{"id":20366,"date":"2018-12-09T20:36:42","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T00:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nicknormal.com\/normalblog\/?p=20366"},"modified":"2018-12-09T20:36:42","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T00:36:42","slug":"an-astroturfing-amazon-executive-blocked-me-on-twitter-after-i-asked-if-they-could-survive-on-minimum-wage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nicknormal.com\/normalblog\/an-astroturfing-amazon-executive-blocked-me-on-twitter-after-i-asked-if-they-could-survive-on-minimum-wage\/","title":{"rendered":"An Astroturfing Amazon Executive Blocked Me on Twitter After I Asked if They Could Survive on Minimum\u00a0Wage"},"content":{"rendered":"

(This blog was drafted ~one month ago\u200a\u2014\u200aI\u2019ve attempted to get the person at the heart of this story time to reply before publication, but they have not commented thus far.)<\/p>\n

First a tour of LIC!<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve lived in Long Island City for 14+ years. I was originally attracted to its town-like feel, with its immediate proximity to the \u2018big city\u2019 of Manhattan just across the Queensboro Bridge. At the time I moved here other than the \u201cCititower\u201d the next tallest building\u200a\u2014\u200aat a whopping twelve storeys\u200a\u2014\u200awas the historic clocktower at the foot of the borough\u2019s namesake bridge (a clocktower it should be noted that developers wanted to demolish<\/a>, but have since resigned to building a 68-storey tower looming over the clocktower after the clocktower gained landmark status<\/a>). The neighborhood was filled with two or even one-storey warehouse buildings; buildings in the neighborhood that were five or six storeys high were tall\u200a\u2014\u200alike wow tall<\/em> compared with surrounding structures\u200a\u2014\u200aand most residential locations were three storeys high at best, with most being two. (I myself live in one of those two storey structures.)<\/p>\n

Mayor Michael Bloomberg\u200a\u2014\u200aknown for his aberrant non-democratic third term\u2014 changed all of that, and the entire neighborhood underwent a rapid rezone-and-development that left entire sections of Long Island City without amenities like a postal office, school (for all the new supposed residents), pharmacy, etc. Summed up<\/a>, Citylimits.org wrote in February 2017,<\/p>\n

While the Bloomberg era rezoning of the area in 2001 was intended to catalyze the creation of office space, it instead lead to a proliferation of residential towers and a lack of retail amenities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cOops.\u201d<\/p>\n

Construction boomed.<\/p>\n

The monied interests began a wholesale re-imagining of the skyline residents never knew they wanted.<\/p>\n

For instance I\u2019ve played that made-up game where you try to see how many cranes you can see from a single vantage point:<\/p>\n

Six cranes are seen here\u200a-\u200aa sixth is slightly hidden behind the power lines in the right-foreground\u200a-\u200abut I think my record is seven. The aforementioned clocktower can be seen in the lower-right, between the two cranes there.<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve seen entirely adequate 4-apartment homes get bought, demolished, and then the property essentially abandoned while the landlord\/owner squats the land, waiting for it to skyrocket to ever higher values:<\/p>\n

\"\"

This house had four apartments with accommodating garages so that anywhere from 4\u201310 people could comfortably live here; note the evergreen tree in the background and the house to the left with the white siding.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

This is that house to the left with the white siding; torn down in 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

This is that same pair of properties in February 2016; it still sits abandoned like this. The property has been absent of development for ~5 years; that’s 5 years with fewer tenants in the neighborhood, and thus fewer taxpayers paying into local services. All so a landlord can make more money a decade from now.<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve seen entirely good\u200a\u2014\u200aif quirky\u200a\u2014\u200asections of the neighborhood (that housed local coffee shops, taxi offices, long-time tenants, etc) get torn down and replaced with towering towers of hotels and condominiums that frankly no one from the neighborhood can afford:<\/p>\n

\"\"

This triangle-corner wedge of two and three storey buildings was torn down in 2012.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Here is that same plot of land seen in December 2014. The building on the right is a Hilton brand hotel (16 storey, 183 rooms) and the building going up on the left is a Marriott property since completed (31 storey) that houses a hotel and condominiums on the higher floors with apartments “from $2800” per month.<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve seen entire stretches of Jackson Avenue with an odd assortment of warehouse buildings that housed artists, craftspersons, and small businesses:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Get absolutely swamped by construction usually resulting in\u00a0tenants getting priced out or pushed out; typically the only buildings that survive as-is are those owned by the government or one of its agencies:<\/p>\n

\"\"

It should be noted this vantage point is no longer possible, as this corner property has since been replaced with a towering tower\u200a-\u200anot a public park for all the people moving into the neighborhood, but just another building, more structure without accommodating infrastructure, etc.<\/p><\/div>\n

Here is that same stretch of development further along from the backside:<\/p>\n

\"\"

10 years ago only the older warehouses in the middle ground would have sprouted above the concrete barrier in the foreground; the 7 subway train can be seen in the lower-right corner.<\/p><\/div>\n

As I dislike to say, they\u2019re filling in the sky with buildings<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The excessive development leads to perspectives like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"

As I dislike to say, they’re filling in the sky with buildings.
The excessive development leads to perspectives like this:<\/p><\/div>\n

(I love Long Island City\u200a\u2014\u200ayou can see literally thousands of shots of the neighborhood here on my Flickr<\/a> account.)<\/p>\n

All of this before Amazon even announced their recent deal, let alone before they begin construction!<\/h4>\n

Which is why I found it a bit odd when an apparently generic<\/em> Twitter account was one of the first replies to a series of tweets by the recently elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u200a\u2014\u200athe tweets which were picked up<\/a> by major news outlets (and apparently drew the ire of Amazon officers):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The generic account I refer to has since deleted its reply tweet, along with any associated reply tweets; my replies to their deleted tweets remain, and are record that the exchange did happen; also I managed to screenshot some others, and below is how I recall this all played out.<\/p>\n

The supposedly generic user account\u200a\u2014\u200a@ArtistaPena<\/a>\u200a\u2014\u200areplied by saying they were upset that @Ocasio2018 opposed the Amazon deal, because they (the user) lived in the area and thought Amazon brought \u2018value\u2019 to the table; they described Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s logic as a \u201cfallacy\u201d and they reminded Ocasio-Cortez that they are a taxpayer in her district. (I found their initial reply oddly specific\u200a\u2014\u200aas if they were an insider trader. It didn\u2019t resonate as emerging from a regular person, but it was unclear if they were a bot or troll. So I probed a bit further, starting with a simple question.)<\/p>\n

I replied to @ArtistaPena:<\/p>\n

\n

Could you survive on $11-13\/hour in NYC or do you describe these numbers as a "fallacy" too:https:\/\/t.co\/oIyGjENByk<\/a><\/p>\n

I'm a taxpayer too y'know.<\/p>\n

— nick normal (@nicknormal) November 13, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n