What Amazon must bring to Long Island City: A laser focus on creating opportunities for working class New Yorkers

In New York City and Crystal City in Northern Virginia, so called “prosperity bombs” await detonation. As evident by Amazon’s presence in Seattle, not everyone stands to benefit from hosting half of the company’s second headquarters. In Seattle, a steep influx of non-native, highly paid tech workers led to unsustainable gentrification — skyrocketing housing, rental prices and homelessness — plus overpopulation and gridlocked traffic.

If Amazon doesn’t seek alternative pipelines to fill the 50,000 vacant tech jobs, local communities will feel the blast, as much of Seattle did, without reaping the benefits.

Though it received bids from 54 states, provinces, districts and territories (including Puerto Rico), HQ2 will be split between two cities that ranked in the top five tech talent markets in the U.S. But the answer to filling Amazon’s talent shortage lies in training and hiring members within the communities where they will soon build.

In Amazon’s memorandum of understanding for Long Island City, the corporation detailed an acute focus on investing in local talent development, including an initial $5 million investment to fund workforce development initiatives. While it’s merely a nonbinding agreement, I strongly encourage Amazon’s leadership to follow through on implementing these programs. In doing so, the e-commerce giant can provide long-lasting solutions to systemic problems. Tapping into local talent pools boosts employment rates and revitalizes communities, all while improving diversity within the corporation itself.

As someone who started an organization that develops the skills of untapped talent from underserved and veteran communities, I know Amazon could have planted roots in any of the 238 cities in the bidding war and been successful in finding the talent they need for their second headquarters. Tech talent exists in every city, no matter the demographics or population; it merely needs to be mined and cultivated.

To be sure, approximately 17,000 of the vacant roles Amazon seeks to fill are for software engineers, roles that require advanced skills, extensive training and additional resources. But to say that only those with advanced degrees in the technology field can succeed in these roles is misguided. In fact, countless successful companies, like Apple and Google, no longer require employees to have college degrees.

While teaching a tech management course at Columbia University, I started a program helping men and women in Harlem, where almost a third of households had incomes below the federal poverty level, find and maintain jobs. I ran that project for five years. It was free, and we were successful in finding people not just jobs, but careers. The majority were in information technology. It was evident that the talent was there, they just needed the training, mentorship and support to secure and maintain jobs.

If Amazon truly adheres to the MOU’s focus of employing new tech talent from underserved communities, it can learn from fellow Fortune 500 company, Prudential Financial. In both Newark and El Paso, the corporation partnered with Workforce Opportunity Services, a nonprofit I founded that diversifies corporations by tapping into hidden talent pools from local, underserved communities. In El Paso, home of the Fort Bliss military base, Prudential currently has 180 full-time employees. Of those, 97 are post-9/11 veterans, a population with high underemployment and attrition rates. The Texas Workforce Commission selected Prudential as a 2018 Texas Workforce Solutions Employers of the Year finalist for its significant effect on El Paso’s workforce development.

According to its MOU, Amazon may target non-traditional demographics, and it should. Consider this: The northern tip of Long Island City, one of two locations for HQ2, is home to the Queensbridge Houses, part of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and the largest public housing project in the U.S. Nearly 7,000 people call it home. Amazon plans on holding events, such as job fairs, twice a year at Queensbridge Houses to promote employment opportunities for at least the initial three years of the project.

Knowing that in 2017, the median annual salary for computer and IT occupations was $84,580 or the average salary for the incoming Amazon employees sits at $100,000, envision the community revitalization Amazon can produce by training and employing individuals from the six-block housing complex.

JetBlue, headquartered in Long Island City, empowers those already living in Long Island City and surrounding areas. The airline trains hard-to-find tech workers from surrounding neighborhoods to work in quality assurance and as automation test engineers. Bringing in local talent is beneficial for the corporation, too. Studies show companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.

Whether facing tax laws or other forms of protest, it is evident that companies not representing their communities will be challenged. Amazon, the eighth largest U.S. company, holds incredible power to create a sustainable workforce by reaching into local communities to fill the tech shortage. If they do, HQ2’s cities will face a far better Amazon Effect than Seattle did.

Langer is the director of the Center for Technology Management at Columbia University and founder of Workforce Opportunity Services, a nonprofit committed to developing the skills of untapped talent from underserved and veteran communities through partnerships with organizations dedicated to diversifying their workforce.