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Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Ten best lines from Times story on how the Yankees' charity has ignored the Bronx neighborhood it was supposed to help

1. "[A]n examination of the fund’s public financial records and interviews... show that it has operated with little oversight or public accountability, neglecting those who live near the stadium and instead sending money to other, often wealthier parts of the Bronx."

2. "[A]lthough the Yankees provide $35,000 a year to cover operating expenses, the fund in 2011 began to allocate 10 percent of the grants it awards to cover its own “additional administrative costs.” Those costs have never been publicly explained."

3. "Of the $6.8 million distributed by the fund between 2008 and 2015... only 30 percent — $2 million — went to charities occupying the same ZIP code as Yankee Stadium or four bordering ZIP codes."

4. Fund officials did not respond to numerous detailed email and phone messages seeking comment over the course of four months. 

5. “All the other nonprofits that I know of who have grants for community organizations are very proactive in terms of alerting the community,” said Joyce Hogi, who is on the board of the Bronx Museum... The Yankee Stadium fund, she said, is “like a deep, dark secret.”

6. "Michael Drezin, a former administrator of the fund who unsuccessfully sued it for mismanagement in 2009, said (fund) board members were chosen because of their connections to elected officials."

7. "You could tell right away it was basically a slush fund,” said Lukas Herbert, who was ousted from the local community board in 2006... and now works as a city planner in Westchester. “The Bronx delegation got to choose who to administer the fund they created. No person who cared about good governance would come up with a system like that.”

8. "In 2009, the fund contributed $20,000 to the New York Botanical Garden, where Mr. Mariel, the Yankee Stadium fund’s chairman, is on the board of trustees."

9. "Just as the fund’s annual report has never been publicly released, neither have details about who receives the 15,000 game tickets that are said to be distributed every year.

10. "In 2014, the fund sent $8,500 to the New York City Cat Coalition, a group of women helping feral cats in Eastchester, seven miles from the stadium."

8 comments:

Stang said...

Remind me, why do we love them?

Stang said...

OK, I think I've figured this out. If I'm going to honestly love the Yankees, I have to start loving the Trumps. Starting right now. OK. Here goes.

JM said...

Before we get carried away by having definitive proof that the Evil Empire truly is evil, I would like to remind you that the Yankees are tied with the Red Sox in the all-important loss column. Also, early in their games tonight, the Yankees are winning 3-0 and the Sox are losing 2-0. And Andujar has a hit with two RBI.

Of course, unless Tanaka pitches a complete game shutout, or we score 20 runs to give our bullpen some breathing room, we're far from notching a win.

Little known historical fact: Kate Smith recorded "God Bless America" in between pizza deliveries. She dedicated her third double cheese and pepperoni pie to all the boys out there on the front lines.

Leinstery said...

Did anyone else hear the troubling news? Chris Carter is lurking at Scranton and Tyler Austin will be on the DL soon enough. Chris Carter is coming.

joe de pastry said...

I am proud to be boycotting YSIII for the second consecutive year.

Alphonso said...

Don't worry about the exchange of Austin for Carter. Carter is better. And that is a mouthful.

Austin is always hurt, he is over loaded with human growth steroids, can't run faster than a garbage truck ( vs. a porsche ) and is pretty much useless. His strike out frequency is much higher than that of Carter, which is nearly impossible. I hope others don't know this so he can be part of a trade package.

If we lose him we lose nothing at all.

JM said...

We're officially down a Tyler. Four games before hitting the DL, a promising career at Montefiore for that young man.

Andujar off to a nice start. Holliday on the DL. What the hell happened to him? Was it a bad clam? Did he ignore the small print that said, "This product was made in a facility that may also produce peanut and other nut-based products"?

We didn't get 20, but even 12 was good enough for our bullpen. With those guys, 12-3 is kind of a squeaker.

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