Picture this: an occupation where employees aren’t allowed to talk to their fellow employees, are pressured to urinate in trash cans and water bottles, are constantly monitored via cameras by their superiors and can’t take breaks for fear of being fired. While this description resembles some variety of a cruel, unreasonable future where workers are treated “like robots” it’s an everyday reality for many of those employed by Amazon.com. In a conglomerate that bases its success on efficiency and speed, Amazon shows little regard for its employees’ well-being, only happy if all its packages are exported on time.

That’s just one of the reasons why the 25,000 jobs the second Amazon headquarters would have brought to Long Island City and  Queens, New York didn’t sway locals when it was announced that Amazon would be breaking ground there. In fact, the residents were anything but pleased, showing their dissatisfaction with the blueprints by launching numerous protests against the shipping giant’s move to the Queens borough, eventually forcing the company’s hand into withdrawing their plans on February 14, and deciding against constructing there. Those warehouse conditions alone urged locals to express their indignation at Amazon’s moving to the area, calling the company dishonest and unreliable, with many of its Staten Island warehouse workers speaking up, though the new regional headquarters would be producing more white-collar than blue-collar jobs. In fact, those white-collar positions were another point in the locals’ arguments, despite Amazon’s promises to invest in the surrounding neighborhood’s working-class citizens.

While polls throughout the state were largely supportive of the new headquarters construction, those who call Long Island City home expressed concern with the quality of the jobs that would be created and the effect it might have on the community. The lion’s share of the new jobs being generated would have included very high qualifications, with very few working-class positions being offered up. The introduction of employment with such high standards would have likely ushered out the lower-income residents from the neighborhood. Amazon’s move would also eventually cause housing prices to rise, effectively kicking out all the residents who would no longer be able to afford higher rent prices and residential costs. Another facet of the residents’ outrage was that Amazon very easily could have outsourced their positions or not given jobs to those in the immediate area, meaning that there would be even less benefit to them and more benefit to those who wouldn’t be so negatively affected by the changes to the area.

Residents were additionally perturbed regarding the loss of culture and character in Long Island City, which has experienced no small dosage of gentrification in recent years. With the creation of another company office, and a massive one at that, Long Island City could very well have lost the last of its lifeblood and history. Given that some New York lawmakers were also planning on having taxpayers offer up three billion dollars as government incentives, the reactions of Long Island City locals aren’t surprising, as that money could have been put forth for reinforcing the community and battling homelessness in the area. Divulging such a large sum of money upon such a massive monopoly of a company practically acts as an insult to those who would be paying the taxes to support that subsidy. After all, an establishment that’s headed by a man who makes his lowest-paid employee’s yearly income about every twelve seconds has absolutely no business asking for or even just accepting money brought about by taxpayer dollars.

The notion of a large corporate presence making the area its new stomping grounds rightfully caused many to shift with worry that their neighborhood might lose its character and turn into just another cookie-cutter corporate playpen, with many of its residents at risk of becoming unable to afford their current living conditions. Building a new Amazon headquarters in Long Island City would have been harmful to the neighborhood itself, and would have done more damage than good, had dutiful locals not pressed for different results.