Field of Schemes: The three questions

June 24, 2005

The three questions

Last Thursday, I e-mailed New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's press spokesperson Jennifer Falk with a list of unresolved questions about the mayor's proposed Yankees and Mets stadium deals. These were:

1) Can you confirm whether or not both the Mets and Yankees stadium projects would go through ULURP [the city land-use process]? And if so, when is an EIS [environmental impact statement] expected to be formally submitted?

2) The model provided by the Yankees clearly showed a new subway entrance on the west side of River Avenue, and a relocated off-ramp from the Macombs Dam Bridge. I know there has also been discussion of adding a new Metro-North station to the area. Can you provide estimates of how much these transit improvements would cost, and how they would be paid for? And are any of these included in the $220 million in city and state infrastructure improvements that were already announced?

3) Mayor Bloomberg has said that both Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium would require "hundreds of millions of dollars" to maintain in coming years. Can you provide an itemized list of these anticipated costs, or at least the major items?

While some clues have leaked out on these topics since then, not a word has come from the mayor's office. And so today fieldofschemes.com inaugurates a new feature, the Mayor Bloomberg Stonewall Counter, that will appear in this site's right-hand column. In coming weeks and months, you the readers can thrill to the dead silence emanating from City Hall - and if you like, you can even ask the mayor yourself and see how you fare at getting an answer. Just like the Bloomberg administration itself, it's more fun than watching paint dry!

COMMENTS

why not send the email or call every day? or at least every so often. i'd rather hear answers than look at the counter.
Posted by: yves at June 28, 2005 01:50 PM

This Thursday it will have been two weeks, so I'll re-send them then. I'd rather hear answers too, but don't hold your breath.
Posted by: Neil at June 28, 2005 03:30 PM

Update: I e-mailed Jennifer Falk again today (she doesn't take phone calls, in my experience), and promptly got a response from her that she had to get on a plane to Singapore, and I should instead contact the NYC Economic Development Corporation. So my questions are now languishing in two city e-mail in-boxes: Falk's, and that of Andrew Brent of the EDC press department. The minute I get any reply at all, FoS readers will be the first to hear about it.
Posted by: Neil at June 30, 2005 08:40 PM