New stadium plan A-OK

Bloomberg, Pataki should have considered Queens in the first place

Editorial

June 14, 2005

The West Side stadium is dead. Long live the new stadium - in Queens.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. George Pataki blundered badly in just about every way in pursuing an Olympics stadium on the West Side that would become the home of the New York Jets football team. But the International Olympic Committee, which is to rule next month on whether New York will get to host the 2012 games, gave these guys a last-minute chance to submit an alternative.

Thankfully, Bloomberg and Pataki have dropped their obstinate West Side-or-bust posture and cobbled together a proposal with the New York Mets that made the most sense to begin with - a stadium near the heart of the proposed Olympics press and residential center in Flushing.

Even without a successful Olympic bid, the new Mets stadium is a good idea for several reasons, including a relatively inexpensive and popular opportunity to show that the city still can think - and build - big.

The need for all this scrambling, of course, was the refusal of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) to approve the state's substantial share of funding for the West Side project, which would have been shared by the Jets and the Javits Convention Center. Their vetoes on the obscure Public Facilities Control Board should never have been needed to stop a project that cost too much, would have drained resources from developing Lower Manhattan post 9/11, and impeded more responsible development on that precious and valuable strip of waterfront.

Queens always made more sense. It would not be subject to the vicious traffic snarls of midtown Manhattan; major highways, subway and commuter lines already are in place, and the Mets really do need a new home to replace one of the league's oldest and least attractive ballparks. The Mets will pay for everything except reasonable infrastructure improvements that ought to be done anyway, as downtown Flushing becomes a more vital commercial center.

If the IOC chooses Paris, London, Madrid or Moscow over the Big Apple, it wouldn't be because of opposition to the stadium. And it would be the world's loss for 2012. But that shouldn't stop the city and state from pushing ahead on a new stadium for the Mets. Build they must. hN