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July 7, 2009
The road to Microsoft City, Missouri
The Missourian
By Katy Steinmetz
Sure, we expect to see advertisements in our media, and we can live with them being awkwardly planted in films, but there’s got to be a line drawn between what space is for sale and what isn’t.
The constantly evolving spectrum of advertising makes it hard to pinpoint that line’s exact coordinates, but New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority seems to have landed somewhere on the wrong side. Their offense? Pimping out one of Brooklyn’s subway stops to Barclays.
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But the MTA is getting almost $100 million for the real property and air space involved in the project. I find it hard to believe that a relatively paltry $4 million is going to make or break the system.
NoLandGrab: To be clear, the MTA is selling the "development rights" for the MTA railyard to Bruce Ratner, and the deal has been reduced from $100 million at closing, as first agreed, to $20 million down and the rest to be financed at below-market-rate interest over the next 22 years. Since, Ratner is nickel-n-diming the transit authority, maybe $4 million does make a difference after all.
Posted by lumi at July 7, 2009 5:53 AM