IRL eyes NY City race

Development proposals for Governors Island, NY (pictured right) will be sought in February, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff told the NY Daily News. The Governors Island Preservation & Education Corp., a city-state agency that Doctoroff took over in May, got title to the once-bustling island off the southern tip of Manhattan from the federal government for $1 in 2003.

The agency is completing the details of a request for proposals – the next big step in a drawn-out effort to put most of the island's 172 acres and many handsome brick buildings to commercial, educational or cultural use.

"We were in an exploratory phase and needed to examine conditions on the island," Doctoroff said. "We're through that now and it's time to get out into the marketplace." (Governors Island, in the foreground right, is close to the lower tip of Manhattan)

A few familiar names have already expressed interest, such as the City University of New York, Phoenix House, the Indy Racing League, and The Related Cos., which co-developed Time Warner Center.

Fans would have to be ferried to and from the island but in NY City that is not an uncommon thing as thousands of workers use the ferries to and from Manhattan each workday. What we scratch our head about is the 3/4-mile oval track that ISC is building on Staten Island. Why wouldn't the IRL (an oval series right?) join their oval track brethren and race at that track? Unless of course the IRL is no longer desirable to the France family as recent actions would suggest.