Bridge Too Far

George Steinbrenner and his colleagues in the Yankees had a good laugh when Charles Dolan, stopping in for lunch in Florida, asked whether the ball team was for sale. According to the New York Post, they were prepared for the question. Mr. Steinbrenner nixed the idea bluntly. "It was a giant joke on the side of the Yankees," the Post reported a source as saying. "That's what made it so amusing. He may as well have tried to buy the Brooklyn Bridge."

Well, why not, we say. Certainly Madison Square Garden, one of the landmarks Mr. Dolan already owns in the city, is kept up a lot better than the rusting, graffiti-covered Brooklyn Bridge was in recent years. The department responsible for the bridge has a new commissioner, who may finally give the aging bridge a paint job – long after it was due. But it's hard to imagine the upkeep of Roebling's great span could not be improved by private ownership. It was a private company — albeit one in which the cities of Brooklyn and New York were investors — that built the bridge in the first place, intending to charge a toll and make a profit.

The logic of privatization is only strengthened if Mayor Bloomberg 's plan for congestion pricing and a greener New York goes into effect. Once the idea starts to get accepted that automobile access to Manhattan is something New Yorkers will have to pay for — even if it is only during certain hours — then the logic of revenues coming off the Brooklyn Bridge will start to come into focus. The bridge feeds one of the most congested parts of the island, and use of it could be limited to vehicles with E-Z PASS or even, one can imagine, special transponders that work for the bridge only.

It's hard to say what kind of price the city might get for the bridge, given the vagaries business owners have had in interacting with the city and the regulators it sets on them. But this is an area of business Mr. Dolan has a long track record of mastering — or at least stomaching. He has demonstrated his grit not only in his conduct of Madison Square Garden but also of Cablevision. Even with the hurdles the government puts up nearly all the best-managed properties in the city are privately owned. So if the Brooklyn Bridge were put up for sale to the highest bidder, we'd all be better off. If Mr. Dolan doesn't want it, maybe Mr. Steinbrenner would. For the rest of us, it'd be a home run.