7
QUEENS WEEKLY, JAN. 27, 2019
Matted LIC owner offers support for Amazon HQ2
BY BILL PARRY
Donna Drimer didn’t
need to see the full page advertisements
and the slick
mailers sent to residents of
western Queens as part of
Amazon’s recent charm offensive
reminding the public
of the 25,000 jobs it will
bring to Long Island City
with the construction of
its HQ2 campus around the
Anable Basin, right on the
doorstep of her store.
Drimer was also aware
of Amazon’s tweet that
those jobs will generate $27
billion in new tax revenue
and help fund vital services
like Mayor de Blasio’s universal
health care plan.
“The truth of the matter
is I’ve been 110 percent
behind this project since it
was announced in November,”
Drimer said. “The
truth is for me to survive, I
need the business.”
Drimer opened Matted
LIC at 46-36 Vernon Blvd.
in 2009 and for the last
decade, she’s sold contemporary
art and photography,
custom framing,
eclectic jewelry, artisan
items and giftware for
men, women and children
while hosting art shows
and events for local painters
and photographers.
“Starting 10 years ago,
this was all industrial
with very little residential
and now with the residential
picking up we were
still treated like secondclass
citizens here in
LIC,” Drimer said. “Now
with Amazon in our back
pocket, our voice is a little
stronger on issues like infrastructure,
transportation
and lack of schools.”
Matted LIC is the type of
shop where customers and
friends will stay awhile and
have conversations about
the neighborhood.
“Interestingly enough,
when people do bring
up Amazon all they talk
about is what effect it
might have on the No. 7
subway,” she said.
This week Drimer attended
a luncheon hosted
by an Amazon outreach
team with 25 other small
business owners from the
neighborhood and what she
heard only confirmed her
support for the project.
“They really wanted to
hear our issues and they
want to be part of the community
and not a plague on
it. Yes, they will have 25,000
employees who will be out
on the streets and hopefully
they will come into my
shop and make purchases
that will help beautify
their new homes,” Drimer
said. “There’s always good
and bad, two sides to every
coin, we know this. But now
I know that they will build
a campus cafeteria that is
too small for all of their employees
to encourage their
workers to venture out into
the community.”
And Drimer believes it’s
true because her brother
was an Amazon employee
in Seattle 15 years ago and
saw how they put the community
first, she said.
“Plus they will give artists
space, they don’t want
to push anyone out of the
neighborhood,” Drimer
said. “Amazon took out a
10-year lease on the Citi
Tower and they’ll move in
700 workers by the end of
2019 and 3,000 by the end of
2020. I was always for this
project but to hear all this
coming from them directly
was a real breath of fresh
air. Look, change is inevitable
and if it wasn’t Amazon
it was going to be somebody
else. At least they care
about the community.”
Amazon will be sending
out another mailer shortly
emphasizing the “tens of
thousands of indirect jobs
in construction, food service,
human resources and
retail.” It does have one feature
that is different from
the original mailer. It urges
residents to call state Senator
Michael Gianaris at his
district office and “tell him
to support the project” for
the first time.
“It’s ironic that Amazon
wants billions of our taxpayer
dollars and is spending
so much to convince the
people of western Queens
that it is entitled to those
dollars,” Gianaris said in
response to the mailer.
“People will not be fooled
by slick advertising — they
will continue to be against
the Amazon deal and so
will I.”
Matted LIC owner Donna Drimer has supprted the Amazon
HQ2 project since it was announced but a luncheon with
Amazon officials this week confirmed her feeling on the
controversial matter. Courtesy of Matted LIC