New Yorkers approve of Amazon bringing one of its new headquarters in Long Island City by a 2-to-1 margin, but are divided about the company getting tax incentives, a Quinnipiac University poll has found.
WHAT DO QUEENS RESIDENTS THINK OF THE AMAZON DEAL?
The poll was released Wednesday and found that New York City voters approved, 57 percent to 26 percent, of the deal that would bring a split of Amazon's HQ2 to Queens. 17 percent of voters polled didn't have an opinion or didn't answer.
The poll also found that voters in Queens approved of the move by a margin of 60 percent to 26 percent. 14 percent didn't have an opinion or didn't answer.
But voters' opinions were nearly completely split when it comes to the $3 billion in tax incentives and other benefits Amazon will receive from the state and city:
Support: 46 percent
Oppose: 44 percent
Don't know/NA: 10 percent
Queens voters, meanwhile, largely support the incentive package:
Support: 55 percent
Oppose: 39 percent
Don't know/NA: 7 percent
CONCERNS ABOUT HOW THE AMAZON DEAL WILL AFFECT HOUSING
When pollsters asked city voters if their biggest concern about the Amazon deal was its impact on housing, transportation, or quality of life, more voters said they were concerned about housing, while a fraction of people polled said they weren't worried about any of those issues:
Housing: 31 percent
Transportation: 25 percent
Quality of life: 20 percent
None of these: 3 percent
All of these: 19 percent
Don't know/NA: 1 percent
THE DESIRE FOR MORE INPUT
Voters polled overwhelmingly said they wanted the city more involved in reviewing the deal, 79 to 13 percent. The level of support was similar for Queens voters.
WHAT DO VOTERS THINK ABOUT HOW THE MAYOR AND GOVERNOR HANDLED THE DEAL?
The poll found that voters disapproved, 38-34 percent, of how Gov. Andrew Cuomo handled the Amazon deal, while 28 percent said they didn't know or didn't have an answer. Voters disapproved of Mayor Bill de Blasio's handling of the deal, 38-31 percent. 30 percent of people polled said they didn't know or had no answer.
The poll of 1,075 New York City voters was conducted between November 27 and Tuesday, and has a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percentage points.
Amazon announced in November that, after a year-long competition among more than 230 locations, it would split its second headquarters between Long Island City and Crystal City in Northern Virginia.
The mayor and governor helped broker the plan to build a 4- to 8-million-square-foot facility along the Long Island City riverfront.
Amazon will occupy up to 500,000 square feet at 1 Court Square in 2019, and will work to construct more than 4 million square feet of commercial space on the Long Island City waterfront over the next 10 years. Officials say the Amazon facility will be between 4 million and 8 million square feet.
Initially, there was only meant to be one headquarters location, and that new facility would have created about 50,000 jobs and cost at least $5 billion to build and operate. But Amazon chose to split its new headquarters into two.
The deal includes a capital project budget of $3.7 billion and will include property tax incentives and below-market leases.
The project is expected to bring in 25,000 jobs for the New York City community, with the potential for 40,000 in 15 years.
Amazon will receive $3 billion in taxpayer subsidies, but officials say the investment will pay for itself nine times over thanks to $27.5 billion in estimated city and state tax revenue.
Public dollars going toward the project include $1.2 billion in state tax credits, a $505 million direct state grant, and an estimated $1.3 billion from the city in the form of a property tax abatement and a tax credit tied to the number of jobs created, pre-existing programs the city stressed are available to any developer.
Advocates and local residents have sounded the alarm out of fear of the impact the headquarters will have on infrastructure, as well as questions about Amazon's subsidies.
There are also concerns about how the transit system will hold up from the added strain, and some transit advocates want the megacorporation to chip in on subway improvements.
Amazon will initially set up near Court Square, which is home to the E, G, M, and 7 lines.
HEAR BOTH SIDES OF THE ARGUMENT FOR AMAZON'S MOVE TO NEW YORK
Our political reporters, Grace Rauh, Zack Fink, and Juan Manuel Benitez, debate the controversial deal to bring Amazon to New York City in our podcast, "Off Topic/On Politics."
You can listen wherever you get your podcasts: