Oh my! If I lived in NY, I WOULD be pissed!

[dwckabal]

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=16756

Jim Hightower

WOODY WANTS A STADIUM

Today's feature is about the amazing athletic contortions of New York politicians straining to please Mr. Robert "Woody" Johnson. Woody, as he's known to his sporting pals, is a billionaire heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and the present owner of the New York Jets pro football team. He's also a major league donor to such Republican politicos as New York Governor George Pataki and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Now, Woody has a wish. He wants a brand-new, 75,000-seat football stadium on Manhattan's West Side––a stadium with a retractable roof and a wraparound bee-hive of luxury skyboxes that he could lease to corporate high-rollers.

Of course, Woody is rich enough to build such a sports palace himself, but -- gosh -- what's the use of being rich if you can't get your political pals to pony up some tax dollars for your private project?

<--SNIP-->

Mike {Bloomberg} is the same mayor who says the city has no money for pay raises for police, who cannot find the funds to provide working toilets or even toilet paper for all of the public school children, who wants to cut $3 million from the city's infant mortality program and $15 million from foster care services, and who has already cut $21 million from public libraries, closing some branches three days a week.

It's all a matter of political priorities -- who could want Libraries, when Woody wants a new stadium?

[Dogmudgeon]

1. It's a hell of a town!

And I mean that in the positive way.

I can think of no better issue for the diverse peoples of New York City to come together over than being forced to pay for Johnson's enormous Woody ... or is it Woody's enormous Johnson?

Hey, Gotham ... this guy Johnson wants a piece of you. And whaddaya say to someone who wants a piece of you?

Ten bucks says the Mayor and his boy turn tail and run. And ten only because I'm, like they say, financially embarassed.

--bkl

[The empressof all]

2. In Seattle

We lived through this nonsense with the building of Safeco field. A project which voters rejected.

Never under-estimate the will of a boy to get his toys.