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Times columnist skeptical of stadium subsidies; what about AY?

In a column today headlined For Sports Teams, Mayors Play Ball at the City’s Expense, New York Times columnist Jim Dwyer takes a very skeptical view of increasing city subsidies for new stadiums for the Yankees and Mets.

After pointing out that Mayor Mike Bloomberg is prepared to close health clinics and libraries, Dwyer comments:
The premise of these sports stadium investments, public officials say, is that economic development benefits will roll into the city over the decades — $40 million over 40 years in the Bronx, for instance.

Perhaps this will happen.

Or maybe it is a hallucination that is even flimsier than the assumptions that drove Wall Street to sink trillions into financial instruments that no one actually understood but all the right people agreed were worth tons of money.


What about AY?

Perhaps he could turn his attention to the Atlantic Yards arena, for which Bloomberg claimed in 2004, "This will be done with private money, and any city monies of any meaningful size will be debt issues financed by the extra tax revenues that come from this."

That was before the city pledged $100 million in subsidies, then added $105 million more. And the developer wants, at least, another $100 million.

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