If You Want Something Done Right...

Yesterday was not a good day for New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He did not get the votes to approve the funding for the proposed New York Jets football stadium on the West Side of Manhattan, the stadium that was the centerpiece of his plan to lure the Olympics here in 2012, and was supposed to be key to his reelection campaign. Now it looks like the stadium (which would have required $300 million in taxpayer dollars) will not be built, and the dream of New York hosting the Olympics is thought to be doomed.

Of course, there is the fact that no one except Bloomberg really wanted the Olympics coming to New York in the first place, and many people, including myself, believed that it was only a ploy to help the mayor get reelected. Don't we have enough obnoxious tourists flooding Manhattan already? As it is, you can barely walk the streets of midtown without being trampled by thousands of schmucks with digital cameras, all of them about to attend their very first Broadway show (where, no doubt, their cell phones will ring incessantly throughout the performance – ain't tourists grand?). Hosting the Olympics would have been even more of a pain in the ass than the Republican National Convention was last summer. Who needs it? Certainly not the people who live in this city.

But there is a way around the problem, if the mayor is willing to be a little bit creative. A way to salvage his damaged Olympic dream, bring the Jets back within the confines of the five boroughs, and all without the taxpayers having to shell out a single dime. You like it already, don't you?

Here's my plan: why doesn't the mayor cough up the $300 million to fund the stadium himself? After all, he's a billionaire, it's not like he doesn't have the money. He bought his way into Gracie Mansion, what's a few more million? This way he could avoid having to put it to a vote, and he could probably write it off on his income taxes as a charitable donation.

So how about it, Mister Mayor? Why not put your money where your mouth is? If you want this stadium built so bad, there's one simple way to make it happen: pay for it yourself. After all, better you than the taxpayers, who have better things to do with their money than to give a football team a free ride at the public's expense.

Tom Moran