How bizarre. Wasn't Tony Avella one of the council's earliest and most vocal supporters of the West Side stadium? I suspect he and Quinn are just jockeying for something from Bloomberg--something that has nothing to do with stadiums. Strange bedfellows, but we'll take what we can get.

The Queens Chronicle called Avella an "early supporter" of Quinn's speaker bid, so presumably they're on good terms. He also was opposed to an Olympic stadium in Queens for traffic reasons, and backed subjecting the Nets arena to the city ULURP process, so he does have somewhat of a track record here.

Interesting... Normally (not always, but normally) in politics, you don't stick your own head out there like this without cover. Maybe there are a few politicians left on this mortal coil that make decisions based on integrity and morals, but the norm would be that there are others around Avella to provide cover.

Does anyone really think that a Metro North station would make a single bit of difference in the traffic issues surrounding Yankee Stadium? First of all, something like 40-50% of Yankee fans come from NJ - they're not going to use it. The next largest group of fans (and I admit I'm guessing here) is probably from the 5 boroughs. Again, no reason to use Metro North - all it does is get you to 125th St or Grand Central, where you then have to get back on the subway, which you could have done to begin with. So that's probably 70% of your fans who it does no good for. Of the remaining 30%, a good chunk are probably from Long Island - again, ain't gonna use it. Next, consider those that actually live somewhere near the Metro North. Anyone living on two of the three Metro North lines doesn't have a direct connection to the stadium (the stadium is only on the Hudson line). From that small pool of people, take some fractional amount of them who might actually abandon their SUV's and you are probably left with at best a couple hundred riders a game, which translates to even fewer cars. Sounds like the Springfield monorail to me.

If the City and State are going to spend money on this project, at least spend it on something that people in the area might actually be able to use, like some nice parks, etc.

There are a good number of Yankees' fans who come down from upstate (Albany area and elsewhere)for games. They may like the idea of parking their cars by a Dutchess or Putnam Co. Metro North Hudson line station and then not having to deal with driving and parking in the congestion by the stadium. Also, some may want to get on Amtrak, further north, then connect with Metro North at one of the joint stations. Not to mention the fans that live in towns like Poughkeepsie, Peekskill, etc. near the Metro North stations.
Many baseball fans like to drink beer at the games, and they might like to just relax on the train and not have to drive right after!

The Melrose Metro North station (which both the Harlem and New Haven lines pass through) is only 12 blocks east of Yankee Stadium. An idea has been proposed for bus links to be set up, on days of games, to connect these people from that station to the stadium, if they don't want to walk. There are many Yankees fans in Connecticut and Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties that could use this.

A permanent Metro North station by Yankee Stadium, on the Hudson line, would also serve its purpose by giving local neighborhood residents in the Bronx an alternative to taking the subway into Manhattan. This temporary station has already been used for this during transit strikes. Also, such a station would provide locals an easy access to get upstate for a day in the country or to the Albany area. For those who don't own cars, this may be attractive.

Thats all good and well, I just don't think that the benefits would come close to outweighing the costs, as the reduction in trips for Yankee games would be minimal. Nor do I think the residents of the area would be particularly well served by a line that only stops at 125th and Grand Central and costs more than double what the subway costs for the same trip.

SoBx, just wondering: What's your exact title in the borough president's office?

We've tried it your way countless times over the last 75 years. Building more roads and parking spaces does not alleviate traffic. It never has. For your argument to hold up, you'll have to present something more than just conjecture to prove that for this project--unlike all others--traffic will be lessened.

Besides that, why is it fair to ask an urban neighborhood to redraw its map and sacrifice its tax dollars to suit the needs of suburban fans? These fans spend a few hours on 81 days a year in the neighborhood; the residents are there around the clock, 365 days a year. Few residents own cars, but all have to breathe their refuse. Somehow, I doubt the Yankees' "community benefits agreement" will cover the additional health care costs from all the additional pollution.

What's with the personal attacks? I don't work for the Borough President. I don't have any affiliation with any of the parties in this project. My work has brought me in close contact with many stadium projects over the years, so perhaps I understand them better than the average citizen. Is that so hard to believe? Or is it just that applying common sense to your rehtoric is just too hard to come to terms with?

To you point - no one is advocating building any new roads. Anyone who has been to a Yankee game knows that there are currently far fewer dedicated Yankee parking spaces than there are cars that come to the games. What ends up happening is people park on neighboring streets and other places where they shouldn't be, taking up the spaces that rightfully belong to the people who live in the area. Instead of spending 1 kajillion dollars on a metro north station that will lose money for the next 999 years, why not build a enough garages to hold all those cars (that are already coming) and that might actually MAKE money, and spend that money on extra police enforcement to make sure that Yankee fans aren't clogging the surrounding streets?

Personal attacks aside, the Yankees have dodged the fundamental principle of "traffic generation": The easier you make it for people to drive cars, the more people will drive. At last week's hearing I heard several members of both the Bloomberg administration and the Yankees insist that they "didn't expect" any more people to drive if they built new garages, but they didn't say how they arrived at this conclusion.