Freedom Rider: Banks, Baseball and Corporate Welfare
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret
Kimberley
"The high and mighty get the red carpet
treatment when they stick their hands in the public treasury."
There used to be an old adage, "What's good for General
Motors is good for
America." That once mighty corporation is now on life
support, but the ideology behind the saying remains. What is good for corporate
interests is supposed to be good for everyone else.
American cities and states vie with one another to see who
can give the biggest subsidies to big box stores, sports teams, or investment
banks. While the poor and working class who ask for help are stigmatized as
parasites, the high and mighty get the red carpet treatment when they stick their
hands in the public treasury.
The New York Yankees and the New York Mets are both in the
process of building new stadiums, subsidized by the taxpayers, and with the
seal of approval from politicians. Housing, small businesses and public park
land will be reduced or eliminated to line the pockets of already wealthy
corporations.
The Yankees stole parks from the people of New York City
with the connivance of current and former politicians now turned lobbyists. The
local community board and City Council member voted against the Yankees land
grab but the opposition was out spent and out muscled. Community wishes were
seen only as nuisances that had to be eliminated.
"Goldman Sachs received tax breaks and subsidies totaling
$1.65 billion in bonds and $140 million in tax breaks and cash."
While sports teams on one side of the Hudson river stole
from the public piggy bank, Goldman Sachs has perfected the art of stealing
from both New York and New Jersey. Jersey City recently gave the investment
bank $4 million in annual tax breaks to build an office tower. In 2004 Goldman
Sachs built another 42-story building in Jersey City with the help of $160
million in tax breaks. Meanwhile back in New York City, Goldman received tax breaks
and subsidies totaling $1.65 billion in bonds and $140 million in tax
breaks and cash, and a $9 million reduction in payments in lieu of taxes.
To their great credit, the Jersey City branch of the NAACP
and local religious leaders strenuously objected to the deal. Goldman Sachs had
previously promised, and failed, to guarantee 51% of jobs to Jersey City
residents. While Jersey City gets the shaft, Chicagoans are told that hosting
the Olympics in 2016 will be their ticket to economic heaven. Never mind that every city that has hosted
Olympic games in the last 20 years has been left with debt, white elephant
facilities and displaced citizens.
Black and Latino elected officials are just as eager as
their white counterparts to cede corporate control of their cities. Only 2
members of the 51-member New York City Council voted against the Yankee give
away. Community residents, who were nearly unanimous in their opposition to the
project, were supposed to be mollified with free tickets and new parking
spaces. The relocation of prime public parks to the roofs of parking garages
was supposed to be a reason for celebration, not an insult to the community's
collective intelligence.
Community benefit agreements and memoranda of understanding
that claim to give contracts to minority contractors are used to silence
dissent and stop inconvenient questions. Bruce Ratner, the real estate
developer and owner of the New Jersey Nets, has used the prospect of a small
number of middle income housing units to get support for moving the team to
Brooklyn. Most black elected officials either embrace the project whole
heartedly or waffle on the fence.
Black elected officials are doing for New York and other
cities what hurricane Katrina
did for New Orleans. While a natural disaster is lamented, the planned
disaster for cities is committed under the guise of beneficial economic
development that will in fact undermine the citizenry it claims to benefit.
Katrina displaced a black population in one fell swoop. Back room real estate
deals, corporate welfare and sports stadiums accomplish the same result over a
longer period of time.
"Black elected officials are doing for New York and other
cities what hurricane Katrina did for New Orleans."
The impotence of the black community is evident for all to
see. Politicians can ignore
the community's will with impunity. Black voters
can't raise the campaign cash that might make their useless officials
vulnerable to defeat. Real estate developers and sport team front offices can,
and the prospect of fat campaign war chests makes them the true bosses.
At least Yankee fans will be able to call their team's new
home by the same name. Met fans have suffered the indignity of paying more
money for fewer seats and losing their stadium name too. Shea stadium will be
the answer to future trivia questions. Citi Field will be the result of a
Citibank $400 million payment for naming rights. But Met fans have given
themselves the last laugh. They have already begun referring to "shitty"
stadium. Truer words were never spoken.
Margaret Kimberley's
Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York
City, and can be reached via e-Mail at
Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com. Ms. Kimberley' maintains an
edifying and frequently updated blog at freedomrider.blogspot.com. More of her
work is also available at her Black Agenda Report archive
page.
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