A ($2.4 Billion) Dream Deferred

Tom Robbins of The Village Voice has a good who's who of the faction that tried to foist an NFL stadium on Manhattan.

Comments

[joe]

An Investment Advisor/Politician, a Billionaire Pharmaceutical Heir/NFL Owner, a TV Executive/Politician, a Union Executive, and a City Councillor. That's who they list as the faction.

I want you all to notice, no city planners.

[saw-whet]

No engineers either.

[Nathan]

I want you all to notice, no city planners.

Which is why they were able to keep the price down to a reasonable $2.4 billion. Plus, the demand that every 4th luxury box be zoned as Section 8 housing didn't seem prudent.

[kevrob]

No, joe, THE city planner, Robert Moses, was the guy behind plunking a baseball stadium in Flushing Meadow, on the old World's Fair site. Of course, the ballteams who might have played there, the Dodgers and the Giants, fled for the Left Coast. In the Dodgers' case, Moses continually thwarted O'Malley's attempts to build a replacement for Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. A "Brooklyn Dodgers" that played in Queens wasn't going to fly, but that cut no ice with The Power Broker.

Once that damage had been done, I have to give New Yorkers credit for not messing things up further. I guess they could always cook up something worse.

Kevin

[joe]

Robert Moses - THOSE were the days! Planners got the respect we deserved back then. You gave us shit - BAM! the bulldozers are at your house the next day.

I keed, I keed. How Not To Be Like Robert Moses is the core curriculum in planning schools these days.

[Rhywun]

No, joe, THE city planner, Robert Moses...

Shame on you. Robert Moses was NOT a city planner. First and foremost, he was a politician - basically installing himself at the top of several "authorities", which allowed him to amass power without actually being accountable to anyone. My favorite Robert Moses factoid is that, despite having destroyed countless houses and neighborhoods with his expressways - the man never learned to drive.

[sage]

*MY* favorite Robert Moses factoid is that 76.4% of his body is covered with a birthmark.