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March 31, 2006
Straight From The Bleachers: State of the Nets
Ratner Holds Annual Sit-down With Brooklyn Sports Scribes
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
By Jon Torenli
Bruce Ratner was nearly 20 minutes late for his unofficial “State of the Nets” address to Brooklyn sports writers at the Continental Airlines Arena last Thursday night in East Rutherford, New Jersey. His tardiness may have been a sign of things to come regarding his ongoing fight to bring the Nets to Brooklyn as our borough’s first major pro sports franchise since the Dodgers split town in 1957.
Posted by lumi at 4:09 PM
Boone Pickens's Gift To Oklahoma State Sparks Local Rivalry
Some Neighbors Jeer Plans For Huge Sports Complex; Lampooning the Largess
The Wall Street Journal
By Ryan Chittum
In Oklahoma, where college sports is professional sports, a multi-billionaire is funding a stadium expansion and "Athletic Village" for Oklahoma State University that stands to displace more than 1,300 residents in a "low-income neighborhood."
From an exchange at a community meeting:
"My house and my home is my special building," said longtime resident Liz Doyel. "You're trying to steal it."
"I'm not a thief," Mr. Schmidly replied.
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL PAGE ONE
Boone Pickens's Gift To Oklahoma State Sparks Local Rivalry Some Neighbors Jeer Plans For Huge Sports Complex; Lampooning the Largess
By RYAN CHITTUM
March 30, 2006; Page A1
STILLWATER, Okla. -- Boone Pickens has seen legendary fights over oil and corporate takeovers. Now, a giant gift to help his alma mater build a huge sports complex -- and a winning football team -- has plunged him into a different kind of battle, with residents of a low-income neighborhood.
Mr. Pickens's recent $165 million contribution to build new sports facilities at Oklahoma State University is the largest single donation made to a U.S. collegiate athletic program and more than half the size of the university's entire endowment.
OSU wants to use the money to expand its football stadium and build an "athletic village" complete with practice fields and new stadiums for soccer, baseball and other sports. But to do so, it will have to clear out a large residential area adjacent to the campus.
The university owns part of the 100-acre tract and is offering buyouts for the rest -- deals that have some people balking and refusing to leave. The plan puts Mr. Pickens at the center of a skirmish featuring tenants, property owners and the university.
Last month, community members packed the local library to hear OSU officials present the latest details of the plan, which is backed by the state's power of eminent domain. Some attendees cried, and others groaned. A question-and-answer session with OSU President David Schmidly drew boos and emotional exchanges from the crowd.
"My house and my home is my special building," said longtime resident Liz Doyel. "You're trying to steal it."
"I'm not a thief," Mr. Schmidly replied.
Calvin Anthony, a pharmacist and chairman of the local Chamber of Commerce, supports the plan because he believes it will be good for both the school and local business. He told people in the crowd they should thank Mr. Schmidly for meeting with them despite the intense opposition. "He may feel like a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs," he said.
Here in Stillwater, a city of 39,000, the plan stands to affect hundreds of people -- from students to pensioners -- who say they can't afford higher housing costs. OSU says 550 students currently live in the neighborhood, but it is unable to provide total population figures. According to geoVue Inc., a company that culls demographic information for commercial real-estate searches, there were 1,315 people living in 725 housing units in the area as of 2004. The median household income of those over the age of 25 was about $20,000 as of 2000.
Mr. Pickens, 77 years old, isn't sentimental about razing the neighborhood. "You look at it and think 'Gosh Almighty, we've got to get this stuff out of here,'" he says. "I mean, it's so bad looking. Those houses are in horrible condition."
On March 3, the Board of Regents unanimously approved the athletics plan, which calls for the demolition of many properties by year's end. About one-fifth of the owners, however, still refuse to engage in price negotiations -- and some have threatened to stand up to the bulldozers. Mr. Pickens, meanwhile, says he recently met with university officials to discuss how to speed up the process. "It's gonna get done so we might as well get at it," he says.
Over the past 25 years, Mr. Pickens has given about $250 million to OSU. The bulk of contributions were in the past three years, with about 80% of the total earmarked for athletics.
Mr. Pickens, whose spokesman says he has a net worth "in excess of $2 billion," made his fortune running the Irving, Texas-based Mesa Petroleum Co. (now called Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and unaffiliated with Mr. Pickens). In the 1980s, he earned fame attempting corporate takeovers.
An Oklahoma native, Mr. Pickens first attended Texas A&M. The school took away his basketball scholarship -- "I wasn't good enough," he says -- so he went to Stillwater to enroll in what was then Oklahoma A&M. Mr. Pickens tried out, unsuccessfully, for legendary coach Henry Iba's basketball team. In 1946 it was the last OSU squad to win a national basketball or football championship. He graduated in 1951 with a degree in geology.
Today at OSU, Mr. Pickens's influence extends well beyond the treasury. Last year, the billionaire recommended the appointments of football coach Mike Gundy and Athletic Director Mike Holder. The latter is a longtime quail-hunting buddy of Mr. Pickens who was formerly the school's golf coach. While Mr. Schmidly, the university president, says Mr. Pickens has no veto power over any decisions, he acknowledges that the appointments "had a lot to do with Boone gaining confidence" to make his record contribution.
That happened just after Christmas of 2005. Mr. Holder met with Mr. Pickens in his Dallas office to pitch the idea for a sports complex, to be built near Boone Pickens Stadium, the football facility named for him in 2003. Mr. Holder had been angling for a big donation, throwing out numbers Mr. Pickens called "ludicrous."
A day after the meeting, Mr. Pickens wired $165 million to the university, enough to cover more than half of the $300 million project's costs. The funds were almost immediately invested in a hedge fund controlled by Mr. Pickens -- a move that drew some criticism and was the subject of a New York Times article. Mr. Pickens says the fund has waived all fees.
Chris Stellman, an OSU senior who would be displaced by the project, created an online comic strip (http://www.boonestate.com) lampooning the university as "Boone State" and featuring Mr. Schmidly bowing to Mr. Pickens's every whim. One strip depicts Mr. Pickens talking about building the football team a day spa.
Although some locals resist the plan on principle, others are haggling over price. Opponents say OSU is offering owners about 70% of the assessed value of their properties. They complain the university has them over a barrel by threatening to use eminent domain, the legal process that allows government-related entities (including public colleges) to appropriate private property for the public benefit.
The university says it doesn't want to use eminent domain, though will as a "last resort" if property owners refuse to sell, Mr. Schmidly says.
County assessor Jacquie Rose describes OSU's offers for property in the area, where the median home price is about $70,000, as "low." Mr. Schmidly counters that the assessed values are too high. Instead, the university's buyouts prices are equal to 105% of its own appraiser's estimates. The university is also paying a "longevity bonus" to homeowners based on years of occupancy, plus moving expenses.
If Mr. Pickens's largess boosts OSU's football team as he hopes, he and university officials expect other benefits to follow -- in both sports and academic programs. At rival University of Oklahoma, about 70 miles south, a national football championship in 2000 spurred a $110 million fund-raising campaign that renovated and expanded its stadium, according to school officials there. Applications for enrollment soared and the school had to turn away students for its incoming freshman classes for the first time.
Write to Ryan Chittum at ryan.chittum@wsj.com
URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114368225596311823.html
Posted by lumi at 2:18 PM
Arena and Stadium Money Flows Freely
The Wonkster (political blog for the Gotham Gazette)
Money can't buy you love, but it can buy you sports!
The Wonkster on the State money for the Nets arena:
The $33 million is less than the $100 million developer Bruce Ratner is seeking, but state lawmakers may have to explain why they included it as an amendment to the Education, Labor and Family Assistance section of the budget. [emphasis added]
When the Yankees couldn't earn the community's support for the Stadium, they decided to buy it:
The [Joyce Purnick NY Times] article (available only to subscribers) discusses an overlooked issue in the plan - how $700,000 in cash grants to community organizations and 15,000 Yankee tickets will be distributed and how that will affect the City Council’s vote on the project on April 5.
Posted by lumi at 1:53 PM
A Closer Look: The Rhetoric of Eminent Domain Abusers
CastleWatch
(Online Publication of the Castle Coalition, the Institute for Justice's property-rights campaign)
Straight from the Eminent Domain Abuse Playbook:
"We are going to rescue and relocate individuals and we will put them in a better position than they’re living in now."
— Riviera Beach Mayor Michael Brown"I can’t let the public be raped by greedy owners."
— California city official, Dom BetroEminent Domain -- "the only thing that makes both sides sit down and negotiate in good faith."
— Frenchtown, Mo., City Council President Rory RiddlerThroughout the country, defenders of eminent domain for private development are increasingly using such outrageous rhetoric in an effort to undermine citizens’ overwhelming opposition to their projects.
NoLandGrab: We still get choked up by the well-worn familiarity of the perennial, "Eminent domain will only be used as a last resort." [Read: If we can't make you sell your house, we'll take it (as a last resort), so you'd be better off selling it to us in the first place.]
Posted by lumi at 12:27 PM
How Cities Can Declare Nice Homes and Businesses “Blighted”
Legislative Reform is the Only Remaining Solution
CastleWatch
What became of "blight?"
Decades ago, lawmakers enacted urban renewal statutes as a way to restore residential and commercial slums. The basic idea behind these programs—which have long been recognized as failures even to urban planners—was to improve communities and eliminate dangers that particular properties posed to the health and safety of the public. Generally, urban renewal programs gave local officials the power to seize buildings that tangibly endangered citizens in these communities (though the police power already provided that ability).
Unfortunately, City officials across the nation have employed these same statutes to take or threaten beautiful homes and businesses, and the very idea behind urban renewal programs has been perverted to allow the seizure of properties that just happen to be in locations that are desirable to developers.
Posted by lumi at 11:45 AM
Letter to the Editor: "The Battle in Brooklyn”
Shelterforce (Published by National Housing Institute)
In a letter to the editor, Steve Ettlinger takes on the National Housing Institute Board President John Atlas over Atlas's article touting ACORN's deal with Forest City Ratner, "The Battle in Brooklyn."
Ettlinger:
Indeed, the essential point, which Mr. Atlas does not make clear, is that ACORN stands to gain financially from this agreement, through its contract not only to market the Atlantic Yards project’s affordable housing units, but also to promote the entire mega-development, including the basketball arena and 16 skyscrapers of market-rate condos and office space.
Atlas get's the last word in a rebuttal:
Ettlinger’s characterization of ACORN as profiting from this deal implies that it is engaged in some kind of nefarious self-dealing. That is neither fair nor true. While Ratner, like many people, is in the business of making money, and countless people have ripped off the poor as poverty pimps or service providers, it’s certainly not true of ACORN.
REBUTTAL REBUTTAL
You didn't think Atlas would get the last word on NoLandGrab, did you?
Atlas cites a telephone poll conducted by ACORN as proof that the group is representing its member's interests.
In this poll, though 68% of participants would "support" the project if it contained "2,500 units" of affordable housing, 65% of those who were polled had a household income of "Under $30,000." That means that most poll participants would only be eligible for 5% of the "affordable housing" units.
Members were NOT polled on their likelihood to support the project if there were only 113 units (5% of 2,250 units) available to ALL applicants whose household income fell below $30,000.
Our point: detractors aren't against affordable housing, they just get suspicious when the rhetoric lacks substance.
Posted by lumi at 11:35 AM
Forest City Enterprises embroiled in Pittsburgh politics over slot machine license and (get this) an arena
PITTSBURGH — The back-door politicking surrounding Forest City Enterprise's bid to build a railyard-sized slot machine parlor in Pittsburgh has just spilled into the street, with enough suspicions of political favoritism to fill the pages of the Pittsburgh press.
And what would a good political cat fight be without an arena deal hanging in the balance?
The Pitt News (University of Pittsburgh), Editorial, Honest politics an unsafe bet
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Swann backs firm on hockey arena
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pens' allies rip other casino plan
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Rendell's arena plan hinges on Pens, casinos
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Penguins officials react cautiously to Rendell's backup arena plan
Posted by lumi at 11:10 AM
Demolitions continue
461 and 463 Dean Street have been cited by skeptics as examples of Bruce Ratner's over-reaching attempt to demolish properties in order to jump start a construction process that is already two years behind schedule. This step has been taken despite the fact that the project has NOT received final approval; in addition, the developer has never taken any significant measures to safeguard the public from alleged safety threats.
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn points out that the townhouses, occupied until less than a year ago and now falling victim to emergency demolitions, have workmen standing on their roofs, despite having been classified as under imminent danger of collapse.
An alert neighbor asks why do the workers need asbestos protection suits and should the neighbors be worried?
The fight to save and reuse old buildings in urban centers under threat of out-of-scale redevelopment is being waged nationwide: AP, Communities Fight 'Tear-Down Phenomenon'
Posted by lumi at 10:30 AM
Yanks support shaky?
Bronx delegation split, says community’s Council member
Metro NY
By Patrick Arden
Here's one article about this week's Yankee Stadium City Council hearing that points out that the approval isn't a done deal, despite the lack of media coverage of the opposition to the project:
“Many Council members have concerns, many more than the media realizes,” said Foster, who represents the Highbridge neighborhood and opposes the project. “The Bronx delegation isn’t completely on board yet. I don’t see how between now and Wednesday the issues that we have can be resolved.”
OnNYTurf has taken the point and compiled a list of key City Councilmembers to contact to make your opinion heard on this very important vote.
Railyards, city parks -- these are public assets that Mayor Bloomberg has been hell-bent to hand over to sports teams despite inflated claims of economic benefit.
Posted by lumi at 9:45 AM
Ballpark figures
Sports economists agree that cities--and taxpayers--get close to nothing from spending public money on sports teams. What they haven't figured out is why we're still doing it.
The Boston Globe
By Drake Bennett
Cities continue to spend millions of dollars to build new sports venues, though the economic impact is dubious. This is a must-read article for those who are trying to understand how these sports venue deals are sold to the public.
Posted by lumi at 9:07 AM
NY Press Calls Developers "Loathsome"
The Real Estate Observer
By Michael Calderone
The Observer celebrates the year of the irrepressible developer on the NY Press's "50 Most Loathsome List."
...this year's list is quite different, with an influx of real estate big wigs. Bruce Ratner, Larry Silverstein, David Walentas, Shaya Boymelgreen, and Michael Shvo all make the list. Barbara Corcoran and Steven Roth--who were on last year's-- are spared.
NoLandGrab: Hey, don't forget that Bruce Ratner was #49 in 2004. Sidelined in 2005 due to injury, he spent the off-season working on his jump shot, mounting what could be a record-breaking almost-worst-to-first most-loathsome comeback.
Posted by lumi at 8:45 AM
Walk Softly But Carry a Big Batson
Brooklyn Downtown Star
By Rachel Monahan
An opponent of the Atlantic Yards project has announced his candidacy for public office. Bill Batson said Sunday at City Hall that he'd stepped down last week as director of community relations for state Senate minority leader David Paterson to run for the Assembly seat now occupied by Roger Green.
"I oppose the project," he said simply in his prepared remarks, saying it was but one example of the overdevelopment of the borough. That four-worder was the biggest applause line of the afternoon, causing an outpouring of cheers from the fifty or so supporters who braved the drizzly weather to flank his announcement.
Posted by lumi at 8:15 AM
March 30, 2006
State Legislators Bury $33 Million for Ratner Arena in Education Fund
"Atlantic Yards" Developer Receives Subsidy While Proposal Remains a Financial, Planning and Environmental Mystery
ALBANY, NY–State legislators have proposed to grant $33 million for Forest City Ratner's "Atlantic Yards" development proposal in Brooklyn.
Developer Forest City Ratner (FCR) requested $100 million for its 16 tower and arena proposal, but both houses have granted and buried $33 million of it in the proposed budget in an amendment to the Education, Labor and Family Assistance Budget. The budget item is lined "Atlantic Yards Railway-Nets project."
Develop Don't Destroy spokesman Daniel Goldstein said, "It appears that Albany has put a basketball arena in the education budget. To make matters worse, this giveaway has been made without any knowledge of the proposed development’s: cost-benefit analysis, scale, density, design, environmental impact, cost of mitigation, financial viability, and security measuresto name just a few of the unknowns about the development plan.
Goldstein continued, "Granting a single cent to Ratner at this point is grossly premature. We'd like to know what other backroom politics were at play 150 miles from the people of Brooklyn who would have a front row seat to Ratner's destructive, publicly-subsidized, sweetheart, backroom deal."
Brooklyn assembly members, such as Roger Green who represents the district where the development is proposed and is an avid Ratner booster, lost their one chance at using the Ratner request for $100 million as legislative leverage to gain any meaningful concessions or mitigations from the developer. In November, Mr. Green said, “"I didn't sign the C.B.A. and that was intentional, because my position was that my ultimate endorsement on behalf of this project would be the state legislation, the legislation that would authorize the resources that they would need to complete this project."
"We want an explanation about this giveaway from Assemblyman Green and his colleagues, and we want it before this budget item is voted on," Goldstein concluded.
The state has proposed this giveaway despite the fact that Forest City Ratner has only provided this indecipherable, meaningless 20-year profit/loss financial projection to Albany and the MTA (a real 20-year projection was required in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Request For Proposals for Vanderbilt rail yards.).
Reports say the body will vote on the budget package on Friday.
Posted by lumi at 4:41 PM
NY PRESS 50 MOST LOATHSOME NEW YORKERS
And the coverboy of The NY Press annual "50 MOST LOATHSOME NEW YORKERS," leading the field at #1, is the eminent-domain-addicted Sultan of Subsidy...
BRUCE RATNER
Nets Owner & DeveloperWhere’s Jackie O. when you need her? The Atlantic Yards project and the rest of the properties this comb-over-mini-Donald’s got his greenbacked mitts around aren’t exactly Grand Central Terminal, but bear with us. Think of all the upper-middle-class homeowners who will be displaced after long, hard years of work carving a viable neighborhood out of a once-desolate area of Brooklyn. Then there are the many working-class people living in Prospect Heights, and the small businesspersons in the area. Aren’t their homes and businesses worth saving? The Empire State Development Board, Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Pataki and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz don’t think so. The centerpiece of the proposed development is a 19,000-seat arena that will house the Brooklyn (née New Jersey) Nets, in which Ratner has a major stake. Also on the table are 17 high rises, which will be as high as 55 stories, 628,000 square feet of commercial space and residences. The housing bit is a ruse to assuage the masses. The “affordable” residential buildings will, however, remain out of reach for a single mom of four surviving on a sub-poverty-line paycheck. Ratner’s attempts to evade official processes for major real estate projects and the use of Supreme Court-endorsed eminent domain have been met with challenges from underfunded groups like Develop Don’t Destroy. What really pisses us off is the imminent razing of Freddy’s Bar and Backroom, which is in the 22-acre footprint. With the Freddy’s gone, where will we get our $4 beers when that’s all we have in our wallet? Oh, and don’t look for criticism in the Newspaper of Record: Ratner’s building theTimes’ gleaming new headquarters building west of Times Square.
And don't forget Bruce's Cheerleader-in-Chief, Marty Markowitz, who slipped from #21 a year ago to #31.
31 Marty Markowitz
Brooklyn Borough PresidentInstead of using what little power he has positively during the transit strike last Christmas (press releases and sound bites don’t count), the genial Marshmallow Man Markowitz turned Borough Hall into a coffee-and-tea joint for those commuters who decided to brave the winds on the Brooklyn Bridge. He stood at the foot of the entrance to the bridge cheering on the frostbitten, grumbling masses, essentially putting on a kissing-babies act. Gee, a bialy and hot coco really warms our toes, Marty. That’s his shtick. Smile, pat some backs, announce his support for the newest cause du jour as long as the press is around. Then there’s the real Marty, the backroom Marty. Case in point: his ebullient support for development czar Bruce Ratner’s proposed Atlantic Railyard, 20,000-seat, Frank Gehry-designed sports arena and the surrounding retail, residential and “public” (ironic quotes) spaces. Last summer, Markowitz held a press conference with Upstate and city politicians and Ratner’s puppet community groups—among them BUILD—to announce the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement. They all agreed Ratner’s vision is in the best interest of Brooklyn. But the beep is really hot about pipe dreams of a supposed sports renaissance, heralded by the construction of a complex for what would be the Brooklyn Nets. The restless ghosts of the Brooklyn Dodgers would at last be laid to rest at Ebbett’s Field. Meanwhile, he oversees a borough in the midst momentous change, with neighborhood after neighborhood falling prey to rapacious developers, and long-established communities uprooted.
Other NoLandGrab regulars who made the list are:
#11 George Pataki -- who gets extra credit for the gaping hole at Ground Zero
#22 Michael Bloomberg -- with his "capo" Dan Doctoroff
#40 Bill Weld -- no mention of eminent domain; apparently, he already comes with plenty of loathsome credentials.
Posted by lumi at 7:02 AM
Second Demolition Begins At Nets Arena Site In Brooklyn
NY1's lead paragraph covering the demolition of 585 Dean St. begins "The next step toward bringing a new Nets arena and residential complex to Brooklyn Wednesday..."
NoLandGrab: Local groups were right to be concerned that the demolitions would be portrayed as the first phase of the construction of the project.
To be clear, the environmental impact statement for the project hasn't even been released, though some of the backroom politics may have been sorted out during the recent budget negotiations.
The article continues:
Meanwhile, NY1 has learned the State Assembly and Senate will include a $33 million provision in the upcoming state budget for the project.
The only problem is the state inked a deal last year that secured Ratner's company much more financial support.
“The governor signed a memorandum of understanding for $100 million, and ultimately, I assume, he will find a way in which to fulfill that commitment which he made to supply the $100 million,” said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
Posted by lumi at 6:37 AM
Ridge Hill, River Club seek Yonkers IDA assistance
The Journal News
By Michael Gannon
Regarding the controversial Forest City Ratner project in Yonkers, a resolution has been approved by the city's Industrial Development Agency to grant sales- and mortgage-recording tax exemptions in connection with the Ridge Hill project.
Forest City Ratner also is seeking a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement, according to the resolution.
NoLandGrab: "He's the master of subsidy. No one does it better," said Fred Siegel, a professor of history at the Cooper Union on Bruce Ratner (Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 30, 2005).
Posted by lumi at 6:24 AM
RATNER COURTS TOP TIMES TOWER TENANT
NY Post
By Lois Weiss
It looks like Bruce Ratner may finally have a big tenant interested in taking space in The New York Times Tower now under construction opposite the Port Authority bus terminal.
The Post has learned the law firm Dechert is in the market for some 200,000 square feet, where they would move from 30 Rockefeller Center.
...
Disney's ESPN is another 200,000 foot tenant seriously considering the 708,000 feet Ratner has available.
Posted by lumi at 6:22 AM
Forest City Enterprises Reminder of Semi-Annual Earnings Conference Call Friday, March 31, 2006, 11:00 A.M. ET
For those who are closely watching the financial health of the Atlantic Yards developer's parent company, Forest City Enterprises:
Forest City Enterprises announced its fiscal year-end results yesterday, March 28, 2006, and will be conducting a conference call Friday, March 31, 2006 at 11:00 A.M. ET.
You are invited to dial into the conference call with Charles A. Ratner, President and Chief Executive Officer.
The conference call is scheduled for 11:00 A.M. ET, Friday, March 31, 2006. To participate, please dial 1-866-356-3095, using access code -- Forest City Enterprises -- approximately five minutes before the scheduled time of the conference call and tell the operator you wish to join the Forest City Semi-Annual Earnings Conference Call. The live broadcast will also be available online at Forest City's Website -- www.forestcity.net.
Posted by lumi at 6:11 AM
March 29, 2006
Ratner falls short of $100 million
Though it is far short of the $100 million that Ratner was seeking as a direct subsidy for his Atlantic Yards plan, the NY State Legislature's draft version of the new budget includes $33 million for "Atlantic Yards Railway -- Nets Project" (click image to view copy of budget draft).
This giveaway was added to the capital budget as part of the Dept of Education budget, despite the fact that there was: * NO comprehensive, independent cost-benefit analysis, * NO General Project Plan (GPP), * NO Environmental Impact Statement, * NO known cost for “extraordinary infrastructure,” and * NO 20-year pro forma financial projection from the developer (as required by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Request For Proposal).
In other words, millions of dollars were added to the Dept. of Education's capital budget for a project whose actual size, costs, enviromental impacts, and financial benefits are unknown.
LIFE LESSON: It takes a big stick to fund education, but there's always money for professional sports.
Posted by lumi at 11:39 PM
Roger Green's Version
The Real Estate Observer
By Matthew Schuerman
Back in November Roger Green told Observer reporter Matthew Schuerman:
"I didn't sign the C.B.A. and that was intentional, because my position was that my ultimate endorsement on behalf of this project would be the state legislation, the legislation that would authorize the resources that they would need to complete this project."
Back in January, Green claimed he was working on comprehensive legislation that would address density, traffic and "vegetative rooftops."
Today, at the eleventh hour before the State budget is approved, Green is about to "lose a very powerful means of leveraging any change" to the Atlantic Yards project.
But don't worry, he still plans to "introduce the green roofs and traffic bills."
Posted by lumi at 11:23 PM
RALLY TO STOP EMINENT DOMAIN ABUSE
The Libertarian Party is holding a rally in Albany against Eminent Domain abuse, inviting groups fighting some of the most egregious land grabs in the State (including Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project) along with Gubernatorial candidate William Weld, a past victim of eminent domain abuse himself, but a recent public supporter of Atlantic Yards.
This ain't no family reunion. We don't know how the Republican candidate has justified his puzzling position to rally organizers, but an event attended by representatives of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and William Weld may end up like a wedding of the Hatfields and the McCoys.
Press release after the jump.
BELLPORT, NY -- (03/29/2006; 1115)(EIS) -- Libertarian Party of New York officials and concerned candidates, crying "No More Land Grabs," are launching a "spring offensive" to influence legislators towards amending state law to ban eminent domain abuse. Local Libertarians such as Eric Sundwall of Columbia County (running for Congress, 20th District) and Jeff Russell (of Clifton Park, candidate for U.S. Senate) have announced they will be emphasizing the misuse of eminent domain throughout their campaigns.
Representatives of groups who have been victimized by such property seizures have been contacted to participate, including African-Americans from the Park South community in Albany, and Develop-Don't-Destroy Brooklyn, where residents are threatened with being kicked out of their homes to build a new stadium for the NY Nets. A demonstration in the Capitol building area has been scheduled for Friday, April 28 to draw attention to stalled and piecemeal legislation currently pending on the issue.
"New Yorkers grow impatient that, nine months after the U.S. Supreme Court's widely criticized Kelo decision, no bill has yet emerged from the NY Legislature to prevent state or local government from using eminent domain to take property from homeowners, to benefit private developers," says LPNY Chair John Clifton. He asks: "Many states have already passed laws to halt this type of theft of land and housing, within weeks of the Kelo ruling. Why is New York lagging behind the country on this subject?"
Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld, now running for Governor of New York, opposes eminent domain abuse and has said giving broad leeway to local governments to seize property reminded him of "Communist China." Weld is himself a past victim of an eminent domain seizure of one of his properties. He has challenged would-be opponent and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to define his position on the issue.
"This case stands as an example of government overreaching and constraining a fundamental liberty. Title to every property in this nation is now effectively clouded by the threat of a government taking and transfer in the name of increasing the value upon which government can levy imposts. This practice must stop," Weld said.
Language to amend the current law was also drafted in 2005 by then-LPNY Legislative Director Jeff Shapiro, immediately following the Supreme Court decision. Clifton says the party prefers its "clean" version, to address the disruption of neighborhoods occurring across the state by way of the corporate demolition ball. "Eminent domain abuse for commercial and economic development purposes should be specifically outlawed, and the term 'blighted' needs to be very precisely defined in the law, before the designation is applied to deprive citizens or whole communities of their property."
Libertarians are determined to nominate a strong pro-property rights, anti-EDA candidate for Governor at its state convention at the Best Western in Albany on Saturday, April 29.
Posted by lumi at 10:04 PM
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn: Letter and Documents Sent to Legislature
The NY State Legislature is making a mad dash to adopt an on-time budget for the second year in a row. March Madness includes Forest City Ratner's lobbying effort for a $100-million direct subsidy for Atlantic Yards.
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn is fighting back by sending a packet of information to legislators, explaining that it is premature to earmark money for a project that hasn't been approved and whose justification is based on a growing pile of mistruths and overestimations.
Link to LETTER & INFORMATION PACKET sent to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
$6 BILLION, PR TACTICS & HALF-TRUTHS
Yesterday, Atlantic Yards Report revealed that the $6-BILLION figure, used in the form letter Forest City Ratner provided for legislators to send to Silver in support of the project, was based on a discredited report, commissioned and paid for by Ratner.
FORM LETTER WITH ANNOTATIONS
DDDb sent the same form letter complete with annotations that reveal the extent that Forest City Ratner has resorted to PR tactics and half-truths to promote the proposal for the largest private real estate deal in Brooklyn in history.
NoLandGrab readers love a good joke so we saved the funny part for last.
20-YEAR PRO FORMA CASH-FLOW PROJECTIONS FOR ATLANTIC YARDS
Good government advocates argue, if BILLIONS of dollars of taxpayer money is going into the project, then the public has a right to know how much Forest City Ratner expects to make on the deal.
For months local groups have requested that Forest City Ratner's profit projections submitted in their formal MTA bid be released (rival bidder Extel's projections were released at the time that the bids were unveiled).
Finally, brought to you by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn through a Freedom of Information request, these projections are seeing the light of day.
The joke is that the 20-year cash-flow analysis turns out to be one page of meaningless figures.
CONCLUSION. Either: * the MTA is continuing to hide the rest of the figures, or * Forest City Ratner really did give them one sheet of paper with some numbers, knowing in advance that they had the "winning" bid (despite bidding $100 million less than Extel).
Hey, we just said it was "a good joke," not that it was on us.
Posted by lumi at 8:53 PM
Building in footprint of Nets arena faces demolition today
Metro NY
By Amy Zimmer
The former mattress warehouse, 585 Dean St., is expected to be demolished starting today:
However, according to... a report the developer released to project foes Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, “the majority of the building’s distresses observed are the consequences of the building being open to elements and water infiltration.”
Daniel Goldstein, DDDB’s spokesman, said in the 20 months Ratner has owned the building, “They have let it deteriorate so they can claim it’s ‘blighted’ and so they can claim that it’s a public hazard in danger of imminent collapse.” Goldstein said the call for demolition was “bogus” because the developer had for so long “left the building stand with no protection to the public.”
Posted by lumi at 7:31 AM
Forest City Reports Fiscal 2005 Full-Year and Fourth-Quarter Results
Business Wire
2005 was a record-breaking year for Forest City Enterprises, Bruce Ratner's parent company:
Charles A. Ratner, president and chief executive officer of Forest City Enterprises, said, "Fiscal 2005 was an excellent year for Forest City. We reached a record-high $1.2 billion in consolidated revenues and reported our 26th consecutive year of EBDT growth. During the year, our balance sheet grew to record levels, with total assets of $8.0 billion and total real estate assets climbing 11.1 percent to $7.2 billion. Shareholders' equity reached $894.4 million, an increase of 11.2 percent compared with last year. We closed 2005 in a strong liquidity position with more than $540 million in cash and credit available."
Profits would have been higher if it weren't for the mounting losses by the NJ Nets:
The increase in EBDT for the year was partially offset by the increased loss for The Nets (basketball team), which the Company did not own in the first half of 2004; and 2004 EBDT from the Lumber Trading Group, which was sold in the fourth quarter of last year.
Posted by lumi at 7:07 AM
March 28, 2006
Ratner's Capital
The Real Estate Observer
By Matthew Schuerman
While Ratner is trying to raise $60 million for his money hemmoraging basketball team, he's trying to insure that $100 million will be earmarked in the State budget for his Atlantic Yards high-rise/arena proposal.
NY Observer reporter Matthew Schuerman is keeping an eye on Albany and whether or not the $100-million direct State subsidy is in.
Governor Pataki has always been portrayed as a big booster for Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards, but his rival in the state Assembly is apparently even more of one. Skip Carrier, Sheldon Silver's spokesman, told us that the Assembly Speaker's proposed budget includes $200 million for "economic development"--an unspecified portion of which would go to the Brooklyn arena and housing complex. Carrier said Pataki's budget included no money for any sort of economic development projects. We're waiting for confirmation from the Governor's media people on that.
Posted by lumi at 8:03 PM
THURSDAY NIGHT:
Ethical Culture Society Hosts Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
Thursday, March 30, 7pm
53 Prospect Park West (btwn 1st & 2nd St.)
Park Slope, Brooklyn. [MAP]
HEADLINING: Lisa Gutkin and Lorin Sklamberg from THE KLEZMATICS.
ALSO:
* Classical guitarist Robert Secrist
* Julia & Leela, of the Jewel Odalisque Dancers, performing Middle
Eastern dance.
PLUS!
A BAKERS' ROW featuring some of Brooklyn's top local bakers:
Erica's Rugelach & Baking Co.
Regina Bakery
Cheryl Kleinman Cakes
Shakoor's Sweet Tooth
Cousin John's
Voila Bakery
RAFFLES with prizes donated by local merchants, story-telling and singalongs, a photo exhibition, local crafts.
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn will be on hand to give updates on the battle to create respectful, community-friendly development.
Admission for the benefit is a sliding scale of $5-10-20.
Posted by lumi at 10:29 AM
The $6 billion lie: why Ratner's fiscal claim is Swiss cheese
Atlantic Yards Report
It's the $6-BILLION lie that won't die.
Lie, major misoverestimation... whatever you want to call it, Forest City Ratner is still touting the $6-BILLION figure divined by the Ratner-commissioned report written by sports-venue-economist-turned-hired-gun Andrew Zimbalist.
Currently the figure is playing a starring role "in a letter they're providing to state legislators in an effort to lobby Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver."
The Zimbalist report has been discredited and contradicted by reports issued since the Atlantic Yards proposal was in its infancy:
It results from manipulated statistics, an enormous (and methodologically flawed) overestimate of revenues, and an omission (and then an underestimate) of costs.
The study's conclusions--and FCR's manipulation of them--are challenged in reports by two city agencies and two outside analysts, not to mention an application of some economic common sense.
Atlantic Yards Report listed 10 reasons "to question the purported $6-billion figure," and ran out of gas at 15.
Posted by lumi at 8:39 AM
The Transportation Argument
We’re told that it makes sense to locate a major development at the proposed site, because it’s already a transportation hub. A nice sound bite, but it’s not the full story.
Brooklyn Views outlines the real-life traffic and transportation conditions that contribute to the reputation of the intersection at Atlantic, Flatbush and 4th as "one of the most congested in the borough, at virtually all hours of the day and night." In addition, BV cites many common-sense and innovative ideas that should be studied and considered.
On the other hand, if New York City and Forest City Ratner got serious about solving the existing problems, they might have to face the possibility that:
In a real study of possible sites, locating a surge of 19,000 additional people at one of the most congested intersections of a main artery in Brooklyn would not likely be selected as the best fit for this program.
Posted by lumi at 8:02 AM
The Gripe Against Gehry
Rogue's Gallery
"Rogue #4: The Sculptor"
"By definition, a building is a sculpture, because it is a three-dimensional object." — Frank Gehry
Place Performance takes sculptor-slash-starchitect Frank Gehry at his word and explains why his giant "attention getting," "whimsical," "wobbling," "kick-ass sculptures" are generally "not made to live in" because "the concentration is always on how the building looks instead of how it performs, or how it feels."
An example is Cleveland's great mistake:
Clevelanders were heartbroken to learn that their beautiful new five-story Peter B. Lewis Building with the complicated titanium roof at the business school at Case Western University is a nuisance and a menace. When the hot Cleveland sun is shining, the campus pedestrians are blinded by all that shiny metal - the CNN report says, "the glint off the steel tiles is so powerful that standing next to the building is like lying on a beach with a tanning mirror."
And here during its first winter, they're finding out that this $62 million masterpiece dumps snow off its sloping surfaces and hangs dangerous-looking two-foot icicles off at least one roof edge.
Posted by lumi at 7:21 AM
RATNER: I WANT A QUARTER BACK
Looking to sell 25 percent of Nets
The Brooklyn Papers
By Ariella Cohen
Bruce Ratner is trying to raise $60 million to keep the NJ Nets afloat now that the team "expected to remain in its New Jersey moneypit until the 2009-10 season or longer."
Here's a brilliant yarn spun by Ratner's crack PR team:
A spokesperson for Forest City Ratner told the Star-Ledger that the company was “looking to raise new equity to increase liquidity."
BOOYAH!
Posted by lumi at 5:45 AM
March 27, 2006
KO aid to Ratner until school is built, pol sez
The NY Daily News
By Hugh Son
The controversial Atlantic Yards project shouldn't get $100 million in state funds until a desperately needed Sunset Park high school is built, a Brooklyn elected official said.
The stalled high school project - promised and then scrapped three times in 37 years - is more deserving of state funding than developer Bruce Ratner's $3.5 billion arena, office and residential tower project, said state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery (D-Fort Greene).
Posted by lumi at 10:57 AM
Should Brooklyn Brewery support developer Bruce Ratner’s controversial Atlantic Yards project?
Metro NY
Fans For Fair Play Coordinator Scott Turner and Brooklyn Brewery Owner Steve Hindy stand toe-to-toe and make their respective cases against and for the largest private development in the history of Brooklyn.
Turner:
FFFP advocates for responsible development, jobs, housing, democracy and equal opportunity for all. It’s the Brooklyn way. But it’s not Bruce Ratner’s. We urge everyone to Think Before You Drink a beer whose taste has soured as it cozies up to the neighborhood bully.
Hindy:
So the Brooklyn Brewery supports the development. Not because of any short-term financial reasons (we sell plenty of beer at the New Jersey Nets’ Continental Arena), but because we think it would be good for Brooklyn. And what is good for Brooklyn is good for all Brooklyn families and the Brooklyn Brewery.
The ever vigilant Atlantic Yards Reports corrects some of Hindy's figures.
Posted by lumi at 10:06 AM
Atlantic Yards Report: Catching up
Since the Atlantic Yards Report was on hiatus for two days, Stormin' Norman Oder spent the weekend catching up.
Will lawyer for ESDC remain disqualified? Tough to tell
The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) hired "provisional counsel" while the Appellate Court decides whether or not David Paget's employment by both Forest City Ratner and the ESDC is a "severe and crippling" conflict of interest.
There is an important debate going on in the friend of the court filings for this case. The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN) references a letter in which the ESDC cites Paget's firm as insurance that the "review process will be unbiased." Meanwhile, the ESDC believes that the CBN is an alter ego of the Atlantic Yards opposition despite the fact that many of the groups involved in the Council have no stated position for or against the plan.
Fiscal impact of Atlantic Yards? The city keeps report under wraps
New York City's analysis of the fiscal impact of Atlantic Yards has been cited in a City Hall press release, but has not been made public.
A recently obtained document from the New York City Economic Development Corporation shows that not only is the net fiscal impact less than the estimated $1 billion in City and State contributions and subsidies, but fails to take into account a biggie:
While the agency calculated new tax revenues, it made no attempt to factor in increased costs, such as for public safety, schools, and sanitation.
Posted by lumi at 9:26 AM
Bill Batson announces run for State Assembly
Bill Batson has thrown his hat in the ring as the 57th Assembly District's candidate taking a stand against Ratner's Atlantic Yards proposal.
The NY Times, Metro Briefs, "BROOKLYN: SENATE AIDE SEEKS ASSEMBLY SEAT"
Atlantic Yards Report, Brooklyn’s Barack? Batson declares for Assembly, could block AY project
The candidate speaks and AYR outlines a scenario in which a Batson win, in one of the assembly districts carried by Norman Siegel in last year's run for Public Advocate against Ratner supporter Betsy Gotbaum, could make a difference in the approval process.
Posted by lumi at 8:59 AM
Eminent Domainia: Fighting local takings
Manhattanville
Columbia Spectator, Stringer Skeptical of CU Expansion
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's support for the community oppposing Columbia University's planned expansion could pose a problem for the project, which, unlike Atlantic Yards, must go through the local review process. At issue is eminent domain, forced displacement of tenants and a truly fair Community Benefits Agreement.
“I want to promise you that as long as I’m borough president I’m going to do everything I can so that Columbia cannot run roughshod over this community,” he said at a meeting of the Coalition to Preserve Community, a group that has protested the expansion plans.
...
Stringer expressed opposition to the use of eminent domain to take property in Manhattanville and suggested he would be willing to use his vote in the Uniform Land Use Review Process, the procedure for approving rezoning of the area, to leverage Columbia into taking it off the table. “I’m not for eminent domain, and I do have a role in this ULURP process,” he said. Columbia has asked the state to consider using eminent domain to forcibly buy properties from business owners who have refused to sell, though they say it remains a last resort.
...
“Columbia left to their own devices has a thirty year record of evicting tenants, of not dealing with the community,” Stringer said. ...
He said a CBA would have to be truly beneficial to win his support. “I’m not here to stand behind a false agreement,” he said, adding, “CBAs that are negotiated behind closed doors... set a dangerous precedent.”
Longbranch, NJ
NJEminentDomain.com
Read the lastest developments in the MTOTSA residents' (Marine Terrace, Ocean Terrace, Seaview Avenue) fight to save their homes.
North Hills, NY
The NY Times, Of the Rich, Eminent Domain ... and Golf (Times Select login required)
If they ever decide to rewrite "The Great Gatsby" as a land-use and property law textbook, it will read pretty much like the battle between the haves and the have-mores now playing out on the North Shore of Long Island.
...
North Hills has just about everything except one thing: its own community golf course for the use of the village, which is something residents of the neighboring villages of Lake Success and Sands Point have.And so, in a rather startling entry into terrain once associated with condemning land for highways or bulldozing blighted communities, North Hills is considering using powers of eminent domain to take the golf course from its current members and give it to the residents of North Hills.
Posted by lumi at 7:24 AM
March 26, 2006
Batson For Brooklyn!
Hey look at this: A local political race that's actually about something.Bill Batson, a David Paterson aide and Brooklyn activist (and accomplished artist), has his Web site up with the note that he'll be announcing his challenge to Roger Green this Sunday.
The issue: The Atlantic Yards project, which Batson has opposed and Green backs.
Bill Batson is announcing his candidacy for the 57th Assembly District this Sunday 3/26 at 2pm, on the steps of City Hall. All are invited.
Posted by amy at 11:00 PM
Critic Morrone: urban quality of Brooklyn at stake
Atlantic Yards Report offers a terrific recap of Francis Morrone's criticism of the Atlantic Yards proposal:
Historian and an architecture critic Francis Morrone, speaking to an audience in Brooklyn Heights as part of a 3/23/06 forum on the Atlantic Yards project, declared that "nowhere is the urban quality of Brooklyn so at stake as at the Atlantic Yards" and called for community vigilance toward inappropriate development. He also warned that architect Frank Gehry's "disjunctive esthetic" was inappropriate for the site.
Posted by amy at 10:35 AM
March 25, 2006
Tag Sale Continues...
Last weekend's tag sale was a huge success, and thanks to all of you for that. However, they have a lot of nice things left and therefore will have a FINAL CLOSE OUT SALE this Saturday, March 25, from 1-6 pm.
There is a beautiful antique Eastlake small settee for $300 and an antique Eastlake easel for $150. Other items include: housewares, great clothes of all sorts, crystal, books, toys, games, frames, vases, furniture, Tiffany baby procelain, small clocks and more.
Come and shop and help preserve our wonderful brownstone neighborhoods.
Remember...this sale benefits:
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
The Fort Greene Park Conservancy
Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District
LOCATION: 104-106 So. Oxford St., Fort Greene, between Lafayette Ave. & Fulton St.
TIME: Saturday, Mar. 25, 1-6 pm.
It is right across the street from the Lafayette stop on the C line and near the G line. On the C, from Manhattan, be at the front of the train and take the left stair exit to So. Oxford St.
Posted by amy at 7:39 AM
RATNER SEEKS $100M
Crain's:
Forest City Ratner is lobbying the State Legislature to include $100 million in the next state budget - due April 1 - for its Brooklyn Atlantic Yards project. The developer was promised the money for infrastructure improvements in a memorandum of understanding signed last year. But the request has outraged opponents because the project has not been approved, lacks completed environmental reviews, and doesn't have a final design yet. Atlantic Yards is also expected to face a court challenge on several fronts, including its use of eminent domain.
Posted by amy at 6:31 AM
Atlantic Yards Counsel Case Points to Defects in Environmental Laws
Big Cities Big Boxes:
The real problem is with the environmental statutes, which in effect put the fox-developers in charge of the state environmental henhouse. As counsel for the state pointed out yesterday, the statute permits the developer to draft his own environmental impact statement (EIS). The EIS, however, is what the entire environmental regulatory process must examine. Although counsel for the state would doubtless not put it this way, we have environmental statutes that in their very nature positively require a conflict of interest. To enforce the statutes as drafted means to put the developer in control of the state process that is supposed to regulate him.
Posted by amy at 5:43 AM
March 24, 2006
Willoughby plaza at Marriott nears OK
The Brooklyn Papers offers a dismal summary of one of Ratner's 'open spaces':
A space needs something that will make it a destination, not just a pass-through.”That “something” never made a destination of the large pedestrian plaza a few blocks northeast of Willoughby Street — a commons area at the center of Forest City Ratner’s Metrotech office campus.
Though well-maintained and safe, the planter-bedecked Metrotech plaza feels more like a parking lot with benches than a vibrant public space.
Posted by amy at 6:19 PM
State Agency Boots Ratner Lawyer After Ruling
WNYC:
In a victory for opponents of the Brooklyn Nets High Rise project, a state agency has voted not to use a laywer who also works for developer Forest City Ratner. But the Empire State Development Corporation is defending its right to chose its own lawyer in court.
Posted by amy at 6:15 PM
Judges To Decide if Agency Can Rehire Lawyer Banned From Atlantic Yards Project
The NY Sun
By David Lombino
Report from yesterday's appeals court hearing:
The state’s lawyer, Douglas Kraus, said yesterday that Mr. Paget’s role with the state would not include decision-making, and that opponents could challenge the state on its final determination on the project, but not on whom it hires as a lawyer.
A lawyer for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, Jeffrey Baker, asked the court to uphold Mr. Paget’s ban, saying doing so would serve to regain the public’s trust in the state review process.
One judge said Mr. Paget’s dual roles gave the appearance of impropriety but on a deeper level might not be a conflict of interest. Another judge said the more appropriate forum for a challenge by opponents would come after the state’s decision.
After the hearing, Mr. Paget told reporters: “We’re lawyers. We abide by the law.”
Pending the outcome of the case, the state has hired a “provisional counsel” to avoid any delay on the project.
Posted by lumi at 8:13 AM
Watching the Takers
The NY Sun, Editorial
The Sun explains how the "collaborative" relationship between Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner and the state agency, The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), affects the use of eminent domain:
During arguments before Judge Edmead, lawyers for both the ESDC and Forest City Ratner argued that Mr. Paget could not have a conflict of interest in working for both because the two had a "collaborative" relationship. In other words, the state and the developer were starting from the premise that they are on the same "side" of this issue.
The ESDC also happens to be the agency responsible for invoking eminent domain when developers want to oust property owners for the sake of building shopping malls or factories or, in this case, a sports arena, commercial center, and residential complex. The environmental review process on which ESDC and Forest City Ratner purport to be "collaborating" will affect future eminent domain proceedings on the project site because the people conducting such a review have broad scope under New York law to find the kind of vaguely defined "blight" that would allow the state to seize property from a group of owners who have vowed to fight the project.
...
Regardless of the outcome of this appeal, New Yorkers have good reason to look at this case and ask, who's looking out for us?
Posted by lumi at 7:48 AM
DOOMING DOWNTOWN
NY Post
By Nicole Gelinas
Mayor Bloomberg is duking it out with Larry Silverstein, citing Silverstein's inability to finance the entire project. The irony is that Silverstein might actually run out of money after one or two towers are built, unless he has access to Liberty Bonds, $8 billion of low-cost financing meant to spur Downtown redevelopment.
Yet Bloomberg so far hasn't used the Liberty Bonds to aid Downtown's recovery. He awarded $114 million to developer Bruce Ratner for a Brooklyn office tower, and approved $650 million for a Durst-owned tower in Midtown. Neither project fulfills Congress' mandate - in fact, each competes with Downtown. (Gov. Pataki took flak for approving $1.7 billion in Liberty Bonds for Goldman Sachs - but Goldman's building Downtown.)
Bloomberg has awarded Liberty Bonds to favored developers - Silverstein isn't one of them - at the expense of Downtown redevelopment, further antagonizing Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who represents Lower Manhattan and put the kabosh on the stadium deal.
Posted by lumi at 7:22 AM
Ohio voters may get shot at slots in November
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Not merely content to bid on a railyard-sized slot-machine parlor in Pittsburgh, Bruce Ratner's parent company, Forest City Enterprises, is now vying for approval of slot-machine parlors in Ohio by funding a $12-million campaign to put the question directly to the voters.
Posted by lumi at 7:09 AM
A New Face for Atlantic Yards
The Real Estate Observer
Bu Matthew Schuerman
Yesterday, prior to the appeals court hearing, the Empire State Development Corporation's (ESDC) Board was:
expected to appoint a new lawyer to represent the agency on the Atlantic Yards project, until a dispute over the former lawyer, David Paget, is resolved.
...
Atlantic Yards opponents contend that Paget had a conflict of interest, since he earlier represented the developer, Forest City Ratner.Daniel Goldstein, spokesman for Develop—Don’t Destroy Brooklyn writes in an e-mail: “Their main argument for their appeal was that they couldn't find a new lawyer. Apparently that is specious.”
Posted by lumi at 7:05 AM
Weld Backs Use Of Eminent Domain For Atlantic Yards
NY Sun
Slick Willy does a flip-flop:
Republican gubernatorial candidate William Weld, who has called the use of eminent domain to seize private property a policy better suited for Communist China than for America, yesterday cited two examples of when he would support such a move.
Ben Smith spells it out in The Politcker:
[Weld] framed his opposition to the Kelo decision as broad, and not limited to its endorsement of the role of a private developer:
"The fundamental problem with Kelo is that it represents statist central planning. The government decided that it wanted new real estate projects, and then let a private entity effectuate a transfer of wealth."
But asked about the details by Crain's Greg David, he said he supported the Atlantic Yards project becuase it's "imbued with public interest."
Posted by lumi at 6:53 AM
March 23, 2006
Handicapping the Court
The Real Estate Observer
Matthew Schuerman gives his take on today's court hearing, but don't ask him to pick the trifecta:
If we were doing a Linda Greenhouse-style analysis of today’s court hearing on the Atlantic Yards case, we’d have to hand the Empire State Development Corporation at least two of the appellate panel’s five votes. The other three are harder to read.
Posted by lumi at 11:12 PM
TONIGHT: COMMUNITY FORUM ON "ATLANTIC YARDS"
THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 6:30 P.M.
The evening's agenda will feature:
* Special Guest Speaker Francis Morrone: “About New York” columnist for The New York Sun. Author of An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn, co-author of Brooklyn: A Journey Through the City of Dreams.
* Latest Updates
* South Brooklyn Legal Services: Ratner's proposal's Impact on Low-Income People
* Information on Volunteer Opportunities
* Community Q&A and open Discussion
First Unitarian Congregational Society
50 Monroe Place, Brooklyn Heights
(corner of Monroe Place and Pierrepont Street).
Click here for map with subway info (Firefox, IE, and Safari 1.2.4+ compatible).
2/3 to Borough Hall or Clark Street
4/5 to Borough Hall
A/C to High Street or Jay Street/Borough Hall
F to Jay Street/Borough Hall
M/R to Court Street
or the #25. 26, 38, 41, 51 or 52 Buses
Posted by lumi at 8:42 PM
TODAY: Appellate Division Arguments
Thursday, March 23, 2:00 PM
Appellate Division Courtroom, Manhattan
27 Madison Avenue (at 25th Street)
Appeal and Cross-Appeal Arguments to Be Heard Today
Arguments to be Made in Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, et al. v. Empire State Development Corporation and Forest City Ratner Companies.
NEW YORK, NY - This Thursday, March 23, the Appellate Division, First Department will hear argument in the matter of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, et al. v. Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and Forest City Ratner Companies. (FCRC). The ESDC has appealed the decision of Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead, which disqualified ESDC's attorney, David Paget of Sive Paget Riesel, from his representation of ESDC in its environmental review of FCRC's "Atlantic Yards" development proposal. Mr. Paget was barred from representing ESDC as a result of a conflict of interest because of his recent representation of FCRC on the same project, and the ongoing representation by Mr. Paget's firm of FCRC in other matters.
The five member appellate bench will also hear argument on the cross-appeal of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Inc. (DDDB) and its co-plaintiffs of a separate portion of Justice Edmead's decision. Her ruling found that ESDC's pre-project approval declaration decision, permitting demolition of six buildings in the development's proposed footprint to proceed on the basis of the developer's public safety emergency issues, had a rational basis, and accordingly, could not be disturbed by the court.
Argument will take place in the Appellate Division Courtroom, located at 27 Madison Avenue, New York, New York, at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday.
WHAT: Appellate Division Arguments: Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, et al. v. Empire State Development Corporation and Forest City Ratner Companies. (all court papers are here: http://www.dddb.net/litigationhttp://www.dddb.net/litigation)
WHERE: Appellate Division Courtroom, Manhattan 27 Madison Avenue (at 25th Street)
WHEN:
Thursday. March 23. 2:00 PM -30-
DEVELOP DON’T DESTROY BROOKLYN leads a broad-based community coalition
fighting for development that will unite our communities instead of dividing and destroying them. http://www.developdontdestroy.orgwww.developdontdestroy.org
Posted by lumi at 7:17 AM
Yankees Stadium Plan Mapped
OnNYTurf brought you the Google Map hack of Atlantic Yards to show just how incredibly big the project is.
Just released today, the new Yankee Stadium Plan Google Map.
The Bronx's land shuffle is as mind-boggling as Atlantic Yards is BIG. Details of the Yankee Stadium plan have caused the eyes of the local press corps to glaze over, and now you can see why.
Click here to see how the City plans to drop the Bombers on the Bronx.
Included:
Several different plan views
Locations of schools and senior centers
Neighborhood pics
And parking, parking, parking!
Posted by lumi at 7:17 AM
Sweetheart Transplants
Brooklyn Downtown Star
By Nik Kovac
The Star reviews ACORN's most recent report on the state of affordable housing in Brooklyn, as critics point out inaccuracies in the report and problems with ACORN's pro-Atlantic Yards stance.
Posted by lumi at 7:13 AM
Markowitz Sets Sights on Building New Jail, Condos at Old Detention Site
The NY Sun
By David Lombino
Though Borough President Marty Markowitz declared that, "he would support nothing less than tearing down the existing jail [on Atlantic Avenue] and building something new," he has not yet used his lifeline to Brooklyn's development kingpin, Bruce Ratner:
Mr. Markowitz said he has spoken with several area developers who say they are interested in the site. He said he had not consulted with the developer of the Atlantic Yards project, Bruce Ratner.
Posted by lumi at 6:42 AM
Financial follies at Ground Zero
Or are they political follies?
City Journal
By Nicole Gelinas
The rebuilding of the World Trade Center is at a very curious stalemate:
But so far, Mayor Bloomberg hasn’t used the Liberty Bonds to aid rational private-sector recovery downtown. He has awarded $114 million of these valuable, and finite, resources to developer and political darling Bruce Ratner for an office tower in Brooklyn. He has approved another $650 million in Liberty Bond financing for a Durst-owned tower in Midtown. Neither of these projects fulfills Congress’s mandate to rebuild Lower Manhattan. Worse, both projects will actively compete with downtown. (Pataki has gotten a lot of flack for approving nearly $1.7 billion in Liberty Bonds for Goldman Sachs—but at least Goldman is building downtown.)
NoLandGrab: New Yorkers are wondering what the end game is supposed to be in the Mayor's plan. If Bloomberg manages to bully Larry Silverstein off the project, does City Hall turn around and award the project to a favored developer like Related Companies or Forest City Ratner?
Posted by lumi at 6:05 AM
March 22, 2006
Beer boycott is on over Brooklyn arena
Metro NY
By Amy Zimmer
Ever since Brooklyn Brewery’s president Steve Hindy publicized his support for Bruce Ratner’s proposed $3.5 billion basketball arena and high-rise development for the Atlantic Yards, bartenders at Freddy’s Bar & Backroom have discouraged customers from drinking the brew.
Now, they won’t have to.
“The boycott is on,” said Freddy’s manager Don O’Finn. “I have to find the right beer to replace it on the tap beer system, fix the beer list sign, and then Brooklyn is out.”
The article quotes Park Sloper Jon Scieszka, who has started a counter boycott:
“I understand people are upset with the deal proposed by Ratner and it’s something they should challenge him on, but I don’t think they should try to damage Steve Hindy,” Scieszka said. He said the boycotters were using a “kind of Bush tactic, like labeling someone a terrorist so then you don’t have to talk about the issues.”
NoLandGrab: The point of the boycott is that Brooklynites who support those trying to save their homes and businesses no longer wish to enrich those who seek to enrich Ratner.
What Steve Hindy's friend Jon Scieszka apparently doesn't know is that local activists are all about talking about the issues to anyone who will listen. Recently local groups sought a dialog with Hindy, who obliged by meeting and walking the footprint with Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, after which Hindy declared his unequivocal support for the project.
Posted by lumi at 8:06 AM
A thoughtful defense of eminent domain (but would it fit Atlantic Yards?)
Atlantic Yards Report considers a thoughtful defense of eminent domain for the purpose of urban re-development, but finds that the arguments fall flat in the case of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan, where there has been no city planning process, community review or attempt to solicit bids from competing devlopers.
Posted by lumi at 7:55 AM
NJ Eminent Domainia
The Newark Star-Ledger, Bloomfield, after legal battles, will postpone building condos
The [Bloomfield Town Council] gave developer Forest City Bloomfield the green light to build low- and high-rise apartment buildings, stores, and a Stop & Shop supermarket elsewhere in the 13.5-acre redevelopment zone, but removed the contested property along with a strip of stores and eateries on the eastern side of Bloomfield Avenue.
That means, that local businesses who stood with Brooklynites in the fight against the eminent domain addicted Forest City Ratner Company can breathe a sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, in Long Branch, NJ, the fight to save bungalows at the shore from the city's redevelopment plan to build upscale beachfront condos moves into the courts...
Asbury Park Press, Long Branch eminent-domain battle heads into court
...as homeowners and property rights advocates take to the streets:
RALLY
Friday, March 24
9:00 a.m.
Monmouth Vicinage Court
71 Monument Park
Freehold, NJ 07728
South Wing lawn
Stand up to New Jersey's tax-hungry governments and land-hungry developers - come rally against eminent domain abuse this Friday!
BUS RIDE
Departing at 7:45 a.m.
Pick-up at 38 Ocean Terrace, Long Branch
Returning from Freehold at approximately 12:00 p.m.
Reserve a seat by emailing MTOTSA@aol.com
The City of Long Branch is trying to seize cherished homes in the MTOTSA neighborhood along the beachfront in order to give the land to a private developer so it can build upscale condos for the wealthy. The purpose of the Friday hearing is to determine whether the judge will rule on the very limited evidence now available or allow the homeowners the chance to prove that the taking of their homes is an illegal abuse of the power of eminent domain. Incredibly, in its initial filing with the court, Long Branch argued that the homeowners are not entitled to make their case because Long Branch has assured the court that its use of eminent domain is above board.
Posted by lumi at 7:05 AM
March 21, 2006
Ratner to investors: AY approval expected by fall, Nets losses downplayed, 15-year buildout?
Atlantic Yards Report tunes into the webcast of the Forest City Ratner special investor event to learn more about the world according to Ratner.
Is the Atlantic Yards project on track? Despite delays from the original plan to open the arena in the fall of 2006, Forest City Ratner president and CEO Bruce Ratner told investors in the parent Forest City Enterprises that he expects goverment approval by mid-fall and construction to commence a few months after that. Ratner, sounding jovial and confident, also deflected concerns about losses suffered by the New Jersey Nets, saying he was confident the team would make money when it moved to Brooklyn. (Photo from Forest City Ratner web site.)
Ratner participated in a special investor event on 3/13/06. His portion goes from 1:22 to 1:54, but keep listening for another two minutes for an eminent domain anecdote. An investor conference call is scheduled for March 31.
Posted by lumi at 5:36 PM
Amusing eminent domain story
As transcribed by Atlantic Yards Report, here's an amusing little anecdote about eminent domain as told by Charles(?) Ratner at the investors special event:
So Albert tells this story. In 1950s, he was in the office, putting his coat on, he was going out of the building. His father, Uncle Leonard, said, "Al, where are you going?"
"I’m going to meet the Ohio Department of Transportation."
"How come?"
"Dad, you know the land we have on Mayfield Road. They’re going to take that and put a highway right through that land."
And Uncle Leonard looked at Albert and said, "That’s going to be terrific for our land. How much do we have to pay them for that?"
Albert said, “No, Dad, you have it mixed up. We don’t pay them, they pay us."
At this point, Uncle Leonard said, “What a country.”
NoLandGrab: As for property owners who are fighting for the right to live in their own homes, "Let them eat cake."
The Real Estate Observer observes:
Having a highway put through your living room, on the other hand, is a little different.
Posted by lumi at 5:29 PM
FCRC sells Hilton Times Square property to Sunstone
Despite Forest City Ratner Executive Vice President Jim Stuckey's claim that the development company is committed to holding the properties it develops for the long term, a deal to sell the Hilton Times Square to Sunstone Properties closed yesterday.
GlobeSt.com, Sunstone Closes on $243M Hilton Times Square Purchase
The Real Estate Observer reports that this deal, "netting $242.5 million," should keep Forest City Ratner flush for the time being. That would make sense if Forest City Ratner wasn't already turning to non-traditional lending sources and if most of the profits from the deal didn't flow back to the parent company.
Posted by lumi at 4:07 PM
What Will Happen with Ratner's Raw Sewage?
Daily Gotham
Holy crap! Where is all of Ratner's sewage supposed to go?
When sewage backs up into your Brooklyn brownstone apartment every time it pours, one of your "biggest concerns about the giant Atlantic Yards project is sewage."
Daily Gotham blogger Mole333's "personal, awful experience has been that Brooklyn's sewage system is grossly overtaxed as it is."
Posted by lumi at 3:23 PM
The warning signs against a Brooklyn Nets
Here's NewYorkGames.org's reaction to the news that Ratner is seeking new investors in the NJ Nets to cover mounting losses:
The warning signs against a Brooklyn Nets are accumulating rapidly:
The Nets borrowed another $60 million only last year for the same purpose. Looks like the banks won't give them any more.
With the resistence to placing the arena in a brownstone neighborhood strengthening, it's very likely that there'll be many more years of red ink.
The team was supposed to move in 2007 (with a worse case of 2008). Now they say 2009, but the new lease allows them to stay in New Jersey forever.
Link to the rest of NewYorkGames's list.
NoLandGrab: The previous $60-million loan NewYorkGames cites recalls the $40.5-million bridge loan Ratner took out in Dec, 2004, in another move to cover rising costs of the project from a non-traditional lender.
Posted by lumi at 3:13 PM
PRESS RELEASE
Sierra Club Joins NYPIRG Amicus Brief Supporting Lower Court Decision to Disqualify ESDC's Conflicted Attorney
Appellate Court Still to Decide to Grant Sierra Club Status as Amicus
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, March 21, 2006
MANHATTAN, NY–The Appellate Division, First Department of New York, today granted the Sierra Club's motion to join The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) in their request for amicus or "friend of the court" status in support of New York Supreme Court Justice Carol Edmead’s decision to disqualify a lawyer in the environmental review of Forest City Ratner’s "Atlantic Yards" proposal.
Justice Edmead based her finding of a conflict of interest on lawyer David Paget’s representation of first Forest City Ratner (FCR, the proposal's developer) and then Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC, the project reviewer) on the same "Atlantic Yards" proposal.
"Sierra Club and its nationwide membership understand the importance of this case specifically to ensure a fair environmental review of Forest City's 'Atlantic Yards' proposal and more broadly for the future integrity and transparency of New York State's environmental review procedures. The Sierra Club’s particular interest in this case and its issues stems from the erosion of protections for public health and the environment under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA)," said Timothy J.W. Logan, chair of the Sierra Club-NYC Group. "We are encouraged that the Court granted our motion to join NYPIRG in support of the lower court's enlightened decision to remedy ESDC's conflict of interest. We fully expect Justice Edmead's decision to stand on its merits."
The Sierra Club is a national, nonprofit organization of approximately 750,000 members, and is dedicated to exploring, enjoying, and protecting the wild places of the earth; to practicing and promoting the responsible use of the earth’s ecosystems and resources; to educating and enlisting humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to using all lawful means to carry out these objectives. The Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club has approximately 44,000 members in the state of New York, and the Sierra Club's New York City Group has approximately 15,000 members.
The original suit, filed by Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) and over a dozen co-plaintiff community based organizations, was heard and decided on February 14th. "How can ESDC take a 'hard look' at the environmental impact statement for the Ratner proposal if it hires the very same lawyer who is helping prepare it and has represented the developer on the same project?" said Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn spokesman Daniel Goldstein. "The agency has a clear conflict of interest."
The ESDC appealed Justice Edmead’s decision and the appeal will be heard at 2pm on March 23rd at the Appellate Division Courtroom (Manhattan, 27 Madison Avenue at 25th Street)
The brief can be found online here: http://www.dddb.net/litigation/index.html#amicushttp://www.dddb.net/litigation/index.html#amicus
The Sierra Club’s concerns encompass a broad range of issues related to the protection and preservation of the public’s health and the environment. Forest City Ratner's proposed "Atlantic Yards" development and takings of surrounding properties for additional development currently fails to adequately address or mitigate environmental concerns associated with said development. The Sierra Club’s particular interest in this case and the issues which the case concerns stem from the erosion of protections for public health and the environment under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).
DEVELOP DON’T DESTROY BROOKLYN leads a broad-based community coalition fighting for development that will unite our communities instead of dividing and destroying them. www.developdontdestroy.org
Sierra Club. Contact: Timothy J. W. Logan, Chair, Sierra Club-NYC Group. 718-208-8864 Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn. Contact: Daniel Goldstein, DDDB. 917-701-3056
Posted by lumi at 2:50 PM
Gehryland, USA
Should one architect--even the world's most famous architect--be responsible for all of the buildings in two massive developments?
Metropolis, April, 2006
By Christopher Hawthorne
Posted March 20, 2006 (login required)
It is surely a sign of America's current state of philosophical eclecticism--or maybe just our deep confusion--that the architectural news in this country has been dominated in recent months by two contradictory developments: the success of the New Urbanists in helping shape the post-Katrina reconstruction and the stunning revival elsewhere of the megaproject.
Since the floodwaters receded, Andrés Duany, Peter Calthorpe, and others have been charretting much of the Gulf Coast into submission, preaching the gospel of walkable neighborhoods and transit-oriented development (and front porches). The more fascinating story, frankly, is taking shape on the other side of the cultural divide, in the territory where Robert Moses and Le Corbusier once tread. In each of the two biggest cities in the country, Frank Gehry has been handed a commission whose size and scope would lead both of those men to sit up and take notice.
In Los Angeles it is the entire first phase of the $1.8 billion redevelopment along Grand Avenue for the New York-based Related Companies, replacing a bunch of--what else?-- parking lots across the street from Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall. In Brooklyn it is a $3.5 billion Atlantic Yards project for developer Bruce Ratner's Forest City Ratner Companies, which will include not just the 18,000-seat arena for the NBA's Nets but also more than a dozen different buildings, the tallest of which tops out at about 60 stories. Both projects will be helped along by a substantial public subsidy.
More than four decades after the revelatory appearance of Jane Jacobs's The Death and Life of Great American Cities, two of the greatest have charged ahead with a gargantuan building effort, thick with skyscrapers designed by a single architect. You might think of them as outposts of a new theme-park approach to architecture and development: Gehryland Brooklyn and Gehryland L.A.
Posted by lumi at 7:11 AM
Eminent Domainia: The Kelo Effect
The Next American City
LAW: Condemning the Condemners: The Supreme Court's Decision in Kelo and Its Aftermath
Long Beach Press Telegram
Long Beach church protests RDA Board takeover
Taking land owned by a church (which pays no taxes) via eminent domain is one of those hypothetical situations that people think never really happens. Long Beach is the site of the latest of such abuses.
Newsday
Yea and nay on public use. Two Long Island eminent domain cases show pros and cons of the law
Two cases on Long Island considering the use of eminent domain:
* The Suffolk County Farm Bureau is stuck between conflicting interests, preserving farm land and using eminent domain to do so.
* The Mayor of the Village of North Hills wants to condemn a private golf course to create a public amenity to be used exclusively by village residents.
Posted by lumi at 6:31 AM
Before "Ratner's Folly": 2Bed, 2Bath, Constant SHRIEKING Traffic
The Real Estate Observer
By Matthew Grace
If "Atlantic Yards" goes down in history as "Ratner's folly," the credit for the term goes to Matthew Grace.
The choke point at Atlantic, 4th and Flatbush is already a traffic nightmare, well before Ratner has gotten a shovel in the ground. But hey, that won't stop new luxury condo owners from flocking to Brooklyn:
Boerum Heights, the under-construction condo building on Atlantic Avenue at the intersection of Atlantic, Fourth and Flatbush avenues, is shaping up nicely. We took a look at its Web site, and there are still a few units left! But, as evidenced by the picture, traffic right now is a nightmare. Just think what it's going to be like once Ratner's folly is finally up and running.
Posted by lumi at 6:16 AM
Forest City Enterprises Notice of Semi-Annual Earnings Conference Call Friday, March 31
For readers who are following the financial performance of Forest City Ratner's parent company Forest City Enterprises and how "Ratner's Folly" is efecting the bottom line:
Forest City Enterprises will release its fiscal year-end quarter financial results on March 28, 2006 and will hold a conference call on Friday, March 31, 2006 at 11:00 A.M. ET to discuss these results.
Click here for details and info on the conference call.
Posted by lumi at 6:08 AM
March 20, 2006
TONIGHT: Live Screening "Brooklyn vs. Bush," Anti-Ratner Anti-Bush TV
Show your support for Freddy's eviction fight.
Drop in for a live viewing of "Brooklyn vs. Bush," the anti-Bush anti-Ratner comedy hour.
Freddy's
Corner of Dean and 6th Ave.
11:30PM
BKLYN Mon at 11:30 pm on BCAT ch. 3 Time Warner ch. 56 CVision ch 69, no box: 10.
Posted by lumi at 11:29 AM
Atlantic Yards Report: Series on last Borough Board meeting
Trash on the streets? New buildings not required to containerize garbage (but they should)
Just how does New York City deal with trash from an arena and 7,300 new units of housing? Carmen Cognetta, Counsel to the Sanitation and Solid Waste Management Committee of the New York City Council, offers some ideas.
Density? FAR is elusive at hearing; Marty offers traffic soliloquy
We still don't know the real FAR of Ratner's proposal or whether or not the City would push for additional upzoning of the area. But the lack of obvious traffic mitigations doesn't stop Marty from waxing poetic about out-of-the-box solutions.
The Times on ACORN report: some context missing regarding Atlantic Yards
New and improved, with links to report, Regional Plan Association's very contrasting view to ACORN, and The NY Times's failure to acknowledge ACORN's obligations to Ratner.
Posted by lumi at 8:16 AM
Jay-Z on air
Jay-Z interviewed during ABC telecast of New Jersey Nets-Dallas Mavericks NBA game on Sunday afternoon.
Q: Brooklyn will be when for this team?
A: I hope '08. We hope soon as possible. We're going through the process. I hope 08-09 season.
NoLandGrab: Lay-Z may want to get off his butt and check the facts. In his defense, he owns less than one-half of one percent of the team so Ratner may not keep him in the loop.
In fact, since the Nets are stuck negotiating a Continental Arena lease through 2010, Ratner may ask investors to double down to cover annual operating losses of around $20 million to $30 million.
Posted by lumi at 7:25 AM
Nets investor seeks to impeach Bush
While we're on the topic of Nets investors, Brooklynites wonder if civil rights crusader Michael Ratner will increase his commitment to eminent domain abuse by ponying up some more bucks to ensure that Brother Bruce retains control over the NJ Nets while the team awaits the move to Brooklyn in time for the 20?? season.
While local activists fight for their right to live in their own homes, Michael Ratner focuses on saving the free world from George Bush.
Posted by lumi at 7:15 AM
March 19, 2006
Benefit Tag Sale
In support of:
*Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
*Fort Greene Park Conservancy
*Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District
Two storefronts wide, two stories high, filled with mission furniture, mint condition vintage handbags (Valentino!), antique lamps, vintage linens, designer clothing, crystal, sculptures, art, jewelry and much more!!!
The tag sale will take place:
Saturday Mar. 18, 11am-8pm
Sunday Mar. 19, 1-6pm
(with a preview sale Friday 3.17, 6-8pm - $5 at door, wine, music & door prizes!)
104 So. Oxford St (Fulton/Lafayette) Brooklyn, NY
Posted by amy at 11:30 AM
A torched nabe & lives in ruins
Daily News covers the fires on Pacific Street:
Some in the community fear that indifference and neglect will help the blight spread like a cancer."Whether the fires are intentional or accidental, they mean displacement and blight, and can lead to land speculation and the threat of eminent domain," said Bill Batson, co-chairman of Community Board 8's fire safety committee.
...
A sign on the door of the four-story building of railroad flats reads, "One short sad week ago two mothers and two small children lost their lives ... murdered by arson fire. ... Who is trying to clear out Pacific St.? Why? Money?"
Posted by amy at 10:43 AM
Ratner seeks investors to fund extra costs
Newark Star-Ledger:
Baum declined to comment on the team's losses, but the costs of running the team and getting an arena built in Brooklyn are growing steeper by the month, leading to the need for more cash.
...
However, the arena project has not received all environmental approvals, and the state and the city still need to approve $200 million in financing to improve roads and utilities near the arena. Decisions on that portion of the project are expected later this year, including a crucial vote by New York's Public Authorities Control Board, the same agency that killed the Jets' plan for a West Side stadium.
Posted by amy at 10:34 AM
Also, Bruce Ratner’s Penis Has Not Gotten Any Larger
Gawker:
Of course, Brooklyn Lager will soon be the least of Ratner’s worries. Today he’ll file an additional suit against Mrs. Miriam Abacha, from whom he has not yet received a single cent of her late husband’s fortune, despite her promises. Once she transfers a sum of $900 million (U.S.) to his bank account, he’ll buy you whatever beer you want.
Posted by amy at 10:01 AM
Eminent domain debate suggests states should respond; was there a plan for Atlantic Yards?
Atlantic Yards Report covers last week's debate over Kelo at CUNY Graduate Center, and discovers that the "sweetheart deal" aspect of the planning process could be the project's undoing:
Whether the Atlantic Yards project is a "sweetheart deal" will surely be debated. But it is clear that developer Forest City Ratner devised the project, and city and state officials endorsed the sole-source deal 18 months before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) solicited bids for its Vanderbilt Yard, which would be more than one-third of the project footprint.
Posted by amy at 9:18 AM
March 18, 2006
Bullseye: Third Brooklyn Target On The Way
Brooklyn Downtown Star reports that Marty has reached his ultimate goal for Brooklyn:
The Flatbush Junction is a transit hub similar to the one farther up the avenue, near its intersection with Atlantic, where another Target store just opened two years ago. "There will now be more Target's in this county," smiled the Beep of Kings, "than in any other. It goes to show you that Brooklyn is once again number one in something."
Markowitz extends his excitement into suggesting restaurants to complement the Target:
"How about a Red Lobster?" suggested Marty Mark, shovel still in hand, "or a Legal Seafoods?"
NoLandGrab: How about a locally owned and operated business to keep the profits in the vicinity?
Posted by amy at 10:21 AM
Downtown glitz jumps Flatbush Avenue
Brooklyn Papers:
Ground has been broken on a 40-story luxury condo building on Myrtle Avenue directly across Flatbush Avenue Extension from Forest City Ratner’s Metrotech office campus.
...
“I want to know who wants Brooklyn to look like Manhattan,” asked Vincent Battista, president of the Institute of Design and Construction located one block south on Flatbush Avenue Extension. Battista has opposed the Downtown Brooklyn Plan since its creators threatened to use the power of eminent domain to demolish his college to build a park.“And the question is,” he added, “who will be able to afford it when it does?”
Posted by amy at 10:14 AM
March 17, 2006
Behind the "empty railyards": 40 years of ATURA, Baruch's plan, and the city's diffidence
Atlantic Yards Report
Kate Suisman, aide to Councilmember Letitia James, debunked the myth that the Vanderbilt Railyards "have sat for decades and decades and decades, and no one has done a thing about them," at yesterday's Borough Board meeting.
Excerpt from Suisman's questioning of Deputy Director of the Department of City Planning Winston Von Engel:
"Had the city been looking at making use of the land?" Suisman pressed on politely.
"Not that I can recall," Von Engel said. He noted that there were once plans decades ago for a campus for Baruch College of the City University of New York, as part of the Atlantic Terminal Urban Renewal Area (ATURA). "This area was looked at in a very large context. What survived was the Atlantic Center mall [pictured], the Atlantic Terminal mall, the housing. So, in that sense there were plans at one point, but some of them were not realized."
Norman Oder fleshes out the details of Von Engel's statement with a must-read report on the history of the Atlantic Terminal Renewal Area (ATURA).
Posted by lumi at 7:50 AM
I'm an R6B. What Are You?
For NoLandGrab junkies who have been trying to penetrate the jargon used to shape their neighborhoods, The Real Estate Observer just found themselves "thumbing through, then reading almost cover-to-cover, the City Planning Commission's Zoning Handbook, released this week."
Think of it as a Zoning for Dummies guide:
Pages and pages in the front of the book take obscure zoning classifications with names that sound like droid lot-numbers and describe in plain language the character and objectives of each zoning class, complete with diagrams and pictures showing existing streets that exemplify the zone type.
Posted by lumi at 7:42 AM
March 16, 2006
ESDC, Ratner & job numbers: collaborative or not?
Atlantic Yards Report
How do developers and city planners arrive at job estimates? It's a simple calculation, using an industry standard.
Did Forest City Ratner use the same standard for their initial 10,000-jobs figure? [Hint: No.] Did the ESDC go along with the ruse?
Norman Oder tries to