QUEENS, NY – Borough President Melinda Katz stated the following in response to the announcement today that Amazon will establish a new headquarters in Long Island City:
“Long Island City – New York’s emerging tech hub – is ‘primed’ for Amazon. Amazon is a timely fit for the borough, given the Tech Plan we commissioned years ago funded by Governor Cuomo to create the city’s leading tech ecosystem, coupled with Mayor de Blasio’s $180 million in new investments for infrastructure improvements unveiled several weeks ago for schools, transportation and open space. With its organic growth, wealth of local talent and inherent global assets to foster innovation, Queens offers a dynamic mixed-use community where workers can live, ideas can synergize, and businesses can flourish. New companies should take note, however, that New York is a union town. I have full faith that the City and State will be able to resolve all outstanding issues including organized labor, infrastructure and capacity concerns.”
The Queens Borough President’s Western Queens Tech Strategic Plan (“Tech Plan”), unveiled in June 2018, offers a roadmap with six initiatives to support equitable job growth within the tech economy of Western Queens along the East River waterfront. The creation of the Tech Plan was first initiated by the Western Queens Tech Task Force in 2011 and funded by the New York State Department of State under Title 11 of the Environmental Protection Fund. The Tech Plan can be viewed in its entirety here.
Follow Borough President Katz via @QueensBPKatz on Twitter and Facebook
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