As the arbitration fallout continues, two stories surrounding the new stadium have cropped up over the last few days. Both of them involve ongoing stories I’ve been following here over the last few years.
First up is fallout from the weekend. Richard Brodsky says that he will continue to hold hearings about the city’s sweetheart deal with the Yankees. Greg Clary reported over the weekend:
State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky plans to continue an investigation into New York City’s stadium deal with the Yankees after releasing e-mails detailing discussions of tax breaks, free food and who might get to use a city-owned luxury box…
Brodsky said his Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions will look at how the assessment of the new Yankee Stadium was calculated, why ticket prices shot up hundreds of dollars each and whether promises that 1,000 permanent jobs would be created were knowingly overestimated.
“My job is to keep a check on authorities,” Brodsky said. “We’re doing the kind of oversight we’re supposed to. Where we have documents that we’ve finished reviewing and are worth looking at, we will continue to make them public.”
I’m a strong supporter of good government in New York City. I believe that, by and large, the taxpayers got a raw deal here while the Yanks and the City are busy patting each other on the back. I don’t see how the stadium is going to deliver the 1000 new jobs, and I don’t see why the city is footing the bill for so much.
But I have to wonder about the utility of more hearings. Does Brodsky have an end-game or is he just out to make the city and Yankees look as bad as possible? If the state assembly isn’t going to levy any sort of penalty, just let the matter go. We know it was a bad deal. Let’s not waste more taxpayer dollars on it.
Meanwhile, on the parks front, the Village Voice’s Runnin’ Scared blog directs our attention to a Daily News article about the replacement parks. The gist of is that the parks set to replace the Macombs Dam Park won’t be open for a few years. It’s not really new news as these parks have been behind schedule for over a year now, but it’s just a reminder that the community benefits are slow to materialize. I know some fans disagree, but I think the Yanks should have been more responsive to the needs of the South Bronx residents who have long lived with the Yanks as neighbors.
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