Tear Down Yankee Stadium? Projected Demolition: 16 Months/Spring 2010

Kevin Rozell

Jan 25, 2009

Joyce Hogi, a member of the Community Board 4 parks committee wants the old Yankee Stadium to be torn down. The projected time period for the demolition of the old ballpark is 16 months/spring 2010. They haven’t even chosen a demolition company yet. Hogi points out that the city’s priorities are wrong, in that they are more concerned about the Yankees then the community. She says that nothing has been developed to help out the neighborhood, and that they should tear down the stadium as soon as possible.

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PART I “The primary reason Yankee Stadium has not started demolition is that the new stadium and its offices have just now become available for occupancy.” But if New York school children can learn in trailers when there is a shortage of building space, why couldn’t the Yankees have conducted business in a temporary shelter for a few short months to expedite the demolition process?
PART II “The demolition of Yankee Stadium, with a lot of adjacent construction, utility work and proximity to the elevated subway structure, requires a complicated public procurement process.” But if demolition is so complicated, how has Shea Stadium—not as cramped but similarly flanked by a new stadium and an elevated subway—been largely flattened, piece by piece, since October, with the job expected to be completed next month?
“That’s going take at least two years because the city’s priority is the Yankees, not the neighborhood,” said Joyce Hogi, a member of the Community Board 4 parks committee.
The city and the Yankees say the area will benefit in economic development. Hogi said: “The Yankees have been there for 80 years and what’s been developed? The only thing they are building now is a fortress so the people coming in will never have to step foot in the neighborhood.”
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