True enough, and the two cities actually have similar average salaries. But Amazon wasn't proposing to bring in 10x as many workers to NYC as Seattle; they were proposing a bit over half as many. In both wealth and space, one Amazon office is just a far smaller deal in NYC than Seattle.

The more controversial part is whether that just means "less effect", or can actually change the role played. I'm very much in the second camp. The conflict here is not so much over "good or bad" but timeframe; rising demand helps cities and raises the standard of living for residents, but demand shocks can destabilize people and produce housing shortages even under good policy. Seattle saw 18% population growth by migration in a decade, with Amazon staff becoming 6% of the population, and housing prices rose about 80% in seven years. That sort of disruptive change just isn't on the table in NYC.