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April 25, 2005
An MOU and a Giant Check: Spring, Courtesy of Forest City Ratner
The latest Brooklyn Rail report by Brian Carreira examines the public support of Ratner by ACORN, BUILD and Rev. Daughtry; the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which failed to outline any of concessions touted by the Ratner supporters; and the perenial soon-to-be-released Community Benefits Agreement, which Ratner has pledged will contain the long-sought-after details missing from the MOU.
Sincere in their intentions or not, community groups in support of the project do not negotiate from a position of strength when they are concerned with appearing in the developer’s PR photo ops while their community benefits agreement lags far behind the development’s approval process. They do not engender credibility when they shout down those who stand to lose their homes at community meetings while the job and affordable-housing numbers upon which they base their support seem to be slipping away. Will their alignment with Bruce Ratner amount to anything more than the reflected glow of a giant check?
Posted by lumi at April 25, 2005 9:00 AM