The City is looking to unilaterally change its Yankee Stadium Plan "Community Benefits Agreement" to allow parking in the Stadium Garages year round. According to the original deal, the garages were to only be open on game days - 81 days a year. Community activists generally opposed the garages because children in that area of the Bronx already has some of the highest rates of asthma in the country; and government watch dogs opposed the plan because the city and state are financing the garages. To temper community concerns, the plan calls for the garages to be closed when the Yankees are not playing. Now, according to a report in the NY Observer, "The city’s Industrial Development Agency is hoping, though, that the future operator of the proposed Yankee Stadium garages will be able to make enough money from shoppers and commuters on non-game days to break even... 'With recent and ongoing South Bronx developments, such as the development of the Bronx Terminal Market and the new Metro North Station, we expect there to be strong demand for parking on non-game days, which certainly help the financial viability of the project,' a spokeswoman e-mailed The Observer." This news came to light Friday after a hubbaloo developed earlier this month over escalating public financing costs for the garages. Not surprisingly Save Our Parks, the group that has kept a spot light on the Yankee Stadium Sweetheart deal, has called this a Bait And Switch.

The city has had a hard time finding a group to take on building and operating the garages, even though the winning builder is now slated to receive $225 Million in tax free financing... up from an original $190 Million (for parking garages, when the city is supposedly trying to reduce car use! Recall this is a Michael Bloomberg plan with strong backing from City Council Leader Christine Quinn and Bronx Borough President Adolpho Carrion).

Year Round Garages Plus Congestion Pricing Could Turn West Bronx Into A Park-N-Ride Stop

The news is even more distressing for West Bronx families and Congestion Pricing supporters because opening the garages year round could turn this part of the Bronx into a Park-N-Ride hub. The garages will hold at least 9179 cars. And with it's proximity to major south bound highways and a new MetroNorth stop, Westchester and Connecticut commuters could find it very convenient to drop into high-security new parking garages and then take MetroNorth only 2 stops into the heart of Manhattan - easily by passing all the "other elements" of the Bronx.

Be Weary of Community Benefits Deals

This news reinforces that, as we have seen with the terms of the Atlantic Yards plan, Community Benefit deals are not as iron clad as Bertha Lewis would have us believe.