Does Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. regret torpedoing the Kingsbridge Armory project four years ago? For the inferior replacement plan he champions is now endangered by similar politicking.
On Tuesday, the City Council is expected to vote on a plan to turn Kingsbridge into a year-round nine-rink ice complex. The plan has the backing of NHL Hall of Famer Mark Messier as well as Olympic skater Sarah Hughes. Diaz backs the project, which is supposed to create 200 jobs.
But this week, Bronx Councilman Fernando Cabrera, who represents the area in question, abruptly withdrew his support for the ice rink. That could be fatal for the plan, given that the council often follows the lead of the local member.
Cabrera says the change of heart has to do with traffic. We wonder if it has more to do with the refusal by developer KNIC Partners to fork over $100,000 a year for 99 years to Community Action Unlimited — a group associated with Cabrera’s church.
Diaz has testified that voting against the ice project and the jobs it would bring would be “reprehensible.” Yet the reason the armory still lies fallow is because of Diaz’s own opposition to a proposal four years ago that would have brought in a shopping mall and 1,200 jobs.
Back then, Diaz insisted on his own rider — a demand that all hires be paid an above-market “living wage.” When that killed the deal, he declared, “The notion that any job is better than no job no longer applies.”
Thus we have today’s Bronx, home to politicians skilled at killing off private development and, not uncoincidentally, to the highest unemployment in the state.