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October 22, 2009
Newspapers Already Receive Subsidies
Reason Hit & Run
by Matt Welch
God Bless America — and subsidies!
And–never forget!–the aformentioned New York Times HQ was one of the more brazen examples you'll find of corporatism in the name of the little guy. From my 2005 column about it:
On September 24, 2001, as New York firefighters were still picking their comrades' body parts out of the World Trade Center wreckage, New York Times Co. Vice Chairman and Senior Vice President Michael Golden announced that the Gray Lady was ready to do its part in the healing.
"We believe there could not be a greater contribution," Golden told a clutch of city officials and journalists, "than to have the opportunity to start construction of the first major icon building in New York City after the tragic events of Sept. 11." Bruce Ratner, president of the real estate development company working with the Times on its proposed new Eighth Avenue headquarters, called the project a "very important testament to our values, culture and democratic ideals."
Those "values" and "democratic ideals" included using eminent domain to forcibly evict 55 businesses--including a trade school, a student housing unit, a Donna Karan outlet, and several mom-and-pop stores--against their will, under the legal cover of erasing "blight," in order to clear ground for a 52-story skyscraper. The Times and Ratner, who never bothered making an offer to the property owners, bought the Port Authority adjacent property at a steep discount ($85 million) from a state agency that seized the 11 buildings on it; should legal settlements with the original tenants exceed that amount, taxpayers will have to make up the difference. On top of that gift, the city and state offered the Times $26 million in tax breaks for the project, and Ratner even lobbied to receive $400 million worth of U.S. Treasury backed Liberty Bonds--instruments created by Congress to help rebuild Lower Manhattan. Which is four miles away.
NoLandGrab: Given this context, it's not so surprising that word of last week's Atlantic Yards eminent domain hearing never made it into the pages of The Times.
Posted by eric at October 22, 2009 3:46 PM