As the countdown for Super Bowl XLVIII begins, we’ve got a feeling that the New York edition of the game will raise plenty of issues and questions and topics and news items.
Here’s the latest: The mayors of Seacausus and Carlstadt are threatening to withhold emergency services for the day of the game, according to NJ.com.
Hey, what’s a New York/New Jersey Super Bowl without a little New York/New Jersey attitude?
A lengthy statement issued last week explains the reasoning, which has nothing to do with the fact that the game will be played on a Sunday in early February. “The teams have never been good corporate neighbors to the region,” Carlstadt mayor William Roseman said, referring to the Jets and Giants. “The teams don’t care about budget caps and what the impacts are on the taxpayers of Carlstadt. I had to cut back my police department budget by a total of a million dollars over the last several years. While we are forced to lay off Police Officers, the owners of the Jets and Giants are filling their pockets at taxpayers’ expense.”
Roseman later suggested that the emergency services will be provided, if his town is compensated for its costs.
“I don’t think that’s an unreasonable thing to request,” Roseman said. “We feel as though we give and we give and we give and we get nothing back. And we just can’t give anymore. We can’t afford it.”
The points are valid, but it’s also critical that proper emergency services be available on the day of the game. And I’m not just saying that because I’ll be there. (Although I’ll admit that’s part of it.)
Here’s hoping that this and all other issues relating to an open-air, cold-weather Super Bowl get worked out. And that Mother Nature decides not to take a gigantic white crap on the region on game day.