"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...