“Topping Protests Actions Of Moses” NY Times 03/02/60

"The Yankees for some time have been seeking the use of Macombs Dam park for parking space across the street from the Stadium. They say they are prepared to take it over under any terms and at no cost to the city....The park is now used for recreational purposes which, the Yankees charge, are inconsequential and which could easily be transferred elsewhere." NYT March 1960

That's what the Yanks were saying 46 years ago. Some things never change. Remember: Organized Sports = Big Money = Taxpayer Subsidies = No Respect for the Game and any Community.


“Topping Protests Actions Of Moses” in NY Times on March 2, 1960

In Wire to Wagner, He Says Commissioner Obstructs Parking Aid to Yanks

St. Petersburg, Fla., March 1 – Dan Topping, the co-owner and president of the Yankees, revealed today he had asked Mayor Wagner again for help in increasing the parking facilities for Yankee Stadium.

At the same time Topping, in a sharply worded and lengthy telegram to the Mayor, complained about the latter’s failure to answer a letter that had been “prematurely released” by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses.

In this letter, written by the Yankee attorney, Arthur Friedlund, on Feb. 4, the Yankees had offered to lease or sell the Stadium to the city “in lieu of the expenditure of several million dollars of municipal funds to erect the proposed Flushing Meadow structure.”

The reference to Flushing Meadow concerns the stadium the city proposes to build for the New York entry in the newly organized though still undeveloped Continental League.

Request for Information

“Not having heard from you.” Topping’s telegram said, “I respectfully ask if this means you are not interested in discussing this matter further.”

The message, in addition to criticisms of Moses, also referred to a meeting on Jan. 3 “between yourself, Commissioner Moses and Yankee officials.”

At the time, according to the wire, “it was mutually agreed that Commissioner Wylie [Traffic Commissioner T.T. Wylie] and others would survey the situation surrounding Stadium parking and report on the same for further discussion within ten days.” This period, Topping noted, “also has elapsed without a reply.”

The Yankees for some time have been seeking the use of Macombs Dam park for parking space across the street from the Stadium. They say they are prepared to take it over under any terms and at no cost to the city.

The park is now used for recreational purposes which, the Yankees charge, are inconsequential and which could easily be transferred elsewhere.

Parting Shot at Moses

But the Yankees have been blocked by Commissioner Moses. Because of this, Topping concluded his message with a final reference to the Commissioner.

“Commissioner Moses’ recent derogatory comments on Yankee Stadium and the Yankee organization,” Topping’s ire said, “indicate an animosity inspired by some mystifying motives.

“How can a s-called public servant possibly justify statements in which he advocates spending millions of public dollars on one of his several unsuccessful projects and brag about its superior parking, approaches, and so forth, which he declares would be the means of luring attractions away from a taxpaying enterprise which has always tried to be a civic asset?”

Mayor Wagner’s office had no comment on Topping’s telegram, pointing out he was on vacation and had yet to see it. There is a possibility he may bring the problem of acquisition to the Board of Estimate.

Commissioner Moses could not be located for comment.