A hearing Thursday before the Industrial Development Agency, an arm of city government, drew a limited but earnest response from watchdog groups and community organizations, asserting that the more parking spaces you build, the more people will drive. They argued that instead of using public funds to encourage driving, the money should be put toward a proposed Metro-North station that reportedly needs another $35 million to come into being.

The I.D.A. will vote on whether to authorize $190 million in tax-exempt bonds for the project in May or June, according to a spokeswoman. The agency's analysis shows that the city will spend $20 million to reconstruct parkland on top of the garages and will lose another $2 million in forgone taxes on the bonds, which will be tax-free.

Eventually, the city will make more than double its money back through new taxes, lease payments and shared revenues, though it will do so over a 43-year period, the I.D.A. said; it would not release the assumptions for the revenue numbers.

Officials pointed to the final environmental impact statement as justification for the project, which states that the garages would reduce "excessive traffic circulation pre-game by motorists circulating on the local streets in search of hard-to-find parking spaces," and would "eliminate illegal parking on local streets."

Critics disputed the notion. "Fans park on neighborhood streets to avoid paying the expensive parking fees, which are projected to rise to $25 a game when the new stadium is completed," Bettina Damiani, the project director of watchdog group Good Jobs New York, said.

Ms. Damiani said that the reason why tax-exempt bonds, which have lower interest rates, were being used for the garages was because "the free market decided the garages were not worth building."

A spokeswoman for the Economic Development Corporation, which solicited bids for the garages said there were "multiple qualified bidders," but would not say how many there were.

The impact statement counted 355 cars in illegal spaces on a typical game night, meaning that the new parking facilities would provide eight times as many spaces to ensure that people would follow the law. The statement predicts that the new and expanded parking lots and garages would overbuild to such an extent that they would siphon off 808 cars from existing stadium parking facilities every game night, leaving some of the privately-operated old ones as little as 60 to 80 percent full.

The winning bidder, the Bronx Community Initiatives Development Corporation, is a nonprofit which exists, according to its mission statement, "to lessen the burdens of local governments to service the needs of their residents." Awarding the contract to a nonprofit rather than to a for-profit company enables the use of tax-free bonds, which lower the cost of the project by lowering the interest rate.

But municipalities can build garages with tax-exempt bonds also. Joseph Seymour, the former Port Authority executive director who is BCIDC senior vice president, explained the benefit of having a non-profit do it this way: "It doesn't go on their consolidated debt."

So why are the Yankees and the city--which included the new garages in the agreement for the new stadium--insisting on new garages, especially when the city will have to temporarily occupy current parkland in order to do so?

Convenience. The new garages will be right across the street from the new ballpark, while the old ones are farther away. It's apparently worth $25 for the ticket-holder, and $22 million for the city, to not have to walk three or four blocks after a game.

- Matthew Schuerman

Not so--on the cracking down part. (The bribe part is still up for interpretation.) The request for proposals that the city's Economic Development Corporation put out yesterday for the 575,000-square-foot Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx (which will likely become some sort of retail and entertainment complex) mimics provisions that appeared in the C.B.A.'s for the Atlantic Yards and Bronx Terminal Market projects, and carries the added weight of coming from an authority--the city--that could really crack down if pledges are violated.

The winner of the bake-off must, for example, participate in the "Buy Bronx" program, should take pains to recruit local employees for construction work, and better prod their tenants to hire neighborhood residents as well. The agency is also giving preference to plans with a lot of $10 an-hour-or-more jobs.

"I keep hearing that the Mayor is going to come out against C.B.A.'s, but by the time we get rid of C.B.A.'s, we will have made them official," said land-use attorney Jesse Masyr, who largely wrote the Bronx Terminal Market C.B.A. while representing The Related Companies. "The good thing is that we may have taken the money out of them, which will make everybody more comfortable."

Bettina Damiani, project director for Good Jobs New York, painted the city's selection criteria as a step forward, though she noted that C.B.A.'s are supposed to be contracts between developers and community groups, rather than with the city. (Commuinty groups did, however, sit on the task force that came up with the request for proposals.)

"This is a good example of how development should happen in the city," she said."There is a better chance of New Yorkers benefitting from development and that's positive."

-Matthew Schuerman

"Despite the hearing notice (in six point font in the New York Post's classified) some Politicker readers may not know there's a public hearing for the proposed subsidy to Goldman Sachs for its new headquarters in Battery Park City.

"Yes, yes, the Mayor, the Governor and the Assembly Speaker announced the deal's been approved. But, don't be fooled! There has to be a hearing, which is scheduled for next Wednesday. Sadly, the law doesn't require the State to release any documents on the deal before the deal. "

Because, if Goldman Sachs doesn't need a billion and a half dollars in public money, who does?

Details on the deal here.

The low-interest bonds are meant to encourage building downtown; there will be some criticism of Goldman Sachs' deal to get these incentives, according to Bettina Damiani of the watchdog group Good Jobs, New York.

City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. gave his imprimatur to the Goldman Sachs deal yesterday. But his statement suggests there may be additional goodies beyond the ones already mentioned in press reports. To wit:

"While I have concerns regarding a provision granting Goldman Sachs an opportunity to obtain even better benefits down the road, I support the proposed agreement and Goldman Sachs' commitment to retain 8,100 jobs in lower Manhattan."

We're waiting for more details. And for a vote by the Battery Park City Authority to approve the lease, which is the last piece needed before a really big and happy press conference.

As we reported yesterday, one element of the hold-up in finalizing the deal with Goldman is the negotiation over penalty fees to be paid to Goldman by the city and state if a satisfactory, comprehensive program for ensuring security at the new World Trade Center site isn't put into place.

- Matthew Schuerman and Tom McGeveran