Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Yankee VIPs to get free parking on our dime

Remember this next time Bloomberg makes the excuse that the city doesn't have enough money to provide basic services to us or has to cut back on them:

The Yankees and hundreds of their VIPs will get free valet parking for the next 40 years, courtesy of New York taxpayers.

Taxpayers will fund Yankees' VIP parking, NYC gets less money

The startling revelation of yet another subsidy for the richest team in baseball is buried deep in the fine print of a $237 million tax-exempt bond offering that city officials quietly issued the week before Christmas.

That new Yankee Stadium parking spot will cost double soon

The documents say a $70 million state subsidy for parking improvements for the new Yankee Stadium (slated to open next year) has been earmarked for a new 660-car valet parking garage where virtually all the spaces will be reserved for the free, year-round use of the Yankees and their VIPs.

Yankee fans can expect to pay a whopping $29 for stadium parking during home games starting in 2010 - more than twice last year's $14 rate.

The projected hikes were revealed in the fine print of a $237 million Wall Street bond offering that the city Industrial Development Agency issued two weeks ago to finance the creation and refurbishing of nearly 9,000 parking spaces for the new stadium.

The basic game-day parking rates will jump to $17 this year, then to $19 next year, when the new $1 billion Yankee Stadium is slated to open.

The rates would then zoom to $29 in 2010 and would increase to $35 by 2014, according to a parking feasibility study that accompanies the bond documents.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are funding free parking for Billionaire George? This is a crime! Let them take the subway or have their limos idle in front of the stadium as all rich attendees do.

Anonymous said...

What an under the table triple play
to screw us taxpayers out of some more $$$$!

While the big wigs got their X-mas stockings
stuffed with extra perks this year....
we all got the usual government F.U. !

Anonymous said...

Maybe we should make the Yankees pay for St. Saviour's.

Anonymous said...

Let's not forget that this city council voted almost unanimously for this project, with these perks in it and that the Bronx Borough President, who now seeks a citywide office, pushed really hard for it, even going so far as to remove CB members if they didn't vote in favor of it.

Anonymous said...

The important thing to remember: Bloomberg actually believes that we the people owe it to him and his ilk to accommodate all their needs. Don't forget what one former Bloomberg employee said that Bloomberg told her to "kill it", referring to her baby, when he learned that she was pregnant. He believed that this baby was going to interfere with his money-making.

If there is any such thing as an intelligent attorney, I'm certain that he/she could make a bulletproof case that if we the people pay for something, then it's ours to use without further cost - just like public parks, buildings, tax forms, and ballot boxes.

Politicians in New York - Bloomberg first among them - believe this. When a developer pays for any politician, the developer owns that politician.

The same principle should apply to all the things that we the people pay for.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJgmME5l_Os

Anonymous said...

those baseball bat shovels are ultra-stupid looking.

georgetheatheist said...

Bloomberg with a hardhat is even more stupid looking. In truth, everyone with a hardhat is stupid looking.

Rebecca said...

Outrageous. Makes me wonder what arrangements will be put in place for the new Shea, errrr, CitiField.

Anonymous said...

That ugly turtle-faced billionaire egomaniac has to go... he should run for president, at least then we won't have to look at him or hear his whining voice in NYC for most of the year.