‘You Can't Just Show Up’: Alicia Glen on Amazon's Queens Defeat

Alicia Glen is a force to be reckoned with. In her five years as New York City’s deputy mayor for housing and economic development under Mayor Bill de Blasio, she pioneered a major new inclusionary-zoning initiative for affordable housing, built up the city’s tech startups, led an effort to upzone Midtown Manhattan, and worked to spread economic development across the five boroughs. Described by Politico as “hard-charging” and by the New York Times as a lightning rod for criticism from progressives, Glen previously led Goldman Sachs’s Urban Investment Group, and prior to that, was a housing official under former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

I recently talked to Glen about her stint in city hall (which ended in March), New York’s future, and her own next steps. Our conversation has been edited and condensed.