We've been robbed!
I just saw the remake of the 1974 classic, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, which was based on a 1973 novel by the same name. I didn’t expect any great cinema, so wasn’t disappointed. I just needed an entertaining distraction from the all-too-real impending robbery of the taxpayers of New York City and State (aka “Atlantic Yards”), which will likely inch ever closer to reality following meetings of the MTA and ESDC to be held this week.
In the original movie, a number 6 train from Pelham Bay Park is hijacked, ransom is demanded in 1 hour, or the hostages get it. [ SPOILER ALERT! ] The ransom is paid, the hijackers split with the loot and send the cops chasing the 6 train without them on board. They would have gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for the meddling Lieutenant Garber, played by Walter Matthau. [ I'd cast Norman Oder of AtlanticYardsReport.com as Lt. Garber in Prospect Heights 123 ].
While riding the subway home, I thought of the similarities between the Pelham 123 heist and the impending Prospect Heights 123 heist:
- both heists involve the MTA: In Pelham 123, the hijackers hijack one subway train. In Prospect Heights 123, Forest City Ratner (the developer and brains of the operation), the MTA, the ESDC, and assorted elected and non-elected officials hijack the customary process through which large development projects are assessed and approved.
- both heists are “inside jobs”: In Pelham 123, an MTA motorman is one of the hijackers, whose knowledge of the MTA system is crucial for success. In Prospect Heights 123, the MTA seems more than willing to sign away development rights to “a great piece of real estate” for pennies on the dollar, despite large looming budget deficits, crumbling infrastructure, and future fare increases and service cuts.
- both heists depend on distractions: In Pelham 123, the hijackers lead the cops to believe that they and the ransom are on the 6 train speeding to Coney Island, while they make their escape. In Prospect Heights 123, Forest City Ratner attempts to distract us from the land and tax revenue grab by offering “Jobs! Housing! Hoops!“, an unenforceable Community Benefits Agreement, and a Xanadu fantasyland designed by world-renowned starchitect, Frank Gehry.
- both involve deadlines, compelling authorities to rush delivery of the ransom to the hijackers: In Pelham 123, the authorities have 60 minutes to deliver the loot, or else one hostage will get a bullet for each minute past the deadline. In Prospect Heights 123, Forest City Ratner tells authorities they have until the end of 2009 to clear the way for eminent domain condemnations of the last holdouts in the footprint and the start of arena construction, or the “Jobs! Housing! Hoops!” just might not happen. The now-expendable starchitect has already been thrown under a bus by this point in the plot. Jobs! and Housing! have guns to their heads.
- both involve MTA riders being held hostage: In Pelham 123, the unlucky 6-train riders of one train are held hostage for $1,000,000. In Prospect Heights 123, the unlucky MTA riders of the entire system are already paying millions through fare increases, with more hikes on the way, with millions more tax money to end up on FCR’s bottom line if the MTA follows through on rumors of further sweetening the developer’s deal beyond the already low-ball initial bid for Vanderbilt rail yard development rights.
What did I miss?
