Mayor Rahm Emanuel On The Amazon HQ2 Decision
CHICAGO (CBS)-- Mayor Rahm Emanuel's spin on Amazon's decision was that Chicago may have won by losing.
Amazon announced the decision to split it's news auxiliary headquarters, and the 50,000 jobs that go with it, between New York City and Northern Virginia.
Mayor Emanuel voiced no regrets regarding not offering more incentives.
"You can't win if you don't compete," Emanuel said. "And you're not guaranteed, just because you compete, you're going to win."
Sources hinted that Springfield's political rancor, pension problems and tax hike uncertainty didn't help in the competition.
As for subsidies, New York offered $2 billion and Northern Virginia offered $500 million.
However, Chicago also offered around $2.5 billion in state and city tax breaks.
Emanuel said money is not the only incentive.
"I do believe the right type of way you incentivize a company is not just through money, he said. "Its's through a 21st Century airport, 21st Century mass transit, 21st Century workforce with the university system to back it up and through an affordable and dynamic neighborhood system, which is what we have."
Emanuel says he is not sorry at all.
City hall also noted that in Wisconsin, governor Scott Walker was defeated after the four-billion-dollar cost of luring $50,000 Foxconn jobs sunk in with voters.
In Seattle, Amazon's become a target for soaring home prices and increased homelessness, problems its new secondary headquarters could face.
Chicago will not have to deal with these potential issues.
Tuesday, Amazon's Alexa poked fun at a campaign video from Chicago.
The Chicago's high-powered hype campaign included a promo video narrated by Star Trek, star William Shatner.
"Amazon makes its second city, the second city," Shatner said.
Today, Amazon's Alexa also used the second-city theme, in her apology for rejecting Chicago. Alexa issued specific, and clever, apologies to the 18 cities that were not chosen.
"But if it's any consolation, you were the second city we chose," Alexa said. "Get it?"
