Thursday, October 24, 2013

Lhota says protecting parkland important; DeBlasio wants soccer stadium

From the NY Times:

Early on Tuesday night, [Bill DeBlasio] was asked about Major League Soccer’s attempt to place a Spaceship-Enterprise-size soccer stadium in the midst of Flushing Meadows, Queens’s densest and most heavily used park. He cleared his throat with some populist rumbling about city tax giveaways. Then he allowed that, well, perhaps, maybe, a pro soccer stadium might raise the money needed to give that dowdy dowager of a park a face-lift.

It was left to Mr. Lhota to make the point that, perhaps fortunately for Flushing Meadows, appears to have won the day: Our urban parks are a precious patrimony, and in this densest of American cities it is rarely wise to auction off greensward. If Flushing Meadows-Corona Park needs money, and enough three-piece-suit-wearing worthies cannot be found to toss together a conservancy, a mayor should find a way to pay for that park.

“It shouldn’t be in that park,” Mr. Lhota said of the stadium. “We don’t have enough park space in this city as it is.”

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those plans for FMCP were dropped already.
Soccer may go to the Bronx or Randall's Is instead.

Queens Crapper said...

Exactly. So why does Bill want to resurrect the plan?

Jerry Rotondi said...

I changed my mind about not voting.
For the moment, Lhota gets my vote!

If he wins we'll soon find out if he's lying about FMCP and protecting parkland.

Most campaign promises are lies. Yes, I'm that cynical--by experience. I never heard a promise that was good enough to be broken by a politician.

Promise her anything. "I'll marry you if you let me have my way with you".

Similarly, after a pol gains entry, he forgets about delivering on his vows.

Anonymous said...

Back in the '90's then Mayor Dinkins signed the contract to lease a chunk of FMCP to the USTA for 99 years on his last day of office, despite the plea of incoming Mayor Guliani not to do so until the contract could be reviewed.

Anonymous said...

Unbelievable that the communities around FMCP are probably STILL going to vote for de Blasio!

First he supports the MTS on the upper east side, despite the obviously sensible solution to move it to Jersey, now he wants to ruin FMCP further with a plan that even Bloomberg gave up on.

If you "liberals" put this loon into office, you get what you deserve.

Anonymous said...

Yep - Lhota is starting to look very good - despite his kitten position!

Ron S said...

I was surprised (maybe should not have been) that both of them referred to the soccer stadium, which has been dead for months. I thought the question referred to the idiotic shopping plaza, which also takes parkland. They were clearly not up to date with Queens (big surprise).
The correct response from both should have been that we never take parkland to build private commercial ventures, but that is hoping for too much.

Anonymous said...

Lhota is the mayor NYC needs.
DeBlasio is the mayor NYC gets.

Anonymous said...

I dont want a damn soccer stadium!! What good would it do? Its just a sport that will cater to illegals! More crime will only be bought into places where it is now peaceful!

Anonymous said...

Hey, de Blasio lives in Park Slope hard by Prospect Park. Let Major League Soccer build the stadium on that piece of NYC parkland.

de Blasio will be the first to yell NIMBY!!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like Bill's already catering to the Latino population. He should have it built in his neighborhood by Prospect Park. Wait till the neighbors see all the garbage and beer cans left behind. Let's not forget all the noise on the weekends.