December 13, 2004
Silver: I'd vote against Jets stadium
New York state assembly speaker took another baby step toward opposing the Jets stadium plan this weekend, telling local cable news channel NY1 that if he had to vote on it today, he'd vote against it. Said Silver of the multi-billion-dollar Hudson Yards redevelopment plan of which the stadium is one piece: "We are going to create 20 million square feet of commercial space in midtown Manhattan to compete with the business looking for space downtown. That's the real question, and that commercial development is really the threshold of the financing of that stadium."
Silver is conflating two different legislative items a bit here: The 20 million square feet (really 28 million, but what's eight million square feet among friends?) of new development comes from the $2.8 billion Hudson Yards project that's now wending its way through the city land-use approval process (the first city council hearings began today, and a vote on rezoning is expected next month), while the $1.4 billion Jets stadium would go through a separate, as yet undetermined approval process. Does this mean Silver plans to try to block the greater Hudson Yards plan as bad for downtown development, in addition to opposing the stadium itself? Tune in next time to find out, on "Inside Shelly's Brain."
(Thanks to newyorkgames.org for picking up on this story, which seems to have eluded the rest of the New York media.)
