New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday expressed disappointment at U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon's decision to drop its plan of building a new headquarters in the Long Island City neighborhood of New York City's Queens borough.
"You have to be tough to make it in New York City. We gave Amazon the opportunity to be a good neighbor and do business in the greatest city in the world. Instead of working with the community, Amazon threw away that opportunity," the mayor tweeted after Amazon made the announcement in a statement.
"We have the best talent in the world and every day we are growing a stronger and fairer economy for everyone. If Amazon can't recognize what that's worth, its competitors will," the mayor said in a following tweet.
Meanwhile, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo denounced the New York State Senate in a statement, saying that they should be "held accountable for this lost economic opportunity."
"A small group politicians put their own narrow political interests above their community...the state's economic future and the best interests of the people of this state," he said, without naming those vocal political figures in opposition of the Amazon deal.
In November last year, Amazon announced its plan to split its new headquarters between Long Island City in New York's borough of Queens and Crystal city, a neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia, and promised to create a total of 50,000 jobs in two sites.
Both de Blasio and Cuomo welcomed the deal and promised to offer the company a total of some 3 billion U.S. dollars in tax breaks if it realized the employment goal. But the plan incurred fierce opposition from a large number of local residents and some politicians, saying the deal would not directly benefit New Yorkers and the incentives should be instead invested on enhancing local infrastructure.
Following mounting pressure, Amazon announced the drop-out plan on Thursday, saying the decision was made "after much thought and deliberation."
According to the statement, while polls showed that 70 percent of New York residents supported the project, a number of state and local politicians opposed Amazon's presence and would not work with the company to build the type of relationships that were required in order to go forward with the project.
The company also said it does not plan to look for another headquarters location at this time.
