Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan uses FACIAL RECOGNITION cameras to refuse Girl Scout mom entry to Rockettes show - because he's in a battle with her law firm

UK Daily Mail ^ | 12/21/2022 | Aneeta Bhole

[fruser1]

A lawyer who works at a firm involved in a litigation against MSG Entertainment has been booted from a Radio City Music Hall in New York after she was targeted using facial recognition.

Kelly Conlon, 44, was chaperoning her nine-year-old daughter's Girl Scout troop to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular last month when she was flagged and asked to leave the venue.

The girl scout mother was then forced to spend 90 minutes wandering around outside in the rain while her daughter watched the show despite holding a ticket, the New York Post reported.

Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan has allegedly banned anyone who works for any law firm that has a suit against any of his holdings, including the Knicks, Rangers, Radio City, MSG and various restaurants, the outlet reported.

[jurroppi1]

“People have to be informed if their voice is being recorded on the phone when a person calls a business that records calls. But a business that calls you may not record the call without asking the callee for permission to record the call.”

Not entirely true. Fed law requires two-party consent, some states do not.

Businesses cover their butts just in case the call is inter-state and would run afoul of fed law.

In MN I can record any conversation that I know originates within the state’s borders because MN law only requires one party consent.

Your best bet is to assume you are always being recorded, especially in adversarial situations or business dealings.

[PLMerite]

"I’m thinking that the government gave this company the data from it’s driver’s license photos."

I don't have anything to worry about then. That's the photo that looks the least like me.

[Alberta's Child]

If they paid the ticket to get in, yes. The taxpayers are subsidizing the business and the owner is banning people for personal reasons.

1. If someone paid for a ticket and was turned away at the door, then there is a legitimate claim against the business establishment irrespective of any "taxpayer subsidies."

2. A property tax abatement isn't necessarily a subsidy at all. New York City and/or State approved the tax abatement in the 1980s as a mechanism to keep the previous owners of the property (Gulf & Western Industries) from moving the Knicks and Rangers out of NYC. As I remember it back then (this was a time when every major NYC sports team was threatening to leave the city), the city and state governments sat down and figured out how much income, sales, and corporate tax revenue they'd lose if MSG wasn't in New York City, and the tax exemption was implemented because the property taxes were far less than the revenues they would lose without the venue there. There's also the peculiar arrangement for the property where the owners of MSG don't hold the title to the land where the building is located, since it's on top of Penn Station and different parts of the property are owned/managed through a complex arrangement involving Amtrak, New York State, and various public transit agencies.

It's worth noting that the top 1% of the earners in New York City -- which likely includes all the professional athletes in the city -- account for almost 50% of the city's income tax revenues. So it's possible that MSG is effectively subsidizing the taxpayers of New York City, not the other way around.

[taxcontrol]

You would be surprised. Facial recognition has progressed considerably.

Here is a series of recommendations from AWS:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/rekognition/latest/dg/recommendations-facial-input-images.html

Note that at a higher resolution (1080p), it is possible to recognize an image as small as 50 x 50 pixels under the right conditions.

[SamAdams76]

Facial recognition is even now still in its infancy, technologically speaking.

It is already on the verge of replacing passwords, as anybody who enables face recognition on their iPhones can attest.

It's almost too scary to contemplate but we are rapidly approaching a time where our every movement can be tracked with low cost technology.

Picture this scenario: You step into a cab. Or an Uber. The driver is alerted, through their dashcam, that you have a warrant for your arrest. So instead of getting to your destination, you are instead driven to the nearest police station and handed over.

[Texas Fossil]

Texas drivers licenses are photographed with facial recognition enhancement. The photo’s look awful.

[T.B. Yoits]

...the tax exemption was implemented because the property taxes were far less than the revenues they would lose without the venue there.

That argument can be made for any business or individual taxpayer in the city.

[Alberta's Child]

That argument can be made for any business or individual taxpayer in the city.

Certainly not for property taxes.

If a major tenant vacates an office building (for example) in Manhattan, the landlord will simply sign another tenant to take its place. The assessed value of the property may rise or fall depending on the lease terms, of course.

For a sports venue like Madison Square Garden, the value of the property is directly linked to the presence of the major sports teams that put the venue on the map in the first place. MSG simply wouldn't exist without the Rangers and Knicks. This is probably a major reason why -- unlike the typical example of a major office tenant -- the building and sports teams have the same owner.

I'd also point out that assessing property taxes on a sports venue like MSG would put New York City at a competitive disadvantage against jurisdictions that don't. Most professional sports teams play in venues that are owned by public or quasi-public authorities and do not pay property taxes. The Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey, for example, was originally built by the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority. The agency still owns the land where the stadium is located. The two teams that own the stadium jointly -- the Giants and Jets -- pay no property taxes. The same is true for the Prudential Center in Newark, home of the NHL's New Jersey Devils. Even the Barclays Center right in New York City in neighboring Brooklyn is exempt from property taxes under a deal somewhat similar to what MSG has in Manhattan.

[T.B. Yoits]

The issue with property tax exemptions for sports or entertainment venues is that the city argues that if all taxpayers subsidize it, the city will collect tax revenues that would otherwise not be there.

Well then, tax only those businesses who gain from it; hotels, restaurants, parking garages, marketing firms, etc. Don't tax an entity that not only doesn't gain anything from the venue, actually loses out because it interferes with their business that the city is already taxing.