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May 11, 2012
Two cities, two arenas
Edmonton Journal, Letters to the Editor
Ha! "M.L. Clark" must be a nom de plume for B.C. Ratner, since Mr. Ratner's [Charles?] "Barkley Center" is being subsidized to the tune of $726 million — at least.
Re: "Isles could be rolling into new Brooklyn arena," the Journal, May 1.
Help me understand why the City of Edmonton is contemplating funding a disproportionately large portion of the Daryl Katz boondoggle with taxpayers' money when another, presumably successful, funding model appears to be in the works using American ingenuity and entrepreneurship.
If by "American ingenuity and entrepreneurship" M.L. Clark means "backroom-dealing and subsidy-plundering, with some eminent-domain-abusing tossed in," then yes, American ingenuity and entrepreneurship are alive and well in Brooklyn.
The New York Islanders could be moving into Brooklyn's new state-of-the-art Barkley Center, owned and developed by Bruce Ratner, after Nassau County residents voted down a proposal that would earmark $400 million in public funds for building a new Nassau Coliseum.
Perhaps Katz and Mayor Stephen Mandel should have sought advice from Ratner rather than National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman on their recent trip to the Big Apple.
NoLandGrab: Seeking advice from Bruce Ratner on protecting taxpayers' money from boondoggles is like asking Willie Sutton to guard your bank vault. Mr. Sutton, of course, was ultimately apprehended a stone's throw from the site of Mr. Ratner's biggest score.
Posted by eric at May 11, 2012 11:42 AM