Amazon’s decision to pull out of a controversial headquarters project sparked a victory rally in Queens, where residents and activists delivered a message for other companies that might want to come to the neighborhood. But Amazon's decision has also sparked a new debate over the best way to attract jobs in an age of inequality.

Now that the tech giant has pulled out, groups expect other companies to start eyeing the vacancy. Only this time, they say there needs to be a series of expectations laid out for any corporation that wants to move in.

"If a company is willing to come here, are they willing to accept unionization? Are they willing to provide and support our crumbling infrastructure? Are they willing to work alongside our people to assess the housing injustices that we're experiencing now?" asked Dannelly Rodriguez, who sits on the executive steering committee of the Justice for All Coalition.

Other activists want more opportunities for community residents and young people, be it job training or jobs. But officials say that staving off the race to the bottom that characterized Amazon's nationwide "HQ2 Competition" will be tricky without federal regulation over subsidies and tax breaks.

"Right now you're pitting state against state and a Hunger Games competition was set up," said City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, an outspoken critic of the Amazon deal who was speaking at an unrelated event in Manhattan. "You’d need really a state compact — people signing a compact saying they're not going to compete. I don't see that happening in the short term."

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo had offered Amazon about $3 billion in tax breaks and other incentives in exchange for building a campus that would bring about 25,000 jobs to Long Island City. The tech giant abruptly announced it was cancelling the plan last week, after several months of vocal opposition from city and state elected officials.