am not giving you away fifteen hundred bucks!". Then I say "OK, was nice talking to you" and you got $0 now instead of $1.5K you could have. But you're somehow happy you didn't "give away $1.5K", which you never had.
      - jtms 8y ago
        Perhaps consider having even a mild understanding of how tax incentives work before spouting nonsense righteous indignation?
        anth_anm 8y ago
        Perhaps consider that not everyone who disagrees with you is an ignorant fool.
        jtms 8y ago
        You can “disagree” all day long, but the fact remains your comment demonstrated a clear misunderstanding of how tax incentives work.
    - airza 8y ago
      But that economic activity will go _somewhere_, and allowing businesses to pressure them into tax breaks is collectively gutting the ability of many city governments to function.
      - ChrisLomont 8y ago
        Those city govts can choose 0 in new business or new business with jobs and income taxes and property value increases. A business choosing a location is a business transaction, as is city taxation choices. Both can freely choose how to woo the other. NYC chose to lose possible decades of high paying jobs over their unwillingness to deal.
        betterunix2 8y ago
        NYC is not exactly desperate. NYC is the anchor of an enormous economy that houses dozens upon dozens of large corporate offices and a vast number of jobs at all pay levels. NYC can afford to not deal with a corporation that is known for its poor working conditions and that did not even conduct its search in good faith. Other cities are not so fortunate, but Amazon has no interest in truly desperate cities (or even cities that are not so desperate but could use the boost, like Newark and Baltimore).
        ChrisLomont 8y ago
        NYC as a whole not being desperate still makes throwing billions in income for residents, not all of whom make as much as Amazon would bring, a dumb move. Amazon’s role is not charity. It is to be as productive as possible. NYC does have the role in being a good steward of resources for its citizens. It threw out a lot of money and job for them due to a vocal minority.
- smsm42 8y ago
  Queens: 55% support, 39% oppose https://hotair.com/archives/2019/02/14/amazon-kills-plan-build-hq-nyc-local-opposition-tax-breaks/ https://hotair.com/archives/2019/02/14/amazon-kills-plan-bui...
atoav 8y ago
It is always vocal minoirities who do things, even with very popular topics. Animal cruelty? There is only a vocal minority who takes a public stance, despite this beeing a very clear cut issue in terms of public opinion. Migration is the other way round: most people don't give a fuck, but have a loud vocal base that will even hurt themselves to make a point and you will be heard.
- J5892 8y ago
  Animal cruelty isn't a great analogy. It's not a vocal minority, it's a vocal subset of the majority. A vocal minority is when the opponents of a popular viewpoint are louder than its proponents.
  - JCharante 8y ago
    Animal cruelty is a great analogy because the people who oppose it, which are the minority, are more vocal than those who are proponents of it, which make up the majority.
    - gmanley 8y ago
      Do you really think only a minority oppose animal cruelty? How many people are proponents of animal cruelty? Neither of us have data to back it up but if you polled people I think the majority would be against animal cruelty, they just wouldn't spend their time opposing it, that's the difference.
      - RodericDay 8y ago
        Is this one of those things where we pretend raising and murdering animals to eat them isn't cruel?
      - jusssi 8y ago
        Majority of people (me included) continue to buy meat and other animal products, thus promoting animal cruelty.
mlthoughts2018 8y ago
I think the numbers in these pools are moderate enough to cast doubt on your claim. Would need to know about methodology, who paid for the survey, etc. Even after reading this, I think the claim “most New Yorkers supported the project” is extremely dubious.
mmanfrin 8y ago
56% is not a resounding endorsement, though, especially for such a big-ticket giveaway that the city absolutely does not need.
- stvswn 8y ago
  Big ticket? Of the abatements, only $500M (the portion related to construction) wasn't available to any business that met the state's requirements. Giveaway? These are tax incentives that are part of the state's tax code -- taking less in taxes to incentivize a particular action is not the same as giving away money that could be spent elsewhere (to illustrate why it isn't the same, that money is not currently available to be spent elsewhere). NYC won HQ2 originally in spite of not giving nearly as much as other jurisdictions were willing to. The polling is much higher than 56% when the question is asked generally, and the polling is highest in Queens which stood to gain the most. The city may or may not "need" 25,000 new jobs but LIC certainly "wanted" those jobs. The proposal was most popular among Black and Hispanic Queens residents and least popular among White Manhattan residents -- suggesting that those who stood to benefit from local economic activity were most excited.
  - anth_anm 8y ago
    > NYC won HQ2 originally in spite of not giving nearly as much as other jurisdictions were willing to. Because the entire "competition" was a sham. Amazon was never going to park the future of the company into a place lacking talent. > The proposal was most popular among Black and Hispanic Queens residents and least popular among White Manhattan residents That's a good point, but the counter is that the Black and Hispanic residents are the ones who would end up pushed out by Amazon's white and asian workers.
    - stvswn 8y ago
      So it's false consciousness, then? You know what's best for them?
  - nihonde 8y ago
    Of all the crummy talking points defending Amazon in this situation, the most odious is the idea that regular working New Yorkers lost an opportunity to get good jobs and upgrade their livelihoods. Amazon has an established record of being terrible to its workforce, and any fool knows that the workers in Amazon HQ2 aren’t going to be regular joes in Queens. At best, ordinary New Yorkers had a shot at serving HQ2 executives their coffee or delivering their food. Even then, their rents would be spiking due to gentrification and their businesses would be threatened by Amazon’s unique flair for vertical integration. And don’t even start with the tax-positive arguments. Amazon doesn’t pay taxes. Have a look at their federal returns.
m3kw9 8y ago
It’s always the intolerant minority that controls the action. The majority thatbisnok either way will not be heard, because they are ok either way.
JJMcJ 8y ago
NYC is very political. Surprised AMZN had such a thin skin. And after all this, they are going to move into vacant office buildings in DC near the airport, and in Nashville.
- anth_anm 8y ago
  It's not a thin skin so much as it is submitting on an ongoing narrative. They probably hoped they could do this and end up with the tax breaks, the NYC offices they want, more favorable conditions, and the public would laud them for it. Instead they got a pretty massive backlash that adds more fuel to the already burning story about Amazon's mistreatment of workers, Amazon's 0% tax rate, Amazon lobbying defeating taxes in Seattle, etc... They have a PR problem already. They are bringing a whole lot of negative attention to themselves. They will have it worse in the future when they try to do the same sort of thing in Washington state. They folded because staying in wasn't worth it.
  - fiter 8y ago
    For some reason, it doesnt surprise me that Amazon is not very committed to hiring the kind of people that want to live in New York. While they're probably not enjoying their PR, I can't believe this is their biggest lost.
    - betterunix2 8y ago
      "The kind of people that want to live in New York" includes Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon employees (Amazon has about 5000 employees in NYC already). There is also the financial sector with all those quants and risk managers and whatnot. I am pretty sure Amazon wants to hire people like that but convincing them to move to Nashville won't be easy.
      - fiter 8y ago
        I can't find any numbers, but for comparison, do you know how many Walmart employees live in New York?
sammycdubs 8y ago
Most New Yorkers don't live in LIC and won't be directly impacted. If you asked me about a proposal in a borough I never go to I'd probably say "yeah sure no problem"!
- codyb 8y ago
  That's silly. Most of the people working there weren't going to live in LIC. It's not like that was going to be a requirement to work at the Amazon campus. Besides this sniffs of the "yea build shelters everywhere but my block" attitude.
- bradleyjg 8y ago
  There are a vanishingly small number of long time LIC residents. Up until ten years ago it was mostly industrial, one commercial tower, and a smattering of low rise residential. So who makes up this supposed groundswell of local opposition? People that moved in to one of those shiny new towers last week and are already looking to slam the door behind themselves?
gammateam 8y ago
They sank it? Amazon could have easily ignored them for all eternity if they wanted. A vocal minority can't influence a random housing development, you think they had any say over Amazon? That's a STRETCH
- rhegart 8y ago
  The politician that grants approval to the developments was just selected. He is the most anti Amazon person, he grants approval or not with a small committee. He refused to even meet with Amazon executives. 3 times they asked for an audience, he rejected all 3 and chose to grandstand. He built a name for himself, saw him on the news this morning and he looked like a complete fool.

by bko 8y ago

jcranberry 8y ago

How about New Yorkers who lived in Queens?

sammycdubs 8y ago
I live in LIC and I've not met anyone who supported it, especially the $3BN of incentives. No wonder Gianaris, who represents our district in the NY Senate, was such a strong opponent.
- rhegart 8y ago
  Majority of the incentives are from Amazon’s taxes. 27B in economic activity for 3B in tax breaks for just 10 years is wayyy better than almost every other corporate deal. Better than Tesla for sure. That 3B will no longer be generated. You want a net 24B or a net 0B? New Yorkers chose 0
  - wolco 8y ago
    Other businesses can move into those spaces and will end up paying more in taxes. Property values will go up slower. Having one company move in sounds great but diversity might be a better longterm strategy.
    - smsm42 8y ago
      > Other businesses can move into those spaces and will end up paying more in taxes The first is likely, the second is very unlikely. For the simple reason that Amazon would not plan such project in a market that is so hot that is able to generate tax income at the same rate as concentrated investment project of the Amazon HQ size. Surely, it won't turn into a barren wasteland, but I would not expect it to produce more in tax revenue than big development like Amazon HQ would.
      - Apocryphon 8y ago
        Time will tell.
  - Q6T46nT668w6i3m 8y ago
    Except it isn’t 0. It’s far from 0! LIC’s growth is really impressive without Amazon.
    - Androider 8y ago
      The waterfront is slowly getting nicer, but as soon as you go even a few blocks inwards it's still sketchy and/or industrial. An anchor like Amazon HQ would have had a ripple effect of improving the whole area (like maybe we could finally get a decent grocery store? It's cheaper to take the train into Manhattan and go to Whole Foods than visiting the local LIC Food Cellar and Key Food markets!), especially the more eastern neighborhoods within walking distance, which really aren't seeing much of any development today.
      - betterunix2 8y ago
        I guess the huge Citigroup office does not count? Also when last I looked a bunch of high rises were going up near Sunnyside Yard which is pretty far from the waterfront. When I was 16 LIC was a pretty sketchy place, but as of a few years ago when I lived there it was completely different. There is still some light industry related to food trucks and taxi cabs, but you have to walk pretty far to get to anything more significant. The only sketchy area I can think of is the Queensbridge projects but that is north of the 59th st. bridge and pretty far from the rest of the neighborhood.
      - jtms 8y ago
        I know the Key Foods you are talking about - I used to live nearby it roughly 10 years ago. I can’t believe that it’s still really the only choice. Something is holding back LIC’s development to where it doesn’t seem to be keeping pace with surrounding areas. I think amazon could have been a big boon to getting things like a Whole Foods or other, better grocery stores into the area.
  - sammycdubs 8y ago
    It's New York City, we don't need to give the largest company in the world a huge discount to do business here. It's not like the economic development of NYC is dependent on Amazon. It's a central hub to so many industries because of its infrastructure, talent, connection to capital markets etc, not because of handing out discounts.
    - smsm42 8y ago
      > we don't need to give the largest company in the world a huge discount to do business here Looks like you do, because now we have - no discount, no business. > It's not like the economic development of NYC is dependent on Amazon Of course, losing several billions of added value and 25K jobs won't kill the economy of the size of New York. Just as shooting oneself in the foot won't kill most healthy people. But keep at it, and sooner or later there would be a surprising development that the health is not what it once was...
      - 1986 8y ago
        Amazon is already in New York and their own statement today says they will continue expanding those teams despite not moving forward with HQ2. No discount, still business. "There are currently over 5,000 Amazon employees in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Staten Island, and we plan to continue growing these teams."
        smsm42 8y ago
        > No discount, still business Not the business that was conditional on the discount.
      - nihonde 8y ago
        NYC generates about 10% of US GDP, already houses Amazon, Google, and every other global player. We have our fingers in everything already. We don’t need to play this kind of needy urban development three-card monty nonsense to continue kicking ass economically all day and night long.
  - anth_anm 8y ago
    I'll choose that 0 over giving away 3 billion every day. I don't care how you try to justify this sort of corruption.
    - smsm42 8y ago
      There was no "giving away" anything. There was "not taxing Amazon as harshly as others". It's like I tell you "I want to rent space on your frontyard for my sign" and you say "ok, $100 per day would do nicely" and I say "I need it for the whole month and $3K it too much, maybe $1.5K would do it?" and you say "I am not giving you away fifteen hundred bucks!". Then I say "OK, was nice talking to you" and you got $0 now instead of $1.5K you could have. But you're somehow happy you didn't "give away $1.5K", which you never had.
    - jtms 8y ago
      Perhaps consider having even a mild understanding of how tax incentives work before spouting nonsense righteous indignation?
      - anth_anm 8y ago
        Perhaps consider that not everyone who disagrees with you is an ignorant fool.
        jtms 8y ago
        You can “disagree” all day long, but the fact remains your comment demonstrated a clear misunderstanding of how tax incentives work.
  - airza 8y ago
    But that economic activity will go _somewhere_, and allowing businesses to pressure them into tax breaks is collectively gutting the ability of many city governments to function.
    - ChrisLomont 8y ago
      Those city govts can choose 0 in new business or new business with jobs and income taxes and property value increases. A business choosing a location is a business transaction, as is city taxation choices. Both can freely choose how to woo the other. NYC chose to lose possible decades of high paying jobs over their unwillingness to deal.
      - betterunix2 8y ago
        NYC is not exactly desperate. NYC is the anchor of an enormous economy that houses dozens upon dozens of large corporate offices and a vast number of jobs at all pay levels. NYC can afford to not deal with a corporation that is known for its poor working conditions and that did not even conduct its search in good faith. Other cities are not so fortunate, but Amazon has no interest in truly desperate cities (or even cities that are not so desperate but could use the boost, like Newark and Baltimore).
        ChrisLomont 8y ago
        NYC as a whole not being desperate still makes throwing billions in income for residents, not all of whom make as much as Amazon would bring, a dumb move. Amazon’s role is not charity. It is to be as productive as possible. NYC does have the role in being a good steward of resources for its citizens. It threw out a lot of money and job for them due to a vocal minority.
smsm42 8y ago
Queens: 55% support, 39% oppose https://hotair.com/archives/2019/02/14/amazon-kills-plan-build-hq-nyc-local-opposition-tax-breaks/ https://hotair.com/archives/2019/02/14/amazon-kills-plan-bui...

atoav 8y ago

It is always vocal minoirities who do things, even with very popular topics. Animal cruelty? There is only a vocal minority who takes a public stance, despite this beeing a very clear cut issue in terms of public opinion. Migration is the other way round: most people don't give a fuck, but have a loud vocal base that will even hurt themselves to make a point and you will be heard.

J5892 8y ago
Animal cruelty isn't a great analogy. It's not a vocal minority, it's a vocal subset of the majority. A vocal minority is when the opponents of a popular viewpoint are louder than its proponents.
- JCharante 8y ago
  Animal cruelty is a great analogy because the people who oppose it, which are the minority, are more vocal than those who are proponents of it, which make up the majority.
  - gmanley 8y ago
    Do you really think only a minority oppose animal cruelty? How many people are proponents of animal cruelty? Neither of us have data to back it up but if you polled people I think the majority would be against animal cruelty, they just wouldn't spend their time opposing it, that's the difference.
    - RodericDay 8y ago
      Is this one of those things where we pretend raising and murdering animals to eat them isn't cruel?
    - jusssi 8y ago
      Majority of people (me included) continue to buy meat and other animal products, thus promoting animal cruelty.

mlthoughts2018 8y ago

I think the numbers in these pools are moderate enough to cast doubt on your claim. Would need to know about methodology, who paid for the survey, etc. Even after reading this, I think the claim “most New Yorkers supported the project” is extremely dubious.

mmanfrin 8y ago

56% is not a resounding endorsement, though, especially for such a big-ticket giveaway that the city absolutely does not need.

stvswn 8y ago
Big ticket? Of the abatements, only $500M (the portion related to construction) wasn't available to any business that met the state's requirements. Giveaway? These are tax incentives that are part of the state's tax code -- taking less in taxes to incentivize a particular action is not the same as giving away money that could be spent elsewhere (to illustrate why it isn't the same, that money is not currently available to be spent elsewhere). NYC won HQ2 originally in spite of not giving nearly as much as other jurisdictions were willing to. The polling is much higher than 56% when the question is asked generally, and the polling is highest in Queens which stood to gain the most. The city may or may not "need" 25,000 new jobs but LIC certainly "wanted" those jobs. The proposal was most popular among Black and Hispanic Queens residents and least popular among White Manhattan residents -- suggesting that those who stood to benefit from local economic activity were most excited.
- anth_anm 8y ago
  > NYC won HQ2 originally in spite of not giving nearly as much as other jurisdictions were willing to. Because the entire "competition" was a sham. Amazon was never going to park the future of the company into a place lacking talent. > The proposal was most popular among Black and Hispanic Queens residents and least popular among White Manhattan residents That's a good point, but the counter is that the Black and Hispanic residents are the ones who would end up pushed out by Amazon's white and asian workers.
  - stvswn 8y ago
    So it's false consciousness, then? You know what's best for them?
- nihonde 8y ago
  Of all the crummy talking points defending Amazon in this situation, the most odious is the idea that regular working New Yorkers lost an opportunity to get good jobs and upgrade their livelihoods. Amazon has an established record of being terrible to its workforce, and any fool knows that the workers in Amazon HQ2 aren’t going to be regular joes in Queens. At best, ordinary New Yorkers had a shot at serving HQ2 executives their coffee or delivering their food. Even then, their rents would be spiking due to gentrification and their businesses would be threatened by Amazon’s unique flair for vertical integration. And don’t even start with the tax-positive arguments. Amazon doesn’t pay taxes. Have a look at their federal returns.

m3kw9 8y ago

It’s always the intolerant minority that controls the action. The majority thatbisnok either way will not be heard, because they are ok either way.

JJMcJ 8y ago

NYC is very political. Surprised AMZN had such a thin skin. And after all this, they are going to move into vacant office buildings in DC near the airport, and in Nashville.

anth_anm 8y ago
It's not a thin skin so much as it is submitting on an ongoing narrative. They probably hoped they could do this and end up with the tax breaks, the NYC offices they want, more favorable conditions, and the public would laud them for it. Instead they got a pretty massive backlash that adds more fuel to the already burning story about Amazon's mistreatment of workers, Amazon's 0% tax rate, Amazon lobbying defeating taxes in Seattle, etc... They have a PR problem already. They are bringing a whole lot of negative attention to themselves. They will have it worse in the future when they try to do the same sort of thing in Washington state. They folded because staying in wasn't worth it.
- fiter 8y ago
  For some reason, it doesnt surprise me that Amazon is not very committed to hiring the kind of people that want to live in New York. While they're probably not enjoying their PR, I can't believe this is their biggest lost.
  - betterunix2 8y ago
    "The kind of people that want to live in New York" includes Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon employees (Amazon has about 5000 employees in NYC already). There is also the financial sector with all those quants and risk managers and whatnot. I am pretty sure Amazon wants to hire people like that but convincing them to move to Nashville won't be easy.
    - fiter 8y ago
      I can't find any numbers, but for comparison, do you know how many Walmart employees live in New York?

sammycdubs 8y ago

Most New Yorkers don't live in LIC and won't be directly impacted. If you asked me about a proposal in a borough I never go to I'd probably say "yeah sure no problem"!

codyb 8y ago
That's silly. Most of the people working there weren't going to live in LIC. It's not like that was going to be a requirement to work at the Amazon campus. Besides this sniffs of the "yea build shelters everywhere but my block" attitude.
bradleyjg 8y ago
There are a vanishingly small number of long time LIC residents. Up until ten years ago it was mostly industrial, one commercial tower, and a smattering of low rise residential. So who makes up this supposed groundswell of local opposition? People that moved in to one of those shiny new towers last week and are already looking to slam the door behind themselves?

gammateam 8y ago

They sank it? Amazon could have easily ignored them for all eternity if they wanted. A vocal minority can't influence a random housing development, you think they had any say over Amazon? That's a STRETCH

rhegart 8y ago
The politician that grants approval to the developments was just selected. He is the most anti Amazon person, he grants approval or not with a small committee. He refused to even meet with Amazon executives. 3 times they asked for an audience, he rejected all 3 and chose to grandstand. He built a name for himself, saw him on the news this morning and he looked like a complete fool.