Maybe We Can Call It Third Term Park

The Great Economic Engine of Willets Point seems more like an idealistic pet project, but oh well, what does this guy care anyway — by the time it’s really humming along (and hopefully not just with the roar of engines from planes in and out of LaGuardia) he’ll be long gone (in Bermuda, perhaps?):

Under Mr. Bloomberg’s proposed budget, the city would need to reduce its workforce by more than 10,000 jobs; teachers would be fired; firehouses would be shuttered — the kind of things people really don’t like, and the kinds of things that draw noisy protests to the steps of City Hall.

What also stood out were the things that did not get cut. . . .

. . .

But the administration’s approach also has some serious drawbacks, most pointedly with the timing — this year’s capital budget, at about $10 billion, is the highest ever, just as the city’s finances are the worst they have been in years. Since capital spending is generally borrowed, directing money to these projects will increase the city’s hefty debt load, and mean higher debt service for years.

. . .

But with the city, it’s significant that for the largest projects — Coney Island and Willets Point — much of the money currently budgeted is for acquisitions, buying up property that the city doesn’t even own.

Given that the money goes into the pockets of a few landlords and businesses, it’s not stimulating much immediate economic activity. Instead, the city is relying on the hope that the projects will be carried out, eventually.