Despite strong support from Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the plan faces other major hurdles, including an environmental review, zoning approvals and possible lawsuits by neighborhood activists.
“It’s not a plan for our neighborhood, it’s a plan for the Jets,” said City Council member Christine Quinn, who represents the area. “We will fight until we defeat this ill-conceived plan for a stadium on the West Side.”
I’m always amazed when politicians further their own agenda at the public’s expense and at the same time, try to mask it as something in the public’s best interest. The area above the west side rail yards has been eyed covetously by some developers for awhile.
Construction of the new West Side Highway began in April 1996. The first section of the project, between Clarkson Street and Horatio Street, was finished in August 1998. The entire ‘NY 9A Reconstruction Project’ was completed in August 2001.
According to the NYSDOT, the new West Side Highway handles approximately 95,000 vehicles per day (AADT)
Can you imagine how overwhelming the traffic will be with a stadium located on the West Side?!?! How incredibly stupid. (The link above will take you to a page on the history of the West Side Highway on the NYC Roads site. NYC Roads is just an interesting site to wander around by the way).
As far as the Jets are concerned, it is hard to argue that the ‘Men in Green’ do not deserve their own stadium. Currently the Jets share a stadium with one of their chief regional rivals. Further, the Javits Center is in need of an expansion, and New York would be a terrific host for an Olympic games.
However, constructing a massive sports complex on the Upper West Side of Manhattan has greater potential for harm than for benefit.
The costs - an estimated $1 billion, as well as increased congestion and potential for neighborhood destruction - are simply too high. Instead, significant funds should be invested to build the Jets a new facility at, or near, the Meadowlands as well as provide sufficient transportation infrastructure and development to make for an enjoyable facility.
Above link to the Stadium Mouse website, an extensive paper studying the benefits and liabilities municipalities face when deciding to build such a facility.
And while there are some in real estate, who salivate over the prospect of a new stadium, others realized just how detrimental it could be as much as three years ago.
I’ll briefly mention that we are not in favor of a stadium. Big surprise. It is a lost opportunity for other things that might be built there. Also, we haven’t really come across any evidence that the stadium would bring a large economic benefit to the city. We do see that it is likely to bring traffic, which is something we’d like to reduce. The Javits Center has to expand. We support the expansion of the Javits Center. How it expands and how much are still open to debate. But we think expansion over the rail yard is a logical direction. We also hope that they will not expand north of 49th Street, and instead leave that open to a new corridor to the park, access to a new ferry terminal that is supposed to be built on the waterfront there. Right now the Javits Center basically blocks access to the water for five blocks. That’s probably enough.
This has been one of those favored projects for a long time though. The previous administration - Giuliani, the penultimate Yankee fan - wanted to make the area a present to George Steinbrenner under the guise of using a west side stadium to get the Olympics to the city in 2012.
...Giuliani will be forced out of office next year under the city's term limits law. Asked what he will be doing in 2012, Giuliani responded, “I could be mayor again. You think it's a joke. There’ll be a point when they’ll want me back. You wait and see.”
...of course, Rudy had been advocating a new west side Yankee stadium as far back as 1997:
The main bone of contention was the Speaker’s plan to submit a referendum to voters on whether or not to use city funds to build a new Yankee stadium in Manhattan. Mayor Giuliani had proposed creation of a Sports Facilities Corporation using a portion of the commercial rent tax to partially finance construction of new stadiums for both Mets and Yankees. Mr. Vallone’s referendum would likely thwart those plans, given popular sentiment opposing use of public funds to build a new Yankee stadium on Manhattan’s westside.
I’ve heard a lot of football fans (surprisingly even Mike Fancesa and Chris Mad Dog Russo) come out against a west side football stadium. Tailgating, part of the football experience, would be one of the things fans would have to forego if a stadium were to be built on the west side. This is presupposing they’d be using mass transit to get to the game.
In the meantime, another, better situated site, goes undeveloped.
A few years back, there was a lot of noise made by the then Mayor about building a golf course in one of the boroughs and having a PGA sponsored event there:
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, joined by golf legend Jack Nicklaus and Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern, today announced plans for the City’s first new municipal golf course in 35 years. The state-of-the-art, $22 million Ferry Point Park Golf Course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, will be located in Ferry Point Park along the East River in The Bronx. The design will include an eighteen-hole, par 72 layout suitable for Professional Golf Association tournaments, a full-size practice range and learning center, a pro-shop, restaurant, snack bar and banquet facility. The course is expected to be completed by December 2001.
Here it is 2004 and the last time I went over the Whitestone Bridge, I can tell you I wasn’t driving past a golf course.
...But instead of becoming a world-class greenway, Ferry Point Park is now looking more like one of the city's biggest boondoggles. While Mayor Giuliani was inviting the PGA to play at the park, state officials were shutting the golf course development down. The project’s budget has ballooned from $22.5 million to more than $40 million, and it now appears that the golf course might not get built at all. Meanwhile, the endeavor raises serious questions about how private developers were able to take possession of a public park without first obtaining legally required clearance from city authorities.
So, here’s a site - undeveloped - 413 acres within the city limits, in a borough that could use the development and the jobs. To top it off, the site is located close to I-95, the Cross Bronx Expressway, the Bruckner Expressway, the Hutchison River Parkway, the Whitestone and Throgs Neck Bridges and would have waterfront access for a ferry terminal but somehow, it gets overlooked as a potential site for a new stadium.
Makes no sense to me.
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