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July 16, 2005
Downtown development more than just the Nets
Brian Ketcham's Viewpoint, in the Brooklyn Papers:
Brooklyn is facing development double the size of the Hudson Yards, more than seven times the rebuilding of the World Trade Center. Yet, none of the planning and public largess that has gone into those Manhattan projects is evident in Brooklyn. The consequence is that the city is making no commitment to providing the infrastructure to support tens millions of square feet of new development......The test of our resolve is the proposal by Forest City Ratner to build a sports and entertainment arena as the enticement for the right to plop 17 towers, dwarfing Co-op City, at the borough’s most congested crossroads. The giddy unquestioning embrace (or deafening silence) of most of our elected officials of what may be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back portends that we will forfeit our last chance for a transparent environmental assessment that honestly defines conditions for showering subsidies on the best use of a major public asset. It will be a tragic loss to everyone.
Posted by amy at July 16, 2005 10:46 AM