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

Try $80 million instead.

All of which, Real Estate Weekly reports in its March 21 issue (available in print only), led Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión to look for another way to pay for it. Wait, how about asking the Yankees to pitch in? No, Mr. Carrión has another idea.

He wants to let a developer build "an extensive mixed-use development" on top of the station in return for paying for the station's construction.

Bidder up!

- Matthew Schuerman

[WSJ]

[NY Times]

[NY Times]

[NY Times]

[NY Times]

[NY Times]

[NY Times]

[NY Times]

[NY Times]

[NY Times]

[NY Times]

[NY Times]

[NY Times]

[NY Times]

[NY Times]

[NY Post]

[NY Post]

[NY Post]

[NY Post]

[NY Sun]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

At 9:30 a.m., MTA committee meetings are held on Madison Avenue to discuss the Metro-North Railroad.

At 10:30 a.m., education advocates release a report titled "NYC Middle Grade Schools: Platforms for Success or Pathways to Failure?" on the Tweed Courthouse steps.

Starting at 1:30 p.m., the Public Service Commission holds a public hearing on Oriental Boulevard in Brooklyn about a proposal to acquire KeySpan Corp.

At 2 p.m., Hillary Clinton, Evan Bayh, and John McHugh discuss their trip to Iraq and Afghanistan.

At 5 p.m., Mayor Bloomberg speaks at the opening of Doug Aitken: Sleepwalkers, at the Museum of Modern Art.

Also at 5 p.m., Manhattan's Community Board 1 holds a special executive session before a regular monthly meeting on Beekman Street.

At 7 p.m., Council Speaker Christine Quinn has a "Community Conversation" at NYU Medical Center on First Avenue.

And starting at 7 p.m., NYU School of Law hosts a discussion about domestic spying on West 3rd Street.

-- Azi Paybarah

To the Editor:

Although I have no problem whatsoever with Sara Vilkomerson badmouthing Long Islanders and New Jersey denizens, I do take umbrage with her stereotypical representation of Westchester residents [“Beneath Their Stations,” The Observatory, Nov. 6]. Yes, there are pockets of extreme wealth in Westchester; however, the county overall is middle- and working-class. Income statistics are misleading, since the entire N.Y.C. metro area—New Jersey and Long Island included—skew to the upper extreme. It would be nice if a New York City writer could one day give an accurate portrait of Westchester County. (I might also add that Fairfield County is highly working- and middle-class, too.) If you’d grown up in Westchester or Fairfield, you’d have known about the pattern along the Metro North New Haven line, in which, starting from the Bronx, the towns alternate from working-class to wealthy: Mount Vernon, Pelham, New Rochelle, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Rye, Port Chester, etc.…

Just keep all this in mind next time.

Ben Brofman

Mamaroneck, N.Y.

To the Editor:

Ms. Vilkomerson’s article was entertaining, although slightly exaggerated, and the people she quoted were right on, if not extreme representations from each side. Ms. Vilkomerson did happen to omit the fact that these same Long Island naysayers don’t seem to be complaining about my dreaded little island when they’re soaking up the sun in the Hamptons all summer long and clogging up our train lines. Plus, there are a lot of city folk who love to hate us, yet love to flood our amazing South Shore beaches with their wonderful presences. I just hope Ms. Vilkomerson’s depiction of our dreadful residents and the yahoo company we keep deters others from further junking up my beachfront community.

Matt Scheiner

Long Beach, N.Y.

Eliot Spitzer will campaign with Andrea Stewart-Cousins at the Yonkers Metro North train station.

John Edwards discusses U.S.-China relations at the Asia Society.

AARP holds an election issues forum for Hispanic voters at the James Monroe Senior Center in the Bronx.

Christine Quinn and Council Members visit the Hebrew Home at Riverdale.

A rally protesting rent increases for former homeless people with AIDS living in supportive housing will be held outside of the Governor's New York office.

Latino immigrants protest Hillary Clinton's support for a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border in front of her New York offices.

New York State Public Employees Federation endorses Staten Island Assembly candidate Janele Hyer-Spencer at the South Beach Psychiatric Center.

Queens Latino legislators call for an investigation of disenfranchised voters on the steps of City Hall.

Hillary Clinton addresses the Council on Foreign Relations.

Chuck Schumer joins Steve Harrison, Janele Hyer-Spencer, and State Senate candidate Matthew Titone for a Democratic solidarity press conference near the Verrazano Bridge in Staten Island.

The Suffolk County GOP endorses Christopher Callaghan outside of the New York State Office Building in Hauppauge.

—Nicole Brydson

Silver's Press Secretary Skip Carrier said the Governor's staff will provide one last briefing at 11 a.m. tomorrow in advance of the 2 p.m. meeting of the Public Authorities Control Board.

-Matthew Schuerman

At times, that card did get shown, but no one remembers.

Last June in the Daily News, just before the official unveiling, T.J. Quinn, citing unnamed sources, reported:

Two weeks later, the News reported that the new station, along with the subway improvements, would cost $90 million. (Another archive fee.) Now, Yankee fan Adolfo Carrion is saying the Metro-North station would cost but $30-40 million. Ah, thank goodness for deflation.

-Matthew Schuerman

UPDATE: The Metro-North station was actually part of the Borough President's plan for the area. The final environmental impact statement for the stadium indicates the Mayor supported the idea back in February when it came out :

Charles Barron voted nay; Helen Foster will also oppose it before the full Council but she is not on Land Use.

The community benefits agreement was not, Committee Chairwoman Melinda Katz kept reminding members, the issue on the floor, and yet it had a way of creeping into people's endorsements of the project. After the vote, Maria Baez, the "dean" of the Bronx delegation, told reporters that the agreement had not been signed yet but was complete. Final terms: The Yankees will contribute $1.2 million a year (up from $700,000) for nonprofit organizations and for park maintenance, a certain percentage of which must be in Community Board 4; $1 million a year for four years for a job training and apprenticeship program; and 15,000 game tickets to borough residents.

So who will sign this thing, and when? Baez told us Yankees President Randy Levine and Borough President Adolfo Carrion along with some council members, hopefully before the final vote this afternoon. We'd be surprised: in the past, these C.B.A.'s have avoided having any officials' signatures to make clear they are outside the city's land use process.

Outside, as in, being hashed out outside the City Council chambers and downstairs in the private conference room.

-Matthew Schuerman

Apparently a deadline. Tomorrow the City Council members will vote on the stadium, though, according to the Daily News, they don't need any more reason to say yes.

The M.T.A. board will still have to approve it, though with the Governor and Mayor behind it they probably will. No word on how much it will cost--$5 million for design alone--but it is quite clear who will be paying: not the Yankees, but the transit agency, and the riders and taxpayers who support it.

--Matthew Schuerman