"Donate Your Steel!" Village Voice 12/22/6

Donate Your Steel!
By Jarrett Murphy | December 22, 2006

Like a juggler who's finally put all his balls in the air, New York City's development rage hit full-speed this week with the approval of the Atlantic Yards project. The massive arena and residential complex joins Yankee Stadium, the new Mets stadium, all the towers at Ground Zero, and the hundreds of lesser-known construction projects that have tower cranes working in midtown, the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront, and elsewhere. Last night, in a quiet corner of the city, there were hints of a problem that could affect all these projects: a severe increase in cost in the materials to build them.

The battle over whether to build a filtration plant in the southeast section of Van Cortlandt Park in the north Bronx roared for more than a decade before the city decided to forego an alternative site in Westchester and plop the plant under a golf course near the elevated 4 train. (Full disclosure: I live about half a mile from the site. But I hate golf.) Work on the plant—which the city needs in order to comply with federal standards&3151; has been under way for about two years. For several months, community members have been unhappy about the small number of on-site jobs that local residents have received and delays in measures to reduce truck pollution. The amount of park rehabilitation around the borough—the payoff the borough got for taking the plant—has been scaled back. Recently, another worry cropped up: The project's price-tag has soared from the $992 million estimated in 2003 to $1.896 billion now. And most of the contracts still need to be awarded.

The community is pissed about the cost overruns because the city's rationale for picking the Bronx site was that it'd be cheaper than the site in Westchester. The DEP said last night that it had used a generic design when projecting the costs, rather than a specific one that accounted for little difficulties at the site like, say, blasting through 90 feet of bedrock. But the biggest reason for the doubling in price is what's ultimately going to go into that hole.

If you think your Christmas shopping is making too big a dent in your wallet, imagine trying to buy copper (prices up 133 percent over three years), steel rebar (up 48 percent) or concrete, iron pipe, and stainless steel, all up by more than a third. Overall, the DEP says it's been hit with inflation of 35 percent over the past three years. And it's predicting price hikes of 8 percent a year over the next three. If inflation is much worse than that, both the city and the contractors will have to absorb the blow. The initial DEP estimate assumed inflation of 2.75 percent a year. That was, um, wrong.

Local critics of the plan take issue with how the DEP is crunching its numbers. But the rise in costs is undeniable, and that has potential impact on all those other projects around the city. The fact that all those projects (the stadiums, Ratnerland, and Ground Zero) will be going on at basically the same time means that each will increase the costs for every other one, because there are only so many laborers around, and because already scarce construction material will be even harder to come by. Whether those costs hurt the developers or the city depends on how each deal is structured. But if any community goodies are contingent on developers' profits, and inflation was under-estimated when everything got costed out, that pricy copper pipe and rebar might take a bite.

So, please, conserve steel and concrete this holiday season: No unnecessary building!

Wait, is there such a thing?

Posted in Bricks & Mortar

"Parks Dept. plan off track" Daily News 12/14/6

Parks Dept. plan off track

BY BILL EGBERT
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

When it comes to a controversial jogging track, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión is running out of patience - with everyone.

He abruptly walked out of a TV interview last week when a reporter asked him if he had been lied to by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe over the issue of an interim running track near the new Yankee Stadium project.

The borough president's snit came after a local community board member accused the Parks Department of perjury concerning its failure to provide a promised running course to replace one closed to make way for the new stadium.

Last Tuesday, the Bronx Boro News reported that the department had not provided an interim running track as promised after the Macombs Dam Park track was closed for construction of the new stadium. The News cited a state court decision stating that a "running course is to be available at all times during construction."

Community Board 4 member Lukas Herbert took issue with the Parks Department's assertion that it didn't need to provide a track until next spring.

"Adrian Benepe doesn't have his facts straight," said Herbert. "Either that, or his agency lied to a judge."

While Carrión fumed that Parks has not been quick enough in providing the interim facilities promised, he bristled last Thursday when News 12 cable-TV reporter Jessica Kumari asked him if Benepe had lied to him.

"Did I ask him if he lied?" a clearly annoyed Carrión could be heard saying as he stormed off camera, grim-faced. "No, I didn't ask him if he lied."

"A reporter asked me to call a colleague of mine - who I respect and have worked well with - a liar," Carrión said later. "A principled individual doesn't say that about another individual to satisfy a two-minute news clip on a television station."

The new stadium project has caused controversy because of the plan to build the massive new complex on top of two popular local parks - one of which had a running track - and replace the parkland and facilities after construction.

Before the city approved the plan, Carrión said his support was contingent upon Parks' assurance that interim facilities would be available to the community throughout construction.

The Parks Department's Environmental Impact Study promised a cinder track would be built in place of two nearby baseball fields for runners to use until a new rubberized track was ready nearby next spring.

Parks' Assistant Commissioner for Planning Joshua Laird said those plans were scrapped when a change in the construction schedule allowed the ballfields to remain open for another season.

Originally published on December 14, 2006

"Parks Dept. plan off track" Daily News (Bronx Boro News section) 12/12/6

Parks Dept. plan off track
Jogging path scrapped for now

(Sorry, no electronic version to link to)

By Bill Egbert

When it comes to a controversial jogging track, Bronx Borough President Adolfp Carrion is running out of patience--with everyone.

He abrubptly walked out of a TV interview last week when a reporter asked him if he had been lied to by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe over the issue of an interim running track near the new Yankee Stadium project.

The borough president's snit came after a local community board member accused the Parks Department of perjury concerning its failure to provide a promised running course to replace the one closed to make way for the new stadium.

Last Tuesday, the Bronx Boro News reported that the department had not provided an interim running track as promised after the Macombs Dam Park track was closed for construction of the new stadium. The News cited a state court decisionstating that a "running course is to be available at all times during construction."

Community Board 4 member Lukas Herbert took issue with the Parks Department's assertion that it didn't need to provide a track until next spring.

"Adrian Benepe doesn't have his facts straight," says Herbert. "Either that, or his agency lied to a judge."

While Carrion fumed that Parks has not been quick enough in providing the interim facilities promised, he bristled last Thursday when News 12 cable-TV reporter Jessica Kumari asked him if Benepe had lied to him.

"Did I ask if he lied?" a clearly annoyed Carrion could be heard saying as he stormed off camera, grim-faced. "No, I didn't ask him if he lied."

"A reporter asked me to call a colleague of mine - who I respect and have worked well with - a liar," Carrion said later. "A principled individual doesn't say that about another individual to satisfy a two-minute news clip on a television station."

The new stadium project has caused controversy because of the plan to build the massive new complex on top of two popular parks - one of which had a running track - and replace the parkland and facilities after construction.

Before the city approved the plan, Carrion said his support was contingent upon Parks' assurance that interim facilities would be available to the community throughout construction.

The Parks Department's Environmental Impact Study promised a cinder track would be built in place of two nearby baseball fields for runners to use until a new rubberized track was ready nearby next spring.

Park's Assistant Commisioner for Planning Joshua Laird said those plans were scrapped when a change in the construction schedule allowed the ballfields to remain open for another season.

wegbert@nydailynews.com

"Carrion Walks Out of Interview Over Yankee Stadium Questions" The Real Estate 12/8/6

Carrion Walks Out of Interview Over Yankee Stadium Questions

FILE UNDER: Stadiums
Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion--considered by many to be a 2009 mayoral contender--walked out of an interview on Wednesday with News12 when asked hard questions about whether the Parks Department was living up to its promises for the Yankee Stadium project, according to people who have seen the segment.

Here's a piece from the report, which concerned the fake running track (known as a sidewalk) we reported on in September. (The Carrion interview is not online, however.) We have a call and an e-mail in to the Beep.

- Matthew Schuerman

(click the title to read this with hyperlinks)

"Agony of defeat" Metro 12/8/6

Agony of defeat
Year after Yankee vote, CB4 can't function

by patrick arden / metro new york

DEC 8, 2006
SOUTH BRONX. When Community Board 4 voted down the plans for a new Yankee Stadium by a two-to-one margin in 2005, that didn‚t stop the project from moving forward. But Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion refused to reappoint members whose terms were expiring, and he orchestrated a major reshuffling of the board last June.

Out of the 19 members whose terms were up, only five remained. Carrion made a slew of new appointments, and four of the board‚s six committees ended up with new chairs.

Since then, however, Community Board 4 has had a hard time conducting any business. Apart from a brief period during a meeting in September, the board hasn‚t been able to get enough members together to even hold a vote.

"We have meeting minutes from as far back as June that still haven't been approved," said member Lukas Herbert. "Our budget priorities were supposed to be submitted to the mayor's office months ago, and there‚s a middle-income housing project that can't proceed without our letter of support.

"The borough president has done his best to drive a wedge into this board to make it not function," Herbert said. "This new board won't stand in the way when he gets some ambitious crackpot idea to force down our throats."

Carrion spokesman Mike Murphy said the board‚s inability to form a quorum stem from member illnesses and family matters.

Some insiders speculate the new members — many of them ministers — have been turned off by the rancor of the board's discussions. "The old people still show up," said one member, "and the new chairman, D. Lee Ezell, is very aggressive toward them. She gives a 30-minute speech at the beginning of every committee meeting, and then she won‚t tolerate other people's opinions."

Calls to Ezell and the district manager, David Mojica, were not returned yesterday. After a particularly contentious meeting in September, Ezell proposed beginning with a prayer, asking for "brotherly love, professionalism and respect." Objections were raised that the prayers excluded some members. It didn't help that these prayers would also be led by Carrion allies.

Anita Antonetty resigned as recording secretary in October, after Ezell wanted to delete verbatim comments from meeting minutes. "People were still bringing up the issue of how the borough president removed members from the board," Antonetty said.

"It's not a good atmosphere. That's why some people stay away. There are people who haven't returned since they voted to change the board in June. The people who were kicked off attended regularly. They would have made the quorum."

Were residents misled?

Viewers of Channel 12 in the Bronx yesterday saw Borough President Adolfo Carrion storm out of an interview after a reporter asked whether the Parks Dept. had misled him about an interim running track promised to residents during construction of the new Yankee Stadium.

"I've always expressed my frustration with the pace of construction for the interim park space," Carrion said later in a statement. "However, I do not believe senseless name calling or grandstanding is a constructive way to resolve these issues."

But the point was whether officials had misled residents. Community Board 4 member Lukas Herbert believes the city even misled a judge. While the Law Dept. denies that claim, the interim track had figured prominently in Judge Herman Cahn‚s decision to reject residents‚ request for a temporary injunction to stop the construction of the stadium on 22 acres of parkland.

"This track was supposed to be put in before August," Herbert said. "What they told the judge was that there's going to be a running track available before they ripped up the one in Macombs Dam Park. They didn't do that."

"No, No, No. Yes. The Mayor’s Curious Evolution on Public Money for Private Real Estate" NY Oberver 12/6/6

No, No, No. Yes. The Mayor’s Curious Evolution on Public Money for Private Real Estate
By Matthew Schuerman

Mayor Bloomberg came into office vowing to end corporate welfare as we know it. And he did.

Unless your name is George Steinbrenner, Hank Paulson or Hank McKinnell...

(click title to read the full article at the NY Observer site, but here is a little more:)

...Another example of helping out a private enterprise that had no intention of leaving is the new Yankee Stadium, a project for which the city is donating about 25 acres of parkland and spending another $150 million in today’s dollars to recreate that open space elsewhere after the new stadium is finished. The Mayor’s aides argue that the upkeep on the current stadium—which, according to the current lease, the city is responsible for—would have become increasingly expensive. That lease will run out in a few years, but Mr. Doctoroff said that the city wouldn’t have gained much ground through negotiating a new one. “It would have taken the two sides to change the terms and, in terms of our calculations, we would not have been successful.”

Mr. Doctoroff argues that the new stadium, though smaller, is supposed to bring more jobs for the Bronx, though the parks rearrangement is not predicated on that happening.

The Yankees deal had the advantage of appearing not to be a subsidy, allowing the Mayor to claim another victory just days after losing the West Side Stadium, which would have counted as Mr. Bloomberg’s largest subsidy deal ever at $300 million...

"Parks' path to confusion" Daily News 12/6/6

Parks' path to confusion
Activists irate over lost track

By BILL EGBERT
A "misunderstanding" about the city's temporary replacement for a running track dug up to make way for the new Yankee Stadium has led to charges of broken promises and even perjury from community members.
Shortly after the running track around Macombs Dam Park was fenced off for the stadium's construction, local Community Board 4 member Lukas Herbert noticed a jogging path stenciled on the sidewalk around Mullaly Park.

Outraged over what appeared to be the Parks Department's idea of a replacement track, he contacted the Daily News, which led to City Councilwoman Helen Foster (D-Highbridge) demanding an explanation from Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.

Benepe responded that the stenciled route was a "walking path," not the replacement for the running track.

"In fact, Parks will be building a rubberized all-weather track on Lot 1 as the temporary replacement for the Macombs track," Benepe wrote in a Nov. 9 letter. "This track will be completed by spring of 2007."

The letter said that Herbert had "misunderstood the purpose of the 'walking path.'"

But Herbert counters any misunderstanding was understandable, since the agency had offered assurances a replacement running track would be available when construction began.

And these assurances were given not just to the community but to a judge in state court.

When Judge Herman Cahn ruled against groups seeking a temporary restraining order to delay construction in September, he did so partly on the basis that "an exercise running course is to be available at all times during the construction," according to his written decision.

"So if the sidewalk 'walking path' is not the 'exercise running course,' then where is it?" asked Herbert. "Maybe Adrian Benepe doesn't have his facts straight. Either that, or his agency lied to a judge."

Parks' Assistant Commissioner for Planning Joshua Laird said the earlier plans for a cinder track around two nearby baseball fields were scrapped because it would cut into the outfield and backstops.

"We put [the cinder track plan] out there in good faith," said Laird.

The initial construction timeline would have closed the ballfields next spring, but a change allowed them to remain open another full season, so Parks opted to keep the fields at the expense of the cinder track.

Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, who previously said his support of the project depended on Parks providing interim replacements for all facilities, admitted frustration with the "bureaucratic quagmire."

"This really should have been fast-tracked," he said.

Congratulations, Staten Island!

You did it, with the tremendous help of your City Councilmembers! The Nascar Speedway was torpedoed!

Oh, to have your political leadership, rather than the lackeys we have here in the Bronx. That is not to include Helen Diane Foster, but EVERY other elected official here supported the Yankees instead of their constituents.

Click the title to read the Times article.