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Mayor Bloomberg lambasted the state's PACB decision to reject a plan to finance the West Side Stadium, telling New Yorkers, "We have let down America." Yes, Mayor Bloomberg was swimming in hyperbole, saying:
"We've lost a little bit of our spirit to go ahead and our can-do attitude. If you adopt this kind of policy, we never would have built Carnegie Hall, we never would have built Radio City Music Hall, we never would have built the airports, or the Triborough Bridge or Central Park. One of the great dangers is that developers are going to get disheartened and say, 'I can't build anything in New York City because the politics always get in the way.'"The NY Times also reports that the city's big mistake was not to work with state lawmakers sooner. A hurt Bloomberg is also dropping his financial support of State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who failed to get the board to pass the funding.
Now there are many questions for what will happen to the railyards, such as will anything be built there and does this mean the No. 7 train won't be extended? The NY Times reports that Cablevision's James Dolan, a virulent anti-West Stadium figure, called Donald Trump to talk about developing the MTA railyards. And, yes, that's a true story, even though it sounds more like a script. Gothamist just hopes that Trump will be more involved in his plans for a musical than getting mixed up in this because our head can't take it.
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more importantly, if there is a trump musical, will it win a tony!
While the West Side was a bad location for a stadium, Bloomy's onto something when he complains that we can't get anything built as we could in years past. Second Avenue subway...the new Penn Station ... downtown transit hub ... LIRR connections to downtown... grand plans, no action.
Scale down these extravagant plans. They won't be built anyway. Come up with modest solutions that can be privately funded. That's the only way anything will ever get built.
www.forgotten-ny.com
He does have a point, a very valis point, but he bet on the wrong horse. And as a result, we may not have a new Trade Center or a new Penn Station, both worthwhile projects. But by putting all his eggs in one basket... the WRONG basket... we all lose.
Oh, and as far as this "we let down America" crap, take it and shove it. Like America, of late, has done sooooo much for us (was that another budget axe I heard falling on our homeland security funding and Moynihan Station dollars?).
The stadium's fate is exceptional in that it (like the Lower Manhattan Expressway) was brought down largely due to the vigor of the citywide & statewide opposition. The typical fate of a big ticket project is death by ineptitude.
But I agree with Kevin; Bloomberg has finally accepted what many of us knew for quite some time.
Valid. V-A-L-I-D. Valid.
Damn spellchecker must be around here somewhere.
Once again New York is the national leader. There are countless stories over the past decade of declining cities wasting tax payer's money to finance pricey stadiums for a private sports venture. Bloomberg is mistaken in comparing bridges and airports to stadiums. The jets already have a stadium anyway. Good riddance. Maybe this will inspire other cities to stop public financing of stadiums.
You know, If the stadium is such a great investment, Why don't the Jets just pay for it??
They could get exclusive control of it year round *and* reap all the money this would allegedly pull in...
Heh. Carnegie Hall. Good comparison, Mr. Mayor. Since Carnegie Hall was built as a completely private institution by a completely private individual, and didn't become property of the city until it had been around for over 75 years. I applaud Mayor Bloomberg's idea that the stadium should be financed like Carnegie Hall and the city should have nothign to do with it until it becomes a world class institution with lots of history behind it.
Bloomy to Senate Majority Leader Bruno, "What I gave you that money, and you put the people's interests ahead of my own, How dare you, NO CASH FOR YOU" Looks like Mike's true colors showed on this one. And spare me Mayor Bloomberg, we didn't let America down, The Olympics make no money for the hosting city (i.e. Atlanta, Salt Lake) except for the ones involved on the Olympic Committee i.e. your friends and co-workers
It is an investment, and a public one that the city should help finance. I spent time in Denver before coming out here 8 years ago and let me tell you the stadiums here suck. For such a great city, you'd think the people could get together and build a decent place to watch sports.
The financial benefits are not dollar for dollar in the stadium, but also in drawing people to the city for events...money to be spent elsewhere.
>>>I spent time in Denver before coming out here 8 years ago and let me tell you the stadiums here suck. For such a great city, you'd think the people could get together and build a decent place to watch sports.
In other cities, teams have leverage. They can threaten to move. In NYC, they can't do that ... they have to stay in the immediate area. That's the reason the Amazing Mets are stuck at Shea for the foreseeable future, and the Jets will have to make a new arrangement with the Maras.
www.forgotten-ny.com
The spin-off effects Jayson alludes to are pure fiction. There are exceptions (Fenway Park, Wrigley Field) but the rule has been that stadiums don't create economic growth for the areas they inhabit.
Moreover, the exceptions to this rule are BASEBALL stadiums, which host about 80 games annually. This was a football stadium that would be used, what, 10 times a year?
Stadiums used to be privately financed. But ever since the Dodgers left Brooklyn, no politician wants to be on watch as their team leaves town. There has never been any economic benefit to having a stadium in a city. The only benefit is civic pride, which is not worth $600 million!
Wait -- they were going to build a stadium on the West Side? Why hasn't this gotten more coverage???
Obviously Jayson has never been to the House that Ruth Built, which beats the hell out of any shopping-mall-inspired faux-antique souless pile they have in the Mile High City.
Obviously Tim has never been to any of the new ballparks around the country i.e. Camden Yards, Jacobs Field, PNC Park or SBC Park. Yankee stadium is barely above the cookie cutter/toilet bowl stadiums of the 60's.
Keep 'em. No history, no soul, and they all look the same. Give me YS or Fenway or Wrigley any day. But thanks for checking in, my diminutive eponymous amigo. :>)
bloomy has no idea what's he's talking about when it comes to this city's resolve to build things people really need.
$2 billion will be spent on the now nearly completed PATH station at the WTC site but the desperate, screaming to be rebuilt Penn Station that sees 10, yes ten times the number of passengers per day isn't being built.
a new shea stadium ought to come before a any westside or downtown stadium.
They all look the same? You have just proved me right. You have never been to any of the new stadiums.
No history? If you think Yankee stadium is anything like the Yankee stadium Ruth, DiMaggio or Mantle played in then you are greatly mistaken. After the $160 million renovation in early 70's, posts are gone, seats are wider, Monument Park, luxury suites... it's the House Steinbrenner ReBuilt.