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June 28, 2009
Where Geography Matters
The New York Times, Editorial
The Times opines against — sort of — the selling of subway-station naming-rights to Barclays.
After five years of trying, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has sold the naming rights to a subway station. As of 2012 the M.T.A. will add the name Barclays to the Brooklyn station currently known as Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street.
Yes, Barclays as in the British bank. Or more to the point, as in the British bank that bought the naming rights to the sports arena being built as part of the Atlantic Yards project. The buyer in this case is Forest City Ratner, the developer for Atlantic Yards. It will pay $200,000 a year for 20 years.
We know that is a goodly sum and times are very tough for the M.T.A. But there’s reason to be skeptical about all of this, which probably explains why it took so long to sell even this one.
...The names of subway stations are beautifully utilitarian just as they are, shifting only as rapidly as the streets above them shift. The names of their sponsors are likely to shift with the economic climate, and somehow adding a name like Barclays to what is, after all, a public transit station — in Brooklyn — feels even more dissonant.
NoLandGrab: The Times remains silent, however, on the MTA's sell-out of straphangers for Forest CIty's benefit. And whoops — they must've forgotten that the very same company is their business partner.
Posted by eric at June 28, 2009 11:17 PM