Monday, 25 Nov 2024

Ocasio-Cortez Is Top ‘Villain’ in Amazon Pullout, Poll Finds

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It’s Tuesday. Tomorrow, spring officially begins.

Weather: Grab the sunglasses. It’ll be sunny today and tomorrow. Temperatures start in the mid-30s, then climb to the upper 40s.

Alternate-side parking: In effect until Wednesday (suspended Thursday for Purim).

When Amazon announced last month that it was canceling plans to build a major campus in Queens, the company did not directly blame any one person or group.

But others have.

Governor Cuomo, who with Mayor de Blasio helped negotiate the deal largely in private, blamed the State Senate, where crucial leaders opposed the plan.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who opposed the campus, blamed Amazon for seeking $3 billion in tax breaks and incentives that she said should have been spent elsewhere.

Now a poll is offering insight into how the public feels about the deal’s collapse. Over a third of New Yorkers point the finger at Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, according to a Siena College Research Institute survey of 700 voters.

Here’s what else you need to know about the poll, which was released yesterday:

The deal was popular across the state: Two-thirds of voters said Amazon’s withdrawal was bad for New York.

Sixty-three percent of Democrats and 56 percent of self-identified liberals said the cancellation was bad for New York.

Sixty-four percent of New York City voters agreed with them.

Blame fell on Ms. Ocasio-Cortez: Thirty-eight percent of voters faulted the congresswoman for the deal’s demise, identifying her as a “villain.” “Local activists in Queens” were labeled villains by 34 percent of voters.

In the New York City suburbs, 50 percent of voters blamed Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Upstate, the number was 40 percent; in the five boroughs, it was 29 percent.

A spokesman for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez declined to comment on the poll results.

What about the governor and mayor? Mr. Cuomo and Mr. de Blasio were each seen as a villain by fewer than 30 percent of voters.

What about Amazon? The company was blamed by 26 percent of voters.

The takeaways:

• The progressive base that cheered Ms. Ocasio-Cortez as she railed against the deal was not representative of most voters.

“Those closest to a project don’t necessarily reflect the views of a wider audience,” said Steven Greenberg, a pollster with Siena College. (I asked Mr. Greenberg if by “closest” he meant physical proximity, and he replied, “Yes.”)

• “Local activists in Queens” were blamed more often for the plan’s demise than the State Senate was. In the suburbs, 39 percent of voters labeled the activists as villains, but only 23 percent labeled the Senate as such.

This matters in part because Democrats need to retain suburban seats to hold on to their Senate majority.

The poll was conducted March 10-14 and has a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points.

From The Times

President Trump’s crackdown on undocumented workers has unnerved immigrants and the farmers who rely on them.

Only 7 black students got into the most selective public high school in New York City, out of 895 spots.

He spent seven years in prison after being convicted of two cellphone robberies. Then a court changed the rules.

Can New York’s “Big Ben” block a $20 million penthouse in Lower Manhattan?

Three young lawmakers share a progressive vision, and a seven-room apartment in Albany.

[Want more news from New York and around the region? Check out our full coverage.]

The mini crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.

What we’re reading

Citi Bike will extend its valet service. [StreetsBlog]

Nurses say they will strike soon at Mount Sinai, Montefiore and NewYork-Presbyterian hospitals. [ABC]

The Vessel at Hudson Yards has the right to use the photos and videos you take of it. [Gothamist]

The number of high-level jobs in the de Blasio administration that are vacant or being filled with substitutes: 14. [Politico NY]

Mark Peters, who was fired from his job as the city’s investigation commissioner by Mr. de Blasio, has been hired by CBS as an urban affairs reporter. [Adweek]

In case you missed it: Newark’s mayor said the city was exploring a program for universal basic income. [Star-Ledger]

Coming up today

Hear a live version of the “Comedy History 101” podcast with Harmon Leon and Scott Calonico at the PIT Loft in Manhattan. 7 p.m. [$8]

The Strand bookstore in Manhattan hosts several authors for “Death Becomes Us,” a discussion about women who kill. 6:30 p.m. [$15]

Ring in the Persian New Year at the Fire Jumping Spring Festival at the Firemen’s Memorial Garden in Manhattan. 6:30 p.m. [Free]

— Derek Norman

Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times’s culture pages.

And finally: A New York conversation about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1953 for being Soviet spies. It’s a case that some people are still debating and that others have never heard of.

And it’s “a New York story,” Richard H. Weisberg, a professor at Cardozo School of Law, said.

The couple were tried in the Southern District of New York and buried on Long Island. New Yorkers “had connections to the case — parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents,” Professor Weisberg said.

“It’s a story of how a couple that owns a ma-and-pa electronic fix-it store becomes swept up in the web of an investigation,” Professor Weisberg said. “And there are so many unresolved issues, even the guilt and innocence of both Julius and Ethel — who should be seen separately, really in a way — is unclear at the moment.”

The case is more than 60 years old, but some at Cardozo say it shouldn’t be forgotten. Today at 4 p.m., the law school will screen a movie about the Rosenbergs called “Daniel,” which the executive producers have described as “inspired” by the case.

At 6:30 p.m., an actress in the film, Lindsay Crouse, will participate in a discussion with one of the Rosenbergs’ sons, Robert Meeropol. The discussion will be moderated by Professor Weisberg.

Ms. Crouse said the case was long overdue for a re-examination.

“One of the reasons I think it’s important for students to know what went on in the Rosenberg case is that this country has almost shunned the case,” she said in an interview. “It’s very upsetting on many levels, and we need to look at it square in the face to learn its lessons.”

Barbara Kolson, the co-director of the Fashion, Arts, Media and Entertainment Center at Cardozo, who helped organize the event, said the school’s students “did not know who the Rosenbergs were.”

“They also did not know who Roy Cohn was,” she said, referring to one of the prosecutors who was instrumental in the convictions.

Mr. Cohn, who died in 1986, had mentored a cadre of influential people, including President Trump and Roger Stone.

It’s Tuesday — learn about New York history.

Metropolitan Diary: Discouraging day

Dear Diary:

I was walking down York Avenue after a discouraging second day at my first job. Feeling overwhelmed, I was holding back tears as I trudged home through the rain.

A few blocks from my apartment, I slowed to a stop in front of a fruit cart. I pretended to scan the contents as I replayed the previous eight hours in my head.

The vendor tried to tempt me with cherries and tangerines, but I was lost in my own thoughts.

I heard a voice whispering from behind me: “Get the grapes.”

I turned to face a woman with gentle features and streaks of gray hair, her body wrapped tightly in a fur coat.

“They’re sweet and delicious,” she said. “And you can put them in your pocket and eat them on your way home.”

So I did. And they were.

— Michael Harmon

Metropolitan Diary: Swinging to the music

Metropolitan Diary was inadvertently left out of the Monday edition of New York Today, so we are publishing two today.

Dear Diary:

We were apart for seven months. He was in Alabama, at Fort Rucker, and I was at Columbia. We spent three days together while he was on leave.

The day before he left, we were on the No. 1. In the twitching subway light, a band swung into our car and seasoned the tight air: One musician kneaded a metallic accordion, and another sang.

He smiled — there is a slight gap between his front teeth — and we danced. In the music, the moment felt infinite. I didn’t think about saying goodbye, about the distance from Alabama to New York. I just thought about him, on the No. 1, with me, swinging to the music.

The next day he boarded his train at Penn Station. I walked to Times Square, crying and cold, and I caught the No. 1. After two stops, a band swung into the car: It was the one from the day before. I couldn’t help but smile and swing my hips to the music.

— Emma O’Leary

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