February 12, 2004
Hudson Yards, The Day After
Reaction to New York City's $5-billion-plus Hudson Yards plan, in today's newspapers:
- "It's unprecedented that a major redevelopment area of this scale would be financed by a rezoning program." -Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy group
- "I think there's been little justification for the need for 28 million square feet of office space. The city hasn't considered the fact that there are economic trends at work like the continuing decentralization of office jobs." -Jonathan Bowles, research director for the Center for an Urban Future
- "Repayment is being tied to a stream of revenues that won't exist for at least a decade and which ultimately may or may not be sufficient." -Ronnie Lowenstein, director of New York City's Independent Budget Office
- "The idea of raising billions by selling development rights and then putting the money in an off-budget fund [is] an extraordinary departure from democratic government. A huge chunk is being siphoned off for a one-stop subway line for a stadium that should not be approved." -New York Assemblymember Dick Gottfried
- "I haven't seen anything like it in my 40 years in the business." -Richard T. Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress
Also today, Newsday reports that while Deputy Mayor Doctoroff didn't address how to pay for the planned $1.4 billion Jets stadium in yesterday's news conference, he did include it in revenue projections to pay off the city's bonds: "We would clearly have a lot of problems with the plan we unveiled today if there was no stadium - you need the stadium. It becomes infinitely more difficult to induce developers to build buildings in the surrounding areas and generate the revenues to pay the debt." We always thought it was good accounting practice to consider both the costs and revenues of all elements of a project, but maybe Deputy Dan has been getting other advice.
