Bidder Up: West Side Railyards Auction Ends Today

At 5PM today, the bids for the West Side railyards will be due, marking the end of round 1 of the battle royale between the Jets & the city of New York versus Cablevision. The NY Times reports that the Jets will raise their bid from their earlier, scoffable number of $100 million (they might even pull in the Giants), to be competitive with Cablevision's $600 million bid and Transgas's $800 million bid (which may be too complicated to ultimately succeed). MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow says he'd like a winner to be picked at the March 31 meeting, but since Kalikow has been full of broken promises, Gothamist isn't holding our breath and will expect more insanity. Interestingly enough, Mayor Bloomberg said he'd treat the winner of the auction fairly; that might be all the easier if he's out of office come next year.

And speaking of insanity, read the NY magazine feature about Cablevision's Charles and James Dolan's fight with each other (there's nothing like father-son fights). James Dolan had accused Mayor Bloomberg of threatening him if he proceed with fighting over the West Side Stadium, and the Mayor, of course, said that the accusation that he threatened him was "ridiculous." And more: Rudy Giuliani has backed the stadium in a new commercial (it begins with him saying, "I love New York."). The City Council has been trying to stop the Mayor from using city funds without City Council approval for the project,
Mayor Bloomberg had suggested that the Jets might leave if the stadium doesn't happen soon, but it really doesn't seem like people would be *that* upset if that actually happened. We can't wait until 5PM.

NYC planning battle fun: Newsday's list of NYC planning showdowns.

Photo by Associated Press