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March 10, 2008
Influence peddlers cash in big time on Manhattan's West Side properties
NY Daily News
By Brian Kates
Politically wired influence peddlers pocketed more than $5 million from 2004 to last year from developers pushing plans to build a midtown metropolis on the borough's last major swath of available real estate.
The article focuses on Midtown Manhattan's Madison Square Garden, Hudson Railyards and Moynihan Station projects; however, Bruce Ratner's Brooklyn lobbying largesse receives a dishonorable mention:
All those projects are on the drawing board at the same time. They involve extensive land-use review, zoning changes and approvals from multiple city, state and federal agencies — and they all need billions more to meet expected costs.
That spells a bonanza for lobbyists.
...
Fried Frank, the law firm that lobbied for Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn and the new Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, was paid $339,190 to pull strings with the Planning Commission.
Posted by lumi at March 10, 2008 5:06 AM