This morning, New Yorkers are waking up in the city where nothing ever gets done.

It's only been a few weeks since we learned that three years of dithering at Ground Zero had led to exactly nothing — a shocking dereliction of duty on the part of Gov. George Pataki that hurled this one-time king of the hill from the top of the heap to the bottom.

Yesterday, state assembly speaker Sheldon Silver decided that the best way to keep himself at the top of the heap was to drive a stake through the heart of another transformational project.

Unless something miraculous happens, the plan to build a stadium on the Far West Side is dead because of Silver's actions.

There have always been legitimate arguments for and against the stadium plan. Those of us who have supported it believe it offers a way to unlock the potential of an underutilized wasteland in the middle of Manhattan. That would radically increase the city's tax base, which generates revenue for the government that need not be collected through tax increases on individuals or existing businesses.

Yes, Mayor Bloomberg and his people have made a great show of the necessity of the stadium for the city's Olympics bid. But it's worth remembering that a West Side stadium plan was a very big issue way back in 1998, when it was Rudy Giuliani wanting to build one for the Yankees and former City Council speaker Peter Vallone trying to get himself elected governor by standing up against it.

The stadium isn't primarily about sports. All plans for the stadium have been designed with the thought in mind that it would drastically expand the ability of the city to host conventions and would turn a horribly unattractive neighborhood into a desirable one — as stadiums have done in weird downtown areas of Baltimore and Cleveland.

The best argument against the stadium has to do with public financing of stadiums generally. In most cities, such financing has been a dead loser, a taxpayer's gift to a sports franchise that doesn't deserve the largesse.

If Silver had argued yesterday that there should be no publicly financed stadiums or sports arenas because they have proved fiscally foolhardy in other cities, he would deserve to be taken seriously.

But he didn't do that. Instead, during a Q&A with reporters, Silver offered encouraging words about helping out with a new Jets football stadium near Shea in Willets Point, Queens — a construction project that really would be a case of transferring public assets to a private entity with absolutely no hope of seeing any kind of return for the taxpayers.

So basically, Silver has no problem with a white elephant of a stadium that will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in the end.

He just doesn't want to build it in a place where it might actually do the city some good.

Well, he'll get his way.

And New Yorkers will again confront the paradox of the ages. They live in an incredibly dynamic city. They themselves are possessed of incredible dynamism. But the politicians they elect for the most part — recent mayors excepted — seem to thrive on paralysis and sclerosis. Their purpose is to delay, to slow down, to block (unless the purpose is paying off connected and powerful union workers, that is).

So congratulations, Shelly Silver. You have taken Pataki's crown from him. Today you are truly the king of the hill when it comes to doing nothing.

E-mail: podhoretz@nypost.com