Rarely have Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver spent so much time together: sitting elbow to elbow at a charity breakfast yesterday, then retreating behind closed doors in a Midtown hotel, marching side-by-side in a parade and huddling in an empty City Hall.
Still, judging from their public comments yesterday, the two men remained far apart on the very issue that has brought them so close: the fate of Mr. Bloomberg's plans for a West Side stadium.
A key vote is scheduled for today, but Mr. Silver gave no signal that he was any closer to siding with the mayor, repeating his assertion that not enough was being done to redevelop Lower Manhattan and his belief that Queens would make a better site for the stadium. Leaving a hastily arranged meeting with the mayor at City Hall late yesterday afternoon, Mr. Silver said, "Nothing's changed."
"We have no deal," he said later in a telephone interview. "I don't think there has been any progress. We're still talking, but that's about it."
When asked, Mr. Silver would not say how he intended to vote today on the state's $300 million investment in the $2.2 billion West Side project, but added, "It's a long way till Monday."
Stadium supporters had hoped to have the state's commitment before the International Olympic Committee released a report today evaluating the bids submitted by the five cities vying for the 2012 Summer Games. The committee is scheduled to pick a winner in July, and the mayor has said it is crucial that the stadium be approved before then.
Mr. Silver's insistence that more attention be paid to Lower Manhattan, his legislative district, has thrown a wrench into the works. The state panel whose approval is needed before the project can proceed is controlled by Gov. George E. Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and Mr. Silver, whose "no" vote would kill the stadium.
A meeting of the panel, postponed several times already, is set to take place this afternoon, and the mayor and Mr. Silver both said they expected to continue their talks today.
Yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg seemed annoyed by the suggestion, implicit in Mr. Silver's criticism, that the Assembly speaker is more concerned than he is about bringing Lower Manhattan back to the level of vitality that existed before the Sept. 11 attack.
At a news conference that preceded the Salute to Israel Parade on Fifth Avenue, Mr. Bloomberg said, "The speaker is not the only one that has Lower Manhattan as a priority."
"I will do everything I can to help build, rebuild, Lower Manhattan," he said. "Having said that, I also have a responsibility to the other parts of the city."
Mr. Bloomberg repeated his position that Queens was not a viable location for the stadium, which would be used by the Jets football team. The Jets said yesterday that the team would invest in the stadium only if it is built in Manhattan.
The daylong series of public appearances and private meetings between the mayor and speaker, each one dogged by reporters and television crews, created a sense of momentum that ultimately led nowhere. For the mayor, however, the negotiations with Mr. Silver may have had an unintended political benefit, albeit one that he would probably not admit.
Mr. Bloomberg has been roundly criticized lately for accepting the endorsement of the New York Independence Party and for contributing money to it, and he was scheduled to appear at an afternoon reception held by the party. But reporters waiting there were told that an "emergency meeting" with Mr. Silver at City Hall would prevent the mayor from taking part in the event, where Lenora B. Fulani, a party official who has made remarks criticizing Jews and Israel, had a highly visible role.
Asked later about the timing of the meeting, Mr. Silver said that he and mayor had been at the parade together that morning, and that they had agreed to meet again at "a convenient time when we're both not doing something."