Somehow, Rudy Giuliani (in a parting deal) managed to get through a $1.6 billion deal to build new stadiums for both the Yankees and the Mets with retractable roofs. Michele has expressed her disapproval, and I'm going to second it.

First of all, if Rudy thinks that the old cliché of "you need to spend money to make money" is going to hold true here, then he obviously didn't pass Econ 101. The fans will come to the stadium regardless of where it is because they're coming to see the team on the field, and building a new stadium that actually holds less seats than the original means they're going to have to raise ticket prices to make up the difference, which they're probably planning on doing anyways because they'll need to make up the costs of actually building the new facilities. And charging more for tickets is going to turn fans away because someone who might've dropped $15 on a whim for a nose-bleed bleacher seat on a nice spring or summer afternoon probably won't pay $30 for it.

Second of all, in the midst of a recession, you're going to spend $1.6 billion? If you guys are hurting for cash so much that you have to produce "come to New York" commercials to boost your tourism, then you don't need to be shelling out money to replace the stadiums which aren't in such incredibly bad shape that it's absolutely necessary to put up new ones.

Third of all, where are they going to put these new stadiums? Last time I checked, stadiums were pretty big and New York City was already lacking huge chunks of undeveloped real estate space. Are they going to make floating stadiums in the middle of the East River?

Finally, the Reverend Al Sharpton condemned the deal today with the information from the Coalition for the Homeless that there are now 30,000 homeless people in New York City shelters, which is an all-time high for the city. I don't usually see eye-to-eye with the Rev, but in this case, I'm going to have to take his side when he says that the city could do much better things with that $1.6 billion. However, if they insist on railroading this thing through, I hope that they at least do something useful with the space or structures left by the Yankees and the Mets. Stadiums are pretty big, and you can easily close off access to the field and set up cots inside so at least people can stay there for a little while if they need a roof over their heads -- basically turning the structure into a shelter. In the summertime, they can sleep out on the field, or if it's raining, they can stay under the covered part. Or maybe they can knock down the old stadiums and put up city- or state-subsidized low-rent housing. Because if New York can afford to blow that much cash on luxuries in the middle of a recession, then they certainly can afford to help out their not-so-fortunate residents.