From yesterday’s New York Daily News and Michael Saul :
The City Council’s finance committee is threatening to cancel a hearing on the stadium following a secret 41/2-hour meeting between members of the Council’s Queens delegation and Mets officials at Shea Stadium, the Daily News has learned.
During the Friday meeting, the Queens Council members unleashed a torrent of concerns, with many complaining that the Bloomberg administration and the team had kept the Council in the dark for too long.
Council members also raised concerns about traffic congestion, parking during construction and their desire for the team to give back more to the Queens community.
“We’re all very supportive of the new stadium because it is a boon for the whole city and the Queens community, but at the same time, a stadium does impose burdens, substantial burdens, on part of the nearby community,” said Councilman John Liu (D-Queens), who attended the meeting.
“We’d like to see an integration between the Mets and the Queens community, so the Mets aren’t an island unto themselves,” Liu said.
Mets Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon offered an apology to the delegation at the meeting in the hopes of seeing the finance committee consider the stadium plan as scheduled tomorrow, Council members said.
“Look, the communication has not been good. I take full responsibility for that and I’m sorry, and I’m here to say I want to improve it,” Wilpon said, according to a Council member.
With any lucky, the Council will not be holding out for an apology over the Kaz Matsui signing and the trade of Scott Kazmir.