New York City Mayor RUDOLPH GIULIANI appeared on CNN's
"Larry King Live" last night. Giuliani, on not attending
the opening ceremonies of Arthur Ashe Stadium: "I like
tennis, I enjoy tennis, I think Arthur Ashe is a great hero,
I think the USTA is doing something very unfortunate and
very unfair to New York City. This is a lease that was
negotiated before I was the mayor. ... We have to pay fines
to the tennis stadium if airplanes fly near the tennis
stadium. I find that obnoxious, and I also find it sort of
against the interests of the people who live in New York
City." King: "What do the planes do to tennis?" Giuliani:
"I have no idea what the planes do to tennis. ... [W]hen I
became the mayor of New York City, I said to the USTA, 'I'm
not going to come to your tournament until you take that
stupid provision out of the contract. If you take it out of
the contract, I'll be there. If you don't take it out, I'm
not coming, because you're hurting the people of my city in
doing this." Asked if New York would lose the Yankees or
Mets, Giuliani: "I think we'll keep the Yankees and the
Mets. On whether the Yankees will move to Manhattan or
remain in the Bronx: "I think it's a stronger possibility
that they'll stay in the Bronx -- after the World Series
last year -- and the kind of attendance the Yankees have
been getting this year" ("Larry King Live," CNN, 8/27).
NEWSDAY RIPS RUDY: A NEWSDAY editorial calls Giuliani's
boycott of the Open, "Giuliani at his petulant worst. ...
petty, insensitive, and counterproductive" (NEWSDAY, 8/27).
