Looks like more of the same went on at yesterday's City Council hearing regarding the potential development of the Kingsbridge Armory... As expected, the Bronx delegation of the Council stuck to their guns on demanding that a living wage be guaranteed for any employment possibilities there, and Related Companies stressed the fact that in the borough with the highest unemployment numbers in the state, the important thing should be to establish jobs
period.
Here's some nice
NY1 coverage of what went down at yesterday's hearing. So are we to assume that the possibility of bringing a supermarket into the Armory is dead at this point? Anyone at the hearing yesterday care to share if the topic even came up at all?
Anyhoo, y'all know how we feel about this issue...we've detailed it
here,
here,
here, and
here. (Yes, we're quite opinionated round here.)
We just wanted to give a big kudos to Jarrett Murphy of City Limits for crafting perhaps the most significant (and refreshingly neutral) piece regarding the possible development of the Armory. Click
here to check it out. Take a look at it when you have time - Mr. Murphy explores every nook and cranny of this deal that many others have overlooked. It's really the granddaddy of Armory coverage thus far. Here's one little piece we've pulled out to share with you that we hadn't seen before:
Under a plan tentatively approved by the city's Industrial Development Agency (IDA) earlier this year, Related would pay $5 million to purchase the Armory; seven years ago, the city spent at least $25 million to repair the building. Related would also receive $17 million in city, state and federal tax incentives for the project. An analysis by the IDA says the project will generate a net benefit of $85 million in tax revenue to the city over the next 30 years. [City Limits]
The fact that Related would be getting the Armory at such a bargain has been much ballyhooed by many Bronx residents and pols. But with $85 million in tax revenue coming into the city over the next 30 years, it would seem that the City's grand plan isn't so crazy after all: spend money to make money.
Well, that's all we'll write for now...I'm off to make my weekly trip up the Deegan for some reasonably priced, fresh groceries and a bit of retail shopping ;-) (That's right, I just used a winky emoticon...which officially takes the legitimacy of this blog down yet another notch.)
~ErLu
It seems the latest challenge facing the ecology of the Bronx River is what the Journal News has referred to as a "massive oil-spill cleanup." An explosion at a ConEd substation earlier this month has led to a "light, clear oil similar to mineral oil" being leaked into the river. Click here to view the Journal News' piece.
