Suffolk County Executive Bellone Signs Open Letter to Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone today signed onto an open letter to Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos urging Amazon to reconsider their decision to pull out of HQ2 in Long Island City. This comes after the County Executive yesterday urged the New York State Legislature to follow in the footsteps of Governor Cuomo to lure Amazon back to Long Island City.

“Long Island stands to benefit enormously from this once in a lifetime opportunity that will secure New York as a tech incubator for generations to come,” said Suffolk County Executive Bellone. “I urge all of our leaders in Albany to do everything they can to resurrect this critical project because there is too much at stake.”

A copy of the letter can be found below:

Open Letter to Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos

Dear Mr. Bezos:

New Yorkers do not want to give up on the 25,000 permanent jobs, 11,000 union construction and maintenance jobs, and $28 billion in new tax revenues that Amazon was prepared to bring to our state. A clear majority of New Yorkers support this project and were disappointed by your decision not to proceed. We understand that becoming home to the world’s industry leader in e-commerce, logistics and web services would be a tremendous boost for our state’s technology industry, which is our fastest growing generator of new jobs. As representatives of a wide range of government, business, labor and community interests, we urge you to reconsider, so that we can move forward together.

We know the public debate that followed the announcement of the Long Island City project was rough and not very welcoming. Opinions are strong in New York—sometimes strident. We consider it part of the New York charm! But when we commit to a project as important as this, we figure out how to get it done in a way that works for everyone.

Governor Cuomo will take personal responsibility for the project’s state approval and Mayor de Blasio will work together with the governor to manage the community development process, including the workforce development, public education and infrastructure investments that are necessary to ensure that the Amazon campus will be a tremendous benefit to residents and small businesses in the surrounding communities.

New York attracts the best, most diverse talent from across the globe. We are a dynamic new center of the country’s most inclusive tech economy. We all hope you reconsider and join us in building the exciting future of New York.

###