Amazon’s sudden announcement that it would back out of building a second headquarters in Queens, New York — which was slated to employ at least twenty-five thousand people supposedly set to earn an average of $150,000 per year — made no sense as a business decision. Amazon had undergone a lengthy and elaborate process to pick the optimal location for its new campus. As suspected, Amazon settled on a city (actually two) that had high concentrations of workers with the needed technical skills, a major airport, mass transit, and the sorts of cultural attractions that would entice employees to move to or remain in that city.

New York and Washington met Amazon’s stated criteria. In addition, Washington is the nation’s political capital, and New York is the capital of almost everything else. Neither New York nor Washington offered as lavish financial incentives as the other applicants, which sought to make up for their less educated workforces, lack of a viable center city, and cultural wastelands via huge giveaways.

The opposition to the deal with Amazon, while intense and heartening, was likely to be defeated in the end. Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio had the authority to override objections from other elected officials and push through the zoning changes needed for Amazon to build their ideal campus. Governor Cuomo could have blocked the State Senate’s appointment of HQ2 opponent and Queens state senator Michael Gianaris to the Public Authorities Control Board, which had the power to reject projects like Amazon’s. Most of the actual cash subsidies and tax abatements were “as of right,” meaning that they didn’t need approval: they were payments from the city and state governments that are given to any corporation that creates enough new jobs in parts of the city classified as “distressed.”