One thing I am more convinced of than ever since my return from Wrigley Field is that 126th street and east needs to be redeveloped. At Shea and now Citi there has never been anywhere to hang out before or after a game. I would imagine a mixed use neightborhood – some neo-brownstones (with a quick express ride on the 7 to jobs in Manhattan), some hotels (there’s this airport nearby, you may have noticed the planes) and some bars and restaurants would go along way to making the Citi experience even better.
Here’s beautiful 126th street as it stands today (well as it stood a month ago). Need a tire changed or a replacement window? You’re in good hands!
Here’s another view. Right across from the bullpen gate. At least the place in the middle has chosen to remember Bill Shea’s legacy.
Here is the bullpen gate. Of all the places you might enter the stadium, this is the least likely. Therefore, it is where the Mets honor the history of the Mets by displaying their previous championships.
Ironically, 50 years from now the Brooklyn Marlins will honor the Mets with a giant rotunda. (The Mets have previously announced their intentions to move to Mercury don’t forget. Mercury, Nevada is an hour away from Vegas, and although currently a nuclear test site, I could see the Mets getting a favorable development deal similar to the one in Port St. Lucie)
Here’s what the neighborhood looks like by Wrigley.
Not a place to get a tire fixed.
You tell me which you’d prefer.
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A couple things:
1) "Redevelopment" is usually NewSpeak for putting hard-working business people out of business. I'm not a big fan of using eminent domain for commercial development. NYC already has some big issues with projects strong-arming people out of their businesses (see Columbia's Manhattanville, NY Times' spiffy, pointless new offie building and the big fight over Atlanti Yards). No point in compounding what is already a problem for the City. If someone works out a fair, non-coerced deal with the auto shops and machine shops, then I guess it's okay.
2) Those auto shops and machine shops need to be somewhere. It doesn't make sense to tow everything out to Nassau County or NJ.
At the end of May they announced that the City increased their Iron Triangle land ownership to 65%. The biggest holdup, currently, is the economic climate. Developers would have a hard time today making a go of the huge project that's planned. If they could even get financing.
The New York City Economic Development Corp. has more information than you want to know about this project online. There are plans for residential and office space. A hotel and a convention center. Retail shopping and restaurants. Not every detail has been worked out yet but there's no rush. Give it another 5 years or so.
My 2 cents: Cleaning up the soil contamination will cost the city far more than the $1.3 billion it expects to gain from the project. No developer, however, will agree to get involved unless their own profit is guaranteed (looking at the Wilpons, Bloomberg and their pals here). The soil cleanup will be a nightmare for a decade.
My other 2 cents: Who, in their right mind, would want to live in housing directly under the LGA flight path? Imagine LIVING at Shea Stadium with the noise from the jets?
Sorry if I sound so pessimistic all the time. But hey, I'm Mr. Met and I've seen plenty of disasters up close and personal over the years.
FWIW that neighborhood near Wrigley DOES look like a place where you could get a tire fixed.