Corruption - New York City style

This one is rather tasty. Turns out New York City officials were pretty much holding the Yankees to ransom during the building of the spanking new gazillion dollar stadium. The New York Times is reporting that the city is giving up a 'perk' luxury suite, for cash, after a public outcry upon the revelation of the deal.

''The city’s acquisition of the Yankees suite had drawn scrutiny, especially after e-mail messages surfaced in November showing that aides to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had zealously pursued the luxury box, as well as free food and access to post-season games.''


So, while many companies in New York go bust, while thousands lose their jobs and homes, the mayor of New York was 'zealoously' persuing a luxury box, and all the free food his fat, greedy stomach could eat. Beautiful. Baseball, the peoples game indeed.

This part of the story is particularly damning;

''The e-mail messages revealed that after the Yankees made concessions over the size of the suite and the food, the team received an additional 250 parking spaces, as well as the rights to three new billboards along the Major Deegan Expressway and whatever revenue they generate.''


Breaking that down like a fraction, it wasn't until the Yankees guaranteed the Mayor and his party posse would get a whopper of a suite with all the food they could stuff down their greedy throats that the Yankees were given the parking spaces they would need to run a functioning stadium.

For those of you who subscribe to the theory that the USA is becoming more and more like ancient Rome on a daily basis, the image of the Mayor of New York sitting in regal conditions in his ultra modern executive box watching the gladiators/baseball players below would lend substance to that theory. Imagine him hosting his first party in the luxury box, and turning to his party posse and joking 'Are you not entertained?! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!'

The whole affair is pretty disgusting.



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