Our Tax Dollars at Work

The concrete pedestrian ramps at the brand-new $1.5 billion city-subsidized Yankee Stadium have been troubled by cracks.

The ramps were built by a company accused of having links to the mob, and the concrete mix was designed and tested by a company under indictment on charges that it failed to perform some tests and falsified the results of others.

A spokeswoman for the team, Alice McGillion, called the cracks “cosmetic,” but several people briefed on the problems said that they would cost several million dollars to fix. I wonder where Alice buys her makeup.

The company that built the ramps, Interstate Industrial Corporation, was barred from doing city work in 2004 because city investigators concluded it had ties to organized crime. While the contract for the work at Yankee Stadium was awarded to a company called Central Excavators, the Yankees, Interstate and Turner Construction Company, the construction manager that built the stadium, have all acknowledged that Interstate performed the work.

The company that evaluated the strength of the concrete poured for the walkways, Testwell Laboratories, its owners and several officers were indicted last year on state racketeering charges.

Let’s all thank the Yankees, the Steinbrenners, and their political hirelings for bringing us another publicly financed baseball palace that we so desperately need in a time of 4 billion dollar deficits in the state budget and for bringing Tony Soprano to life. At least he can afford game tickets.

- VK