The MTA signalled how they felt about NYC's West Side Stadium plan

[BurtWorm]

by putting goddamn 2012 Olympics stickers on every subway train in the system. We don't even have the frickin' Olympics yet. What are they going to do with those stickers if the Olympic committee turns NY's bid down? How much did it cost to put them on?

If you think most New Yorkers WANT the Olympics here, I think you'd be wrong.

PS: In case you didn't know, Bloomberg and the MTA are hot to build a high tech stadium for the Jets on unused rail yards on the West Side of Manhattan, six blocks west of Madison Square Garden. The MTA, I think, is more interested in the billions required to connect the stadium with the rest of the system than in the price it can get for whatever else might go there. MSG doesn't want competition for its venue.

[Stephanie]

1. Nobody wants the fricking stadium either

We want that stadium about as much as we wanted the RNC. Bloomberg is fucking toast. I hate his guts.

[Renew Deal]

3. The majority in the city doesn't want it.

I am not part of the majority.

[Renew Deal]

2. I want the Olympics in NY.

It would be amazing. Stickers will come off the trains or whatever else when it's over. They have done that in past events including after 9/11.

[BurtWorm]

5. What will the Olympics do for the average New Yorker?

Besides snarl traffic, build overpriced condos on the East River, chew up the West Side, divert financing from more urgent needs...

[Renew Deal]

9. Thousands of union workers will be put to work for a couple years

for starters. Hundreds of new tax paying apartments. Thousands of new jobs at the stadium and the new apartments (more tax revenue). The traffic argument really doesn't make sense. There will be events 8 Sundays plus the super bowl in 2010 and the Olympics for 16 days. During that time, traffic will be throttled. People know not to drive into the city anyway. The Stadium is only a few blocks from Penn Station so mass transit makes more sense than driving. It will be an amazing project for NY.

[K-W]

6. Nothing more amazing than a tourist choked city.

I know I'm looking forward to it :p

[Renew Deal]

10. It's tourist chocked already.

I can't walk through times square to Penn Station because it's jammed up. But you know what? These people reduce the tax burden on the locals. That helps everyone.

[KamaAina]

4. Sell the stickers to Paris?

What are they going to do with those stickers if the Olympic committee turns NY's bid down?

or whichever city ends up getting it. If it is Paris, they could even donate the stickers, in appreciation for the Statue of Liberty! :-)

Mom (E. 70s) doesn't want the Olympics, either, so there!

[dr.strangelove]

7. I want the stadium, but I don't want the Olympics.

Not wanting the Olympics is purely selfish. I think it would be beneficial to the city to get them, but my life would be hell for several weeks. I hope they go to Paris.

[madinmaryland]

8. If Bloomberg wants the stadium so bad,

why doesn't he just pay for it himself! Wealthy bastard could afford the $700 million price tag all by himself. Why don't they put that money towards the schools and the infrastructure of the City.

:mad:

[BurtWorm]

11. That's what a lot of people are asking.

If the Olympics and the Stadium improved the schools in every neighborhood, added the hundreds of thousands of mid-range-priced housing units that are desperately needed, and made public transportation cheap again, I'd be all in favor of them. Somehow I don't see any of that happening.