Newsday: Jets Could Lift West Side
jake · 2004-07-14
Newsday: Jets Could Lift West Side
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpval143892041jul14,0,561031.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpval143892041jul14,0,561031.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines
jake · 2004-07-14
The Jets could lift the far West Side BY PETER VALLONE SR Peter Vallone Sr. is the former speaker of the New York City Council. July 14, 2004 In 1998, I led the fight to prevent building a stadium for the Yankees on Manhattan's far West Side over rail yards just south of the Javits Convention Center. It was a bad idea for New York City and for the West Side. Because it was just a stadium, it would have sat unused most of the year. So it would have brought no new tax revenue to the city. We were simply moving the stadium from the Bronx to Manhattan, leaving a big gap in the Bronx economy. As a result, government would not recoup its investment. There was never any effort to develop a comprehensive plan that would transform the area around the Javits Center, which was clearly in need of redevelopment, and no plans to introduce mass transit, which was essential to make the area attractive to redevelopment. The current proposal for the far West Side is entirely different in every way. On this same site, the New York Jets want to build the New York Sports and Convention Center. This 75,000-seat stadium, with a retractable roof and movable seating, will also operate as a 200,000- square-foot exhibition hall with 30,000 square feet of meeting space, or a plenary hall seating up to 40,000 people. The city and state will pay for the platform on which the stadium is built and the retractable roof. The Jets will not only pay for the entire stadium building without government subsidy, which is truly remarkable, but will also cover any cost overruns, which is unprecedented protection for taxpayers. These plans more than respond to all of the concerns we raised six years ago about moving Yankee Stadium to the same site. The benefits to city taxpayers of this plan will be considerable, with the income taxes on players' salaries and the sales taxes on fans' spending moving into New York City, back from New Jersey. And when the building is not being used for Jets football, it will provide much-needed exhibition space to attract more conventions and events to our city, producing enormous economic benefits and significant additional tax revenues. By any objective measure, the New York Sports and Convention Center is a good investment for New York City. In 1999, the Citizens Budget Commission said that a West Side sports facility would be a good investment if it generated a 10-percent return above the annual debt service. Every study I've seen shows that the proposed Jets facility will generate revenue for the city and state far in excess of that benchmark, indeed probably an additional $20-$30 million annually that can go to education, public safety or health care. This is what investing in economic development is all about. Contrary to the totally misleading ads of some opponents, this plan will generate funds for public use, not divert taxpayer monies. The New York Sports and Convention Center is part of a broad development plan that brings mass transit to the area for the first time with the extension of the No. 7 subway and adds more than 20 acres of parks and open space, as well as exciting waterfront connections. A bold and long-needed rezoning plan will stimulate new private investment so that over the next several decades, this now stagnant area will become a thriving 24-hour community with a mix of commercial, residential, entertainment and cultural uses. Critical to this entire plan is the unprecedented $800-million investment by the Jets that will transform these rail yards that otherwise would sit dormant and unattractive for decades, blocking any real progress in the area. No wonder the Real Estate Board of New York has termed the New York Sports and Convention Center an asset to the plans for the far West Side. It should be clear that the only similarity between the old proposal to build the Yankees a stadium and the new plan for the Jets' facility with convention use on this same site is that a professional sports team is involved. There the similarities end, especially when you consider the huge difference between 81 home baseball games and only eight for football. And even though healthy sports are great for the spirit and vigor of our town, the sports aspect is obviously far less important to the city economically than the tremendous financial benefits from its use as a convention center. The New York Sports and Convention Center is a good use of public money. It will leverage a considerable sum of private investment and generate additional tax revenues to fund other important government purposes. It will strengthen our vital convention and tourism industries and jump start development of Manhattan's far West Side. Let's build it. Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.Newsday: Jets Could Lift West Side