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January 27, 2009
Yankee Stadium rec area cost out of the park
Crain's NY Business
by Daniel Massey
More revelations about The Parks that George (and Mike) Stole from the people of the nation's poorest Congressional district.
The cost of replacing more than 22 acres of South Bronx parkland displaced by the new Yankee Stadium has skyrocketed 67% to nearly $195 million, according to a new report by the Independent Budget Office.
Design revisions, project additions, unanticipated cleanup of hazardous materials and construction inflation have driven costs up by $78.6 million, the report said. While the Yankees are financing the stadium — with the help of city and state subsidies — the parks are being paid for by the city.
...Eight smaller parks will replace Macombs Dam Park and a portion of John Mullaly Park, which were demolished to make way for the new stadium and parking garages.
...The parks were initially expected to be completed by December 2010, but construction delays at almost every facility means they will not likely open before the fall of 2011.
...The increases and delays came as no surprise to community members who believed all along that the city’s original plan was not feasible. They vigorously opposed the stadium, in large part because of its impact on neighborhood parkland.
Joyce Hogi, a member of Community Board 4’s parks committee and a longtime area resident, said community members told the city it was underestimating the amount of environmental remediation that needed to be done, but that its warnings went nowhere. “We knew the costs of the parks were going to escalate,” she said. “During our protests, we said ‘there are tanks under the soil, there’s remediation that needs to be done.’”
Even if there are no further delays, Ms. Hogi believes irrevocable damage has already been done. “The kids that played in these parks will be adults and parents by the time we get the replacements,” she said.
NoLandGrab: The phony claims by the Yankees and the Bloomberg administration that the new stadium will be a boon to the Bronx make the theft of the area's parkland all the more egregious.
Posted by eric at January 27, 2009 4:15 PM