Amazon is expanding in the city, and there’s little the e-commerce giant’s many vocal critics can do about it.
The trillion-dollar firm found itself in an unfamiliar position when it selected Long Island City as a site for its second headquarters late last year. Rather than the enthusiastic support it had expected at the end of its much-hyped search for an “HQ2,” a wave of negative public sentiment, scrutiny by elected officials and opposition from activist groups dogged the $4 billion development. When Amazon scuttled the deal in February, critics celebrated the vanquishing of a corporate interest intent on expanding on its own terms.