28 THE QUEENS COURIER • MARCH 7, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
editorial
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STORY: Bayside’s Bay Terrace Country Club up for $5 million
bankruptcy auction next month
SUMMARY: The 1.5-acre Bay Terrace Country Club overlooking
Little Neck Bay in Bayside will be up for bankruptcy auction on
March 5.
REACH: 22,855 people reached (as of 3/4/19)
Why Amazon should come back
Nearly a month aft er Amazon conducted the most infamous Valentine’s Day breakup
in New York City history — withdrawing its plans for a Long Island City campus —
many in Queens have not lost hope that the retail giant will somehow change its mind
again and come back.
Call it unrequited love, if you wish. Th e Amazon deal has so much promise, so much
potential for the future of this borough. It’s not too late for it to be saved.
Queens is still the same, great place it was when Amazon fi rst courted the area, and
ultimately signed the deal back in November. Long Island City continues to evolve;
it’s a special place in this special borough — soaring into the sky, a stone’s throw from
Manhattan, full of life and culture and opportunity. Th ere’s no reason why Amazon
shouldn’t be part of its future.
We’re encouraged by the Queens business leaders who have signed onto an open
letter to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos urging him to reconsider. Two petitions are
also being circulated to convince Amazon offi cials to give Queens another chance.
Governor Andrew Cuomo spoke to Bezos and high-ranking offi cials with the company;
one Long Island City restaurateur even fl ew out to Seattle to meet with Amazon executives
in a hoping-against-hope eff ort to change their minds about our beloved borough.
Amazon may have dropped its plans for Queens because of the rabble-rousers and
political opportunists who had their own agendas. Th ey set a tone that seemed to suggest
nobody wanted them here. Th at message couldn’t have been more wrong.
We’ve said before in this space that Long Island City is the ideal place for Amazon. Th e
opportunity to bring 25,000 high-paying tech jobs with an anticipated $27 billion in generated
revenue over the next quarter-century was something we’re going to regret losing.
Lots of misinformation spread throughout the community since the deal was fi rst
announced. Th ere was moaning and gnashing of teeth over “corporate welfare” — $3
billion in tax credits Amazon was to receive for developing its campus. Th e protesters
said that such funding could be better spent on housing reform and improvements to
public transportation.
But what they didn’t realize was that $3 billion wasn’t set in stone. It was contingent
upon Amazon coming to Queens, and meeting certain criteria toward job and economic
development.
Did Amazon need the $3 billion to develop it? Of course not. But the same argument
could be made for the many other businesses that reap state and city tax benefi ts to
come to (or, in some cases stay) in New York.
And the $3 billion in taxpayer dollars to be spent on the Amazon plan was going to
come back to the taxpayers nine-fold, as Cuomo repeatedly stated, through tax revenue
generated by economic activity.
We shouldn’t settle for nothing. We should want Amazon here and we should want
them to succeed — for their success is our success, too.
Come back to Queens, Amazon. We’re great for you there and there is no greater
place for business!
THE QUEENS
PUBLISHER & EDITOR
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CELESTE ALAMIN
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VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
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