Neil deMause: The Website

When is a park not a park? When it’s a parking lot.

Readers of today’s New York Daily News (the Bronx edition, anyway) saw a lovely 1960s-vintage photo of a park near Yankee Stadium, accompanied by a report that the image had “reignited questions about whether the city is actually replacing all of the recreational parkland taken for the Bombers’ new arena.”… [read more]

The economy is crashing harder than Travis Barker’s plane, so why are some New Yorkers breathing a sigh of relief?

I’d say it was about 15 minutes after Lehman Brothers suffered total existence failure that I got the first instant message: “At least maybe now I’ll be able to afford an apartment.”

This wasn’t just whistling in the economic dark. It’s a sad fact that the “good times” that have now ended were great for Wall Street types and those who service them (high-end restaurateurs, yacht salesmen), but less so for the rest of us…

The issue of how the Yankees are funding their new stadium has exploded all over the newspapers in recent days, thanks in large part to state assemblymember Richard Brodsky issuing a 33-page report criticizing the deal, and U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich holding hearings (at which Brodsky was the main witness - neither the Yanks nor the city showed up) on the subject. With claims and counterclaims flying, I try to get to the bottom of the Brodsky report:

State assemblymember Richard Brodsky was largely silent during the debates over building the Yankees’ new $1.9 billion stadium — as the Yankees and Mayor Bloomberg have been quick to point out, he even voted for the project when it came up in the legislature. But with Yankee Stadium’s days dwindling, he’s been making up for lost time.

With Brodsky in D.C. today for his star turn before Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s subcommittee investigating the Yankees’ stadium deal (streaming video here), it’s a good time to examine some of the questions raised by the 33-page report on the House That George Built that Brodsky let drop on Tuesday…[read more]

You won’t find it in the paper (they ran out of trees), but it’s officially a Village Voice article, not a Village Voice blog item: My review, in advance of the final games for Yankee and Shea Stadiums, of other ballparks’ final days, and how they’ve changed over the years from poorly attended loot-fests to extravaganzas of nostalgia marketing:

If you’re hoping to attend the sold-out-since-the-Truman-administration final games at Yankee Stadium (this Sunday) or Shea Stadium (the Sunday after), you’d better be independently wealthy. At last check, final-game tickets for sale on StubHub started at $125 for the Mets and $250 for the Yanks. And that Yankees price is for a seat in the left-field bleachers—one enterprising speculator was seeking a mere $16,000 and change for each of four front-row Bronx ducats.

It was not always thus for stadium swan songs…

Two brushes with media greatness for me today:

• I’m quoted in today’s New York Times, on page B5, in an article on the luxury suite that New York City officials are getting for their own use at the new Yankees stadium. The article is online here, but for some reason the section I’m quoted in doesn’t appear online; for those not in reach of a New York newsstand, my deathless words are: “Is [city council speaker] Chris Quinn going to be able to hand out tickets to people who vote the way she likes?”
• ESPN’s “E:60″ is scheduled to run a segment tonight (7 pm Eastern) about the Yanks’ stadium controversy, for which I was interviewed. If I end up on the cutting-room floor for that one as well, I’ll, um, post a YouTube clip of me talking about stadiums or something.

UPDATE: I was indeed cut from the “E:60″ segment. I’ll get working on my lip-syncing to Rick Astley.

New York is looking to take advantage of new federal welfare regulations to expand access to education and training. But will it be tripped up by budget woes and bureaucratic foot-dragging?

New federal rules are opening the door for New York state to allow more residents who receive public assistance to obtain education and training, the state’s welfare chief said last week.

Yet the state’s uncertain budget climate and questions about implementation mean the fate of such reforms are uncertain, Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance Commissioner David Hansell told a group of welfare advocates – many of whom have long held that better integrating education into public assistance would help people get off welfare… [read more]

I’ve written about the scene at the Project FAIR help desk for welfare recipients before; today I tell the stories of two women I met last week that exemplify how trying to jump through welfare’s nonsensical hoops can be a full-time job:

If you’ve ever been tempted to think of welfare recipients as lazy, it’s worth a visit to the “fair hearing” site in Brooklyn, where people who get public benefits — whether welfare, food stamps, disability or Medicaid — can go when they have a problem with the system.

Take Crystal Maurin, who was informed earlier this year that she’d failed to show she was doing the 35 hours a week of “work activities” the city now requires. (That she was fully employed at the time as a child-care worker for the city itself — leaving her own 2-year-old with friends while doing so — apparently wasn’t proof enough.)… [read more]

Rumors are afoot that Coney Island’s Astroland may be saved after all. Are they for real?

It seems you can’t keep a good amusement park down: Thursday night, after three days of rumors that the city was hoping to save Astroland from the scrap heap, Save Coney Island’s Tricia Vita sent out an emergency missive to supporters announcing an “urgent last ditch effort to save Coney Island and Astroland for another year,” and including the email addresses of Mayor Bloomberg, Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and Coney Island councilmember Domenic Recchia… [read more]

My glass-half-full speculation, it turned out, came to naught: Astroland, the cherished Coney Island amusement park, closed its doors last night for the last time. And before anyone asks: No, the Wonder Wheel (owned by neighboring Deno’s) and Cyclone (owned by the city, operated by Astroland owner Carol Hill Albert) are not going anywhere. (You’d be surprised how many people, even professional journalists, ask that.)

My report, with pictures:

Last year as Astroland’s summer season came to an end, supporters of the fabled Coney Island amusement park rallied outside the gates to demand that it remain open. This year, not so much: When the gates went up for Astroland’s final day yesterday morning, there was just a small crowd of families and curiosity seekers, who quickly fanned out with their cameras and ride tickets in hand.

The mood was very different this year, and for good reason. As park owner Carol Hill Albert announced on Thursday, the 46-year-old amusement park, which opened on the site of the old Feltman’s beer garden back when the Parachute Jump was still in working order, has run out of lives. Next year, in all likelihood, the space between the Cyclone and the Wonder Wheel will be an empty lot… [read more]

This Thursday is September 11, and Major League Baseball is marking the day by dressing up its players in “patriotic” uniforms:

This Thursday, all Major League Baseball teams will take the field wearing specially designed “Stars and Stripes” caps, part of the league’s Welcome Back Veterans initiative. (Barring rainouts, the Yankees and Mets won’t take part, as they’re off that day.) Following the games, the caps will be auctioned to raise money for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

There’s nothing wrong with helping veterans — no matter how you feel about America’s current wars, those returning from battle are in undeniable need of help — but doing so on September 11 turns a simple charity event into a troubling political statement… [read more]