WEINER:
MTA SHOULD SUBMIT HUDSON RAIL YARD BIDS TO PUBLIC SCRUTINY

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POST EVERY SINGLE DOCUMENT ON THE INTERNET

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EXTEND “UNREALISTIC” DEADLINE FOR EVALUATION OF BIDS

New York City – Today, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens & Brooklyn) called on the MTA to open all of the Hudson Rail Yard bids to public scrutiny.

Weiner proposed four steps the MTA should follow to make sure the public gets the best deal:

• Put all of the documents provided to the MTA by the three bidders on the Internet for public review. “Every last scrap of information about this process should be made available to every New Yorker,” Weiner said.
• Submit the bids to the city and state comptrollers to be fully audited. “With a decision of this magnitude, it is imperative that we take every last step to make sure that the interests of New Yorkers are being protected,” Weiner said.
• Extend the deadline for a decision about the bids. “Ten days to make a decision that we will have to live with for 100 years is wholly irresponsible and unrealistic,” Weiner said.
• Ensure that no one on the evaluation committee has any ties to Mayor Bloomberg or NYC 2012. “The Mayor’s closed door deal with the Jets and subsequent questions about the openness of the bidding process demand assurances that the ultimate decision will be made with only the best interest of New York City as its aim.”

Yesterday, the MTA fielded three bids to develop the Hudson Rail Yards, from the Jets, Cablevision, and Trans Gas. But the MTA has refused to publicly disclose the details of those bids, choosing instead to submit them to its real estate company for evaluation. the MTA’s Board is scheduled to choose the winning bid in just ten full days, on March 31.