EIGHT IS ENOUGH!! PART III

EIGHT REAL REASONS WHY BILL THOMPSON MUST BE ELECTED MAYOR TO SAVE THE SOUL OF NEW YORK AND WHY WE CANNOT AFFORD BLOOMBERG EVER AGAIN

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hopefully, as with the election of Barack Obama for President, New York residents will be savvy enough to see through the sham and scam and vote for the interest of the community: Nothing Bloomberg has done has been in the positive interest of the Black/Hispanic community.

BILL THOMPSON WILL BE MORE INCLUSIVE, COGNIZANT AND ACTIVE IN ENSURING NEW YORKERS ARE MADE WHOLE.

If the New York Democrats in this pivotal race are solidly behind Democrat candidate Bill Thompson, this can be a clear signal that New Yorkers are no longer subjected to schizophrenic support ie, predominantly Democratic in population, under the thumb of Republican elected officials.

THIS IS THE TIME TO STOP THE MADNESS.

And why, in nearly 2010 is the World Trade Center is still a bone of contention? While there has been the recent construction of two baseball stadiums in the Bronx, the World Trade Center continues to twist in the wind of controversial fits and starts. The necessity and success of these stadiums is questionable, as evidenced by the reduction of ticket prices for Citifield to entice crowds to come out to a ball game that most can’t afford to attend.

Paraphrasing Barrett: “The city spent a half-billion on the two stadiums, and used tax-exempt bonds (set aside for projects of great public value, like hospitals,) for a total of $1.9 billion. They further provided subsidy for the two teams (who claim to have personally invested $1.3 billion). “The evidence that top officials of the Bloomberg administration reversed land assessments for the Yankees deal to artificially jack up the value in order to qualify for the tax-exempt financing.!!

Barratt points out “E-mails like one from a top aide to Deputy Mayor Doctoroff explicitly said they were making the assessment "so high" in an attempt "to support the tax-exempt financing."

Theoretically, Bloomberg has invested $4 billion in new housing, but most of that has been high end, not affordable homes; and primarily concentrated in the Manhattan area. According to Barrett: “But the fact remains that the only major projects built or to be built in the Bloomberg era—the monuments to Mike—are Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, and the soon-to-be-bonded-by-the-city Nets arena in Brooklyn (an arena that Brooklyn citizens do not want). Kind of sounds a little like the term limits issue all over again, doesn’t it, where the will of the people is totally disregarded by Bloomberg. Does anyone see a pattern here?

The threat of Bloomberg “improving” the transit system should strike fear in the hearts of every New Yorker. We have now witnessed two fare increases under his regime. With that in mind, one should shudder under the concept of his having anything to do with the transit system, from standing only cars, to zoned transit fares, to locked platforms: BE AFRAID - BE VERY VERY AFRAID!!!

Watch out for some last minute “lame duck” manuvering if Bloomberg loses this election. And expect even more riding roughshod over New Yorkers if he wins. Either way New Yorkers have to be vigilant. It has been noted that there are plans on the book to “replicate its scandal-ridden history of bonding the Atlantic Yards projects by supporting the issuance of $678 million in state tax-exempt bonds for the Nets. Estimates are that the arena will also cost the city $350 million.

Per Barrett, the late Senator Patrick Moynihan attached an amendment to the IRS code in 1986 to try to bar cities from using tax-exempt bonds to finance stadiums, but the city "found a way to circumvent these strictures" by technically structuring these two privately built and operated stadiums as publicly owned and leased for 99 years. The IRS originally OK'd this arrangement and then reversed itself, prohibiting such maneuvers in the future. Yet the city plans to do the arena precisely the same way,

Bill Thompson the right choice for Mayor of New York City.

Stay Tune For Part 4 'Eight Is Enough'

Stay Blessed and Eclectically Black,

Gloria Dulan-Wilson