Tom Seaver has dementia, retires from public life

 In tribute to the phenom pitcher, here's the broadcast of Tom Terrific's 19 strikeout game against the San Diego Padres where he struck out 10 batters in a row, a record that still stands.

The return of Robert Moses

From City Limits:

Restaurants, stores, and a 200-room hotel would go up on the Willets Point side of 126th Street, just east of Citi Field, though the city does not entirely own the property. The proposed shopping mall west of the stadium may face a larger hurdle: The parking lot is part of Flushing Meadows Corona Park. State law requires the alienation of parkland before it can be used for non-park purposes.

To meet that requirement, Bloomberg has reached back to a law passed 51 years ago, summoning an uncertain ally in the ghost of Robert Moses. But questions surround this curious piece of legislation, setting up the latest in a string of disputes over city-sponsored developments on public parkland.

"Yes, this area is parkland," says Benjamin Branham, a spokesman for the city's Economic Development Corporation, "but development is permitted under the 1961 law that authorized the construction of Shea Stadium—known as Administrative Code 18-118—which also allowed for additional uses to be built on the parking lot. It's important to be clear the authorization comes from this law as opposed to a contract or other agreement of some kind."

Yet, as recently as 2001, New York's highest court ruled parkland can't be taken, even for temporary use, without an explicit act of alienation passed by the state Legislature and approved by the Governor: "[O]ur courts have time and again reaffirmed the principle that parkland is impressed with a public trust, requiring legislative approval before it can be alienated or used for an extended period for non-park purposes."

Moses presided over the 1961 groundbreaking for Shea Stadium. He had originally offered to build the municipal arena in Flushing Meadows for the Brooklyn Dodgers and resurrected the plan when the city pushed for a new National League franchise.

The state Legislature approved his building of Shea Stadium in the park, but its 1961 legislation was primarily aimed at granting the city authority to issue bonds to finance construction. It loosely laid out the permitted uses for the stadium and grounds, listing "recreation, entertainment, amusement, education, enlightenment, cultural development or betterment, and improvement of trade and commerce." The law even allowed the city to use the site for "any business or commercial purpose," so long as this activity "aids in the financing of the construction and operation of [the] stadium, grounds, parking areas and facilities" and "does not interfere with the accomplishment of the purposes referred to" above.

"The bill reads like a Robert Moses special," says Geoffrey Croft of the watchdog group NYC Park Advocates. The broad powers it conferred were a hallmark of the Power Broker, who was so well-practiced in the black art of political legislating that Al Smith once called him "the best bill-drafter I know." The Parks Commissioner could enter into agreements to use part or all of the stadium grounds, but any agreements lasting for more than a year had to be approved by the Board of Estimate, which included the mayor, the comptroller, the City Council president, and all of the borough presidents.

In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court found the Board of Estimate unconstitutional, because it violated the “one man, one vote” rule—for example, the borough president of Brooklyn (the city’s most populous county) had no more power than the borough president of Staten Island (the least populous county). With the elimination of the Board of Estimate, the city's Law Department says, the power of site approval under the 1961 Shea Stadium law now rests solely with the mayor. A shopping mall may not offer the "enlightenment" referenced in the text, but a Bloomberg administration spokesperson describes the new project as a "retail/entertainment complex" benefiting “trade and commerce.”

Don't you love how the city has no money for needed services for existing neighborhoods, yet has tons of cash to throw around in an attempt to justify park alienation in order to realize a Bloomberg legacy project? Why doesn't the billionaire pony up his own cash and buy out the Willets Point property owners? Then he can build whatever the hell he wants.

Leave the damn park alone.

Stadium deals screwed taxpayers big time

From the Daily News:

Everyone knows private money-making operations have exploded in our parks under Bloomberg. Fancy new restaurants, food kiosks, green grocers, bike rental and private sporting concessions - you name it.

So how could total income from all this business activity be falling?

Well, it turns out that Shea and the old Yankee Stadium - both of which sat on park land, and were owned by the city - were the Parks Department's biggest revenue generators.

Under the old Yankee Stadium deal, the city was assured a percentage of gate receipts, a percentage of food sales, even a percentage of the team's cable revenue.

Because of that, the old stadium produced as much as $15 million a year for Parks - even after deducting costs for stadium upkeep.

Likewise, the Shea Stadium deal generated as much as $9 million annually for the city.

As recently as 2008, the two ballparks represented nearly half of the $51 million in concessions revenue generated by the entire Parks system.

On top of that, the city was taking in an additional $6 million annually from parking fees at Shea and the old Yankee Stadium.

Once the new ballparks opened, all that revenue disappeared - even the parking money.

Today, the Mets keep all their parking revenue. Meanwhile, the Yankee Stadium garages, run by an independent firm, are nearly bankrupt and may never produce the $3 million annually they agreed to provide the city.

This loss of $30 million each and every year is a hidden cost to taxpayers from the new ballparks.

In other words, the Mets and Yankees save millions and the rest of us make it up with huge fee hikes.

City Hall living in the past

According to NYC.gov, Shea Stadium still exists.

Mets don't know their own history

From Mets Police:

The brick outside Citi Field commemorating the 1986 World Series win by the New York Mets appears to be incorrect.

The winner of Game 7 was Roger McDowell, not Sid Fernandez.

A team that doesn't know its past has no future.

Guilty Plea in Shea Stadium Memorabilia Theft

From 1010WINS:

NEW YORK (AP) -- A Brooklyn man who worked as a security guard during the demolition of Shea Stadium has pleaded guilty to stealing Mets memorabilia.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Gerald Tacopino pleaded guilty to petit larceny on Wednesday.

Tacopino was fined $500 and sentenced to a conditional discharge, provided he pays $842.50 in restitution. He also was ordered to stay away from the new Mets stadium, Citi Field, for one year.

The district attorney said various stadium items were recovered from Tacopino's apartment in December 2008. They included Mets security jackets and shirts and seat bottoms and backs.

The 44-year-old man was hired to prevent looting of items that were being removed from Shea Stadium to be sold as memorabilia.

You mean someone stole property from the Wilpons for a change instead of the other way around?

1969 Mets honored at Citifield

From Fox 5:

Mets fans and current players paid tribute to some baseball greats at Citi Field Saturday: The 1969 Miracle Mets who went all the way to win the World Series, just a few scant years away from an embarrassing start as an expansion club.

In all, 21 players and coaches lined the arc just behind the infield dirt at Citi Field, which is hosting its first season, the AP reported. The park the '69 Mets called home -- Shea Stadium -- is gone; it was demolished during the off-season to make way for a parking lot.

Among those who were honored: Yogi Berra, Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Jerry Grote, Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, and Duffy Dyer.

Thompson finds problem with Mets audit

From the NY Post:

As if the Mets didn't have enough problems, an audit found the team owes the city more than $2 million.

Under the team's old Shea Stadium lease, the city got a cut of ticket sales, parking and concessions in addition to rent. But between 2003 and 2007, the team underreported profits, costing New Yorkers $180,000, city Comptroller Bill Thompson said.

While the Mets ponied up those funds, they also improperly deducted more than $2.4 million in insurance premiums related to their new Citi Field from their payments to the city, the audit found.

What's worse, Thompson said, is the city is letting the team get away with it.

That's all she wrote for Shea

From WCBS880:

The parking lot is almost complete and there is no longer any evidence that another baseball stadium once sat on the site next to CitiField. Soon, the final parking spaces will occupy the location once occupied by Shea Stadium, Tom Kaminski, flying high in Chopper 880, snapped these photographs on Thursday, May 21, 2009.

And here's photos of the markers placed to commemorate where the bases were.

Your tax dollars at work

From the Queens Tribune:

From the College Point Boulevard exit of the Long Island Expressway to the Northern Boulevard exit on the Grand Central, “Citi Field” now covers where “Shea Stadium” used to be.

And the MTA has changed the subway signs to "Mets/Willets Point".

Shea Stadium removed from panorama

From NY1:

With baseball season just around the corner, the Queens Museum of Art is updating its giant panorama of the city to include Citi Field, the Mets' new stadium.

The model of Shea Stadium is being taken out over the weekend and replaced and the new miniature stadium will be unveiled on Monday.

As for Yankee Stadium, the big switch will occur when the old stadium gets torn down.

Subway station not getting Citi-fied

From NY1:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says it will not rename the 7 train subway stop at the Mets new home to match the corporate name on the stadium.

The MTA says it would be willing to give the station a corporate name – but for a price.

Instead, the stop will be called Mets/Willets Point. The nearby Long Island Rail Road station will bear the same name.

How about Flushing Meadows-Corona Park instead?

Shea's last stand

The attached photo shows all that's left of Shea Stadium on the evening of February 17, 2009. This section will come down tomorrow.

WCBS880 has a set of photos, too: Photo Gallery: Bottom of the 9th for Shea Stadium

And here's a video of the demise of the neon pitcher.

Surreal scene at Shea

Shea Stadium is toast

From WCBS880:

100 fans say farewell to Shea

From the NY Times:

More than 100 Mets fans gathered on Saturday to catch a last communal glimpse of Shea Stadium. By spring, the site will be a parking lot as the new ballpark, Citi Field, opens next door.

"New Shea" Stadium?

From A Fine Blog:

What do left wing-nut Rep. Dennis Kuchinich and ultra-right conservative Rep. Ted Poe have in common? Both have written Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner demanding that Citigroup dissolve the agreement with the New York Mets that pays the Mets $400 Million dollars for naming rights to their new stadium. What do these politicians propose if Citigroup doesn't do it? "Absent this outcome, we feel strongly that you should compel Citigroup to return immediately all federal monies received to date, as well as cancel all loan guarantees", the letter reads. Wow, that's some pretty tough talk! Will it happen?..."New Shea" might be making a comeback!

And the old Shea is getting a farewell at noon today.

Shea-ing goodbye

The Queens Tribune Blog has more photos of the dismantling of Shea Stadium. And one former player is lamenting its loss.

Minnesota MacIntosh coming to Queens

Thanks to Mets Blog for posting this first:

 

In the meantime, Shea is still coming down.

More Shea deconstruction photos

More Shea demo shots:

You can't even tell it was a stadium from some of the photos.

I can't imagine the icebox this spot must be in January.