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April 19, 2009
Displaced by the Yankees, Some Bronx Athletic Teams Go Homeless
The New York Times
By Manny Fernandez
What happens when government is too eager to sacrifice the public needs for those of a privately-held sports franchise? There's no need to wait for the construction of Atlantic Yards to find out. The miserable results of this kind of experiment are on display right now in the Bronx.
The official opening of the new Yankee Stadium last week was greeted by rave reviews from many fans. But some parks advocates, community leaders and neighborhood residents have been less enthusiastic, frustrated by the loss of ball fields as well as the construction delays and rising costs of replacement parks.
The new stadium was built across the street from the old one on Macombs Dam Park and a portion of John Mullaly Park. State and federal law dictates that parkland removed from public use must be replaced by parkland of equal or greater value. The city’s Parks and Recreation Department originally said seven of the eight replacement parks planned for the area would be completed in time for opening day at the new stadium. But the agency later pushed back the schedule for some of the parks, and a report in January by the city’s Independent Budget Office found that the cost to replace the two parks had climbed to nearly $195 million, up from a 2005 estimate of $116 million.
NoLandGrab: Critics of the Yankee Stadium deal saw these problems approaching years ago. Then Bronx borough president Adolfo Carrión Jr. worked with the Bloomberg administration to squelch public discussion by effectively replacing Community Board 4 members who voted against building the new Yankee Stadium on public land. Moves to make the proposed Atlantic Yards a State project similarly kept the public from having any say in that project.
Posted by steve at April 19, 2009 7:04 AM