In New York, you get used to the whims of fashion. You get used to pronouncement of what is cool and exactly, precisely when it is toppled. The capriciousness of the process can be frustrating, particularly when, say, a restaurant doesn’t actually suffer a loss of quality, or a band doesn’t really change. Or maybe it’s good, since you don’t have to listen to the braying hordes of scenesters of various stripes hogging the floor, and talking during the show. Of course, I should have a clever bunch of hyperlinks detailing my bleeding edge understanding of this or that level of hip, but fuck all that. I’m unfashionable. But, some things never change. Like Katz’s or John Lurie, a consistent opinion pervades this town about the timelessness and truth of certain things. To that, we can add the belief that the West Side Stadium is about as healthy for this city as more cosmetic surgery would be for Jocelyn Wildenstein.
Yesterday, Comptroller — and putative mayoral candidate — William C. Thompson issued his report on the planned financing for the entire West Side redevelopment project. And he took his goddamn time about it, threatening since mid-summer to issue a position. I’m embellishing here for dramatic effect, since there’s no news in the conclusion (um, in case you live under a rock or in Mike Bloomberg’s basement, the gist is that the financing plan is unprecedented in its risk and out and out foolhardy — and this from a guy who isn’t even taking a position on the propriety of the stadium, other than noting that Bloomberg’s claim that the stadium needs to be underway before the Olympic vote happens is hooey), except for the v-bomb he drops at the end, where he states that you can expect a big ole Bronx cheer from him when it comes time to vote (yeah, believe or not, there are one or two people who might actually have a say beyond Robert Wood Johnson III).
That’s because the city needs some scratch to jumpstart development (subway line, parks and streets, infrastructure, etc.). The money will come from bonds, which are to be repaid by property tax revenue expected from the development area. But in order to obtain favorable rates for the bonds (some of which, yes, is a direct subsidy of the stadium, mostly in the form of site work, which includes building the platform over the LIRR rail yards), they need to be guaranteed by something other than the project, since those finanical markets that made Bloomberg rich don’t believe the project is credit worthy above the level of junk. So the proverbial full faith and credit of the good citizens of New York is needed. And, of course, it’s not really our goodness securing these rates — it’s our tax dollars. See, if the project doesn’t materialize at the expected pace (and, to revisit some recent development schemes, remember that a good 10-12 unscheduled years intervened between the announcement of the four towers at the south end of Times Square and the completion of the first), there is no tax revenue, and thus no money for bond repayment. There is, however, our trusty income tax revenue, which, normally, pays for such luxuries as police officers and teachers.
So, yes, this is like when you ne’er do well cousin calls and wants to “hook you up” with some crackpot scheme to buy lakefront property in Rochester with the idea that he can make all kinds of money because “real estate’s so hot right now”. Except the lake is polluted and he wants to pay the mortgage by selling houses that aren’t built yet. And you’re, like, “what happens if it takes a while to sell the first one”? And he, who hasn’t had a job since the head shop closed, says, all indignant, “Well, aren’t you making good money from your law job? You can smooth over the rough spots — dude, this is, like, a license to print money!”
So, yeah, it’s like that, except the property costs $3,000,000,000.
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Oh, no Mr. Robber, sir, I do not carry cash. My companion here, Peter, has the checkbook.
In New York, you get used to the whims of fashion. You get used to pronouncement of what is cool and exactly, precisely when it is toppled. The capriciousness of the process can be frustrating, particularly when, say, a restaurant doesn’t actually suffer a loss of quality, or a band doesn’t really change. Or maybe it’s good, since you don’t have to listen to the braying hordes of scenesters of various stripes hogging the floor, and talking during the show. Of course, I should have a clever bunch of hyperlinks detailing my bleeding edge understanding of this or that level of hip, but fuck all that. I’m unfashionable. But, some things never change. Like Katz’s or John Lurie, a consistent opinion pervades this town about the timelessness and truth of certain things. To that, we can add the belief that the West Side Stadium is about as healthy for this city as more cosmetic surgery would be for Jocelyn Wildenstein.
Yesterday, Comptroller — and putative mayoral candidate — William C. Thompson issued his report on the planned financing for the entire West Side redevelopment project. And he took his goddamn time about it, threatening since mid-summer to issue a position. I’m embellishing here for dramatic effect, since there’s no news in the conclusion (um, in case you live under a rock or in Mike Bloomberg’s basement, the gist is that the financing plan is unprecedented in its risk and out and out foolhardy — and this from a guy who isn’t even taking a position on the propriety of the stadium, other than noting that Bloomberg’s claim that the stadium needs to be underway before the Olympic vote happens is hooey), except for the v-bomb he drops at the end, where he states that you can expect a big ole Bronx cheer from him when it comes time to vote (yeah, believe or not, there are one or two people who might actually have a say beyond Robert Wood Johnson III). That’s because the city needs some scratch to jumpstart development (subway line, parks and streets, infrastructure, etc.). The money will come from bonds, which are to be repaid by property tax revenue expected from the development area. But in order to obtain favorable rates for the bonds (some of which, yes, is a direct subsidy of the stadium, mostly in the form of site work, which includes building the platform over the LIRR rail yards), they need to be guaranteed by something other than the project, since those finanical markets that made Bloomberg rich don’t believe the project is credit worthy above the level of junk. So the proverbial full faith and credit of the good citizens of New York is needed. And, of course, it’s not really our goodness securing these rates — it’s our tax dollars. See, if the project doesn’t materialize at the expected pace (and, to revisit some recent development schemes, remember that a good 10-12 unscheduled years intervened between the announcement of the four towers at the south end of Times Square and the completion of the first), there is no tax revenue, and thus no money for bond repayment. There is, however, our trusty income tax revenue, which, normally, pays for such luxuries as police officers and teachers. So, yes, this is like when you ne’er do well cousin calls and wants to “hook you up” with some crackpot scheme to buy lakefront property in Rochester with the idea that he can make all kinds of money because “real estate’s so hot right now”. Except the lake is polluted and he wants to pay the mortgage by selling houses that aren’t built yet. And you’re, like, “what happens if it takes a while to sell the first one”? And he, who hasn’t had a job since the head shop closed, says, all indignant, “Well, aren’t you making good money from your law job? You can smooth over the rough spots — dude, this is, like, a license to print money!” So, yeah, it’s like that, except the property costs $3,000,000,000.