NY Times article on the town hall meeting

An article titled "House That Yankees Rebuild Catches a Chorus of Bronx Jeers" by Alex Mindlin published November 20, 2005 (online on the 19th) can be read by clicking on the title above.

Or right here:

"It was a bad evening for Randy Levine. Mr. Levine, the president of the Yankees, broad-shouldered and red-faced, sat on a platform at a community meeting several blocks east of Yankee Stadium on Thursday night. Mr. Levine was trying to explain to about 250 Bronx residents the rationale for rebuilding his team's stadium in parkland surrounding its current location.

"We all love the present Yankee Stadium," he said in a conciliatory tone. "It's the cathedral of baseball."

The crowd's response? "Stay there!"

Mr. Levine plowed through remarks detailing the team's search for a new home and came to this line: "So, the question comes up: 'Where do we build?' "

Before he could answer his own question, the crowd responded: "In Central Park!" and "In your own community!"

The stadium plan, which met with spotty opposition when it was proposed in October 2004, is now producing much organized local rancor. Under a deal worked out with the city in June, the new stadium and four parking garages would be built on what is now mostly parkland, to the north and west of the present stadium. The project would cover roughly half of the combined 47 acres of Macombs Dam and John Mullaly Parks.

The city would create an equivalent area of replacement parkland, including a soccer field, tennis courts atop the new stadium's garages, a new five-acre park beside the Harlem River, and the present stadium, which would become public ball fields.

But opponents say the new parks are too small and isolated to replace the large swath of land being given to the Yankees. And the two parks in jeopardy have a strong emotional hold on the neighborhood. "We have so few parks in that area of the Bronx," said Anita Antonetti, a member of Community Board 4. "It's like Central Park to us."

Gregory Bell, the chairman of Bronx Voices for Equal Inclusion, set off cheering on Thursday when he asked the borough president, Adolfo Carrión: "What would it take to stop this? What would it take to reach out and say, 'We don't want it?' "

Mr. Carrión, who supports the project, has hammered out a draft agreement with the team that would guarantee a certain number of stadium-related jobs to Bronx residents. But that did little to mollify the crowd on Thursday.

Nevertheless, Maria del Carmen Arroyo, the area's city councilwoman, said she had received only two e-mail messages opposing the project, and residents seemed divided during interviews last week.

"Half the people I know feel good about it," said Moses Garcia, 20, as he stocked the shelves at a discount store opposite Macombs Dam Park. "They were saying on the radio that the House That Ruth Built isn't the House That Ruth Built anymore."