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September 16, 2005
RATNER DOUBLES ATLANTIC RAILYARD DEVELOPMENT OFFER TO "$1 MILLION"
As the controversy surrounding Bruce Ratner's plans gets more press, news reports will pop up that plain get the facts wrong. NoLandGrab readers will get very good at spotting these errors. Take this dispatch from Manhattan College's online news journal (errors in bold):
RATNER DOUBLES ATLANTIC RAILYARD DEVELOPMENT OFFER TO $1 MILLION
[TO quote Dr. Evil, "BWA-HA-HA!" The actual price tag is $100 million.]
Amid controversy over the Metropolitan Transportation's acceptance of Developer Bruce C. Ratner's low bid to develop the Atlantic Railyard in Brooklyn, a rival bid forced Ratner to double his bid to construct a Frank Gehry-designed basketball arena for the Nets, which plan to move across the Hudson River from New Jersey.
The newest bid, as reported by the New York Times, will give the MTA an additional $50 Million dollars to spend on improvements to the City's transportation grid that includes subways, commuter trains, and buses. A new rail yard would be added to the lot, as per the new agreement.
[No matter who won the bid, the railyard would have had to have been moved.]
Ratner came under fire this summer after residents protested the planned demolition of nearby buildings under the policy of "imminent domain," [property owners who haven't sold to Ratner are facing "imminent EMINENT domain"] which allows the city government to evict tenants and businesses from buildings seen as dilapidated or detrimental to the community. [Cities have the power of eminent domain, but it is NY State that is going to do the nasty here. Also, as per the US Supreme Court in Kelo v. New London, the property does not have to be declared "blighted," merely only needs to generate more tax revenue to be considered a "public use".] Critics accused the city [State] of abusing this statue to clear space for Ratner's design for the rail yard. [Eminent domain is NOT being used on the rail yard (which is already public property and only 8.3 acres of the 20-plus-acre project), it's being used on private property.]
The planned arena would cost about $555 million, and other buildings incorporated in the design would include 6,000 apartments, offices, and stores aimed at transforming the area into an affluent neighborhood. [Many factors are already changing the area into an affluent neighborhood. The big beef here is that the mammoth project will turn parts of Ft. Greene, Park Slope, Prospect Heights into a superblock compound with a 19,000-seat arena and over 20 high-rise buildings — it's overdevelopment to the extreme.]
Posted by lumi at September 16, 2005 6:36 AM