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August 7, 2005

Ratner arena a terror concern

Letter to the Editor of the Brooklyn Papers regarding the inherent and dangerous flaws in the Ratner plan:

To the editor:

As a co-author of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn’s white paper, “Terrorism, Security & the Proposed Brooklyn Atlantic Yards High Rise & Arena Development Project,” I would like to clarify two points in your July 16 article headlined, “Atlantic Terminal Terror Fear.”

While the white paper identifies various terrorist scenarios, one of its primary purposes is to show how the project’s location and design flaws create serious consequences even if NO terrorist event ever occurs.

Not only will there be direct costs that have never been included in anyone’s budgets — such as what to do about the Arena’s easily targeted street-side glass walls, or the Fire Department’s need for equipment for handling highrise fires and rescues in a borough that has been low-rise up until now — but cumulatively these costs could be high enough to affect the underlying financing of the project. One cost alone, that of terrorism insurance, could easily run into hundreds of millions of dollars, over the life of the project, when current federal laws covering such costs expire at the end of this year.

Original article
The White Paper: "Terrorism, Security & the Proposed Brooklyn Atlantic Yards High Rise & Arena Development Project"

Other non-financial costs are equally problematic. The most devastating of them concerns the impacts of traffic with its public health — read asthma — implications. [And] the need to secure the arena during special events, such as NBAplayoffs will inevitably create outright gridlock.

Brooklynites only have to think back to last August’s massive three-day nightmare when an elevated terror alert out of Washington, D.C., required the inspection of all commercial vehicles crossing the Manhattan Bridge. As noted, no actual terrorist event was required for there to be real costs to all of Downtown Brooklyn and its economy.

I have been exploring the security-related issues of this out-of-scale project since well before ever hearing of DDDB. In fact, the article’s indication that this issue has been brought up in various community meetings over the past year is really a reference to my own attempt to make security concerns a part of the public discourse. So while I support DDDB in all their efforts, I have maintained an independent stance to better present my findings. Most of these concerns have now been included in various pre-scoping documents being readied for the upcoming Environmental Impact Study.

The response of politicians has been mixed. Some, like [Councilwoman] Letitia James, [state Sen.] Velmanette Montgomery and Chris Owens [legislative aide to his father, Rep. Major Owens, who has expressed interest in running for the congressional seat] have been very accepting, while others have not.

Some, like mayoral candidates [City Council Speaker] Gifford Miller or [Rep.] Anthony Weiner have been disingenuous at best. Interestingly, [Borough President] Marty Markowitz, at a meeting of the Dean St. Block Association said it would be a reasonable thing to conduct a thorough security review of the project as was performed for the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero. — Alan M. Rosner, Prospect Heights

Posted by amy at August 7, 2005 2:03 PM