The Yankees and Public Funds

There is a hub-bub about the Yankees using public funds to fund the new Yankee Stadium. This recap shows that the Yankees aren't really taking anything away from the city and that it is the city that is really benefiting from the new stadium. That doesn't stop certain elected officials from trying to make this into an issue.

When I read things like this about the new Yankee Stadium and about "public" servants like NYC Comptroller William Thompson Jr. - I can't help but remember that Frank Farrell and William Devery were the first owners of the New York Highlanders which is now the New York Yankees. Farrell and Devery were at one point "public servants" who got rich in part off the graft they made from those duties (Tammany Hall and the NYPD).

Sometimes I wonder if in the past 100-years if we haven't gone from public servants who were much more corrupt but capable to public servants who are less openly corrupt but much more incompetent.