As many as 500 people turned out for a public hearing on the proposal to build a new Yankee Stadium, but about 150 of them, including members of Community Board 4 and reporters, were left out in the cold because the meeting space was filled to capacity. Others who attended expressed anger too at the lack of translation services, which they said the borough president's office had promised to provide.

Based partly on the public hearing, Carrion recommended Dec. 22 that the project be approved and has now forwarded it to the City Planning Commission. The commission will hold a public hearing on Jan. 11 and must complete its review and vote on the proposal within 60 days.

Then, the proposal goes to City Council, which has 60 days to review and vote on it. Finally, the mayor has five days to review the proposal and approve or deny it. City Council can override the mayor's determination with a two-thirds majority vote. In November, Community Board 4 voted 16-8 against the proposal with five abstentions.

The Dec. 12 public hearing, organized by the borough president's office as part of the city's land use review process, turned into a fiasco at the doorway of the Bronx County Supreme Court building when court officers prevented people entering. The officers said the rotunda, where the meeting was being held, was filled to capacity.

The people outside were primarily opposed to the stadium, leading many to believe their being denied entry was deliberate. The borough president's office denied the allegation and said that by 7:15 p.m. everyone who had been waiting outside had gotten in. But once inside they could not sign up to speak because the list of speakers had been closed by 6 p.m., residents said.

The fiasco at the doorway became a part of the hearing inside. A crowd that had gotten into the court building but not past the guards chanted "Let us in!" Their anger boiled over whenever the door to the rotunda opened.

"Tell your boss (Carrion) that when he runs for mayor he's finished!" shouted one local resident when Wilhelm Ronda, the borough president's director of policy and planning came out. "He's a traitor!"

In the rotunda itself, Pasquale Canale, president of the 161st Street Merchant's Association, drew cheers when he used part of his two-minute period to mention the problems at the door.

"You've stacked the deck," Canale said. "Our people are sitting outside in the cold. No one's letting them in. This is what has happened all through this process."

Council Member Maria del Carmen Arroyo, who attended the hearing, said the problem people experienced at the door bothered her.

"I was very, very frustrated," she said. "You have individuals that obviously support the stadium but those who didn't weren't able to get inside.

"It should have been done in a way that it would give equal access to all," she continued. "Otherwise it looks like there's an intentional action to keep people out. I don't believe that's what occurred, but that's what it looked like…. Perception often has a greater impact than reality."

The lack of translation services also angered people at the hearing. Chauncy Young, an organizer at the Highbridge Life Community Center, said the borough president's office had assured him that translators would be at the meeting.

"For over 50 percent of Highbridge residents, English is not their first language," Young said. "It's kind of ridiculous that they're having a hearing in the South Bronx without translators. It makes you wonder who this meeting was for."

The borough president's office did not respond to calls or emails for comment on access to the meeting or a promise to provide translation services at the hearing.

The borough president's office had organized the public hearing as part of the land use review procedure. About 40 people actually spoke and others wanted to, but Deputy Borough President Earl Brown, who moderated the hearing, cut off comment at 8 p.m., the time scheduled for the hearing to end.

Comments came from a variety of people, some of whom lived many miles from Highbridge. Union members urged approval of the plan in order to create construction jobs and representatives of organizations that receive financial support from the Yankees spoke favorably of the team's efforts in the community and supported the plan.

"Do you want (construction jobs) to leave the city?" said Frank Schiavone, a union representative. "Without construction you cannot build a society. Union members live in the Bronx and (the community) is getting five more acres of parks."

Representatives of organizations that work in the community expressed both support and opposition and residents of the community mainly said they opposed the plan because it would unnecessarily destroy two of the Bronx's largest parks, significantly threaten the health of residents, particularly children, and lead to rapid gentrification of the area.

"What just happened here today is actually a travesty," said Majora Carter of Sustainable South Bronx and recent recipient of a McArthur Foundation 'Genius' Grant. The borough president should not "leave the community in the dirt."

"There is a lack of honesty," she said. "Thoughtful development planning is not happening in our community."

Carrion took notes as each person spoke. He only appeared to betray his support for the proposal once, when he gave one pro-stadium speaker a thumb up and a grin. Deputy Borough President Earl Brown moderated the event, stopping it at 8 p.m. as planned.

Yankees President Randy Levine stood hands on hips throughout the evening, off to one side, accompanied by other Yankees officials. He seemed to be listening intently.

"I thought it was great," he said afterward. "People were passionate, they spoke their minds. I was very pleased at the overwhelming support."

Of the 38 people who spoke, 27 supported it and 11 opposed it, according to one tally.

"This is what happens when you have an organization that can spend millions of dollars on a PR campaign going against residents who are working people," said Lukas Herbert, a member of Community Board 4 and an urban planner. "You can pack the house with people who support you while hard-working folks are outside screaming to get in."

But Herbert and other parks advocates said the borough president's decision would hardly discourage them.

"The opposition will only get louder," Herbert said. "We've got nothing to lose. They're destroying our neighborhood.”