Freedom Rider: Bronx Bombers Grand Theft

[Joanne98]

If sports are supposed to improve the moral character of individuals and societies, how come the games have the opposite effect on team owners and the local officials who help them steal the pants off America's cities. True to its reputation as tops in all things urban, New York shows itself to be the biggest sucker of all time when it comes to the Yankees baseball kleptomaniacs. In return for a brand new stadium, Yankees owners give back - nothing! The city loses two parks in the deal, which are not fully replaced, and a meager community fund completely slips below city officials' radars. "The Yankees grand theft is just the latest and most prominent example of government of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation."

Freedom Rider: Bronx Bombers Grand Theft
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

"The Yankee deal should be the last of its kind."

In 2006, public officials in New York City allowed the New York Yankees fox into the public asset hen house. They brokered an agreement which allowed the sports team to take two large New York City parks in order to build a new stadium. Of course the Yankees didn't spend their own money for the stadium; taxpayers in New York City did that. To make a long and sad story short, the city of New York gave the Yankees public land to build upon and then promised to spend more money to replace what it had given away.

The Yankees deal was an obvious theft from the start. If the team owners were to be tried for the crime, the accessories after the fact should be elected officials who drove the getaway car. The story has an all too familiar ring. In city after city, sports team, multi-national corporations and real estate developers get public money and public property and give nothing in return. The Bronx case is even sadder because there was supposed to be some community "benefit" for the larceny.

Bronx politicians were responsible for forming a group that would divvy up the crumbs, $1.2 million per year over 40 years, from the Yankees' table. (The total government subsidy haul for the Yankees is $833 million). Eighteen months after the deal was done, that group had only one member and was not registered as a 501c3 non-profit, or a New York State charity.

That group exists now, but only because reporters began asking about its non-existence. Now it turns out that the replacement parks will cost nearly twice as much as originally estimated and will take years longer to construct than originally announced. To add insult to injury, the replacement spaces will have four fewer acres than the parks taken by the Yankees.

"In city after city, sports team, multi-national corporations and real estate developers get public money and public property and give nothing in return."
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=637&Itemid=1

[krispos42]

1. The feds should cut NYC's federal highway money by $833 million

I mean, obviously, if the City of New York has $833,000,000 to buy a stadium for the Yankees, they obviously have more than enough money to meet all government infrastructure needs like bridges and highways.

We could use that money here in Minnesota to rebuild the I-35W bridge.


Oh, wait, Minneapolis is buying the Twins a new stadium as well. And the Vikings.


:banghead: