September 2, 2010
Law review article: "Urban Redevelopment Policy, Judicial Deference to Unaccountable Agencies, and Reality in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards Project"
Atlantic Yard Report
Atlantic Yards has survived all court challenges, but some of the wins have been ugly, leaving significant doubts about the capacity of the legal system to oversee such projects. So let the revisionism begin. (Cf. a line from the New York Times on Atlantic Yards.)
In the same issue of The Urban Lawyer that contains a revisionist article on the seminal Berman v. Parker eminent domain case, the author of that article, Amy Lavine, a staff attorney at Albany Law School's Government Law Center, and I collaborate on an article titled "Urban Redevelopment Policy, Judicial Deference to Unaccountable Agencies, and Reality in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards Project."
The article is embedded at bottom. Lavine did the first draft, and offered me credit because she relied so much on my work. I collaborated significantly on revisions. (Note Lavine's disclosure--unknown to me until this article--that she "provided limited research for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn’s state eminent domain and MTA lawsuits.")
(The quarterly journal is published by the American Bar Association Section of State and Local Government Law, and edited by professors and students at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.)
Below I offer some choice excerpts.
Click through for those excerpts, as well as access to the full paper.
Posted by eric at September 2, 2010 10:27 AM | Permalink
Why no company has signed a naming-rights deal with the Giants and Jets
New Jersey Newsroom
by Evan Weiner
Looks like Barclays was the last of the big-time spenders — and even they won't be spending anywhere near what they were once said to be spending.
Fred Wilpon is clearly one lucky owner although New York Mets fans will clearly disagree with that statement based on the on-field results of Wilpon's baseball team. Bruce Ratner was also one lucky owner while he controlled the New Jersey Nets basketball team although Nets fans will clearly disagree with that statement based on the on-court results of Ratner's Nets.
Both Wilpon and Ratner are in much better shape than the owners of the Giants (the Mara and Tisch families) and the Jets (Woody Johnson) in that they got two banks, Citibank and Barclay, to come up with a multi-year, multimillion dollar agreement for naming rights at Wilpon's Queens baseball park and Ratner's Brooklyn multi-purpose arena.
The Mara-Tisch-Johnson troika is still looking for a financial angel and if one major industry player is correct, it may be a long while before the East Rutherford, New Jersey home for the Giants and Jets along with the Arlington, Texas-based Cowboys Stadium and Major League Baseball's Nationals Stadium in Washington, D. C. will get naming-rights partners.
Posted by eric at September 2, 2010 10:17 AM | Permalink
New Yorkers Called Upon to Turn Out Lights for Birds
90,000 migrating birds die in New York City every fall
The Epoch Times
by Jack Phillips
Thousands of migrating birds are killed every fall in New York City. To combat this, the New York office of the National Audubon Society is calling on New Yorkers to turn their lights out at night in the coming months.
The initiative, known as “Lights Out New York,” aims to get all New Yorkers and especially skyscraper owners to turn their lights out between Sept. 1 and Nov. 1, from midnight until dawn.
...Notable skyscrapers with lights being shut off at night include the Time Warner Center, Rockefeller Center, the Chrysler Building, Con Edison Clock Tower, the New York Times Building, and 601 Lexington Avenue.
Forest City Ratner Companies, Durst Properties, Silverstein Properties, and JP Morgan Chase Properties have also promised to turn their buildings’ lights out.
NoLandGrab: Here's one bird that won't be saved by Forest City Ratner.
Posted by eric at September 2, 2010 10:04 AM | Permalink
September 1, 2010
More city leasing at MetroTech
Atlantic Yards Report
Forest City Ratner has a long history of getting government tenants in its MetroTech and Atlantic Center complexes, and that string continues.
Posted by eric at September 1, 2010 11:28 PM | Permalink
Quote of the day: "The M.T.A. does not think of its real estate as either an investment opportunity or a development opportunity”
Atlantic Yards Report
From today's New York Times article, headlined Above Ground, a 2nd Ave. Subway Plan Attracts Critics:
The Second Avenue subway, finally under construction on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is of course a vast underground project...
But the project will also include construction above ground — not just station entrances but also a half-dozen boxy buildings on corners along Second Avenue that the transit agency acquired through condemnation. These so-called ancillary buildings, ranging in height from five to eight stories, will house ventilation equipment. They are also intended to disperse smoke and allow for evacuation from subway tunnels in the event of an emergency.
To the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York, the proposed buildings, designed by DMJM+Harris and Arup, part of the team that designed the Jet Blue Terminal at Kennedy International Airport, are “handsome in proportion and detail, while simple and straightforward in design.”
But to some real estate specialists, the structures represent a missed opportunity or an unwelcome industrial intrusion into a residential neighborhood, or both. Richard Bass, the chief planning and development specialist for Herrick, Feinstein, a law firm based in Midtown Manhattan, said that at three of the sites — on 97th Street, 72nd Street and 69th Street — the M.T.A. could have worked with private developers to incorporate the ancillary buildings into residential towers.
...On each of the corners cited by Mr. Bass, the developers could have sought development rights, known as air rights, from smaller adjacent residential buildings, Mr. Bass said. He said taller apartment buildings would have been more in character with a residential neighborhood and would have helped fill a need for moderately priced housing. In addition, the M.T.A. could have had the developers share in the cost of the subway structures, Mr. Bass said.
For those of us who remember the charges about how the Vanderbilt Yard site just "sat" undeveloped for years, here's the money quote:
But transit-oriented developments can also be used to defray construction costs. Julia Vitullo-Martin, director of the Center for Urban Innovation at the Regional Plan Association, said the M.T.A. typically had not engaged in strategic thinking when it came to its real estate. “The M.T.A. does not think of its real estate as either an investment opportunity or a development opportunity,” she said.
Posted by eric at September 1, 2010 11:21 PM | Permalink
City takes 82K square feet at MetroTech
Inks 20-year lease for office and data-center space for Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.
Crain's NY Business
by Jeremy Smerd
Inventory was getting a little flabby at Bruce Ratner's MetroTech complex, so guess what? We New York City taxpayers just bailed him out by taking more space!
The city's Department of Citywide Administrative Services has signed a lease for 81,800 square feet at 2 MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn. The asking rent was $35 a square foot.
The space, which is under a 20-year lease that officially began in May, will be used by the city's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, which plans to use it for offices and a data center. DoITT will take over the entire second floor and part of the fifth floor—64,000 square feet—in the 20-year-old, 10-story property. The remaining nearly 18,000 square feet will be used for the city's expanded data center.
That's just a drop in the bucket, however.
The city already leases 216,000 square feet at 11 MetroTech Center. That lease was first signed in 1993 and amended in 2004 with an option to extend until 2020.
NoLandGrab: Yes, folks, the city leases the equivalent of 1/3 of the entire Atlantic Yards footprint at MetroTech.
Posted by eric at September 1, 2010 7:23 PM | Permalink
The seminal Berman v. Parker case: "precedent without context," and leading dangerously to cases like Kelo and Goldstein
Atlantic Yards Report
The U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous 1954 decision in the case known as Berman v. Parker is a foundation of eminent domain jurisprudence, guiding courts to defer to decisions made by legislative authorities and to allow a generous definition of blight.
Of course, there's an enormous contrast between the blight found in 1954 in Washington, DC slums--nearly half the residences relied on outhouses--and the "relatively mild conditions of urban blight" in Prospect Heights, as described last November by the New York Court of Appeals in the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case, Goldstein v. Urban Development Corporation (aka Empire State Development Corporation, or ESDC).
That's because successive court decisions expanded and elaborated on the base of Berman.
But what if the unanimously-decided Berman was wrongheaded? If so, and the setting was ignored, that further undermines controversial decisions like the Supreme Court's 2005 Kelo vs. New London case and the New York Court of Appeals' 2009 decision in Goldstein vs. ESDC.
Berman and urban renewal
As Amy Lavine, a staff attorney at the Government Law Center in Albany explains in an article for The Urban Lawyer, "Urban Renewal and the Story of Berman v. Parker" (embedded below, as well as excerpted), a closer analysis, plus hindsight, suggest that the court got it wrong, missing the point and ushering some very mixed results.
And, as noted in a footnote at the end of the article, one of the most egregious examples of the spawn of Berman--"precedent without context"--is the Atlantic Yards eminent domain litigation, which just happens to be the subject of another article in that same Urban Lawyer issue, which Lavine wrote with me.
I'll have more on that article, titled "Urban Redevelopment Policy, Judicial Deference to Unaccountable Agencies, and Reality in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards Project," tomorrow.
Related coverage...
Gideon's Trumpet, Two Good Articles on Redevelopment
We found of special interest the factual tidbit that though the Southwest redevelopment project was sold to the Supreme Court as an effort to uplift the poor slum dwellers who — so went the plan — would be provided with low-cost housing renting at $17 per month per room, in fact, after the court approved the plan and allowed the eminent domain takings to proceed, that provision of the plan was dropped. Ten years later, the Wall Street Journal reported that rents in the new, redeveloped Southwest were so high that they inspired a rent strike by affluent tenants.
Posted by eric at September 1, 2010 11:06 AM | Permalink
Black swans over Long Island
Cap'n Transit Rides Again
Here's a week-old commentary on the Long Island Railroad that somehow snuck past us.
Last week Planet Money had a great "Deep Read" with economist Nassim Taleb. Taleb's major point is that when you're vulnerable to "black swans" - rare and unpredictable, but high impact events - you need to invest in reserves and redundancy to be able to survive them.
It's an argument that all transportation providers should pay attention to, but railroads in particular are dependent on linear infrastructure. The current mess with the Long Island Railroad's switches in Jamaica show that at least one railroad isn't getting it.
The vast majority of train trips on the LIRR go through Jamaica. That's great for transfers, but it sucks for redundancy. You would think they'd have a backup plan, but apparently the MTA prefers to let the riders - and the taxpayers - bear the full brunt of any black swans that affect Jamaica.
Yup, that's the kind of perverse thinking the public authority structure encourages. If we had a sane system, Helena Williams' head would already be on a pike for giving public property to Bruce Ratner for nothing. Well, if we had a sane system, Williams would probably never have been allowed anywhere near the top post, and maybe we'd have someone competent actually running the railroad.
Posted by eric at September 1, 2010 10:59 AM | Permalink
Fake cop scams man
The Brooklyn Paper, Police Blotter
by Joe Anuta
If it's Wednesday, it must be news of more crime in one of Bruce Ratner's Brooklyn malls.
Target target
Cops arrested two perps who stole a wallet containing $300 from a woman while she was shopping at a department store inside the notorious Atlantic Terminal Mall on Aug. 27.
Cameras inside the store, which is located near Atlantic Avenue, caught one of the jerks taking the wallet then handing it off to her partner-in-crime at 8:15 pm.
Posted by eric at September 1, 2010 10:53 AM | Permalink
Lunch with the Critics: Park51 & 15 Penn
Design Observer
The specter of you-know-what looms in a discussion of NYC's latest development controversies.
For this second installment of Lunch with the Critics, Mark Lamster and Alexandra Lange traveled to midtown to visit the Hotel Pennsylvania, across from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden on Seventh Avenue. It is the site of a planned 67-story office tower developed by Vornado Realty Trust that would dramatically alter the midtown skyline, rivaling (perhaps) the Empire State Building. On the subway there, they talked about Park51, the proposed community center and mosque in lower Manhattan that has become a political target. In their previous lunch, they explored the recent renovations to Lincoln Center.
...Mark Lamster: What’s rather insane about 15 Penn is that it actually adheres to the zoning code, and exploits it quite cannily. It seems silly that this property should be allowed a 56 percent (!) bonus because it’s adjacent to a major transit hub and the developers are making a variety of accommodations. The $100 million in transportation renovations Vornado is kicking in will create some very real improvements to the area, but they don’t necessarily assuage all the extra square footage and skyline-hogging bulk. Also, you can’t put all kinds of new pressure on the transit system and then ask for a pat on the back for making sure it doesn’t totally collapse the day you open for business. More to the point, Penn Station needs a massive and comprehensively planned overhaul. It’s not a pig that needs more lipstick.
Alexandra Lange: I agree with all of that. Even in the glory days of the plaza bonus in the 1960s and 1970s, when a mid-block, all-but-hidden passage with a tiny tree sign indicating it was public space could get you extra floors, we were never talking 56 percent. What Vornado is “giving” us is what they should be required to do. Their building isn’t going to be attractive to tenants unless they renovate the transport and paths to it.
The craziness of piling tower on tower in one of the most congested parts of the city reminds me of the oft-ignored community objections to the original Atlantic Yards scheme. Sure, it is great to put an arena on top of a transit hub, but only if it is a transit hub (and an intersection, for that matter) that has extra capacity. The reason the Citibank tower still sits in lonely splendor in Long Island City is an earlier administration’s attempt to spread the office worker wealth, not concentrate it. Unfortunately, it didn’t really work. Or hasn’t worked yet.
Posted by eric at September 1, 2010 10:27 AM | Permalink
The Civilians Presents Let Me Ascertain You: Atlantic Yards At Joe's Pub 9/10
Broadway.com
The Civilians (Steven Cosson, Artistic Director), the award-winning Brooklyn-based theatre company known for projects investigating real life topics, presents Let Me Ascertain You: Atlantic Yards, part of an ongoing series of cabaret performance at Joe's Pub. The September 10th performance at 9:30 PM is dedicated to The Civilians' multi-year investigation into the controversial Atlantic Yards development project and will include highlights from the previously announced In the Footprint coming in November.
...In the Footprint will premiere at the Irondale Center in Fort Greene from November 12th - December 11th. The full creative team and casting to be announced.
Let Me Ascertain You: Atlantic Yards, September 10th, 2010 at 9:30 PM
Joe's Pub at The Public Theater at 425 Lafayette St.TICKETS
Online at joespub.com,
Phone 212-967-7555,
In Person At The Public Theater Box Office (1 PM to 6 PM), or at the Joe's Pub Box Office from (6 PM to 10 PM) both located at 425 Lafayette Street, NYC
For table reservations please call 212-539-8778. Purchase of tickets does NOT guarantee a table reservation; you must call to reserve seats.
Posted by eric at September 1, 2010 10:14 AM | Permalink
August 31, 2010
Why does Ratner not contribute to local races? Maybe because contributions keep the line open to Cuomo, the next governor
Atlantic Yards Report
A couple of people have asked me: if Bruce Ratner is no longer a campaign contribution refusenik, why isn't he giving money to Mark Pollard, who's challenging Atlantic Yards opponent Velmanette Montgomery in the 18th Senatorial District and has gained the support of some Atlantic Yards backers?
Well, maybe it's purely pragmatic; Montgomery has endorsements galore and a record of achievement.
Even a strong candidate--and I don't think Pollard qualifies, having started his campaign only in May, rather than building momentum over time, and relying disproportionately on charter school backers outside the district--would have trouble beating a veteran like Montgomery, even in this anti-incumbent political climate (and her failure to fully embrace reforms in Albany).
(When the 11-day pre-primary reports are made available on Friday, we'll see if Ratner's changed his tactics.)
Influence at the top
Ratner is not averse to contributions in local races, but maybe it's purely pragmatic on another level.
Ratner, I suspect, doesn't worry much about local elected officials; his concern is the governor, who controls the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), the unelected agency that's shepherding Atlantic Yards and not looking too hard.
So that's why Ratner gave $5000 to the campaign of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo in February 2009, plus another $7500 this past May.
From Ratner's perspective, Montgomery may be a pest. But as long as the man at the top takes his calls, he'll be fine.
Or, to paraphrase Leona Helmsley, only the little people need to buy state Senators.
Even better, how's this for a laugh?
Ratner also gave $10,000 to New York Uprising, the clean-up-Albany project spearheaded by former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, Citizens Union Director Dick Dadey, and former New York City Parks Commissioner and New York Civic Director Henry Stern.
I suspect that Ratner's contribution was generated less by desire to support candidates signing New York Uprising's worthy three-part pledge (Non-Partisan, Independent Redistricting; Responsible Budgeting; and Ethics Reform), than by his relationship with his old mentor Stern, an often-useful civic watchdog whose critical scrutiny has reliably bypassed Atlantic Yards.
NoLandGrab: Ratner giving money to an effort to clean up Albany is like Bonnie and Clyde making a deposit five minutes before robbing the bank. And the fact that they would take Ratner's money tells you all you need to know about New York Uprising.
Posted by eric at August 31, 2010 1:04 PM | Permalink
To the Times's new Public Editor: Get up to speed on Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder pens a letter to the latest Public Editor of The New York Times. Here's a snippet.
I know, I know. As a new Public Editor, you only look forward, not back. But you should know that the Times, in editorial, op-ed, and news coverage of Atlantic Yards, has not come close to meeting its standards.
(I write this having examined and critiqued the Times coverage for more than five years and, yes, having an op-ed on Atlantic Yards finally published this past June.)
Your predecessors as Public Editors have not distinguished themselves regarding Atlantic Yards, either offering weak defenses of the newspaper or ignoring issues completely.
NoLandGrab: Standards? The Times don't need no stinking standards!
Posted by eric at August 31, 2010 12:56 PM | Permalink
Yes, 752 Pacific is worth more to Forest City Ratner intact than demolished, at least for now
Atlantic Yards Report
Remember how I (quoting court papers) predicted that, despite Forest City Ratner's stated plan to immediately demolish all buildings in Phase 1 of the Atlantic Yards condemnation plan, the staunch six-story building on Pacific Street long owned by Henry Weinstein was likely to be used as construction offices?
As stated in the Empire State Development Corporation's Construction Update for the weeks beginning August 17 and August 23, and the latest Construction Update [PDF] issued yesterday:
The building at 752 Pacific Street will be used temporarily for construction shanties. During the next two week period, the former occupants’ trash will be removed from the building to prepare for construction teams.
Posted by eric at August 31, 2010 12:50 PM | Permalink
August 30, 2010
In 18th District, Citizens Union prefers Pollard over Montgomery, who's reticent about addressing some reforms; challenger tries to thread AY needle
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder takes another look — two looks, actually — at the race for the state Senate's 18th district.
State Senator Velmanette Montgomery can point to some real achievements, as noted in a campaign mailer (right; click to enlarge), such as reforming the juvenile justice system and the Rockefeller drug laws.
But her reluctance to sign onto a full suite of Albany reforms means the 26-year incumbent, who has the support of veteran Brooklyn pols like Council Member Al Vann, may be sweating just a bit.
The Citizens Union last week announced it supported the reelection of only six incumbents, issued a "no preference" in several races, and endorsed several challengers, including Montgomery rival Mark Pollard.
(Pollard hasn't yet noted this on his web site. Montgomery doesn't have a current campaign web site--the one from the previous election has not been updated. Neither are particularly nimble in cyberspace; are they convinced that getting out the vote for the September 14 primary represents retail politics?)
While the CU did not elaborate on the Montgomery race (and some others), Executive Director Dick Dadey said the CU's preference "provide a clear signal to voters which incumbents have made an effort to bring change to Albany and which ones have stood in the way of reform and need to be replaced."
The CU doesn't hold the power it once had--its endorsement, for example, of Evan Thies in the 33rd Council District last year meant little--but it does aim to set benchmarks for good government practices.
NoLandGrab: Neither does the CU have the reputation for integrity it once had, since it refused to take a strong stance against Atlantic Yards, despite the project's lengthy list of vices.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Ziggy for Pollard: a not-quite-Atlantic Yards connection in the 18th District Senate race
State campaign finance filings (32-day report, July periodic report) show that Mark Pollard, the pro-Atlantic Yards challenger to state Senator Velmanette Montgomery, has paid $8000 in consulting fees to Brooklyn Sports MMM, which just happens to share the same address as Brooklyn USA Basketball.
Both Brooklyn Sports Management, Marketing, and Memorabilia and Brooklyn USA Basketball are the work of Thomas (Ziggy) Sicignano, coach of a traveling basketball team that's gotten $10,000 in funding from Forest City Ratner and whose players have bolstered some Atlantic Yards rallies.
(He's also notorious for cooperating in a federal investigation of prostitution he organized at an Atlanta strip club he managed. Correction August 31: Sicignano points out that he did not receive probation, as reported in the Brooklyn Paper.)
...Sicignano said he's not working for Pollard at the behest of FCR, though he does think it would be "good for Brooklyn that we have a Senator who can deal with the developer."
NLG: By "a senator who can deal with the developer," Sicignano means "a senator who can provide unqualified support for the developer's deals."
Posted by eric at August 30, 2010 9:52 AM | Permalink
August 29, 2010
Our Cities Ourselves: 10 Principles for Transport in Urban Life (and the AY contradiction)
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder takes a look at issues urban planning.
A nifty exhibition,Our Cities Ourselves, is on view until September 11, 2010 at the Center for Architecture in Greenwich Village (Mon-Fri: 9am to 8pm; Sat: 11am to 5pm).
It shows ten architects' treatment of potential changes in ten world cities--nearly all in developing nations.
Accompanying the exhibition is a publication titled "Our Cities Ourselves: 10 Principles for Transport in Urban Life," written by internationally famous Danish urbanist Jan Gehl and Walter Hook, Executive Director of the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP).
"Cities of the twenty-first century should be lively cities, safe cities, sustainable cities and healthy cities," said Gehl in a news release. "All of these qualities can be achieved if we embrace these ten principles, which means putting people first."
The principles and Atlantic Yards
Notably, two of the ten principles of sustainable transport don't quite work when it comes to Atlantic Yards.
The project would not have "small-size, permeable buildings and blocks" that enhance pedestrian life, as suggested above. In fact, it would create two superblocks.
And while the project would involve density around transit, as suggested at right, that won't necessarily make it a desirable urban district, given the level of density intended, the parking included, and the attendant traffic.
Read the full blog post to see the complete listing of 10 Principles for Transport in Urban Life.
NoLandGrab: An exhibit like "Our Cities Ourselves" might elicit groans from those who realize how a great opportunity for urban planning was lost when Atlantic Yards was approved by the state.
Posted by steve at August 29, 2010 9:52 AM | Permalink
