City strikes out on stadium

To The Editor:
Re “Paying for Yankee Stadium is a major league error” (talking point, by Deborah Glick, Jan. 28: The Villager):
Thanks to Deborah Glick for laying out the sheer hubris of luxury construction, of any kind, in our troubled city. The market for luxury projects is dwindling — rapidly. Whatever arguments were made for that strategy no longer apply. And they never did long range.
The foolishness of destroying Yankee Stadium is breathtaking. Taxpayers are subsidizing its reconstruction, parking garages, new train station and parks — in the last case, to replace those seized and moved far from their Little League users.
And in return? Five thousand fewer seats, most of these beyond fans’ ability to pay. As Bill Moyers puts it:
“…[T]here will be more luxury suites and party rooms… . Corporations and wealthy individuals will…rent the luxury suites for…$600,000 to $850,000 tax-deductible dollars a year, assuming they haven’t filed for bankruptcy... .
“…[B]id farewell to dear old Yankee Stadium, and await the new colossus… . It will cast its…shadow across one of the country’s poorest neighborhoods, whose residents will watch from the outside as suburban drivers avail themselves of…new…parking spaces. Never mind…the exhaust, even though in this part of town respiratory disease is already so high they call it ‘asthma alley.’ ”
Environmental damage, destruction of a historic stadium, loss of community space, less affordable entertainment and outrageous cost at a time when we desperately need ideas and projects that create a real future for our city.

"Take a Bowery"

by Adam Bonislawski NY POST 12/18/08

"...Not, of course, that the Bowery is for everyone. As Eklund [Core Group Marketing managing director Fredrik Eklund] admits, recent changes aside, the street still retains a bit of its famed grit.
"You see very few families down here," he says. "It's not a quiet tree-lined street. It has the drama, the rock 'n' roll history, but it's not a traditional family neighborhood."...
[Adam] Gordon [elf-storage magnate and neighborhood developer] adds: "I don't pine for the Bowery of 50 years ago. It was a hole."...

Posted response from Bowerygals K Webster:

A bit arrogant to described a community as “a “hole” and I must differ with the assessment of the Bowery as being “not a traditional family neighborhood”. It’s well within the tradition of raising families in less wealthy communities. Having lived here for 30 years, I’d say this has been a pretty great place to raise my family. Is the point that it isn’t for families that would prefer to live behind doormen, afraid of the rest of us?

So much of what is arriving here might undo what made this place astonishingly good for families: An enviable music and arts scene, people who look out for each other, a neighborhood rich in unassimilated cultures, buildings with deep history in them, community gardens where children get their hands in dirt.

It’s now sold as a playground for hedge fund guys or a hip hang out (that scene is long gone –you chased it away or built right over it).

I hope we can wait this out, as the economy shifts, and we can get back to being this gritty, cool place again. Try not to destroy too much of its wild and beautiful self before you go.