Lawmakers say no to stadium
BY ERROL A. COCKFIELD JR.
ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF
June 7, 2005
ALBANY -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg and backers of the city's 2012 Olympics bid suffered a critical defeat Monday as the two leaders of the State Legislature flatly rejected a plan to build a $2.2 billion Jets stadium on the West Side.
The failure capped several days of fierce lobbying when supporters made emotional pleas as part of a final press for approval. And Monday, amid emotional recriminations, it remained unclear whether there was any chance the project would ever resurface.
In his harshest criticism of the project to date, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said the stadium was never about the Olympics, but an elaborate subterfuge. "The 2012 summer games are being used as a shield to hide another goal," Silver said, "to shift the financial and business capital of the world out of lower Manhattan and over to the West Side."
Bloomberg had met with Silver on Sunday in a final attempt to win him over, but during impassioned remarks Monday Silver said he could not support a project that would draw resources away from his district, lower Manhattan.
Finally, Monday evening, after three earlier delays, a state panel that Silver, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Gov. George Pataki control voted down the stadium.
Pataki's representative voted in favor, but Silver and Bruno's designees abstained. That effectively killed the project because it needed a unanimous endorsement to garner a $300 million state subsidy.
While Pataki supported the stadium plan, Bloomberg had made it the signature piece of his legacy, the central pillar of a plan to turn the far West Side into a new commercial and residential real estate frontier. The stadium would also double as home to the 2012 Olympics if the city won its bid.
A bitterly disappointed mayor, his voice breaking with emotion at times, repeatedly used the past tense about the stadium during a news conference at a Brooklyn pier Monday.
"Those that were on the other side will have to explain why they were against jobs, why they were against economic opportunity and growth," he said.
Bloomberg, a Republican, said Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, made steep demands, asking for assurances that West Side office projects wouldn't compete with Ground Zero.
"I could not in good conscience take away people's right to build there," said an angry Bloomberg.
Typically enigmatic, Silver was explicit and emotional Monday as he said he would not support a stadium on the West Side under any circumstances. He said he would consider a site in Willets Point, in Queens, near Shea Stadium.
Asked by a reporter whether the stadium was "dead" Silver said, "It was never alive" and then smiled broadly.
Bruno, an upstate Republican, said he would only back a stadium if the city wins its Olympics bid. His representative put an amendment before the Public Authorities Control Board to support a stadium if the city wins the bid but it received no second and died. Bruno appeared to want to distance himself from Silver's outright objection.
"I think we ought to be on record saying we support the Olympics," he said during a brief interview.
If not a final bell, yesterday's vote brought a close to one chapter of a development battle that had transfixed the city and drawn attention from all over the globe.
The Jets appeared hurt but determined. "Four years of hard work and planning will not be washed away in a single day," said team president Jay Cross.
Cross called Silver's rationale for witholding his support "appalling." In a statement, Cross said, "The notion that New York should only build in lower Manhattan -- and nowhere else -- is contrary to everything that made this city great."
He also held out hope that the team would still find a home in Manhattan.
Pataki criticized Silver and Bruno for abstaining instead of voting yes or no. "I would think the people should either stand up and say they're for it or against it," the Republican governor said.
Pataki shot down any speculation that the stadium would move to Queens. And he even hinted that development in lower Manhattan could be in jeopardy. "The mayor over the weekend put out an incredible package to help lower Manhattan by removing any possible incentives for new office development on the West Side until there was significant -- not just construction -- but tenancy in lower Manhattan," Pataki said. "Now, that is off the table."
Staff writers Pradnya Joshi and Glenn Thrush contributed to this report from New York.
