It seems very unlikely that New York City needs to pump taxpayer money into proving to multinational companies that there is value to being located near the talent concentration they already have. It seems unlikely that Amazon's presence there is going to be the spark that finally ignites their struggling tech sector, or attracts job seekers from outside the region (spoiler: New York doesn't have these problems). It seems much more likely that Amazon is contributing to many of the existing NYC area problems (Read: housing/infrastructure) by further straining resources AND demanding they be paid a ransom for not building in Baltimore.

At this point, based on the cities chosen, it seems more like Amazon held these 2 obvious choice cities hostage by threatening to move to smaller, less established city instead. "Give us all your subsidies, or we'll just go build in Baltimore"