Grandiose and Totally Meaningless

The Village Voice tries to digest the Queens Olympic Stadium hail mary effort:

. . . [I]t’s been quite a week for turnabouts in general. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who just last week was insisting that a Queens stadium was unworkable because there was no way to pay for it, now enthuses that it would be “one of the most wonderful things, I think, that would ever happen to Queens.” Mets owner Fred Wilpon, who had insisted on going halfsies with the public on any new stadium, now says he’ll pay construction costs out of his own pocket. . . .

How much of this is real, and how much is political posturing to convince the International Olympic Committee not to laugh off New York’s bid for the 2012 Summer Games when it meets in Singapore next month? Probably a fair bit of each.

But isn’t there a third, more devious reason? Namely, if New York’s chances for snagging the Olympics are slim to none, it’s the perfect opportunity to make empty gestures all around. It’s the equivalent of garbage time in the waning minutes of a blowout — let the scrubs get some playing time!

Knowing that the city’s bid amounts to nothing offers the Mayor the chance to dazzle Queens residents with grandiose plans to turn Willets Point into a destination. Knowing there’s no chance the Olympics will happen allows Fred Wilpon to make generous — and meaningless! — gestures to pay all the costs for a stadium. Smart, that.