If Amazon wants to expand its presence in New York City, it will have to do so on its own like any other technology company, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.
He was responding to a report in the New York Post that the tech giant, which this year cancelled a deal to have its second headquarters in NY, was in talks to get office space in Manhattan.
Mayor de Blasio said Amazon, the largest e-commerce company owned by Jeff Bezos, has not been in contact with his office for its planned move to expand presence in the city.
“Look, if Amazon decides — as Google did and as many other tech firms have — that they’re going to expand their presence in New York City, that’s their choice,” de Blasio said according to the NY Post.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all, but again, they’re going to have to do it on their own,” he said at a Press Conference.
The mayor did not hide his feelings on Amazon’s move to pull out of the deal it had reached with New York.
“I have not had any discussions with them,” the mayor said.
“You know we are very jaded now after having made a full agreement that I thought was a fair agreement that they just walked away within in the dead of night.”
“They have not spoken to me. They have not reached out to me, but if they do something on their own and it adds jobs, well, that’s fine, then,” he said, according to the Post report.
Mayor de Blasio, Image: NYC Mayor’s office
Amazon had reached separate agreements with New York and Virginia on have its second headquarters split at two places but decided to cancel plans to have one in Long Island City.
Meanwhile, Mayor de Blasio, First Lady Chirlane McCray, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, activist Gloria Steinem and advocates today rallied in support of Paid Personal Time legislation, the mayor’s office said.
The bill, which is being heard for the first time today, would make New York City the first city in the nation to mandate paid time off for workers, it said. The Mayor made Paid Personal Time a signature piece of his State of the City address this past January. A detailed analysis by the City, conducted since January, now estimates 900,000 New Yorkers who currently lack a single day of paid personal time would benefit from the new policy.
“Working people have been working longer and harder with very little to show for it,” said Mayor de Blasio. “Too many people in this city aren’t guaranteed any time off – not a single day. That means choosing between earning a paycheck and your kid’s dance recital, helping your parent move into a nursing home, or that vacation you’ve been saving for. That’s not what New York City is about. Hardworking New Yorkers deserve more and we’re going to ensure they get it.”
“Too many working New Yorkers – especially women and immigrants – are in an impossible struggle for more time, often having to choose between their paycheck and their well-being,” said First Lady Chirlane McCray. “That injustice ends with paid time off. New York City stands up for working people and we look forward to seeing this legislation become law.”
