The news that Amazon would relinquish its plan to build its “HQ2”, a second headquarters in Long Island City, Queens is another episode in the often unfortunate history of economic development in the Outer Boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island in New York City.  And the sad abandonment of the project creates an historic and indeed dramatic opportunity for Newark to attract HQ2, which Governor Phil Murphy has rightfully announced his intention to pursue.

It is essential that New Jersey and other states study and avoid the disastrous errors that New York City and New York State have often made regarding development and quality of life in the Outer Boroughs.  The leader of the successful effort to prevent the development of Amazon HQ2 in Long Island City was Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a woman whose major characteristics are the gift of demagoguery and unsurpassed economic illiteracy. 

And there is a most significant political anomaly in her membership of the Congressional delegation representing the New York City metropolitan area, which contains the largest Jewish population of any region outside of Israel.   

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a hater of the State of Israel, a determined foe of the American-Israel alliance, and a vile enabler of antisemitism allied with three of the most virulent antisemitic political figures in the Western world, Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and British Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

I began to alert my readers to the profound evils of Ocasio-Cortez the morning after her 2018 Congressional primary victory with my following InsiderNJ column , “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a National – and New Jersey – Democratic Party Disaster”https://www.insidernj.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-national-new-jersey-democratic-party-disaster/.  I have a well-deserved reputation in New Jersey as an outspoken Anti-Trump critic, but I find Ocasio-Cortez every bit as repulsive as the Donald.

Her contemptible dishonesty, demagoguery, and economic illiteracy was in full display in her leadership of the war to eliminate the Long Island City Amazon HQ2 project.  She falsely characterized the incentive package extended to Amazon by New York City and New York State as a costly giveaway to the rich, for which the city would receive little in return. 

Incentives to attract business relocation and expansion are justifiable and in fact laudable if they are “revenue neutral”, i.e. the governmental revenue generated by the project equals or exceeds the amount of the economic incentive package granted to the business.

The incentive package offered to Amazon by New York State and New York City constituted the quintessence of revenue neutrality. Amazon would have received an incentive package worth three billion dollars, and the Long Island City project would have generated an additional twelve billion dollars of revenue to New York City and New York State, a net revenue gain of nine billion dollars, not to mention 25,000 new jobs. 

Thanks to the historically discredited and twisted socialist economic ideology of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the economic future of the Outer Boroughs and the revenue outlook for New York City and New York State have been dealt a most severe setback.

Yet historically speaking, Ocasio-Cortez is the second leading scourge of the quality of life and economy in the Outer Boroughs.  The ultimate foe of the betterment of the Outer Boroughs was Robert Moses, a virulent racist who loved humanity and hated people and virtually autocratically controlled economic development throughout New York City from the 1930s until the late 1960s. 

In my years in academia, both as a professor and guest lecturer, I have often recommended to students as optional reading the Pulitzer Prize winning book by Robert Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York.   

Caro is more widely known for his four volume series on the life of Lyndon Johnson.  I have read all four volumes in this series and find them to be a most laudable historical work.  The Power Broker, however, has more social significance.

The Power Broker describes how Moses derived his autocratic and monopolistic power over development and land use in New York City through his chairing of various authorities, most notably the Triborough Bridge Authority.  His priority was the enhancement of Manhattan and Nassau and Suffolk Counties in Long Island.

He had contempt for Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens and viewed their middle class neighborhoods as areas that often had to be evicted and destroyed in order to build expressways to Long Island, a classic case being the destruction of the East Tremont neighborhood in the Bronx in order to make way for the Cross Bronx Expressway and his abortive efforts to overcome neighborhood resistance to the construction of  expressways through Greenwich Village in Manhattan and Flatbush in Brooklyn.   

Moses had no concern whatsoever for African-Americans and other minorities of color, and his policies resulted in minority neighborhoods being burdened by a disproportionate share of garbage transfer stations and deprivation of ready access to river recreation areas. 

Yet if you want to see Moses at his worst, study his role in literally forcing Walter O’Malley to move the beloved Brooklyn Dodgers out of Brooklyn to Los Angeles. 

The Brooklyn Dodgers were the most profitable team in the National League.  They had the League’s most loyal fan base and an extremely lucrative television contract.  The Dodgers were the hub of civic involvement and economic development in the Borough of Kings.  And the ball club had eternal historic significance, due to the greatest star in the history of the team, Jackie Robinson and his courage against verbal and indeed physical acts against his integration of Major League Baseball.

The Dodgers had a serious problem with their fabled ballpark, Ebbets Field, which was over forty years old and had become both inadequate and a safety hazard for the fans.  O’Malley had a ready answer to the problem.  

He wanted Moses to use his eminent domain power to assemble and condemn the lands serving as the site of a dilapidated large wholesale meat market at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues in Brooklyn, across the street from where the Barclays Center now exists.  O’Malley would pay for the full value of the property and the condemnation costs.   

He would then build baseball’s first domed stadium at the site, which would be served by the train station underneath.

The site was ideal for both the fans who had moved to Long Island, who could take the Long Island Railroad directly to the games and those who still lived in the city, who could have access to the station through nine subway lines. Robert Moses, however, blocked the project for three arbitrary and capricious reasons.   

First, Moses had a crony to whom he wanted to give development rights to the site:  A local apartment developer by the name of Fred Trump.  Yes, THAT Fred Trump, father of The Donald.

Second, Moses has little regard for mass transit, which he neglected throughout his tenure of New York City dominance.  In fact, he venerated the automobile and wanted a new stadium in an isolated location in Flushing Meadows, Queens, not far from the Nassau County border, where his preferred white denizens lived within driving distance.  That is where, under the direction of Moses, Shea Stadium was built and opened in 1964.  It was developed adjacent to the site of the 1964 World’s Fair, which under the direction of Moses was a financial and artistic disaster. 

It was thus impossible for the Dodgers to remain in Brooklyn, due to the opposition of Moses.  The Dodger fan base living in Brooklyn, in large part would have deserted the team had they moved to Queens.  Accordingly, O’Malley accepted the offer of Los Angeles to move the team there, which he did in 1958.  In 1962, the National League expanded into New York with the introduction of the New York Mets, who moved into Shea Stadium in 1964.

The major loser in this was the Borough of Brooklyn itself.  The Borough lost its civic hub, its principle economic development attraction and Brooklyn began a half century decline from which it has only begun to emerge during the past decade. 

Yet the sad story of economic development in the Outer Boroughs gives contrasting hope to New Jersey in its efforts to attract Newark Amazon HQ2. 

New Jersey has no Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Robert Moses to obstruct its efforts regarding Amazon HQ2.  And it has assets that would greatly enhance the location of this unique corporate headquarters. 

The transportation infrastructure is in place, with New Jersey Transit, the Turnpike, Routes 280 and 78, the PATH, and Liberty International Airport providing excellent passenger and commercial access to a Newark Amazon HQ2 Headquarters.   

Furthermore, the trains from North Jersey serve another function.   Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has always emphasized that his business centers should be built in locations where the employees would have prime access to high quality cultural and entertainment facilities.  New Jersey Transit and the PATH would provide superb access to Manhattan theater, opera, orchestra, and sport events to employees residing in Newark and its environs. 

Finally, Newark is definitely a city on an accelerating comeback path.  It has a sports venue in the Prudential Center (“the Rock”) and a cultural center in the Performing Arts Center that are second to none of any major American City.  The presence of a new major corporate headquarters like Amazon HQ2 could result in more new major corporate headquarters being established in Newark and enhance the possibilities of Newark attracting an even higher quality of cultural and athletic events to Brick City. 

There is no doubt that the state will in its negotiations be able to finalize a revenue neutral tax incentive package for Amazon.  Recently, various Murphy administration officials have questioned both the expense of such incentives and whether grantee corporations have complied with their job creation obligations.  Nobody seriously doubts, however, that tax incentives in New Jersey to Amazon can be fashioned in revenue neutral fashion and that corporate job creation compliance enforcement can be greatly improved. 

It would be most advisable for Governor Murphy to make the attraction of Amazon HQ2 a bipartisan effort.  Jeff Bezos is a man of upmost integrity and ethics, and he has demonstrated the ultimate in courage in directly confronting Donald Trump and the National Enquirer in their despicable efforts to curtail his First Amendment rights.  Bezos does not want the prospective Amazon HQ2 project in Newark to become a political football, and a bipartisan New Jersey effort would enhance his comfort level. 

Accordingly, Governor Murphy should bring the following three past Republican New Jersey officials onto the Amazon HQ2 attraction team: 1) Former Governor Christie Whitman; 2) Former Commissioner of Commerce and Economic Development Gil Medina; and 3) State Senator Joe Kyrillos. 

I served as Assistant Commissioner to Gil Medina during first term of the Whitman administration, and it was a time of vigorous and healthy economic expansion in the state.  Whitman was outstanding in communicating and forging relationships with corporate executives, and Medina was an absolute master in creating revenue neutral incentive packages.  Governor Murphy would benefit from the involvement and assistance of both. 

Joe Kyrillos served as the Senate Committee Chair on Economic Development during the years 1992 through 2001 when the Republicans controlled the New Jersey State Senate.  He was superb in forging a bipartisan consensus in support of legislation designed to create a more business friendly climate in the Garden State.  He and Governor Murphy are personal friends, and Murphy would be well advised to reach out to him for his assistance in this matter. 

Other areas in suburban New York City have expressed interest in acquiring Amazon HQ2, but none is better suited than Newark.  Indeed, Newark and Amazon HQ2 can be perfect together. 

Alan J. Steinberg served as regional administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of President George W. Bush and as executive director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission under Gov. Christie Whitman.