July 15, 2008
Sports economist Zimbalist criticizes "bogus" economic impact studies, fails to look in mirror
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder follows up on yesterday's appearance by sports economist Andrew Zimbalist on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show, and all we can say is that for the sake of his professional reputation, the Professor is lucky that Brian didn't open the phones to the speed-dialing AYR blogger.
So there he was, sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, on the Brian Lehrer Show yesterday to talk about the All-Star Game, and suddenly he had to defend his public statements supporting the Yankee Stadium deal and his not-peer-reviewed study endorsing Atlantic Yards.
Had there been an equal debate, Zimbalist would have been flattened. He continued to insist that the Yankees deserved praise for paying for their stadium, without acknowledging the host of special benefits to the team. He continued to insist that Forest City Ratner was using only as-of-right benefits for Atlantic Yards, despite ironclad evidence to the contrary.
And when challenged to resolve the inconsistency between his criticism of the West Side Stadium deal and his support for Atlantic Yards, he became defensive and suggested that the former might have emerged a decade ago, when it was actually several months after he issued his report for Forest City Ratner.
NoLandGrab: Like "jumbo shrimp" and "military intelligence," "sports economist" is obviously an oxymoron.
Posted by eric at 10:33 AM
June 25, 2007
The Olympic Hustle
Chicagoans are already beginning to fear what hosting the 2016 Summer Games might do to their city
In These Times
By Mischa Gaus
In the public discourse about the impacts and benefits of (potentially) hosting the 2016 Olympics, the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement gets a dishonorable mention:
A test case of how CBAs can go wrong is New York City’s Atlantic Yards development. The developer of the massive basketball arena-cum-highrise project in Brooklyn went behind closed doors with the anti-poverty group ACORN to sign a “historic” deal. Two years later, its terms keep getting worse. (Since signatories to CBAs are obligated to support them, ACORN still approves of the agreement even though the percentage and definition of affordable housing continues to shrink.)
Forest City Ratner, the Atlantic Yards’ development firm, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to other signatories, many of which were created just in time to approve the deal. Ratner’s pet groups had black leaders, while existing community groups—many with white leadership—were shut out. Consequently, many neighborhood groups now view CBAs as a slick divide-and-conquer tool of real-estate interests.
“What’s truly astonishing is that people don’t even realize this particular script has been played again and again,” says Patti Hagan of Prospect Heights Action Coalition, which agitates against the Atlantic Yards project. “They’re being led around by the promise of a little bit of money.”
NoLandGrab: Atlantic Yards is now the poster project of government-gone-wild, eminent domain abuse, incredible shrinking benefits, extreme density, public authorities reform, reversal of urban planning orthodoxy, etc, etc...
Posted by lumi at 9:25 AM
July 12, 2006
Olympics Imperil Historic Beijing Neighborhood
The NY Times
By Jim Yardley
Average community folk banding together to take a stand against the Olympic development behemoth sounds like last year's news in NYC; only this time, it's in Beijing.
Will the Olympics, which organizers promised would enhance the city’s ‘‘cultural heritage,’’ instead help finish off what remains of old Beijing?
Many streets and hundreds of courtyard houses have been demolished, but the neighborhood is not yet entirely gone. Scholars, preservationists and residents are trying to save what is left and have generated enough publicity to turn the situation into a political controversy. For now, though, demolition crews are still slowly moving forward.
...
Mike Meyer, an American who lives in the neighborhood and is writing a book about it, said other international cities, like Vienna, managed to preserve their ancient neighborhoods. He said that Qianmen could also be restored, block by block, but that officials were instead methodically mowing it down.“They are doing it in stages,” he said. “It’s progressing like a wave cresting.” He said the gradual approach had left many residents elsewhere in the city unaware of the scope of the demolition. Comparing it to New York, he added, “It’s like one morning you woke up and Chelsea was gone.”
NoLandGrab: Maybe they want to get with the Develop Don't Destroy franchise and incorporate "Develop Don't Destroy Beijing" (DDDB).
Posted by lumi at 10:12 PM
May 11, 2006
Olympic Sites Become Topic Of Hot Debate
NY Sun
By David Lombino
Nearly a year since the Bloomberg administration’s Olympic dreams died, the legacy of its elaborate citywide development plan is a subject of debate. Advocates say the plans laid the groundwork for future growth, while critics charge the mayor was overeager and cost taxpayers.
The New York 2012 Olympics plan called for more than 20 venues to be built across the five boroughs, pairing sports like beach volleyball with the Brooklyn waterfront and whitewater kayaking with Flushing. Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement last week that the city would not pursue a 2016 Olympics bid signals that most of those planned venues will never come to fruition. Still, the administration is touting the Olympic legacy as a spur for some of the broad economic development that is occurring across the city.
...
The author of the Web site newyorkgames.org, Brian Hatch, an advocate of the Olympics who has been critical of the Bloomberg administration’s bid, said most of the development on or near the planned Olympics venues would have happened anyway in today’s booming development environment. Instead, he said, the administration’s rabid interest in the Olympic sites had a negative effect for taxpayers.“The deals got better for the developer in most instances,” Mr. Hatch said.
...
[Julia] Vitullo-Martin pointed to Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project as an example of where Olympic dreams may have clouded [Deputy Mayor Dan] Doctoroff’s judgment. She called the project, which would have housed the gymnastics competition, “way too big, and way too subsidized.”
Posted by lumi at 6:13 AM
July 6, 2005
NYC eliminated in second round of IOC vote for 2012 Olympic Games
Though NYC didn't stand a chance (see newyorkgames.org for reasons why), the city's bid was eliminated in the second round of IOC voting, placing NYC behind Madrid, which was eliminated in the third.
New Yorkers needn't place the blame on the stadium debacle. The vote indicates some international resentment of American foreign policy and the fact that neither the City nor State had pledged to cover cost overruns.
Activists opposing Gehry's massive Atlantic Yards project are partially relieved since the proposed arena was to be the site of the gymnastics competition should the City have won the bid. Now New Yorkers can go back to discussing Atlantic Yards based upon its own merit.
Posted by lumi at 7:26 AM
July 4, 2005
New York Olympic Bid Moves Queens Out of Manhattan's Shadow
Bloomberg.com
by David M. Levitt
Read this article to catch up with the the Mets Shea Stadium replacement deal. Burried three-quarters of the way down was this tidbit regarding Forest City Ratner's desire to develop the surrounding commuinty.
`Valuable Property'
Construction of a new stadium "will put a focus on redevelopment of Willets Point, an area that sorely needs it,'' U.S. Representative Gregory Meeks, a Queens Democrat, said in an interview. "That area is too valuable a property to allow a junkyard to be there.''
Thirteen developers gave the city's Economic Development Corp. expressions of interest for the area last November. They include Forest City Ratner, which also is planning a $3.5 billion downtown Brooklyn development that includes a new arena for basketball's Nets.
The proposals include stores, restaurants, recreational facilities inspired by Manhattan's Chelsea Piers complex on the Hudson River, waterfront housing, and a hotel and conference center, an idea central to one of the applicants, the Queens Chamber of Commerce.
Posted by lumi at 7:47 AM
March 15, 2005
In Case You Missed It...
Coverage in the Feb. 24 Brooklyn Downtown Star of those crazy Olympic Ad Pranksters...
Just as the IOC gets to town to review NYC2012's bid, spoofs on the city's own ads are popping up around the borough. People opposed massive construction projects linked to NYC's bid are downloading spoof ads and putting them in place of real ads in various parts of Brooklyn. Don't be fooled - by any ads.
Posted by amy at 10:23 PM
March 5, 2005
Arena foes stuck in Olympic spin cycle
The Brooklyn Papers tells the story of the IOC visit, and NYC2012's disregard for opposing views.
The representative said the four members of the 13-member IOC listened with careful attention and seemed “particularly concerned” when she characterized the use of the bid as “an excuse for a land grab” and that community process, at least in Brooklyn “was being co-opted.”
Posted by amy at 4:54 PM
February 26, 2005
Many donors to NYC2012 have business ties
From Newsday:
Forest City Ratner, which is seeking city approval for a basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets in Brooklyn, has given more than $200,000. The company's plans have encountered neighborhood opposition because of its proposal to tear down housing in the area using eminent domain laws.
Posted by amy at 10:51 AM
NYC2012 Exec claims local projects' opponents support Olympic bid
NoLandGrab: After local groups who oppose controversial venues in the City's Olympic bid met with IOC delegates, NYC2012 Chief Executive Jay Kriegel touted the groups' support to the news media (see, The NY Sun, "Bush Bolsters New York Olympics Bid"). Also it was misreported in the NY Daily News ("Nets arena foes make case to IOC") that, "The anti-arena group insists, however, that it is not opposed to the city's Olympic bid."
To clarify DDDb's position, spokesperson Dan Goldstein submitted a letter to the Daily News.
Click here to read letter.
Posted by lumi at 7:41 AM
February 25, 2005
Let Christo Run The Olympics
Forbes.com: New Yorkers are getting a raw deal from the Olympic Committee in the face of the privately-funded Gates.
New York Times sports writer Harvey Araton reflected the dissent, saying that many feel "the West Side needs a football stadium the way Simon needs Garfunkel." New York Daily News columnist Filip Bondy noted how the "pharaohs" of the IOC "practically ordered us peasants to build them a giant stadium," or it's no deal. Sometimes, though, the best deals are the ones you don't make.
Posted by lumi at 7:22 AM
New York 2012 Inspection Ends With Assurances Of Stadium
GamesBids.com:
Before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Evaluation Commission left New York Thursday following its 2012 Summer Olympic bid inspection, the head of the delegation said the inspection team had received assurances the stadium will be there.
Nawal El Moutawakel told a news conference New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg is “a winner and his team is a winning team, so we trust that between the end of March or even in July this project will come to an end”.
Posted by lumi at 7:12 AM
The IOC delegation's Chair said what???
Yup, IOC Delegation Chair Nawal El Moutawakel muddied the waters of the most controversial local development issue. Yesterday, her comments on the need to build the West Side Stadium supports the Mayor's mantra of "build it and they will come."
Read NewYorkGames for article excerpts and commentary.
Posted by lumi at 6:57 AM
Nets arena foes make case to IOC
NY Daily News:
Foes of developer Bruce Ratner's $2.5 billion bid to build an NBA arena in Prospect Heights this week told the visiting International Olympic Committee they were being duped - just like the Greeks deceived the Trojans.
"The Olympic bid is a Trojan horse being used to grab 24 acres of prime real estate in Brooklyn," Shabnam Merchant said she told the committee.
"They seemed very engaged and were taking lots of notes," Merchant said about the meeting. "I'm glad they stopped to listen to the community."
NoLandGrab: There was one inaccuracy in the Daily News column that prompted DDDb spokesperson Dan Goldstein to send a letter clarifying the group's position on the NYC2012 Olympic Bid to the paper. Read the letter.
Posted by lumi at 6:30 AM
February 24, 2005
Bush Bolsters New York Olympics Bid
The NY Sun: IOC delegates meet with leaders of dissident community groups.
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and the Queens Olympic Committee, were each given 15 minutes in the morning to present their cases to four members of the 13-member [IOC delegation].
Also: The Bergen Record: Olympic visitors hear vow of funds
Posted by lumi at 8:47 AM
February 23, 2005
Protest banners at Atlantic Yards site
Posted by lumi at 2:50 PM
Olympics Opponents Take Their Case to the Streets
The NY Sun: NYC Politicians, "Hacktivists" and residents join the chorus of dissent as IOC delegates begin site visits.
Posted by lumi at 2:08 PM
DDDb, PRESS RELEASE: DDDb Meets With International Olympic Committee
IOC Gives Community Activists Face-Time to Debunk Ratner Propaganda
BROOKLYN—In a meeting held early this morning, DDDb Steering Committee Members Shabnam Merchant and Candace Carponter met with NYC2012’s Jay Kriegel and members of the International Olympic Committee’s Site Evaluation Team.
“Unfortunately the Committee had only 15 minutes to meet with us, but we were given a respectful hearing,” Ms. Merchant said right after the meeting. “The IOC seemed quite interested to learn that New York City’s government and citizens have been systematically excluded from the planning and decision-making process and that the Nets Arena will require the construction of a tax-payer subsidized platform just like the Jets Stadium.”
Merchant made the following points about the proposed Ratner arena, which DDDb has called “a landgrab wrapped in the Olympic rings”:
- NYC2012’s bid claims that NYC’s formal land use review process is already underway, when in fact that process has been completely and intentionally bypassed.
- The Games are being used as an excuse to seize and condemn 13 acres of private property when the proposed Arena would need only 1/10th of the land Bruce Ratner is trying to acquire.
- The Olympics are ostensibly about embracing diversity, and should not be rooted in the destruction of an ethnically diverse community (on the footprint).
- NYC2012 claims there is no organized opposition to its Olympic plan—yet tens of thousands of Brooklynites passionately opposed the Nets arena, which is being touted as an essential feature of the Plan.
- NYC2012’s bid is too expensive and not in keeping with the IOC’s efforts to contain bid costs; the bid can be strengthened by using one of the many existing arenas in the NYC region as the gymnastics venue, instead of constructing a new arena in Brooklyn.
For a full list of points made by DDDb to the International Olympic Committee, go to: http://www.dddb.net/DDDB_IOCpresentation.pdf
Ms. Carponter represented the environmental and public safety concerns of the People’s Firehouse—and the people of Williamsburg, Brooklyn—with the following points:
- According to NYC2012’s bid book, the swimming, archery and volleyball events will be sited next to an 1100-megawatt power plant and the City’s only toxic waste transfer station, respectively.
- The fire station that would respond first to these venues has been closed by Mayor Bloomberg.
- Current plans call for the Olympic Village to be placed next to the world’s largest underground oil spill and NYC’s largest wastewater treatment plant on Long Island City.
For a full list of points made by the People’s Firehouse to the IOC, go to: http://www.dddb.net/peoplesfirehouse.pdf
For more information regarding Williamsburg Brooklyn’s People’s Firehouse organization, contact Phil dePaolo, 347-200-2353, pdepaolo@nyc.rr.com.
Posted by lumi at 12:09 PM
STADIUM ROW OVERSHADOWS NY BID
Sportinglife.com: IOC delegates arrived during a whirlwind of controversy over the stadium. As the Mayor wines and dines them, activists who oppose controversial venues want to meet with the with the delegates.
Posted by lumi at 10:29 AM
February 21, 2005
IOC delegates arrive in New York
NY Newsday: Coverage of the arrival of IOC delegates. The reporters took special notice of the ingenuity and thoughtfulness of the media campaign:
Along Central Park South, 2012 signs were on lampposts, including "Peace is the dream" and "Every neighborhood will celebrate."
Perhaps the most telling slogan of all was provided by the city's marketing arm, NYC and Company: "Real estate capital of the world."
Posted by lumi at 1:09 PM
Four Days to Sell a Perfect Olympic Vision
The NY Times: Coverage of the City's attempt to impress IOC delegates.
Four Days to Sell a Perfect Olympic Vision
Behind the Bid: The Issues
Behind the Bid: The Players
NoLandGrab: No worries, The NY Times is not breaking their vow of silence regarding Bruce Ratner's pet project slated to be the gymnatics venue.
Posted by lumi at 12:25 PM
Other disputed calls
West Side stadium is not the only proposed Olympic site sparking controversy as residents question venues planned in their neighborhoods
NY Newsday:
In Brooklyn, the bid steps in the middle of an already messy development controversy.
Posted by lumi at 10:11 AM
February 18, 2005
NYC's Olympic dreams leave some still hoping
From NewYorkGames.org
NYC's Olympic dreams leave some still hoping
Metro Feb 16 op-ed
Theodore Hamm
Ideally, the decentralized design of the NYC2012 plan allows for all five boroughs to benefit. But in reality, most of the primary Olympic facilities would be located in areas of the city that are either already growing rapidly or, like "West Midtown," are neighborhoods that will inevitablly grow whether or not the Olympics come to town.
Property values also are high in downtown Brooklyn, where the proposed Nets stadium would become home to gymnastics events.
The one site in the city where the games could have been centrally located, Flushing Meadows, instead would be home to some of the games least glamorous events, like the Archery Field and Water Polo Center. Meanwhile, the city's "poorest and most deprived areas," from East New York to East Harlem, would not benefit in any way from the 2012 plan.
NYC2012 promises to disrupt growth where it already exists, and not generate new growth in areas of the city that need it most. The International Olympic Committee thus would be doing the city a big favor by sending Michael Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff back to the drawing board.
Posted by lumi at 5:27 PM
February 14, 2005
Firms in way of stadium plan protest
The Times, London, UK: THE Olympic committee has agreed to meet representatives of more than 300 businesses that will be bulldozed to make way for an Olympic stadium if London wins the 2012 Games.
NoLandGrab: Hopefully the IOC will meeting with groups in NYC who would be adversly affected by Bloomberg's attempt to attach every controversial development to the Olympic Bid.
Posted by lumi at 8:26 AM
February 13, 2005
Olympic Committee To Be Welcomed To New York City
NY1 discusses the wining and dining of the IOC. "The tab for all the hoopla will be picked up by the NYC2012 Committee, the private group spearheading the city’s bid." You may remember the NYC2012 committee from such recent scandals as "You can't buy the Mayor? So give to 2012 games."
Posted by amy at 10:57 AM
February 11, 2005
Not So Fast, Mr. Mayor. Is a new stadium critical to New York's Olympics bid?
Business Week:
Bloomberg's tactic of using the Olympic bid to force stadium approval is now being scrutinized.
Interviews with:
NewYorkGames.org Olympic expert, Brian Hatch, "An Olympic-Size Mistake?"
NYC Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, "No Stadium, No Games"
Posted by lumi at 8:12 AM
February 7, 2005
Olympics Backers To Practice Lines for IOC Tryout Doctoroff, Jets President, Others Will Gather This Weekend
The NY Sun: NYC2012 and NY City and State Officials will be getting together to get their stories straight for visiting International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials. IOC officials are currently visiting cities vying for the opportunity to host the 2012 Olympics. The IOC NYC visit begins on February 20. Officials will be staying at the Plaza hotel, overlooking Central Park.
[Robert Livingstone or GamesBid.com] said he couldn’t think of anything New York could do to hurt its chances — and he said protests or negative advertising campaigns about various parts of the Olympic plan wouldn’t do any damage. “In a Western democracy,” Mr. Livingstone said,“if the evaluation team went there and didn’t see a protest, they’d begin to wonder.”
NoLandGrab: Mr. Livingstone's opinion won't keep Brooklynites who are threatened with displacement from pleading with the IOC to help save their homes.
Posted by lumi at 8:06 AM
February 6, 2005
As London awaits the Olympic inspectors, Athens offers a bleak vision of the future
From the Guardian
Posted by amy at 5:40 PM
February 2, 2005
Doctoroff & NYC2012 raise millions from local real estate tycoons.
Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff and his NYC2012 bid committee are being scrutinized for large contributions received from some of New York's favored developers, including Brooklyn's master builder Bruce Ratner. In an administration where Docotroff and Bloomberg draw a salary of $1 per year, contributions to NYC2012 are seen as being the best way to curry favor with the power elite.
The Village Voice: The Deputy Mayor for the Olympics. For city and glory, Dan Doctoroff seeks Olympic gold at home and abroad.
WNYC: The Deputy Mayor and the Olympics
NY Observer: You can't buy the Mayor? So give to 2012 games.
Posted by lumi at 7:42 AM
January 7, 2005
CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT? 2012 through the prism of 1964.
New York Press:
Bloomberg continues to hope that by attaching these projects to something as soul-stirring as the Olympics, he can sway public opinion. Similar tactics are being employed by Bruce Ratner in the stalled push for a proposed basketball arena in downtown Brooklyn, and in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, where developers have grafted Olympic facilities onto their luxury high-rise dreams for the waterfront. An unprecedented 10-year "no strike" pledge from the city's powerful construction unions indicates the length of the Olympic gravy train.
Posted by lumi at 7:23 AM
January 3, 2005
From Gold Medal Idea to Olympic-Sized Mess
Downtown Brooklyn Star/The Queens Ledger:
Rather than craft a modest Olympic bid plan that would live within the city's means, Doctoroff, along with his old friend Mayor "Diamond" Mike Bloomberg, have tied New York's Olympic hopes in with a raft of gigantic, highly controversial projects, including Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards development and the New York Jets West Side stadium. The Bloomberg administration has openly admitted that it hopes to use the Olympics as a "timeline" to ensure speedy construction of the Jets stadium and other projects, which, it contends, will greatly contribute to the city's economic health. Such a view has merit, but it also looks like an attempt to steamroll opposition and critical comment through a sort of passive bullying. Much like the purity of athleticism itself has been sullied by sponsorship deals and ratings-driven spectacle, New York's attempt to attain Olympic glory has been tarnished with the grubby smear of entrepreneurial real estate. New York's honchos have attached hosting the Games, a popular idea that could require some amount of public funding, to planned stadiums for private sports teams and developers, a contentious idea that could require lots more public funding.
Posted by lumi at 9:40 AM
December 9, 2004
City, Olympics bigs pushin' over Games budget cushion
The New York Daily News: Deputy Mayor Doctoroff is trying to sell the idea that the city won't be on the hook for any of the cost of the Olympics. From the sound of Doctoroff's quotes it seems like he doesn't believe it himself.
Background info & NewYorkGames.org commentary
Posted by lumi at 9:02 AM
November 24, 2004
Zoning duo are part of city Olympic team
Conflict of Interest on the West Side:
"Two of the 10 city planning commissioners who voted for the city's West Side rezoning plan Monday sit on boards for NYC 2012, which needed passage of the plan to help its effort to secure the Olympics.
"Irwin Cantor, a planning commissioner and founder of a prominent engineering firm, is a member of the NYC 2012 facilities committee, and Kenneth Knuckles, the vice chair of the commission, is on the overall board."
Conflict of interest in Brooklyn:
"In August, it was reported that Planning Commissioner Dolly Williams was an investor in developer Bruce Ratner's $2.5-billion Nets arena project in Downtown Brooklyn. She had sat in on Planning Commission meetings on the proposal."
[emphasis added]
Posted by lumi at 7:37 AM
November 22, 2004
Not all fun & games: Olympic bid has dubious ring
The Daily News: The Olympic bid "book prepared by NYC2012, the city's Olympic bid committee, fails to deliver when it comes to the most controversial questions surrounding New York's grab for the Olympic rings: Who will pay for the Games? What are the hidden costs? Why are the proposed West Side Stadium and Brooklyn Arena so crucial?"
Bruce Ratner and Mayor Bloomberg have added the proposed arena in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn to the NYC2012 bid in hopes of using Olympics to generate local excitement for controversial project."
Posted by lumi at 10:35 AM
Not all fun & games: Olympic bid has dubious ring
The Daily News: The Olympic bid "book prepared by NYC2012, the city's Olympic bid committee, fails to deliver when it comes to the most controversial questions surrounding New York's grab for the Olympic rings: Who will pay for the Games? What are the hidden costs? Why are the proposed West Side Stadium and Brooklyn Arena so crucial?"
Bruce Ratner and Mayor Bloomberg have added the proposed arena in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn to the NYC2012 bid in hopes of using Olympics to generate local excitement for controversial project.
Posted by lumi at 8:17 AM
Bloomberg, Dolan clashing over stadium
Newsday: "Whatever the outcome of the Jets stadium fight, [Harvard University sports law professor Rick] Horrow and other sports business consultants predict the next battleground will be downtown Brooklyn, where developer Bruce Ratner, the principal owner of the New Jersey Nets, is building a $435-million arena as a centerpiece of a $2.5-billion office, shopping and residential development that is backed by Bloomberg.
"Dolan lobbied NBA owners against the sale of the Nets to Ratner. He likely will try to sway owners who must eventually approve the transfer of the franchise to Brooklyn and also oppose Ratner's project. 'That'll be the second fight,' said Horrow, 'because it will impact the Garden more than the West Side stadium.'"
With all due respect to the Harvard Professor, the NBA's approval of transfer of the NJ Nets to Brooklyn is a pro forma vote by the owners. The NBA is chomping at the bit to get the Nets out of the Meadowlands.
NEWS BLOOPER: Newsday characterizes the Bloomberg-Dolan battle as being over the "plans to build a Westside Stadium" and says that Ratner "is building a $435-million arena." WAKE UP NEWSDAY! The stadium approval process is further along than the arena's. Just because the Newsday editorial board approves of the arena, doesn't make it so.
Posted by lumi at 8:16 AM
November 21, 2004
Mike Lupica: Shooting from the Lip
New York Daily News:
From the NYC2012 Olympic Bid Book:
"At a time when the city is rebuilding and re-imagining the possibilities for the future, the prospect of hosting the Olympic Games has united New Yorkers in defining a shared vision for the city's longterm development."
Mike Lupica:
"This is known as a lie. And a cynical attempt to somehow link the events of 9/11 to a sports event that would be staged 11 years later."
Readers, keep in mind that Ratner's arena is the proposed gymnastics venue and that the Mayor Bloombery and Deputy Mayor Doctoroff may have sunk NYC's chances of holding the Olympics by courting controversy on two fronts.
Posted by lumi at 1:20 PM
November 16, 2004
NYC 2012 makes their bid official
Sports Business News: Lost in the furor over the NYC2012 Olympic bid and the West Side Stadium proposal is that fact that, "New York's updated proposal calls for that sport to be moved to the Nets' planned arena in Brooklyn, with Olympic basketball now set for the Garden."
Save the dates: Feb. 21-24, International Olympic Committee site-evaluation team visits New York City.
For the best perspective on the NYC2012 Olympic bid controversy, go to http://www.newyorkgames.org
Posted by lumi at 8:06 AM