South Bronx Develops Into Yankee Stadium Parking Lot

Yesterday’s City Limits article on Yankee Stadium parking contains a link to an interactive Google map, developed by author Mathilde Piard, of the stadium site and its surroundings. Users can click on the shaded areas for descriptions of each parking garage or surface lot, including how many cars it can hold and when it will be used.

Be sure to click on Garage A, formerly known as what was left of Macombs Dam Park, for the $237 million subsidy and free police parking feature.

  • Angus Grieve-Smith

    Be sure to click on Garage A, formerly known as what was left of Macombs Dam Park, for the $237 million subsidy and free police parking feature.

    No, I’m sorry, I can’t; it’s too depressing. What a time of shame for the Bronx.

  • Dave H.

    A tragedy for the Bronx; a time of shame for the City of New York and the New York Yankees, who have shown their utter disregard for the borough.

  • Egad–“Gateway Center” reminds me of the Gateway habitrail setup in Newark that allows people to visit downtown without stepping outdoors. The kind of development that does little or nothing for businesses that don’t pay rent to the owners of the development.

  • Larry Littlefield

    (What a time of shame for the Bronx.)

    Remember, the Bronx political establishment demanded that New York City pay any price to keep the Yankees in the Bronx. And that is what has happened.

    Everyone would have been better off if the Yankees and Mets had shared a stadium with a retractable roof on the West Side or in Long Island City next to the proposed Sunnyside Station. Everyone from everywhere could have gotten there by transit.

    There are few paying Yankee fans in the Bronx, many in New Jersey. A late night ride home to New Jersey from the current site is miserably long and uncertain. (The drive isn’t much better). The Bronx is one of the poorest places in the United States.

    This is the price one pays for symbolism.

  • Mark

    The sight of the map made me physically ill. I wonder how many lives might have been changed for the better, and how many suburban minds would have broadened, if the city had sent a simple message to the Yankees and their fans: If you want to go to a ballgame, learn how to use the transit system.

  • Mickie

    BicyclesOnly- I am curious as to your take on the Gateway Center. What have you seen that you base your comments on? A loaded question obviously, and I suspect you are just thinking off the top of your head and dont know much about the project. In fact there is no indoor “habitrail” no mall, covered atriums, etc. So, you might want to bash away at the project, but educate yourself a little before commenting.
    Now if your arguement is with paying rent- well that is something else.

  • As much as I dislike the new stadium and the shady politics behind it, this map is a bit misleading. Except for the lots west of the Major Deegan and Parking Lot A, all of those lovely squares are parking structures that have been in use at Yankee Stadium for decades.

  • Mickie,

    My comment reflects my experience in Newark, not my knowledge of the Yankee Stadium development. And in fairness, I didn’t profess to have any in my comment, and I didn’t “bash away” at the Yankee Stadium project.

    When I saw a structure on the map located far from the stadium site and separated from it by parking lots, called Gateway, I was concerned that it was some kind of retail or other development intended to be accessed primarily by motorists. There would be an economic logic to that, since all the stadium parking will be sitting there in the off-season. My concern with such a development is that it would exist apart from the community in which it was situated, and primarily serve motorists from elsewhere–the way the Newark Gateway Center does. For example, even though there are a huge number of workers at Newark Gateway, virtually no local restaurants have opened to serve them lunch because everybody eats bad fast food at the national chains that have locations inside the Gateway complex.

  • vnm

    And around and around we go. For a reminder of history, here’s an excerpt from Norval White & Elliot Willensky, AIA Guide to New York City Architecture, 4th Edition (Three Rivers Press, 2000), p. 581:

    “Yankee Stadium, E. 161st St. SW cor. River Ave. (W of the Concourse.) 1923. Osborn Engineering Co. Rebuilt, 1976, Praeger-Kavanagh-Waterbury.

    “Built by brewery magnate Colonel Jacob Ruppert for the team he owned and for its most valuable player, Babe Ruth (the short right field helped him to set his home run record). In the early 1970s someone got the idea that the New York Yankees were the key to the neighborood’s, the Bronx’s, and New York city’s economic salvation, and so the whole stadium — as well as acres of adjacent fallow land — were rebuilt at a cost of some $100 million, a sum upon which the city will probably never stop paying interest. There are fewer columns to obstruct vision and many, many more parking spaces, but the adjacent community seems, if anything, to have increased its rate of decay.”

  • I love the Yankees, but (little hesitant to say), you know you don’t really need two stadiums… 😉

    Yankee Stadium now is bigger than Macombs Dam Park on the map. I’m not saying anything, just throwing that out there…

  • Ace

    From a fan’s perspective there is absolutely nothing wrong with Yankee Stadium in its current configuration. The refurbishment / remodeling in the 70s turned it into a great baseball stadium. The sight lines and raking of the upper deck stands are magnificent. Access to restrooms and refreshments are also good.

  • mattio

    as a local resident… this sucks, and i’m pissed off.

  • vnm

    The raking in the new stadium’s upper decks is a lot shallower, meaning the sense of immediacy, excitement and togetherness you get from the current stadium will be dulled and muted. (Not to mention the fact that it will be dulled and muted because there will be fewer seats despite the increase in parking supply.)

    The encouragement of traffic by providing all those extra parking spaces is indefensible.

    Whether you’re a fan or a neighbor, this entire thing is a complete disaster.

    Except for the Metro-North Station. That’s actually awesome. It’s the only good thing about this.

  • We don’t even need a new Yankee Stadium, this is a complete waste and I blame the Mayor since this was suppose to be part of the 2012 Olympic Plan. The new Shea Stadium is more understandable, you just tear down the stadium that exists, build a high capacity parking lot to get the cars from parking in Flushing Meadows. But in the Bronx, I don’t know what the hell the Yankees were thinking. A new stadium, with less seating, less parkland overall, more parking space and a Metro-North station which I’m sure will only be open on game days probably. Probably . The way I see it, in my mind, if the Bronx wants Macombs back, one stadium, new or old, has got to go.

  • vnm

    I actually think they’re tearing down the old one after the new one is fully operational. Someone help me out here. Isn’t there a plan to replace it with a park-like “Historic Yankee Field” or some such?

  • Andy B from Jersey

    I also heard that they are tearing down the House that Ruth Built. Shame! Shame! I spit on all those involved in these horrid decisions. How could they tear down the or even think about abandoning this most cherished ballpark. The Boss and his over priced, under performing team are nothing more then sell outs. If the Cubs could manage to stay in Wrigley and the Red Sox in Fenway, there are just no excuses. I will now forever hate the Yankees and my undivided loyalty will be with the Mets.

    Plus Berlin was able to wonderfully rehab the 1936 Olympic Stadium for the 21st Century. Now a significant place in world history has been maintained and made functional again. There are simply NO excuses for any of this in the Bronx.

    As for Newark, yes the sky-ways, 20 years later seem to have been a horrible idea but they may have been the only way to maintain the viability of the city at that time. However, the new Prudential Center was purposely built with insufficient parking, forcing people to use NJ TRANSIT and walk on the streets the several blocks to the arena.

    Take that! Don’t mess with this Jersey boy!

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Anybody Interested in Tearing Down a Couple of Yankee Stadium Garages?

By Brad Aaron |
Another attempt to salvage something positive from the Yankee Stadium parking boondoggle is underway. The company that operates the garages, having defaulted on hundreds of millions in triple-tax exempt bonds, has issued a request for proposals for the sublease and redevelopment of two lots. Even back in 2007 and 2008, when the NYC Economic Development Corporation […]

Take Me Out to the Yankees Parking Subsidy Hearing

By Brad Aaron |
As Streetsblog reported back in April, the city is set to subsidize thousands of parking spaces for the new Yankee Stadium by issuing hundreds of millions in tax-exempt bonds for parking deck construction. The Post reported this week that one of the four planned parking structures has been scuttled, but the rest remain on the […]

For Bloomberg, No Lessons Learned From Yankee Parking Subsidies

By Brad Aaron |
If Mayor Bloomberg regrets his administration’s involvement in the Yankee Stadium parking disaster, he’s not letting on. The Bronx Parking Development Company has finally defaulted on $237 million in triple-tax exempt bonds used to finance parking garages for the new stadium, and bondholders are looking for a way to recoup their losses. “There just wasn’t […]

NYCEDC Building a Park(ing Lot) for Downtown Brooklyn

By Noah Kazis |
If you’ve ever wished you could dodge more cars and inhale more exhaust on your way to the park, Downtown Brooklyn’s next green space is for you. It will be built on top of a garage with nearly 700 underground parking spots. Last Thursday, the city’s Economic Development Corporation released a request for proposals to […]

City Approves Subsidized Yankee Stadium Parking

By Brad Aaron |
Yes, the Yankees’ season is over. But on the bright side, this morning the city handed the team a nice consolation prize: $225 million in tax exempt bonds for parking deck construction at the new Yankee Stadium. Under the agreement, the city will give up some $2.5 million in taxes, with an estimated $5 million […]