Restaurants and hotels had to shut down, but one massive employer has held on to staff and even is hiring tens of thousands more around the country: Amazon.

For the people of Queens, that is a thumb in the eye. We had the chance to let Amazon open a second headquarters here with 25,000 new jobs. Economists debate the multiplier effect it would have had, with some saying there would be five new jobs, many of them in Queens, for every Amazon hire. Even the most skeptical economists put the figure at seven other jobs per 10 Amazon hires. In other words those 25,000 Amazon jobs would have meant at least 42,500 total jobs, and perhaps as many as 125,000. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who backed the deal, put the number at 107,000.

That’s why New York City’s minority residents were overwhelmingly in favor of Amazon. Tenants in the Queensbridge Houses, the largest housing project in the U.S. and the one closest to what would’ve been the new Amazon campus, pushed hard for the opportunities it would bring.

Nonetheless, politicians campaigned against the project, and Amazon pulled out. The loudest opponent was Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.