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Sources say the MTA will approve the Jets' bid to develop the West Side Rail Yards into a sports and convention emporium full of football, retail shops, and ugly architectural plans. This as it turns out that New Yorkers are opposed to the stadium, 53% to 38% supporting it. The MTA board reportedly found the Cablevision bid "not credible" - while the Cablevision bid was higher on paper, the actual cash value was less than the Jets' bid because Cablevision included construction costs or something in it. Trying to vet the bids was complex on many levels, entwining issues of what will benefit the MTA most and what is best politically, as many MTA board members are appointed by politicians. The quote Gothamist loves from the NY Times article is "Last May, Gov. George E. Pataki named an advisory committee to examine all public authorities throughout the state. The result of those efforts remains to be seen" in the context of making sure the MTA is on the up-and-up. Figures nothing would come of a Pataki initiative.
Anyway, it's probable that Cablevision will sue if the MTA accepts the Jets' bid, which could drag out the process much longer than city and Jets officials would like. The was a rally for the stadium yesterday, and, hey, it's the Mayor's seven-point plan as to why the Jets' bid is better for NYC! For example, "It provides greater certainty to the MTA," cause the Cablevision bid is built around more "maybes" than theirs. Yay for platitudes!
Gothamist on the West Side railyards.
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On WABC Talk Radio this morning they were saying that many of those voting on which bid to accept were in the pockets of Pataki and Bloomberg anyway so there's no way it's not going to the Jets.
for a good time, tune in to NY1 this morning. they are airing the public hearing live.
Good column from Mike Lupica in the Daily News this morning on all this:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/294970p-252535c.html
If you build it, the Olympics still won’t come.
So whats the point?
Just read Mike Lupica's column. Thanks for the tip.
Why is it so hard to select and copy text on Gothamist without ending up with the entire page highlighted?
Mike-- something in gothamist's current html/css layout is highly IE-unfriendly. I'm not 100% sure what's going on, but the problem goes away if you read Gothamist with Firefox.
(Or, you know, just wait a few days -- I imagine gawker's web goons are aware of the issue and working on it.)
er by "Mike" I of course mean "Jack"
I suppose the decision will be based on Who can bring in the Most cash.
No, Wait, that would be a Logical way to approach this! What was I thinking??
The Daily News reports that the MTA picked the Jets bid.
Anyone get the impression that Michael Bloomberg doesn't care about anyone else's opinion if it's different than his?
Anyone get the impression that Cablevision doesn't care about anyone else's opinion if it's different than theirs?
I just get the feeling that once Bloomie is ousted, this is just going to flounder. Does anyone remember the new Yankee and Mets stadiums Rudy pushed for a week before he left office?
That being said, if anything, this has at least caused the Jets bid to be run up more than the almost free land they would have received otherwise.
Remember when Giuliani was against the New US Tennis Center Stadium Mayor Dinkins supported? Has he ever been to a US Open game since? He's such a dick.
The Jets bid that was run up more than the almost free land they would have received otherwise, by the way, will come at a cost. Lots of NY'ers tax dollars will go to pay for this no matter what.
Bloomberg lost a lot of future votes on this one. Note to ad agencies: when producing the ad against Mike for 2006, just show traffic, the inevitable traffic that will happen each Sunday when the Jets play. I would imagine that the entire West Side of Manhattan will be voting against the mayor.