The Billionaires’ Park

New York Times ^ | November 30, 2014 | DAVID CALLAHAN

[Second Amendment First]

CAN billionaires remake the Manhattan shoreline? Apparently so, in light of the news that a new park will be just offshore in the Hudson River, largely financed by the media mogul Barry Diller and situated, conveniently, a short walk from his office in Chelsea.

The new park will also be near the High Line, allowing for an easy tour of how private wealth is remaking the city’s public spaces. This trend isn’t unique to New York: Philanthropists are also busy reshaping the riverfront of Philadelphia and building a green corridor through Houston. In Tulsa, Okla., a vast new park system is being financed in part by the billionaire George B. Kaiser.

While it’s hard to argue with more parks, or the generosity of donors like Mr. Diller, this isn’t just about new patches of green. It’s more evidence of how a hollowed-out public sector is losing its critical role, and how private wealth is taking the wheel and having a growing say over basic parts of American life.

[Second Amendment First]

Like those rich people who bought up the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone Park and gave it to the people, now controlled by the government and will close it to punish them.

[ClearCase_guy]

All of these efforts will be praised by the NYT.

Until the Koch Bros. decide to finance a park. I'm afraid THAT little stunt will somehow cross the line and be widely attacked.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

....or all the libraries and museums and schools founded by “robber barons” ....

[cherry]

George Kaiser was and is a big obola bundler...he gained multiple millions from a solar energy fiasco financed by we the taxpayer and he laid off many employees on his way to padding his bank accounts....

like Ted Turner, Bill Gates and Buffoon, they don't just "donate" ...they donate to make something better for them....like less of the rabble near them, fewer taxes to pay, more puffed up arrogance over how "good" they are.

[Steely Tom]

Just what you would expect, once a communist mayor has been elected.

Such a farce.

[southernnorthcarolina]

So Mr. Diller & ux make a $130 milllion donation to the city in the form of a park, and the New York Times can only whine that it's in the wrong place, and has the wrong amenities.

Clare Booth Luce was right: no good deed goes unpunished.

[okie01]

It’s more evidence of how a hollowed-out public sector is losing its critical role, and how private wealth is taking the wheel and having a growing say over basic parts of American life.

Or might it be that the public sector has spent its money foolishly -- on exorbitant contracts for and the pensions of public employee unions?

[RedMDer]

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[iowamark]

A declining public sector, burdened by budget cuts, creates a vacuum... Things are going to get a lot worse, too. Nondefense discretionary federal spending will fall to its lowest level in modern history by 2017, leaving Washington less able to finance projects like new parks and infrastructure.

Absolute nonsense.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

They donated the park but did they donate the revenue stream for upkeep and operating it?

[Milton Miteybad]

I’d like to know where I go to get back the 38 seconds of my life I wasted reading that sorry excuse for an article.

[lentulusgracchus]

.... ...they donate to make something better for them....like less of the rabble near them, ....

And more toll roads and "Lexus lanes", which they needn't, if the tolls are stiff enough, share with cruddy little Toyota Tredias and Pontiac Azteks, and the rest of the automotive panoply of the proto-Morlock "little people".

[Oratam]

What “hollowed-out” public sector?