>Thinking bout that Esplanade
>>217006585We're with the vipers!!!
>>217006585There's no more shines in my shoe box. Make it happen.
>>217006585Giggles in WOP
>>217006585Ok seriously what was that The Esplanade eshit>THE ESPLANAAAAADE!!! THE ESPLANADE NEW YORK BUSTING MY BALLS WITH THE ESPLANADEThey keep saying this in the clips what the fuck is this why are all the shorts about the fucking Esplanade???
>>217007004Could an unc that has seen entire episodes answer the man?
>>217006681>>217006806>>217006660these posts are not tied to the GODDAM ESPLANADE GOD DAMN IT!!
>>217007260Wtf is "The Esplanade" anyway?
>>217007004>>217007239Basically it's a construction project that both the New Jersey and New York families are using to make money. The families have this assemblyman in their pocket so to speak so he used political connections to get their company the project, so the government is paying them to construction something and they find all these ways to skim money off of it, such as by having their guys show up as construction workers and collect pay checks, benefits, etc without actually working because they own people with authority in the unions, or having supplies bought from vendors that owe them a cut somehow.They don't really explain it directly in the show since it's based on some real world mafia shit. It causes a lot of contention in the story because both the assemblyman and the project is something that both families are making money off of, and so they're supposed to split and share the profits, but these wops can't be trusted so they screw each other constantly. The New York family has their unions strike to shut down the project at one point which ends up being financially disastrous for them both.I'm not really too knowledgeable on mafiaslop but my understanding is that these construction scams were how they REALLY made a fortune.
>>217007272consistent income for several years
>>217006585EVERY time Johnny Sack yells "THE ESPLANADE" in the series:>S4E1 "For all Debts Private and Public">S4E4 "The Weight">S4E11 "Calling All Cars">S4E12 "Eloise">S4E13 "White Caps">S5E1 "Two Tonys">S5E3 "Where's Johnny">S5E12 "Long Term Parking"
Keep in mind the esplanade scheme was based on a real thing the NY/NJ mobs did in the 1970s during the building up of Atlantic City and the Jersey Shore. The amount of money they generated through fraudulent construction contract scams and no-show jobs was equal to $150 million today. Carmine/Johnny Sac had very good reason to be so concerned with it. The kind of money that Jersey's glorified crew could never understand
>>217007296Thank you. Excellent summary.
>>217007716Something I forgot to mention in my post is I always liked the idea that Tony Soprano proudly tells Meadow about how her great grandparents or w/e were these carpenters or masons who built that church, when the Esplanade is in the middle of the entire show and is like a twisted mockery of the act of building something.I also see the Esplanade as this parallel to Tony's time with Melfi, the therapist. They're both "constructive" pursuits that never go anywhere and that ultimately exist for him to siphon something valuable, be it money in the former case or validation or honing his manipulative and amoral mindset in the latter.
>>217007272it was some redevelopment thing
It's a deliberate choice that the big thing that causes so much conflict is the kind of hyper local urban renewal program that middling city councils do and not, for example, the greater New York area drug trade
>>217007947Why? What motivated this deliberate choice?
>>217007004Giant coastal construction project funded by government. Easy to steal from
>>217007968Everything about the mob is grubby and kind of pathetic. Uninvolved people typically come away from an encounter thinking they are strange and rude. Sometimes they bumble their way into genuinely harming some random guy, but not out of any logic, just because most of them have poor impulse control.
>>217007296>such as by having their guys show up as construction workers and collect pay checks, benefits, etc without actually working because they own people with authority in the unionsis this how unions work in America?Are they sll mafia run scams?
