So what do they want to put on these piers, in your view?" "Housing, tall buildings, retail, other commercial use. The timetable for projects like these is very long. At first they say it's just to provide public access to the water. The excuse of having three piers that generate revenue for the park is just a crock. The amounts those three piers would generate is minuscule compared to the profits at stake. Views of the river are worth a lot in New York. A massive construction project like this will only become somewhat apparent by the end of five years, and only really apparent after ten." As she sees it, construction firms, dredging and piledriving companies and construction unions form a powerful lobby "that make a living by turning water into land, give big political contributions, and the politician5 pay them back by assigning them contracts on the waterfront, and setting _„OARD, OR THE BATTLE OF WESTWAY 111 Q U T 6 public authorities to funnel the pork. Private companies could con P.vably pUt up the investment, but they prefer to use public funds. Money that flows through public authorities is notoriously hard to trace, and does not require as much accountability. The public authorities mutate and change initials, but they're still the same beasts. The same thing happens with stadium construction. Some private investors get burned, but a few at the top make out like bandits. That's how Roland Betts and Tom Bernstein, who now run the Chelsea Piers, made George W. Bush a millionaire down in Arlington, Texas. The reason the state is pushing to put stadiums on the water is that there's more pork when you are creating the site as well as building on it. Why are they scheduling all these marinas? Marinas have been going bankrupt in the other boroughs, but suddenly they have several planned for Manhattan. Because they want to choke up the habitat and turn it into real estate." The longer she talks, the more mesmerized I become by her conviction. She is someone with a vision. However skewed or cynical, it all fits together. You might call it the "permanent government" thesis, that special interests have a stranglehold over the decisionmaking process of New York City. "So why is there so much waterfront development internationally?" I ask, a touch fauxnalvely, but sure that she will have a ready answer. "Because the water worldwide is free, like the air, so the politicians are taking it over to make a bundle for themselves and their friends. Also, the United States finished building the interstate highway system so they need to move onto the waterfronts, to generate more pork. All this talk about our crumbling infrastructure' is very cleverly used as a wedge to unleash more porkbarrel public fUnding." You don't believe our infrastructure is crumbling?" I ask. "What about the marine borers-the shipworms?" I have my doubts. That problem's overstated. The whole marine borer Panic is being engineered to promote largescale construction and restoration projects.