Amazon has announced it is scrapping plans to build a major office facility in New York City, after local politicians and grassroots activists opposed the deal. Amazon had announced the project in November, after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio offered nearly $3 billion in tax subsidies to build the project, which could have created 25,000 jobs. As part of the deal, New York even offered to build a helipad for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who is the richest man in the world. One of the leading opponents of the deal was Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of Queens, New York, the borough where Amazon was planning to build in.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “I think it’s incredible. I mean, it shows that everyday Americans still have the power to organize and fight for their communities, and they can have more say in this country than the richest man in the world. … If we’re willing to give away $3 billion for this deal, we could invest those $3 billion in our district ourselves, if we wanted to. We could hire out more teachers. We can fix our subways. We can put a lot of people to work for that money, if we wanted to.”

New York state Senator Mike Gianaris also helped lead the opposition to the project.

Sen. Michael Gianaris: “This is a very dangerous moment in our history, where big corporations think they have the power to tell governments what they should be doing. This is robber baron stuff. We turned away from it a century ago, and we shouldn’t go back to it now. It’s time for people, through their governments, to stand up and say the corporations are not the most powerful thing in this country; the governments are.”

New York Times reporter J. David Goodman tweeted on Thursday, “One factor that concerned Amazon executives was how activists in New York City broadened their attacks from the specifics of the deal to the company’s practices far beyond the five boroughs, on unions and working with ICE.”