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May 18, 2010
Boosting the Wilpons?
The Neighborhood Retail Alliance
Richard Lipsky, always careful to avoid biting the hand that feeds him, assails subsidizing sports venues in Queens while positing that over in Brooklyn, they "might actually make some sense." Especially if the developer has paid you to lobby for it.
It has to do with the economics of sports franchises. As one expert has pointed out: "Local political and community leaders and the owners of professional sports teams frequently claim that professional sports facilities and franchises are important engines of economic development in urban areas. These structures and teams allegedly contribute millions of dollars of net new spending annually and create hundreds of new jobs, and provide justification for hundreds of millions of dollars of public subsidies for the construction of many new professional sports facilities in the United Sates over the past decade. Despite these claims, economists have found no evidence of positive economic impact of professional sports teams and facilities on urban economies."
So, by all means, offer a spot in Willets Point to a dying hockey franchise-it makes as much sense as NYC spending billions to evict existing business owners and their thousands of employees in order to house the largest car dependent shopping mall in NYC. And as far as Atlantic Yards is concerned, where thousands of units of housing give the development a greater economic rationale, that might actually make some sense. The arena is gonna get built and the Islanders would be value added to the arena.
NoLandGrab: Gotta love Lipsky's blog tagline — "Protecting Neighborhood Business For Over 20 Years." Which "neighborhood business," exactly, are you protecting in Brooklyn? Forest City Ratner?
Posted by eric at May 18, 2010 12:03 PM