[speedplane]

> Well if Amazon could not find 25k employee in the given time they would not receive the 3 billions in tax relief

The problem of the deal wasn't the mechanics, it was how it was sold to the public. A competition putting cities against cities, negotiated without any public input, a large tax break to one of the richest companies in the world, choosing already popular cities rather than really investing in a newer one. Amazon could have definitely closed this deal if they pitched it properly.

[afiori]

Maybe, but as it is pointed out many times here and in the open letter this was basically a replay of Brexit. another commenter said that his mom believed the city would give amazon 3 billions up front. the public approved of the deal, the only demographic to disapprove was the internet.

70% of local residents approved of the deal. that is a lot.

[bobthepanda]

I'm skeptical of any polling for the issue, mostly because polls have huge issues with data collecting and getting a representative sample, particularly on things like local issues.

Depending on

* how the question was framed ("Do you think the second headquarters of Amazon will be a positive?" vs. "Do you think the deal with Amazon will be positive?" vs. "Do you think tax breaks for Amazon are good?")

* how informed the voter was required to be; people are notoriously uninformed and uninterested about anything that isn't a presidential election

* how residents were contacted (was it a landline poll? mail? survey on the street? online? because these all have different populations to be accounted for)

* who counts as a valid resident for the survey? someone who lives in Buffalo? someone who lives in Westchester? someone who lives in Manhattan? someone who lives in Flushing? etc.

Polls predicted that AOC would lose her race, and that clearly didn't happen.