Amazon faced its first major defeat in New York as public opposition reached a boiling point. Grassroots resistance caused Amazon to cancel plans to build its second headquarters there.

Many believe Amazon’s retreat was a true people’s power victory, but some pundits blame activists and politicians opposing Amazon for the loss of an opportunity for the city. The question is how much would Amazon have contributed to the lives of ordinary New Yorkers in the first place?

In part 1 of our report on how the people beat Amazon, redfish spoke with the residents and activists about why they resisted Amazon moving to their hood.