Jan 7th 2009 8:00AM by Mullet (author feed)
I guess this counts as politicians doing their part to give back during these trying economic times. But New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his administration, against a backdrop of economic turmoil, are giving up their luxury boxes in both the new Yankee Stadium, and Citi Field.

All together now: Awwwwwwwwwwwww.Senior Bloomberg aides had fought hard to get the luxury boxes, describing the perk in internal e-mails as “a big issue to the mayor” during negotiations with the teams in 2006. (…)

Bloomberg spokesman Andrew Brent said the new agreement means the city will receive cash payments for the use of its Yankees box. Future mayoral administrations will have the option of using the box or being paid for it. (…)

State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who accuses the city of conducting the stadium negotiations behind closed doors, said the Bloomberg administration is clearly worried about how it looks to be haggling over luxury boxes now that the city is grappling with dramatic budget cuts, job losses and tax hikes.

“This whole thing has been an embarrassment,” Brodsky said. “I think they were scared about the public reaction to this entire fiasco.”Any chance that money the city is getting could be put towards a halfway decent transit system so my fare doesn’t go up to five bucks per round trip? Yeah, I thought that might be too much to ask. With my luck, that money will probably go towards a new flat screen television so the mayor can enjoy baseball in the comfort of Gracie Mansion so he doesn’t feel so bad about losing his luxury box.