Posts about Yankee Stadium
Development
Weekend reading: "Taking my talents to South Beach"
The inescapable news in the sports world last week was LeBron James' decision on where to play professional basketball. James spurned his current (and hometown) team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in favor of joining forces with multiple, talented free agent players in Miami.
"We are all witnesses." Photo by partie traumatic on Flickr.
The hoopla, as well as James' decision to leave his hometown for greener pastures raises several interesting points about sports, place, labor mobility, and the economic benefits from professional sports and athletes.
Talent migration: Richard Florida takes note of how LeBron and his compatriots took control of their situation in picking a new location to showcase their talents, framing the decision as an entrepreneurial coup in the controlled world of professional sports. The decision, he argues, isn't all that different than the ones that many talented and skilled workers go through Miami offered the best place where these three savvy, talented, and surpassingly entrepreneurial young men could create their own kind of space Teams tied to place: Florida's argument, however, doesn't do much to dispute the common criticisms of LeBron's decision (including one from the Cavaliers owner) that it was selfish and about ego more than anything else. While professional athletes may be individuals free to chose between teams, the teams themselves are rooted in place. Teams profit from their connection and emotional bonds with local fans. It's no surprise that fans see this as a direct insult to their sense of place. In Richard Florida's context, they are the ones attempting to optimize their interests within given constraints.
The narrative that ties teams and cities together is extraordinarily strong. The recent passing of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner offered a chance to reflect on that complex connection between city, fans, team, and players: He remembered the elation of the city when the Yankees won the World Series in 1978, a troubled time. "We put the trophy in the rotunda at City Hall," [former Mayor Ed] Koch said. "I knew, as the Romans knew, that the people require circuses and theatrics." Likewise, there is a question of geography. Sports teams might not have an impact at the metropolitan scale, but many in Cleveland have seen a direct impact from LeBron James in the area immediately adjacent to the arena. A similar narrative exists for DC's Verizon Center and the subsequent revitalization of Chinatown.
However, accurately calculating all the costs and benefits of the intangible, emotional connection between a city and their team might be next to impossible.
There is no 'Next Big Thing': Aaron Renn uses LeBron's departure from the Midwest to take a long, hard look at the strategic decisions behind the move and the reaction: There are a few other items of note, only semi sports-related:
LeBron likes bikes: One thing LeBron does like is bikes. He's a partial owner of Cannondale and hosts a bike-a-thon for kids in his hometown of Akron, OH. Given the negative reaction in Cleveland to his professional decision to play basketball in Miami, it's unclear what will happen to events like this.
New York and Barcelona are boring: Mayor Bloomberg and others were on hand to see the final push of the tunnel boring machine for New York's 7 line extension. Second Avenue Sagas notes the challenges of urban tunneling, even with the advanced technology available today. A few weeks ago, The Transport Politic took an in-depth look at Barcelona's massive subway expansion, also making extensive use of tunnel boring machines operating in dense urban environments.
Paris, automated: Jarret Walker, of the Human Transit blog, offers some observations from Line 1 of the Paris Metro. The line is in the midst of an upgrade to fully automatic, driverless operation. That's no small feat for a line initially built in 1900.
Cross-posted at City Block.Most people attempt to optimize their interests within the constraints imposed by their existing environment
The life of George Steinbrenner is a ramp across modern New York, a bridge that spans the whirlpool of one man's spinning psyche and the transformation of America's biggest, baddest city... He championed ordinary New Yorkers, then took them for every last penny...
Economic impacts: Perhaps George Steinbrenner's crowning achievement as owner of the Yankees has been the creation of New Yankee Stadium, on the backs of substantial public subsidy. Plenty of economists consistently argue that stadium subsidies are not wise investments, but the emotional connection between team and city is difficult to quantify.
In a sense though, Cleveland's disappointment was inevitable. LeBron James was never going to turn around the city. No one person or one thing can. Unfortunately, Cleveland has continually pinned its hopes on a never-ending cycle of "next big things" to reverse decline. This will never work. As local economic development guru Ed Morrison put it, "Overwhelmingly, the strategy is now driven by individual projects....This leads to the 'Big Thing Theory' of economic development: Prosperity results from building one more big thing."
The 'Big Thing' theory has usually been applied to things like sports stadiums and arenas, not the individual players that use them. Nevertheless, the comparison is illustrative. The push to keep a team or even a player by giving them a new stadium might not make economic sense, but losing that player can be painful. And even though a new stadium might not make economic sense for a metropolitan region, that doesn't mean the team itself
Development
DC versus New York
New York on baseball: Gave away the only park in a poor neighborhood so the Yankees could build a stadium next to their old one instead of replacing the old one. Spent $400 million in public money on the stadium, $225 million in tax-exempt bonds to build 3,600 new parking spaces. Didn't even get a new team.
DC on baseball: Paid for the entire cost of a new stadium (about $700 million) to lure a team here. Built the stadium in a depressed area with old warehouses. Built only 1,325 spaces and let the team find more while telling most people to take the Metro. Implemented performance parking to manage parking demand.
Parking
Can NYC build me a personal garage too?
As even more lurid details emerge of New York's $340 million giveaway for Yankees parking
Next week: responding to news reports that George Steinbrenner sneezed while looking generally in the direction of New Jersey, Mayor Bloomberg announces that New York will be shutting down the #4 train, which will henceforth only run on-demand private service between Yankee Stadium and anywhere that the Yankees want to go. To offset the loss of this subway line, the city will put pictures of trains on the tops of the new garages.
Transit
More than a thousand words
None but the most corrupt of politicians would think that moving Yankee Stadium over to a public park, farther from the highway, replacing that park with some space on top of garages and other parkland crammed up against the river far away from the neighborhood, and having the city kick in $70 million for this, could possibly be a good idea.
Will of OnNYTurf created a terrific Google Map depicting the plan. It makes it clear, far more than any news article, what a monumentally idiotic idea this latest development scheme is, worse even than the other two "a stadium at all costs" plans we've had during this administration.
Plus, building a Metro-North station along the train line that already passes directly by the site is "not in the cards". I've tried and failed to find any possible rationale for this project other than Bronx politicians being bought off.
Gotham Gazette has a good roundup of recent criticism of the project.
@ggwash
- Young kids try to assault me while biking
- Metro bag searches aren't always optional
- Focus transportation on downtown or neighborhoods?
- Endless zoning update delay hurts homeowners
- Redeveloping McMillan is the only way to save it
- DDOT agrees to repave 15th Street cycle track
- Vienna Metro town center won't have a town center
Greater Washington
District of Columbia
