Gifford Miller: Anti- West Side Stadium

City Council Speaker, and mayoral hopeful, Gifford Miller, gave his State of the City address yesterday, and he promised to block the West Side Stadium. Miller accused the Mayor of using city funds like a slush fund, and will be trying to rezone the West Side for other purposes. He said, "The bottom line is that I have fought and will keep on fighting against this stadium so that my children and your children won't end up paying for this terrible mistake." Ooh, nice move, Miller - Bloomberg can't say that...but Gothamist wonders if Cablevision/James Dolan will be helping Miller with his campaign funds. Given that the heckling from trade unions that another mayoral hopeful against the stadium got, Gothamist expects the unions to back Bloomberg.

Anyway, the Mayor's office scoffed at Miller's speech, calling it political grandstanding; the Mayor's communications director said, "He's rezoning state land. Hey, why does't he rezone the Indian reservations while he's at it?" Bring on Election Year snark! Indeed, other politicians (including Democrats) were unhappy that Miller used his speech, ostensibly to represent the City Council's interests, to forward his political interests. Read Miller's speech here at his Miller For New York. And this photo of Miller at right is the one "on file" from Wikipedia!