« West Side Stadium Watch | Main | NETS BOSS OK ON JETS PLACE »
April 13, 2005
DDDb Press Release: West Side Boondoggle is Just the Beginning
New Report Reveals $2 BILLION Cost to Public
of ESDC’s “Understanding” with Bruce Ratner
NEW YORK—As the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) rushed to rubber stamp the hotly-contested West Side Stadium today, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) released Anatomy of a Sweetheart Deal: The Atlantic Yards MOU for Dummies and Public Subsidies for Dummies —a report on the ESDC’s Memorandum of Understanding with Mega-Developer Bruce Ratner, and the cost to taxpayers of his proposed development.
The report analyzes subsidies described in the Memorandum signed by Ratner, the ESDC, and the City in March, and concludes that the 17-skyscrapers and arena proposed for Prospect Heights, Brooklyn (“Atlantic Yards”) would cost New York City and State Taxpayers close to $2 billion dollars, and potentially a lot more.
“The ESDC must think taxpayers really are dummies,” said Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn Spokesperson Daniel Goldstein. “This is an utter misuse of public dollars, and the biggest act of public theft since the days of the Robber Barons. With maximum public subsidies, no accountable political oversight, and no public input it makes what’s going on with the West Side Stadium look like some kind of warm-up act.”
To Download Anatomy of a Sweetheart Deal: The Atlantic Yards MOU for Dummies and Public Subsidies for Dummies, go to www.dddb.net/dummies.
Posted by lumi at April 13, 2005 10:19 PM