Yanks Get New Garages After All

If Yankees fans were paying as much as $150 for parking in the team's brief post-season, why wouldn't they shell out $25 ($29.60 with tax) for a regular game? That's the amount they can expect to pay after the Industrial Development Agency, a mayorally controlled board, unanimously approved $225 million in tax-exempt bonds Tuesday.

Some of the non-mayoral appointees had schimpfed about the lack of details in the plan a month ago. What changed? Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, who had earlier complained publicly how he was not getting any respect from the agency, said in a statement that he had received a “thorough and informative presentation by the New York City Parks Department, the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the project team.” His representative, Rafael Salaberrios, walked in just after the vote but only because his train was late and he had his vote recorded affirmatively, according to a spokesman.

The lease—which will say just how much (or little) the city is going to make from letting a private operator build and run garages on its land—is still not complete, however, nor is the feasibility analysis, which will show just how well these garages will do financially and if they will be able to sustain themselves.

“It has redefined putting the cart before the horse,” said Bettina Damiani, project director of Good Jobs New York and a critic of the deal. “Details of the lease and feasibility of the project should always come first. It is more than disappointing to say that the board pretty much waved this through today without any serious debate.”