April 07, 2005
Silver: No sale on Jets deal
Though the $2 billion New York Jets stadium plan keeps picking up endorsements from people who have no say in the matter - Al Sharpton and famed therapy-cultist Lenora Fulani being the two most recent - it's still not doing so well with the two men who control its fate: state assembly speaker Sheldon Silver and state senate majority leader Joe Bruno, who each hold veto power via their seats on the state Public Authorities Control Board. In an interview yesterday on sports-talk WFAN radio, Silver reiterated that he's still not sold on the plan: "To me, every time I think about and see an ad for the stadium and the whole West Side development, I keep saying 'What about downtown, what about all the commitments [to redevelop lower Manhattan]?'" Silver wondered aloud if the Metropolitan Transportation Authority got full value for its land in last week's sale to the Jets, and added that Cablevision's lawsuit against the sale "now slows [the stadium] down."
Concluded Silver: "The mayor is absolutely right in advocating for what he believes in. I just think that the bulk of the public doesn't agree with him on this point." Silverology is a tricky business, but it certainly sounds like the assembly leader plans to stick to his guns on holding off on a PACB vote until after the 2012 Olympic bid is decided in July.
Check out this article from the NY Post on 4/7/05:
JETS IN SCHOOL FOR 'CLASS' ACTION
By DAVID ANDREATTA Education Reporter
April 7, 2005 -- Former New York Jets great Freeman McNeil and club President Jay Cross teamed up yesterday and used the "principal-for-a-day" program to tout their dream for a West Side stadium to youngsters at a Chelsea elementary school.
Just blocks from where the team hopes to build a $2 billion stadium and a short walk from Madison Square Garden — their arch rivals bent on stopping them — the Jets pair used their principal bully pulpit to recruit children at PS 33 to Gang Green.
"You children are our future. That's why I'm doing all I can to get that stadium built on the West Side," McNeil told a gymnasium full of kids.
Cross said his team hopes to have the stadium built at 30th Street and 11th Avenue in a few years so children at PS 33 can walk from their school on 28th Street and Ninth Avenue.
"We hope that we're going to be your neighbors pretty soon," Cross said.
The Jets front man and Pro Bowl running back were among the business titans, actors, athletes and politicians who made up the boldface names mix of "principals" at over 800 schools during the day.
----------------------------------------------
What's pretty ironic about this, besides making it look like the stadium deal is all about the kiddies and not the almighty dollar, is that the deal as currently financed, clearly robs the city, and in turn, the educational system, of money. By basically giving away the last unspoiled piece of waterfront property in Manhattan and failing to get fair market value for the site, the MTA is royally screwing all city residents, including these kids.
