Some prominent New Yorkers are asking Amazon to reconsider its abandonment of the Big Apple. The company, which had announced the opening of a second headquarters in the Queens, Long Island City area of New York, shifted gears in early February in response to community protest over the generous tax breaks the state offered the retailer.

But in a letter signed by 40 CEOs (including the heads of Goldman Sachs, Hearst, Jet Blue, Citi Group and Deloitte), politicians (including three New York members of Congress) and the presidents of New York University and the United Federation of Labor, they ask Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to change his mind about pulling out of the city.

The ad is posted on the New York Times website , which is running the ad Friday.