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August 17, 2005
'Times' to Commoners: Go Elsewhere
The Village Voice
by Paul Moses
The lease, on file with the Securities and Exchage Commission for The NY Times-Forest City Ratner Times Square project bars renting space in the 52-story building for:
* "a school or classroom or juvenile or adult day care or drop-in center."
* "medical uses" ("including without limitation, hospital, medical, or dental offices, agencies, or clinics"),
* employment agencies (other than executive-search firms),
* job training centers,
* auction houses ("provided, however, the foregoing shall not apply to high-end auction houses specializing in art and historical artifacts."),
* discount stores,
* welfare or social-services offices,
* homeless shelters or homeless assistance centers, and
* court or court-related facilies.
Lease restrictions that exclude the public may not be unusual in luxury office buildings, but there is an irony in this case. The Pataki administration, acting on behalf of the New York Times Company, condemned the property for a so-called "public purpose." This is the standard the Fifth Amendment sets for the state to invoke the immense power of eminent domain.
The rest of the article examines the question of whether or not the NY Times-Ratner project would pass constitutional muster under Kelo and if proposed legislation by State Asseblyman Brodky would have any effect on the liberal use of eminent domain in NYC.
Posted by lumi at August 17, 2005 8:34 AM