Editorial

PATAKI'S POWER PLAY

May 10, 2005 -- When we urged Gov. Pataki last week to exercise stronger leadership regarding Ground Zero reconstruction, we didn't have extortion in mind.

Apparently, he does.

Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker yesterday reported that Pataki has made it known that state approval of Mayor Bloomberg's West Side stadium is contingent on Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's agreement to downplay security concerns regarding Ground Zero.

Politics necessarily has its thuggish side; sometimes brute force is necessary to keep the wheels turning.

Even so, Pataki's ultimatum seems a little ripe.

In the first place, if Pataki's minions at the Port Authority truly cared what the NYPD thought about Ground Zero security, they would have been paying attention months ago — when the cops first raised the issue.

Secondly, there's no reason to believe that the NYPD's concerns about the Freedom Tower's security are unfounded. So does the governor really want the city to sacrifice safety in favor of expediency?

Or is Pataki threatening to ditch the West Side stadium merely because he's embarrassed and wants the Bloomberg administration to make his problem go away?

We certainly hope it's the latter.

As for the stadium, either it makes sense on the merits, and thus needs the governor's continued help to become a reality — or it doesn't, in which case Pataki has been blowing smoke about how critically important the project is to New York City's future.

The governor reportedly is about to give a major address on Downtown's future. He can certainly use that opportunity to lay to rest everybody's Freedom Tower security concerns.

It would be useful if he also took a couple of moments to clarify his position on the stadium.