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June 5, 2005
Gifford Miller Endorses Ratner’s Atlantic Yards Proposal Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) Says He Now Stands on the Side of Bloomberg and His Sweetheart Deals
DDDB Press Release:
BROOKLYN—Today Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), a community coalition fighting for the rights of communities to determine their futures, is denouncing Council Speaker and Mayoral candidate Gifford Miller’s announced endorsement and support for Forest City Ratner’s (FCR) $3.5 billion development proposal for a sports arena and 20 high-rises in Prospect Heights Brooklyn. This proposal will cost the taxpayers of New York City and State at least $1.6 billion.*“Speaker Miller has made it clear that he stands firmly on the side of billionaire developers’ backroom deals and against the people and communities of Brooklyn,” said DDDB spokesman, Daniel Goldstein. “It is the height of hypocrisy and inconsistency that Mr. Miller, a staunch opponent of the West Side Stadium boondoggle and a rigged MTA bidding process, is now supporting the same kind of sweetheart Olympics arena deal and rigged MTA process in Brooklyn. While he attacks the Mayor’s budget cuts and misplaced priorities, Mr. Miller has decided that this City’s priorities are sports arenas, massive overdevelopment, and luxury housing.”
Speaker Miller has been making the rounds of various Brooklyn community groups and political clubs over the past months, and at each stop, including last week, he has said that he does not have “enough information, facts or figures” to take a position on the Ratner proposal.
“I don’t know what new information Mr. Miller has,” Goldstein continued, “because at last week’s Council hearing on the Atlantic Yards proposal the Speaker attended for five minutes and then left the room, missing all the testimony on both sides of the issue. One thing he missed was Ratner’s announcement that he would now build 7,300 housing units, 2,800 more than originally proposed, and none of those added units are affordable. He also missed FCR’s testimony that they cannot guarantee any permanent jobs. He also missed that there is absolutely no infrastructure, transportation, traffic, schools, fire and police plan to deal with the 15,000 new residents and 20,000 arena visitors. Apparently he supports massive public subsidies for an arena, luxury housing, the creation of temporary jobs, unsustainable development, as well as the abuse of eminent domain.
Candidate Miller has run a campaign declaring that the City needs leadership, both for the City and as the leading urban center of the country.
Goldstein concluded, “Mr. Miller is correct, New York needs leadership. But what kind of a leader allows the City’s oversight of a massive 7.8 million square foot project to be completely taken away by an unaccountable State agency (the Empire State Development Corporation), without so much as a whimper from the Speaker of the City Council? As Speaker, he took all power away from the body he leads, while giving $100 million directly to FCR for a private arena. That’s not leadership; it's abdication at the people's expense. ”
Posted by amy at June 5, 2005 10:56 AM