Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Yankees Park and Deride

Juan Gonzales continues his exposes of the Yankee Stadium wheeling and dealing in today's NY Daily News: "The Yankees and hundreds of their VIPs will get free valet parking for the next 40 years, courtesy of New York taxpayers. The startling revelation of yet another subsidy for the richest team in baseball is buried deep in the fine print of a $237 million tax-exempt bond offering that city officials quietly issued the week before Christmas."

Perhaps this will also become part of the rich development legacy that the media has been fawning over with the departure of Deputy Dan-with the NY Daily News' Errol Louis actually pointing to the sweetheart deal that left minority vendors at the old BTM out in the cold, as an example of the goodness of the dearly departed Dan?

What we do know is that the stench coming out of the Bronx will not be ameliorated by all of the greening of the borough that comes as a result of the new stadium-two "parks" on top of parking garages built for VIPs-will not make up for the beautiful old parks that had to be destroyed for the new Yankee development.

This is certainly not what's going to happen over at Coney Island in Brooklyn, where State Senator Kruger is getting ready to insure that there will be no sleight-of-hand by the city's EDC. Here we're sure that alienation will become more of an existential concept than it was in the borough were developers feed on carrion on a daily basis.