This Almost Makes You Wish They Just Went After It Via Eminent Domain

They must be trying to play us:

The city bought itself a half-acre of land at Willets Point for $3.5 million – snapping up three parcels in Queens’ redeveloping “Iron Triangle” at nearly 10 times their assessed value.

The financials of the Oct. 2 deal with real-estate company BRD Corp. provide the first glimpse into the cost of clearing the 62-acre complex to make way for a multibillion-dollar residential and commercial development.

. . .

The BRD deal was “pretty good” for the seller, said Steve Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, noting that the price of $161 per square foot exceeded the $100 to $150 average in the outer boroughs.

According to a spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg, the city has $409 million in the capital budget over five years for Willets Point property acquisition, business relocation and infrastructure improvements.

$80-some-odd million a year for contaminated land in the flightpath of LaGuardia makes $16 million for plastic bags look like an absurd drop in the bucket . . .

Location Scout: Iron Triangle.

Renaming Infrastructure Is Not Cheap

A lot of plastic bags, in fact:

New York State will have to spend $4 million to replace road signs changing the name of the Triborough Bridge to the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, a spokesman for the State Department of Transportation said on Thursday.

The spokesman, Adam Levine, acknowledged that the state is in a financial crisis and he said the money would not be spent right away.

He said that it will take time to survey the existing signs and design new ones, and that a contract for the news signs is not expected to be put out for bids until 2011.

“If the fiscal climate does not improve by 2011 the law does give us some flexibility so we will be able to perhaps make some adjustments to the schedule,” Mr. Levine said.

The are 139 signs that must be replaced, he said, on roadways in Manhattan, The Bronx and Queens leading up to the bridge.

In addition, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Transportation said it will spend $100,000 over the next six months to replace 12 large overhead road signs and 40 smaller signs. The reason the cost to the state is so much greater appeared to be because it must replace a larger number of the more costly overhead signs.

Location Scout: Triborough Bridge.

$16 Million Represents 3.5 Percent Of The Infrastructure Improvements The City Implemented In Connection With The Two New Baseball Stadiums*

Will the Department of Sanitation start picking up my trash if I put it in brown paper bags? Because those plastic ones come in handy, you know:

Call it a mixed bag.

Mayor Bloomberg has proposed slapping shoppers with a 5-cent surcharge for each plastic bag they get at stores — a move that left consumers sharply divided yesterday.

“Ugh, they’re going to start taxing everything now,” moaned Dora Capers, 47, of Brooklyn.

In a move intended to help the environment and the Big Apple as it faces a $4 billion deficit over the next two years, Bloomberg has recommended that the city impose a nickel surcharge for plastic bags.

Although the details of the plan are still being worked out, the surcharge could rake in upwards of $16 million — money that the Sanitation Department could use to offset the cost of collecting and disposing of plastic bags currently not recycled.

The plan — which may need approval from the state Legislature if it’s determined to be a tax — may include charging shoppers 6 cents, with a penny going to stores as incentive for collecting the new tax.

*Which is to say, you can push through a lot of unpopular ideas under the guise of finanical hardship.

Damn, Damn Yankees . . .

So not only did the Yankees use their planning money to lobby the city but they went ahead and deducted more than allowed from that $5 million credit so that now the city has to go after the team for what is, in effect, “back rent”:

The Yankees have agreed to fork over $11 million to the city in back rent — money the team probably would have preferred to spend on an ace starting pitcher for next season.

The team underpaid the city the equivalent of Mike Mussina’s salary between 2003 and 2006, according to an audit by City Comptroller William Thompson.

Under the team’s rental agreement, the Yankees pay the city a percentage of all revenue from tickets, parking and cable television, officials said.

During that three-year period, the team took in more than $1 billion and paid the city $17 million.

But according to the audit, the Yankees improperly deducted costs above and beyond the $5 million permitted for planning for the new stadium.

More than $9 million was improperly deducted for stadium planning in 2006.

The team also low-balled its gross revenue during the three years, costing the city another $2 million, the audit states.

Just What We Need — For The Bronx To Look Even More Like Seattle

It actually looks more like a cross between Terrace on the Park and a corkscrew:

Motorists, bike riders, and pedestrians may someday see a tall structure not unlike the Seattle Space Needle rising up from near the Willis Avenue Bridge, welcoming outsiders and residents to the new and exciting Bronx.

In a press conference held in Riverdale on Wednesday, October 22, Assemblyman Jose Rivera and the New York District Council of Carpenters were on hand to endorse the Yes the Bronx campaign to build a 176-foot tower with event space for 500 people and observation deck at the top. The construction cost is estimated at $25 million.

While the exact location for the Yes the Bronx Observation Tower has yet to be determined, and the fund raising for the project has only just begun, the builders expect the tower to rise somewhere east of the Willis Avenue Bridge.

“For people coming from the Tri-borough Bridge, this will be an instant symbol of the Bronx,” said Kevin Kennon, the architect for the project. “I always saw the Bronx as a vibrant community, so if we can take that community spirit and lift it up into the air, it would literally be keeping the community up.”

The building is to be entirely constructed of recycled materials that have their origins in the Bronx, making it a true Bronx structure. The tower will be about 20 stories tall, and feature a 80′ by 80′ observation deck where locals can enjoy the view of the Bronx, Manhattan, and beyond.