You Gotta Believe!

Hooray for the Mets!
The Queens-based ball club is going to get a new stadium and they didn’t try to hold the city hostage to build it for them. They are going to spend their own money, $632 million in tax-exempt and taxable bonds. Hooray for the Mets!
The only misstep the Mets front office made so far was that the tax-exempt bonds require City Council approval.
Did you hear that noise?
It was the floodgates opening for the “community-based” demands from a handful of Councilmembers, “The Queens City Council delegation.” Among the pricey demands they presented to the Mets brass were $1 million a year for youth sports (little leagues), and 20 thousand free tickets a year to games for Queens non-profit organizations, senior citizens, youth groups and schools. The demands also stipulate that 25% of construction contracts go to Queens firms, half of which must be minority-owned or owned by women. They also want the Mets to build a recreation center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and beautify the surrounding area. The flood continues: 25% of all permanent jobs at the new stadium, no longer to be called Shea, must go to Queens residents. In addition, the Mets must provide annual networking seminars for Queens non-profits too.
Whew!
The extortion session, oops, make that meeting, between the City Council thugs, oops, make that delegation, and the Mets lasted only six-and-a-half hours.
All these high-priced demands of a team that has not asked for a blade of grass or one square foot of city-owned parkland for their project, unlike the American Leaguers to the north. The Yankees, who are getting a new stadium too, after various threats by Boss George Steinbrenner to leave the Bronx, will be using 22 acres of public parkland for their new digs. The Mets are building in their own parking lot!
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has publicly blasted the ransom, yes ransom, being asked of the National Leaguers. “Every development project in this city is not just going to be a horn of plenty for everybody else that wants to grab something,” he said. “I don’t think anybody should think from now on, anytime any development comes here, it’s just, line up, and demand to get some ransom,” he added.
How about a big Bronx cheer for all the greedy, self-aggrandizing City Council members who are trying to extort millions from the Mets in exchange for approving those tax-exempt bonds.
You gotta believe in the Mets.
We say support the Mets; they have been good neighbors in Queens since they were born and have given back to the communities of Queens and the entire city tirelessly and generously.