November 17, 2004
Mayor Vs. Madison Square Garden
Ah, there's nothing like billionaires bitching about tax breaks to make the little man feel really pissed. The Mayor brought up how Cablevision, owner of Madison Square Garden, gets a tax break of hundreds of millions. This was Bloomberg's way to retaliate against Cablevision's criticism of the his pet plan for a new Jets Stadium. However, as the NY Times noted, the Mayor's words need taken with a couple cartons of salt:
In criticizing Cablevision's acceptance of a tax exemption, Mr. Bloomberg drew a comparison to his own company, Bloomberg LP, which he said "has always forgone any of the tax breaks because I never thought that the decision for us to stay in the city, or not stay in the city, was a function of tax breaks."Anyway, Gothamist thinks there's only one way for this to be resolved: A tag team cage match - the Mayor and Jets owner Woody Johnson in one corner, the Dolans (owners of Cablevision) in the other.
Bloomberg LP did, in fact, negotiate a tax break valued at $14 million with the Giuliani administration in 2000, but Mr. Bloomberg turned it down after winning the election in 2001 to avoid a conflict of interest.
Gothamist on the Jets stadium project on the West Side.
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Loved Lenore Skenazy's write up of it entitled 'Battling money bags'...
There are few ny personalities I dislike more than the Dolans and cablevision. Nobody beats the Wiz, the Knicks, the Rangers... Cablevision's got the touch of death. And if they're not strangling them directly, they're fighting with them, ala the Yankees and YES, the Mets (and MES?) and on top of it all, they let go of Marv Albert. Bastards.
Great article in today's Observer about how the Dolans (crazy old man and his drunk son) are killing the anti-Stadium movement that they themselves are funding, because, well, that's what they do, screw things up.
Which is sad, because this Olympic thing and this West Side stadium thing ought to die real, quick deaths.
I hope they're able to get this stadium/convention center through. That area needs all the help it can get and no matter what went up there the city would have to pay the same amount for the platform... I wish the mayor all the luck in the world on this one.
The "area" is fine. Home to many businesses and people. And if push came to shove (ie. demand for you economists) someone else could and would pay for bridging over the rail yards, if that was ever nessesary. I second Tim N., these projects need to stop ASAP. BTW, does anyone know where we could find a list of all the tax exemptions granted to various businesses in NYC. I know that Morgan Stanley, AMEX, etc all get them.
Thanks, Max. Though, frankly, I wouldn't mind a stadium (except this one is so damned ugly!)... what I mind in the extreme is the city paying for it when our local firehouse is getting boarded up.
Woody Johnson (Jets owner) is a permanent resident of the upper floors of the Forbes 500. If he wants his stadium so bad, he should open his wallet, buy the land, and build it.
first off that money does not come out of the general fund. the state and city would not float bonds for firehouses or whatever else you list. second, the area is not fine. there has been no interest in those yards to this point, now there is and there is a chance to do something with the area. there are times when developement destroys - case and point penn station - this is not one of those times and to let part of the city languish is a real shame. its a true shame when a city can no longer have large works.
I think that part of town could use some changes. I work there and it is dangerous in the evenings. Also, from my vantage point, (I work in a building overlooking the yards) it looks like a big pit with a river view.