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May 31, 2006
The Real Estate Observer: Two-for Wednesday
Congrats to The Real Estate Observer for two mysteries solved in one swell foop!
1) Why are South Brooklyn politicos Kruger, Golden, Fidler and Nelson big on Atlantic Yards? Like, what's in it for them?
2) Why is Bruce Bender a key part of the Forest City Ratner team? It definitely isn't to coin more Benderisms.
We had been wondering why so many politicos from the deep south of Brooklyn had endorsed Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. State Senators Carl Kruger and Martin Golden and City Council Members Lew Fidler and Mike Nelson all wrote letters of support last summer to the M.T.A.
We wondered, are these guys all for it because their constituents are going to get some of the jobs targeted to "the community" that the arena complex is supposed to help? Or do they just happen to have a lot of Nets fans living there?
Then we hit upon a map for the 59th Assembly district, which is governed by the Thomas Jefferson Club, the Democratic clubhouse whence Bruce Bender sprang.
The Real Estate Observer is pretty damned impressed with the deep pockets at The NY Times, after Atlantic Yards Report carried news from Editor & Publisher that the NY Times Corporation has agreed to spot Ratner 119.5-million clams towards the new Times Tower if the real-estate barron of Brooklyn can't come up with it himself.
Posted by lumi at 10:02 PM
Law firm signs first lease for NYT building
Crain's NY Business
By Julie Satow
Some news about the building that Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner is building in midtown and co-owns with the NY Times Corp:
The law firm Seyfarth Shaw has signed the first lease at the New York Times Co. building under construction at 620 Eighth Ave., at 41st street.
The 17-year lease is for 100,000 square feet on floors 31 through 33. The asking rent in the building is $80 to $100 a square foot.
CB Richard Ellis began marketing the building, designed by Pritzker-Prize winning architect Renzo Piano, last year. It is the first new Class A office tower to be constructed on Eighth Ave. in several years.
"We have a number of other leases out, but Seyfarth Shaw is the first to cross the finish line," said Forest City Ratner Cos. President Bruce Ratner, in a statement.
Forest City Ratner, which owns floors 29 through 52 with its financial partner ING Real Estate, expects it will be open for occupancy by the second quarter of 2007. The New York Times owns floors 2 though 28.
Another rewrite of the press release from the local real estate trade publication, GlobeSt.com.
Posted by lumi at 9:57 PM
MEDIA ADVISORY: Maloney to Speak Out Against Brooklyn Atlantic Yards Development Project
Sean Patrick Maloney, former senior Clinton White House official and investigative attorney running for the Democratic nomination for New York Attorney General, will hold a press conference to stand with the Brooklyn community against the current process and plans for the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards development project.
June 1, 2006 at 11:00 am in front of the Williamsburgh Bank Building, 1 Hanson Place, Brooklyn, NY
Posted by lumi at 7:14 PM
RATNER ATT'Y OK
NY Post points out that:
The court also accused arena foes of bringing the suit as a means of halting the entire development.
NoLandGrab: Interestingly, the evidence the court cited makes no reference to using the suit as a "tactical maneuver."
Here's the language from the ruling with links to the "evidence" so you can decide for yourself:
Third, it seems clear that petitioners intended the disqualification motion as a significant tactical maneuver in their campaign against the Project (see N. Confessore, "Demolition Can Proceed for Brooklyn Arena," New York Times, Feb 15, 2006, at B4; Press Release, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Inc., Empire State Development Corporation to Appeal Decision to Disqualify Conflicted Attorney David Paget from Review of Ratner's "Atlantic Yards," http://www.developdontdestroy.org/litigation/ESDCAppealRelease021606.php [Feb 16, 2006]).
Posted by lumi at 9:37 AM
An Appeals Court Setback for Critics of Atlantic Yards
The NY Times covered yesterday's Appellate Court ruling in an article by Nicholas Confessore:
A state appeals court dealt a setback to opponents of the proposed Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn yesterday, reversing the disqualification of a lawyer who had advised both the complex's developer and the state agency that is conducting an environmental review of the project.
A five-judge panel of the State Supreme Court's Appellate Division found that Justice Carol Edmead, who disqualified the lawyer, David Paget, in February, "misapprehended material facts and misapplied the applicable law" when she ruled that Mr. Paget's work for the Empire State Development Corporation was on its face a conflict of interest because he had also been a consultant to the developer, Forest City Ratner.
In the same unanimous and strongly worded ruling, the court found that Justice Edmead, a Supreme Court judge in Manhattan, had acted correctly when she refused to block the demolition of six buildings on the 22-acre site where Atlantic Yards would be built. That decision had been appealed by opponents of the development.
In a statement, Candace Carponter, a lawyer and a member of the leading group opposing the project, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, said that the group was disappointed by the ruling and would explore other legal challenges to the project.
"We believe in the moral correctness of our case, and are confident that this decision will inspire the public's vigilance and scrutiny to grow even stronger," she said.
Posted by lumi at 9:23 AM
Speaker Quinn Still Mum On Atlantic Yards Arena
NY Observer
By Matthew Schuerman
It would seem like a no-brainer for the City Council Speaker to take a position against Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards proposal, given her instrumental role in the defeat of the West Side Stadium project that was planned for her district. But Christine Quinn has remained silent.
Who are the players behind the political forces on both sides of the issue trying to get Quinn to take a position on Atlantic Yards? And, will the Speaker go against the Mayor, now that she is in a leadership position?
Posted by lumi at 8:48 AM
Who benefits from the city’s building boom?
Metro NY
Reporter Amy Zimmer interviews "Louis Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers’ Association, which represents 1,500 union construction companies in the city. Coletti talked to Metro about how the unions get people working but are not the city’s magic bullet."
Coletti on the building boom:
Is there more work for your members?
We’re right at the beginning stage for really big projects. I think we’ll see a lot of shovels in the ground this summer and next. You’ll see Yankee and Shea stadiums; the Freedom Tower, the PATH station, Atlantic Yards and the city is putting $11 billion in school construction.
Coletti on Community Benefits Agreements:
Can unions meet the demands of community benefits agreements for projects like Yankee Stadium or the Atlantic Yards that call for a percentage of contracts going to minority or women-owned businesses?
There’s a disconnect because we have not been party to many community benefits agreements. Let’s say you have a project in the Bronx and you get the local politicians saying, you need 25 percent of jobs going to people from the Bronx. Well, construction doesn’t work like that. We have a lot of workers living in the Bronx, but what if they don’t want to work on that particular project. We’re not going to lower our standards. We won’t be held accountable for those numbers. We already have the most diverse work force. Match it against any non-union contractor. Too often elected officials see us as a panacea to a paycheck. Yes, there’s an unemployment problem, especially in the African-American community, but that’s not our job to fix. We’re not a social service agency.
Posted by lumi at 8:21 AM
Crown of thorns
Sean Elder's Blog
A freelance writer and editor takes issue with and pokes some holes in Alexandra Lange's New York Magazine article heralding the coming of the Ratner-Gehry Atlantic Yards:
"We don't want to build tall for the sake of tall," she quotes Ratner mouthpiece Jim Stuckey saying. "Frank Gehry can frame the Williamsburg Savings Bank Tower”—the current tallest, at 512 feet, compared with the 620 feet of Gehry’s main tower, Miss Brooklyn—“and make it a postcard with other buildings around it.”
You read that right: a postcard. As in, Wish you were here? No wonder the arrogant Gehry, who says those protesting the development should be protesting Henry Ford for inventing the automobile, is calling his crowned jewel, the building around the proposed arena, Miss Brooklyn. You'll miss Brooklyn, too, when these carpetbaggers get done with it.
It's a pity that Lange, who is presumably a reporter, could not have found an actual opponent to the project to quote.
Posted by lumi at 7:53 AM
E&P on the Times: loan obligation to Forest City Ratner demands more disclosure
From Atlantic Yards Report:
In the June issue of Editor & Publisher, the monthly trade journal of the newspaper industry, "Ethics Corner" columnist Allan Wolper takes a look at the New York Times's dicey relationship with ["Atlantic Yards" developer] Forest City Ratner. The headline: 'NY Times' Coverage Hits Close To Home, with the subhead: Reporters challenged to objectively cover dealings of a real estate company directly involved with New York Times Co.
Posted by lumi at 7:15 AM
May 30, 2006
Appellate Division rules business as usual in NY State
For you primary-source mavens, here's the link for the NY State Supreme Court Appellate Division's ruling in the case of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn v Empire State Dev. Corp.
Basically, the court found that Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) et al do not have "standing" to bring a case questioning whether or not the Empire State Development Corporation and Forest City Ratner may retain the same lawyer — that right is reserved exclusively for Forest City Ratner. In other words, if DDDB's lawyer started working for the ESDC, then DDDB would have standing to bring a case according to NY State law. [Is this enough proof that we're not Dan Goldstein?]
Our favorite part is the finding that even if the petitioners had standing, there was no conflict between the ESDC and Ratner because they say so:
The motion court also erred in ignoring record evidence that ESDC and/or the developer had duly waived their rights as to potential conflicts of interest...
Oh well, it's business as usual in New York State, where it is perfectly legal for the same lawyer to work for both sides in the "collaborative" relationship between FCRC and the ESDC.
UPDATE: We claimed that Curbed.com had it wrong in its early report on the decision. Apparently, DDDB did appeal the demolitions, since they were going to court anyway over the FCRC appeal. So the following should read:
If you have something interesting to say on the subject, surf on over to Curbed.com's post, but pay no attention to their blurb. Curbed.com's LSAT batting average just hit a new low high when they missed got the point of the ruling, which had nothing also decided in favor of Ratner to do with upholding uphold the Ratner demolitions. Though the Supreme Court proceedings (including the arguments over the demolitions) were described in detail, the Appellate Court's only other task was to rule in the conflict of interest case.
Posted by lumi at 10:08 PM
DDDB Press Release: Appellate Division Overturns ESDC Conflict of Interest Case and Leaves Public Scratching Its Head
Ruling Only Strengthens Looming Eminent Domain Legal Challenge to Ratner's Foundering "Atlantic Yards" Proposal
MANHATTAN, NY - "We are obviously very disappointed with the Court's decision and its apparent position that the people of Brooklyn do not have standing to raise a conflict of interest involving the attorney retained by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), supposedly representing the public's interest in its review of the proposed development of Atlantic Yards, and Forest City Ratner (FCR), the developer proposing the project. This is just a legal decision as to whether there is a legal conflict in the ESDC’s use of the same attorney who represented FCR on the identical project. The real conflict, the one the public sees, is still glaring–the ESDC sees itself as a collaborator with Bruce Ratner, not as a protector of the public interest," said Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) spokesman Daniel Goldstein. "This decision only strengthens our resolve to pursue our very strong challenge to the illegal use of eminent domain as soon as the unaccountable ESDC invokes it, as well as to legally challenge the already flawed environmental review process overseen by the ESDC, as we were invited to by the appellate court."
The Appellate Division of New York State's Supreme Court today issued a ruling overturning the lower court's decision to disqualify attorney David Paget for a gross conflict of interest: Mr. Paget represented Forest City Ratner on its "Atlantic Yards" development proposal and then was hired, at the developer's behest, by the EESDC, the unelected state agency charged with reviewing the developer's proposal and overriding all local zoning laws. The case's plaintiffs included Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) and a dozen other community groups, as well as amicus briefs by the Sierra Club and New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) filed in support of the plaintiffs’ position
"It is disappointing that the Appellate Division did not find any ethical impropriety in Ratner’s lawyer also representing the government agency, the ESDC. Although the Court reversed the finding of the trial court, finding that there was no violation of any ethical prohibition, the ESDC can still choose to act as guardian of the public’s, and not the developer’s, interest by refusing to return to business as usual, and keep the attorney that it hired pending the outcome of this appeal, rather than reinstating their troubling relationship with Mr. Paget, FCR’s attorney. If Mr. Paget is reinstated as ESDC’s counsel, the reality of the conflict that we challenged as actually affecting the public decision making process will continue to exist. It is this lack of transparency, integrity, and meaningful public participation which is the drumbeat that continues to pound in the public's head and urges them to take a stand against the political cronyism that embodies this project," said DDDB legal chair Candace Carponter.
"We believe in the moral correctness of our case, and are confident that this decision will inspire the public's vigilance and scrutiny to grow even stronger. It will be telling to watch whether ESDC decides to act contrary to the expressed concerns of the local community in this regard."
Carpentor concluded, "The Court did note the importance of the public participation process under the state's environmental review statute known as SEQR, so all interested people must now join us to challenge this destructive development review process which continues to nakedly shut out the public. This is just a single step it what will continue to be a long battle."
Posted by lumi at 9:14 PM
A neighborhood welcome
NY Daily News
By Errol Louis
Introducing Errol Louis's Advisory Board on Atlantic Yards?
No. 1 on the list is Constantin (Gus) Vlahavas, the proprietor of Tom's, a diner that opened in 1936 and was once named by the Daily News as the best restaurant in New York City. " This will be a shot in the arm for us," Gus says of Atlantic Yards.
Roy Hastick, the founder and president of the Caribbean-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is another local leader who supports the project. He has been plugging away at building opportunities for small businesses for over 20 years.
Freddie Hamilton, a community leader from Clinton Hill, wants to see the project succeed. Hamilton, who tragically lost her son to gun violence, successfully sued the gun maker in federal court.
Eve Porter, also a supporter, has spent a couple of decades running the Crow Hill Community Association, which recently launched a beautification drive that has transformed a formerly drug-plagued strip of Franklin Ave.
Delia Hunley-Adossa, president of the 88th Precinct Community Council, is a city worker and activist who voluntarily shoulders the potentially hazardous job of talking openly with the cops about how and where to stop dope dealers and other crooks in Fort Greene.
Introducing another good point made by Atlantic Yards Report, "What CBA? Gaps in Errol Louis's column about AY supporters"
Freddie Hamilton and Delia Hunley-Adossa are signatories of Forest City Ratner's Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) for the Atlantic Yards proposal. Other signatories to the CBA are contractually obliged to support the plan publicly, and some are receiving financial support from Ratner.
Atlantic Yards Report concludes:
We've yet to learn what support, if any, the groups Hamilton and Hunley-Adossa represent have received. But they're not simply neutral neighborhood activists.
Posted by lumi at 11:45 AM
Next Ratner project: 60 story office towers and condos in the Village
New York Games considers Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards Development Group President Jim Stuckey's best argument for Atlantic Yards — density belongs on transit hubs — and posits:
Next Ratner project: 60 story office towers and condos in the Village (they'll blame Gehry for this one too). There's phenomenal growth potential between Midtown and Downtown: close the gap! This is appropriate, as the city needs growth where the A, C, E, B, D, F, V lines -- plus the nearby NJ commuter line PATH -- all converge at the major West 4th Street transit hub. The 2002 ridership of the West 4th station was 11,574,810, while for Atlantic Ave./Pacific St. it was just 7,023,218.
It's all about infrastructure. What's above grade isn't so important.
Posted by lumi at 11:06 AM
The superblock that dares not speak its name
It's an urban room, it's open space... no, it's SUPERBLOCKS!
Atlantic Yards Report
Despite the fact that Bruce Ratner and Frank Gehry dare not utter the word, Atlantic Yards Report points out that the Ratner-Gehry plan is full of "superblocks."
But what's the big deal about superblocks? Landscape designer Laurie Olin sees it as an opportunity for open space. In fact, that's been the big sell since the concept was originally introduced: density plus open space. A win-win for cities, right? Au contraire, mon frère ("No way, bro!"). Decades of experimentation with the superblock has proven the concept to be flawed and a detriment to urban life.
So why do even architectural critics have trouble using the S-word when discussing the Ratner-Gehry plan?
Posted by lumi at 9:45 AM
"The Daily News Endorses Atlantic Yards"
From the Atlantic Yards News e-poster:
Forest City Ratner declares that the NY Daily News endorses the Atlantic Yards.
Real estate mogul and Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman must be real gung ho about the project to have given reprint permission complete with the corporate logo. Or could this just be the lone voice of editorial board member Errol Louis in his on-going attempt to pit latte sippers against affordable-housing advocates?
Atlantic Yards Report has posted additional commentary on the editorial that has become "Forest City Ratner's new ad campaign."
Posted by lumi at 9:27 AM
DFNYC Opposes the Atlantic Yards
Here's one we missed from Democracy for New York City, Sunday, May 21:
Based on your feedback, DFNYC opposes the Ratner Atlantic Yards Project as it currently stands and cannot condone the use of eminent domain on private property for the gain of a private developer. We believe that the project backed by glossy propaganda has not taken the community's concerns into consideration and we urge those in office and those seeking office to stand with the community, not against it.
Posted by lumi at 9:23 AM
May 29, 2006
James Stuckey: Building in Brooklyn
Forest City exec takes charge of Atlantic Yards construction; faces local opposition
Crain's NY Business
By Erik Engquist
Published on May 29, 2006
A profile of Forest City Ratner's President of the Atlantic Yards Development Group, Jim Stuckey, portrays the political mastermind as a developer who needs little sleep while simultaneously working out the details of "The Project that Ate Brooklyn" and pursing a masters in theology:
Every day, James Stuckey is awake for 20 hours, and he's busy for every one of them. As he tries to transform downtown Brooklyn, the executive vice president at Forest City Ratner Cos. has more on his plate than contestants at a Coney Island hot dog-eating competition.
Mr. Stuckey was named this month to run the real estate development company's newly created division devoted to building the controversial Atlantic Yards project. The technical complexities of creating a $3.5 billion residential-office-arena complex over an active rail yard are immense. The political, legal and financial uncertainties dogging the project are equally daunting.
"This embodies everything I've worked on in the last 30 years," he says from his 12th-floor office in MetroTech, a mile from the project site. "It's an incredible challenge."
His first mission is to steer past the media-savvy blog masters who have mounted a David-like effort to stop Atlantic Yards. They say the sprawling development will destroy the neighborhood. Mr. Stuckey, who was raised in a cramped Sunset Park apartment, where he shared a Castro convertible bed with his brother, appreciates the pluck of the Brooklynites battling Atlantic Yards. He still thinks they are wrong.
Respectful disagreement
"I completely understand and respectfully disagree," he says. His primary adversary, Daniel Goldstein, owns an apartment in a building Forest City plans to raze to make way for a basketball arena for the Nets. In a Forest City conference room, Mr. Stuckey identifies the building in a tacked-up aerial photograph. He notes that Forest City has bought every other unit in it. Condemnation by eminent domain and a lawsuit by Mr. Goldstein appear inevitable.
"He's very slick and comes across as if he's caring," Mr. Goldstein says of Mr. Stuckey. "But I think he's an absolutely cutthroat businessman." While opponents of Atlantic Yards portray Forest City as coldhearted and dollar-oriented, Mr. Stuckey says he joined the company for precisely the opposite reason. For the firm to undertake a project, "it had to have a public purpose," he says. Mr. Stuckey sees the development as appropriate growth where Brooklyn needs it--above the Atlantic Avenue train nexus.
The Staten Island resident, married 32 years and a father of three, doesn't fit the mold of ruthless real estate developer. He sits on the city's Arts Commission and formerly chaired the Center Against Domestic Violence. He is currently pursuing a master's in theology.
Growing up, the talented musician turned down a cello scholarship from Hofstra University, choosing to pursue bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology at St. John's University in Queens.
Developing interest
He was closing in on his doctorate when he switched careers. He worked on the South Street Seaport construction for the city and later caught the eye of Mayor Ed Koch, who made him president of the Public Development Corp.
His contacts will help him negotiate the political minefield faced by Atlantic Yards. The project needs approval from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Empire State Development Corp. and the Public Authorities Control Board, and relies informally on the support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Even some of Mr. Stuckey's foes praise him. "He's really good at what he does," says Prospect Heights activist Schellie Hagan. "He plays the game very well."
http://www.newyorkbusiness.com/article.cms?articleId=24902
Posted by lumi at 8:49 PM
Downtown Brooklyn in 2016
Brooklyn (like it or not) will get a shimmering Frank Gehry Crown.
The New York Magazine annual real estate edition is devoted to the big changes planned for NYC under the Bloomberg-Doctoroff Doctrine, and heralds the coming of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards, whether you like it or not:
What’s in a name? In projecting the future of the intersection of Atlantic, Flatbush, and Fourth Avenues, what you call the area means a lot. Call it Atlantic Yards, as developer Forest City Ratner does, and you see a march—or perhaps a fashion show—of sixteen towers in glass, metal, and brick marching down Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, supplanting Grand Army Plaza’s arch as the gateway to the 21st-century borough. This name pulls Downtown Brooklyn to the heart of the brownstone belt, attracting tenants who want to look at, but not necessarily touch, the old Brooklyn at their feet.
And whether Bruce Ratner likes it or not, Atlantic Yards Report has a play-by-play commentary on the article.
New York Magazine, in a feature headlined Building the (New) New York: The Bob and Jane way, takes a look at the city in 2016, and pronounces the projected result a mix of Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses. A segment on the Atlantic Yards project is odd; on the one hand, it assumes that the project would be completed on time as currently scheduled (despite past delays and likely litigation) and would be located in Downtown Brooklyn; on the other, it muses about a scaleback plan (uncredited) that could be far more dramatic than than anything proposed so far.
Posted by lumi at 8:18 PM
An arena grows in Brooklyn
The Newark Star-Ledger
Architecture critic Dan Bischoff reviews architect Frank Gehry's latest designs for Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards proposal by going beyond the models to consider the implications of Gehry's method and the shortcomings of celebrity:
Part of the problem is Gehry's method. He rather famously proceeds in fits in starts, proposing designs, changing them, engaging his (usually) billionaire clients in the sturm und drang of artistic creation. It works great when you're focussed on the relationship between a single client and the architectural genius, but when the client is a thousand people, few of whom have ever wanted to live in an American suburb, it gets hairy. And we do remember the billion-dollar museum plan Gehry unveiled for the Guggenheim a few years back, slated for the East River just off the South Street Seaport. That'll never happen.
Celebrity is as celebrity does.
From Atlantic Yards Report:
So, in the third review of the new architectural plan for the Atlantic Yards project, after reviews in the Sun and Newsday (hey, where's the Times?), a critic finally looks at the bigger picture, not just the social forces behind the building battle but also whether it's worth it all. In an essay today under the cliched (and 16-towers avoiding) headline An arena grows in Brooklyn, Star-Ledger art/architecture critic Dan Bischoff notably opines that the community "givebacks... seem relatively paltry compared to the scale of the overall project."
Also, he acknowledges skepticism "about whether anything even remotely approaching these models will be built," given architect Frank Gehry's age and the typical fits and starts in an architectural project.
Posted by lumi at 2:17 PM
Does Gehry have a stake in the Atlantic Yards development?
Atlantic Yards Report author Norman Oder recently came across a review of Deyan Sudjic's latest book, "The Edifice Complex." The reviewer interviewed Sudjic, who made a point about Frank Gehry that left Oder wondering.
Deyan Sudjic:
Gehry now has the power to name his price. He’s now using his position—and the sense that his signature can transform the prospects of a commercial development—to actually take points in the development, which is fascinating.
Atlantic Yards Report: Now Sudjic was not talking directly about the Atlantic Yards project, the biggest project Gehry ever designed. Does Gehry's enthusiasm for the project extend beyond the opportunity to design his first arena, or a "neighborhood from scratch," as he erroneously said? Does he have a financial stake in the deal beyond his typical fee? We don't know, since it hasn't been discussed publicly, but the question's worth asking, especially given Gehry's assiduous support for the project.
Posted by lumi at 11:51 AM
Eminent Domain's Pre-Eminence
The NY Times
By Laura Mansnerus
For NLG readers who are closely following the eminent domain debate across the nation, here's a NY Times article about the rampant abuse of property rights across the river in New Jersey.
Posted by lumi at 11:36 AM
Remembering those who fought for our rights
We owe a debt of gratitude to the men and women who have fought and died to uphold our democracy and protect our constitutional rights.
NoLandGrab readers spend a lot of time considering the expansion of the "takings clause" of the Fifth Amendment: "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
The intention of this amendment was to ensure private ownership of property.
We contend that the expansion of the definition of "public use" to include taking of private property to give to another private owner is abusive, and dishonors those who have fought to uphold the principles for which our great country stands.
Posted by lumi at 11:18 AM
Hakeem Jeffries, open letter on Atlantic Yards
Hakeem Jeffries took out a half-page ad in the Brooklyn Downtown Star in an attempt to clarify his stand on the biggest controversy in his district, Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards proposal.
I take this issue very seriously, as I reside along with my wife and two children, just a few blocks from the proposed footprint. This development, planned for the very heart of this district, presents a combination of both opportunity and deep concern.
The candidate for the 57th State Assembly District, an open seat currently held by Atlantic Yards supporter Roger Green, has charted a very careful position, one that even Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report is having a little difficulty parsing, since each statement seems to lead to more questions than answers.
Posted by lumi at 8:23 AM
May 28, 2006
F.Y.I.
The New York Times City Section
Taking Private Property
Q. The use of eminent domain for the benefit of private entities is a hot topic nowadays. Was it ever used that way in New York?
A. Your question alludes to a decision last year by the United States Supreme Court, which upheld the right of New London, Conn., to take private property, without the owner's permission, for economic development.
As it turns out, Lisa Bova-Hiatt, deputy chief in charge of condemnation issues for the city's Law Department, said that New York State law, unlike Connecticut's, allowed municipalities to take property for economic development only if the property is blighted.
Officials of the Empire State Development Corporation, for example, have suggested that the corporation may use eminent domain to help make room for the Atlantic Yards project near Downtown Brooklyn, arguing that the blocks that make up the proposed site of the project — on and around a railyard in Prospect Heights — meet the state's definition of blighted. But many who live and work there dispute that description, saying the neighborhood is thriving.
Ms. Bova-Hiatt cited Lincoln Center, Times Square and the MetroTech office park in Downtown Brooklyn as three developments that were based on the condemnation of blighted property.
NoLandGrab: Hmmm, Lincoln Center, Times Square and MetroTech. Can you guess which one of the three Bruce Ratner hasn't had a hand in? (Hint: he was still in short pants when the Upper West Side's arts mecca was created, otherwise....)
The Times, by the way, appears to be forgetting that it's a recent beneficiary of a Times Square condemnation action - in partnership with the aforementioned Mr. Ratner.
Posted by lumi at 6:34 PM
Sunday Comic: Coming to a theater near you
Posted by lumi at 6:35 AM
HALL OF SHAME: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Project for Public Spaces
Tired of New Yorkers whining about Frank Gehry? Well, sorry, but here's one more that you have to check out before you make up your mind about the starchitect who wants to transform Brooklyn.
Read about how a middle-aged couple visiting Bilbao became an easy mark when isolated by architecture.
Though it is near the center of the city, the Guggenheim shuns any relation to its context. The building challenges locals and tourists (not to mentioned handicapped people) to enter some of the least inviting public spaces and entranceways anywhere.
NoLandGrab: To be fair, a comment posted after the piece on Bilbao observes that the Millennium Park in Chicago offers the city and its inhabitants a more usable public space.
Posted by lumi at 6:21 AM
May 27, 2006
Ratner fence falls!
The Brooklyn Papers
Reporter Ariella Cohen covers the unsafe conditions at Forest City Ratner's Dean St. demolition site as a race between Dan Goldstein, nearby resident and spokesperson for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, who snapped the photo of the downed fence, and workers rebuilding it.
A city official, who requested anonymity, was amused by the keen reflexes of both the developer and his chief critic.
But Ratner isn’t laughing. The developer is facing a $2,500 fine from the Department of Buildings for the falling wall.
NoLandGrab: A nice horse-race story with a photo finish, but the article misses the larger point. The incident illustrates a trail of hypocrisy on the developer's part.
Forest City Ratner spent thousands of dollars in PR and legal fees to protect its right to demolish the Dean Street buildings, claiming they were a threat to public safety.
Since the February 14th decision by Justice Carol Edmead asserting FCR's right to demolish six properties (although the project has not been approved), the developer has been cited for unsafe conditions at the Times Tower site - at which debris fell on a car, injuring the occupants - and now, at the Dean Street site as well.
Too bad for Brooklyn Papers' readers that the paper didn't see fit to make this point.
Posted by lumi at 9:28 AM
Brooklyn Papers: Gehry slideshow
Gersh Kuntzman of The Brooklyn Papers has posted an online slideshow of Frank Gehry's latest images of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards proposal, accompanied by a few interesting comments.
Posted by lumi at 8:46 AM
Newsky: StopYassky Out-y!
It's not as big time as the unmasking of Deep Throat, but speculation over the identity of the blogger behind StopYassky.com has become fodder for local political online forums as the race for the 11th US Congressional District has heated up. Some commentators have bristled at the tone of the web site, while others have felt that it raises valid points.
Several people have claimed ownership and others have been outed.
Suspicion fell on Gary Tilzer of Yvette Clarke's campaign, then it definitely wasn't "Gatemouth," who fingered someone he ID'd as "fat ugly smelly toothless bastard." Others speculated that David Yassky's camp was running a reverse, putting up something inflammatory so they could pin it on the Chris Owens or Clarke campaigns.
Yesterday, Daily News columnist Errol Louis (via Ben Smith's blog, Daily Politics) outed Lucy Koteen of Fort Greene, citing her Blogspot handle, "stopyassky." Some outing — NY Observer reporter Matthew Schuerman points out that Blogspot members can remain anonymous if they want. It's not clear how Louis uncovered this, but it was most likely from a comment posted on Norman Oder's blog, Atlantic Yards Report.
The question for serial-letter-writer Koteen would be which organization she was seeking to give a boost: Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, The Sierra Club of New York, The Fort Greene Association or La Leche League (a local breast-feeding advocacy group)?
Some things we don't get:
If the threat to longtime project critic Chris Owens comes from splitting the black vote with Atlantic Yards supporters Carl Andrews and Yvette Clarke, why would a neighborhood activist go after Yassky? (Point also made by "Gatemouth.") Where're StopAndrews.com and StopClarke.com?
What was Errol Louis doing hanging out in Blogspot? Is he setting up his own anonymous blog? Trying to unmask "Norman Oder?" Or, boning up on facts about Ratner's Atlantic Yards scheme?
Posted by lumi at 7:31 AM
May 26, 2006
Bridezilla Hits Brooklyn
Frank Gehry to City: “Drop Dead.”
The L Magazine
By Amanda Park Taylor
This is probably one of the most amusing spankings of Frank Gehry and Laurie Olin we've read so far:
Ratner’s complex features a phalanx of towers (16 of ‘em!), wildly out of scale with the surrounding neighborhoods of three- and four-storey buildings, the centerpiece of which is a massive 650-footer, Gehry’s oh-so-charmingly christened “Miss Brooklyn”, aka “The Bride.” He claims to have driven around Brooklyn in search of inspiration and a sense of place (perhaps someone should have told him that New Yorkers don’t ride around in cars, for starters: that may be how Angelenos experience their built environment but...) and in his peregrinations saw an actual Brooklyn bride, and modeled this central tower on her.
After Laurie Olin waxes poetic about Brooklyn's geology and topography, we cut through the doublespeak. Gehry & Olin to Brooklyn:
“We know they’re there, but we really don’t care about the streets (which we are going to close off and cover over), or the buildings (which we’re going to seize, destroy and cast into permanent shade) or the culture (which we’ll just push out or build over) or the people (ditto). We’re just gonna do what we want, candy-coat it with idiotic imagery (did I mention that in addition to the “Bride” there is, natch, a “Groom,” and also a “Dude the Bride is Going to Cheat on the Groom With” amongst the towers?) and pretend we’ve actually paid attention to something beyond our own agendas.” Here comes the bride....
Posted by lumi at 1:19 PM
Extreme density: Atlantic Yards plan would dwarf Battery Park City, other projects
Norman Oder pokes around NYC and crunches some numbers to try to understand how Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards proposal "stacks up" against our city's other highrise residential developments.
It turns out that the Atlantic Yards proposal would bring more apartments per acre than any other major development he could find. [Using "number of apartments" is a way to approximate the important issue of population density.]
How big should the Atlantic Yards project be (or, for that matter, any project over the railyards)? If you compare AY to other major developments around the city, it would include more than twice as many apartments per acre than at Stuyvesant Town and Battery Park City, and thus a much more dense population--one that would surpass the turn-of-the-century Lower East Side.
| PROJECT NAME | # OF APTS. | ACRES | APTS./ACRE |
| PC Village/Stuy Town | 11,250 | 80 | 140.6 |
| Battery Park City now | 9000 | 92 | 97.8 |
| Battery Park City later | 14,000 | 92 | 152.2 |
| Starrett at Spring Creek | 5881 | 153 | 38.4 |
| Co-op City | 15,372 | 300 | 51.2 |
| Lefrak City | 5000 | 40 | 125 | Atlantic Yards, 5/06 | 6860 | 20 | 343 |
NoLandGrab: Look who just caught on! (Hey we're bloggers not urban planners.)
Project critics have been comparing Atlantic Yards to the superblock development projects of the past, as a way to conveniently grasp the size of the proposal and understand the effects of street closings.
However, Ratner's proposal is a MAJOR break from the traditional superblock paradigm, which used highrise towers to maximize open space in an attempt to improve quality of life.
Ratner appears to be using highrise towers to maximize profit. With a very low open-space ratio, this project's density is off the charts in comparison to other residential housing projects and may be the first "extreme-density high-rise project."
Are there ANY urban planning principles guiding the fundamental Atlantic Yards design, except to say that "extreme density" is necessary to insure profitability?
Posted by lumi at 11:01 AM
Brooklyn Rail Yards(?) Working Trade Session
From the Darman Group's web site to solicit women and minority contractors for the Atlantic Yards proposal:
As you may know Forest City Ratner Companies is working with the New York State Association of Minority Contractors (NYSAMC) and Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD), and others to ensure the maximum practicable level of minority and women owned business participation in the construction of Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards Project. Concurrent with the public approval process, preparations are underway to advertise construction contract opportunities. As part of that process you are invited to attend a trade specific working session whose purpose is to introduce representatives of larger construction companies to M/WBE and local firms who have the capability and interest to participate as subcontractors.
NoLandGrab readers have probably already spotted the PR spin in the image and statement above. The Vanderbilt Rail Yards is called the Brooklyn Yards and the title insinuates that the yards comprise most of the project. Also, Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards is now Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards.
Posted by lumi at 10:27 AM
Brian Lehrer Live: Norman Oder
The online videostream of Brian Lehrer's interview with Atlantic Yards Report author Norman Oder is posted on the CUNY TV web site .
Lehrer and Oder analyze the recent Atlantic Yards brochure and the latest Gehry designs.
Posted by lumi at 9:53 AM
nolandgrab.COM is for sale for $1,630
A regular reader pointed out that NOLANDGRAB.COM is for sale for a cool $1,630. Since we are an "org-y" kind of group, we'll probably pass.
But for the opposition to fair development in Brooklyn these domain names are still available:
yeslandgrab.com
landgrab.com
morelandgrab.com
atlanticlandgrab.com
aslongasitsnotmylandgrab.com
Posted by lumi at 9:32 AM
Senator Schumer Hates You
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn responds to Senator Schumer's attack on critics of the Atlantic Yards and Brooklyn Bridge Towers in Your Park proposals.
From the Brooklyn Downtown Star:
"Marty is taking it on the chin," sympathized Schumer, "from what I call the culture of inertia, this small group of self-appointed people. If we do not grow, we will die."
Posted by lumi at 9:27 AM
Can You Say 'Hooray for Ratner'? You're Hired!
Power Plays (the political blog of The Village Voice)
Marty Markowitz is looking to hire a "communications associate," someone who can brush up the Brooklyn Beep's bearish image. Though Markowitz is the biggest booster of all things Brooklyn, his image has taken a hit over the Atlantic Yards proposal:
Requirements:
The full-time post requires a college degree, city residency, and "the ability to work quickly and accurately in a fast-paced environment." Given the beep's unwavering support for the Atlantic Yards plan, spelling developer Bruce's last name correctly (it's "R-A-T-N-E-R" not "R-A-N-T-E-R") is also probably a plus.
Posted by lumi at 9:01 AM
Brooklyn elections and the developers
People's Weekly World
A socialist economic and political overview of demographic changes coming to Brooklyn, brought to you by the Bloomberg-Doctoroff big developer doctrine:
The housing, construction and development boom of recent years, which only recently has shown signs of slowing, is changing the class and nationality composition of whole cities, and with it reducing the Democratic majority.
High-rise luxury apartments, condos and offices; waterfronts privatized with luxury dwellings, hotels, recreational facilities and restricted parks; cruise liner ports; big-box stores; sports facilities featuring luxury boxes; glitzy casinos — all these are reshaping our cities. They are being financed by a host of federal, state and city public subsidies ranging from 30-60 percent of total costs, while finance capital — the big banks, developers, real estate and construction corporations — divide up 100 percent of the profit.
In Brooklyn, the fate of progressive politics is being played out over support for and opposition to the Atlantic Yards proposal:
The outcome of the Sept. 12 primary election will determine whether a progressive continues in Congress to fight the Bush administration. But it will also impact the citywide fight over whether the billionaire developers should have their way.
Posted by lumi at 8:46 AM
Atlanta: A Surprising Bastion of "New Urban" Living
A blog called Environmental and Urban Economics brings up some good points for consideration when reading this week's NY Times article about the Atlantic Station mixed-use development project in Atlanta, GA:
Below I report an interesting case study of a public/private partnership that appears to have achieved its two goals of greening a big chunk of center city Atlanta and creating urban economic development. The article does not say how much public money was spent on this project so it is impossible to begin to do cost/benefit analysis here. I'm always interested in "demonstration effects". Will politicians from other rundown places such as in Queens, NYC see the Atlanta success story and consider making similar investments? Perhaps they might anticipate the likely gentrification caused by a successful project and be afraid of losing their voting bloc? Would Jane Jacobs oppose this type of "big push" project?
Posted by lumi at 7:31 AM
May 25, 2006
If Miss Brooklyn and Mr. Beekman got married
The Frank Gehry submission for the NY Times Tower design competition, disinterred by "Dave the City Planner" (via Gutter), exposes the starchitect "ripping himself off."
Posted by lumi at 8:53 AM
The Norman Oder Report
Brian Lehrer Live
CUNY TV
Norman Oder, author of the blog The Atlantic Yards Report, kicked butt on Brian Lehrer's call-in show on CUNY TV last night.
For those of you who missed it, the interview with the Atlantic Yards Encyclopedia Normanica will be rebroadcast on Channel 75 on:
Saturday, 10am
Sunday, 11pm (time approximate following movie)
An archived videostream will be posted here once it's available.
Brian Lehrer made the point that Forest City Ratner was invited to send anyone, including Borough President Marty Markowitz, to represent the developer's point of view before, during or after the segment, but they declined. Apparently Bruce Ratner didn't like Brian Lehrer's questioning of Forest City Ratner Atlantic Yards Group President Jim Stuckey last week, on his weekday radio call-in show, or the whole gang is afraid, very afraid, of Norman Oder.
Either way, Bruce Ratner totally blew off the host of an enormously popular public-affairs radio talk show, big with the same demographic group the developer paid big bucks to reach with his 12-page liar flier. Smart PR!
The OderLehrerOderRatner Report
Uncharacteristically, Norman Oder ISN'T going to transcribe the entire interview. He has provided a summary of his appearance, with additional thoughts.
Posted by lumi at 8:35 AM
The ATURA mystery: why doesn't it overlap with AY footprint?
Atlantic Yards Report
Part of the proposed Atlantic Yards footprint sits within the Atlantic Terminal Urban Renewal Area (ATURA), and part does not. (ATURA is in red, the footprint is in blue, and the overlap is both.) But if the southern blocks of the footprint, between Pacific and Dean streets, were important for the city's redevelopment plans, why did the city never add them to ATURA? The failure to do so, said Allison Dean, a Hunter College graduate student in urban planning, suggests "striking asymmetries" between city redevelopment/land use policies and Forest City Ratner's project.
Dean also reports that, "A former staffer for the New York City Economic Development Corporation, which supports the Atlantic Yards project, told her that 'everyone is very skittish' about the plan."
NoLandGrab: Could the skittishness possibly be a result of these "striking asymmetries?"
Posted by lumi at 8:08 AM
FUREE Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned
Brooklyn Downtown Star
By Phil Guie
At last week's 10th and 11th US Congressional District Candidate Forum sponsored by Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) to discuss "job creation, affordable housing, increased pay for child care providers, and school conditions," Joy Chattel interrupted candidate David Yassky to make the point that, as her City Council representative, he has done nothing to help her save her home, which is slated to be seized via eminent domain for the Downtown Brooklyn redevelopment plan.
Yassky defended his position supporting the Downtown Brooklyn Plan by stating he's for affordable housing and job creation.
What Yassky didn't offer is that most of the development in Downtown Brooklyn has been luxury housing, not affordable housing and offices as originally planned. The current building boom is creating construction jobs, but not the thousands of long-term jobs originally predicted.
The outburst was a dramatic segment in an otherwise orderly forum at which candidates Chris Owens, Carl Andrews, David Yassky, Charles Barron and Roger Green discussed their views and experiences qualifying them to run for Congress, which included Green's boast that, "he had been in jail more times than any other politician in New York."
Posted by lumi at 7:50 AM
Eminent Domainia: Hercules, Long Branch, Syracuse
Hercules, CA
Today's big eminent domain news comes from the town of Hercules, where the City Council just voted unanimously to use eminent domain to seize land owned by Wal-Mart because of fears that the retailer's superstore would force mom-and-pop stores out of business, generate unwelcome traffic and generally disturb the small-town flavor of the city of 24,000.
From ABC News:
"It's not right to take private property for political purposes," said Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Loscotoff.
AP, via Washington Times, City uses eminent domain to bar Wal-Mart
San Francisco Business Times, Hercules rejects Wal-Mart
ABC, Town Snubs Wal-Mart, Citing Supreme Court
Los Angeles Times, Small Town Rocks Retail Giant
Long Branch, NJ
Atlanticville, Eminent domain report gets mixed reviews
The NJ Public Advocate recently released a report which found that "current redevelopment laws in NJ do not protect the rights of property owners." There is a heated battle going on in Long Branch, where the city is seizing beachfront property from bungalow owners in order to build condos. Does this report go far enough to save the Long Branch bungalows, or is a moratorium on eminent domain seizures needed while the state legislature works things out?
Syracuse, NY
The Syracuse Post-Standard, Judge stays condemnation of stores' rights
Eminent domain powers extend to lease rights, another form of property rights:
A state appeals court judge Wednesday temporarily blocked the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency from seizing the rights of some of the Carousel Center's retailers to veto the mall's expansion.
The lease rights require the store's permission before developer Robert Congel can make any major change to the mall, including the planned addition of 848,000 square feet of new leasable retail space to the mall.
Posted by lumi at 7:18 AM
Red Hook Lures Bites
Brooklyn Downtown Star
By Nik Kovac
Last week's opening of the Red Hook Fairway brought out a bevy of pols stumping for the Bloomberg-Doctoroff Doctrine:
Schumer, Bloomberg, and Markowitz were clearly eager to use the stage of the exceedingly popular Fairway opening to argue for other projects throughout Brooklyn which have much more significant opposition, like Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Atlantic Yards proposal in Prospect Heights. "Marty is taking it on the chin," sympathized Schumer, "from what I call the culture of inertia, this small group of self-appointed people. If we do not grow, we will die."
Later on, when the Senator was asked by a reporter about the possible ill effects of gentrification, especially displacement, he reasoned, "Economic forces are strong forces, no doubt about it. We can't stop them, but we can certainly direct them. We can bring in more people with means and use them to help preserve the people who don't have means."
Posted by lumi at 6:29 AM
May 24, 2006
Dan Zanes and Brooklyn Friends
Tickets on sale in a mom-n-pop shop near you
Fundraiser for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
Saturday, June 3, 11AM
Hanson Place United Methodist Church
Tickets on sale at these locations:
Soundtrack
119 Seventh Ave., 718-622-1888
Acorn
323 Atlantic Ave., 718-522-3760
Boing Boing
204 6th Ave., 718-398-0251
Green Onion
274 Smith St., 718-246-2804
LuLu's Cuts and Toys
48 Fifth Ave. (between Bergen & Dean), 718-832-3732
Mini Jake
242 Wythe Ave., 718-782-2005
Heights Kids
85 Pineapple Walk, 718-222-4271
Posted by lumi at 10:09 AM
TONIGHT: Brian Lehrer Live
Atlantic Yards Reporter Norman Oder will be Brian Lehrer's guest tonight on CUNY's live TV call-in show.
Brian Lehrer LIVE on CUNY TV, Channel 75 at 7:50 pm.
More info (including webcasting)
Though Oder has been barred from press conferences and is a regular (probably unwelcome) correspondent with the NY Times ombudsman, somehow he manages to continue peeling back the layers of Bruce Ratner's $3.5-billion project. The walking Atlantic Yards encyclopedia is on a mission to unwind Ratner's PR spin and doggedly follow each lead through the underbelly of Brooklyn politics, urban planning movements and minutiae, media criticism, financial analysis, and the secretive world of quasi-governmental state agencies and corporations.
The big question is, who is Bruce Ratner going to send to go mano-a-mano against Norman Oder?
Ratner Executive VP Bruce Bender stopped making sense a long time ago. Forest City Ratner's President of the Atlantic Yards Development Group Jim Stuckey has a poor poker face and a couple of known "tells." Ratner mouthpiece Joe DePlasco (previously on Brian Lehrer's WNYC radio show as "Joey in Cobble Hill") is more of a PR straightman and may not have the chops to deal with plan particulars. Will it be ACORN head Bertha Lewis, who is contractually obliged to stump for the project? Or, do they have a secret weapon?
Posted by lumi at 9:06 AM
Building a City Within the City of Atlanta
The NY Times
By Lisa Chamberlain
A city within a city? A mixed-use utopia called "Atlantic Station?" One academic quips, "You have apartmentville, retail town and office town." Is this a sneak preview of Bruce Ratner's plans for world domination?
Actually, it's in Atlanta; it's bigger (but way less dense) than Atlantic Yards; and incorporates the work of different architects (as opposed to Gehryland). However, like Atlantic Station's cousins, Atlantic Terminal and Atlantic Center, national chains proliferate.
How did a polluted steel mill site get a second chance?
Posted by lumi at 8:47 AM
Nick Perry is outta here
The last few weeks have been quite interesting for NY State Assemblymember Nick Perry, a candidate for the 11th District US Congressional seat.
Perry scraped the bottom of the barrel to smear his opponents in a push poll, failed to get traction with the local political clubs, flip-flopped on the Brennan Atlantic Yards bill after ACORN arm twisting, then dropped out.
Translation:
He spent too much money to figure out that people outside of his district have no clue who he is, except for those Atlantic Yards critics who were going to paint him as a Ratner stooge. In a crowded field of African-American candidates, there really wasn't any point to continue the campaign.
Here's the coverage of Perry's withdrawl:
Room Eight, Is Nick Perry finally pulling out?
The Politicker, Perry Drops Out
The Real Estate Observer, Nick, We Hardly Knew Ye
The NY Times, House Candidate Withdraws, Afraid of Splitting Black Vote
NoLandGrab's amateur assessment: That leaves Atlantic Yards critic Chris Owens running against a troika of Bruce Ratner supporters: Carl Andrews, Yvette Clarke, and, we hate to say it, even David Yassky.
David Yassky has carefully sketched out a vague position on the project, though he has voiced serious concerns. A recent development might indicate how Yassky's position has evolved — three out of the four African-Americans who have publicly voiced support for Yassky are signatories to Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement. Coincidence? We think not.
Posted by lumi at 7:35 AM
HPD head mildly criticizes 421-a subsidies, defends "targeted eminent domain"
Today's Atlantic Yards Report post covers Shaun Donovan, commissioner of the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), and a recent interview in which Donovan commented on the City's 421-a housing subsidies and eminent domain.
Posted by lumi at 7:35 AM
May 23, 2006
CURBED.COM, Scoop: Curves on Gehry's Beekman building's
Here's a surprise, the Ratner-Gehry 72-story Beekman St. Tower is shiny and curvy.
Actually this model is probably from 2004. Since no renderings have been released since, it's all we have to go on.
Comment #3 offers this funny insider description of Forest City Ratner:
i was working on this project through early 2005 when a major client pulled out. this is an old rendering (sadly they refused to release any other renderings after this one). i concur with the leaker about forest city - they are 100% pricks. it was entertaining to watch them try to do cost analysis on this and realize that 75 stories of frank gehry is NOT CHEAP, even compared to the atlantic yards mess. they really want the project to be realized and will probably (continue to) rape and pillage to get it done ...
NoLandGrab Exclusive: In searching for inspiration for the tower, Gehry rejected the bride and maiden for a genuine NYC icon, the SUPERMODEL ("if you’d seen [her], you’d understand. I fell in love...").
Posted by lumi at 10:03 PM
Time to catch the wave
NY Newsday's review of the Atlantic Yards project describes Gehry's ego trip to Brooklyn, as reviewer Justin Davidson gets Brooklyn as well as Gehry understands it's body language.
The developer Bruce Ratner wants to import the New Jersey Nets and erect for them a majestic yet intimate arena on the arrowhead-shaped lot where Atlantic and Flatbush avenues cross. Stretching to the west [um, it's east] would be a high-rise Xanadu of offices, apartments, stores and restaurants, turning a dingy-chic wedge of city into a bright new campus.
Typical architectspeak describes brownstone neighborhoods as a dull canvas in want of a stroke of genius:
All those mud colors, all the weighty Victorians and mile upon square mile of squat brick boxes will do nicely as a monochrome backdrop to his star turn.
Meanwhile, it's people who are the bedrock of this place called Brooklyn, hip and stodgy people who have resisted the anonymous grandeur of the most well meaning urban design.
Ironically, Davidson falls for the bride story, recycled from Gehry's Victorian maiden narrative, which was the part of Gehry's recent press conference that elicited the loudest collective groan.
He rode around the borough searching for inspiration and came across not a neighborhood or a civic structure, but a bride, a slow-motion vision out of a movie. Gehry, the auteur of place, had found the protagonist for his fantasy.
Gehry's fantasy could be Brooklyn's B movie, if Bruce Ratner lands the role of Moses:
Rather [Gehry and Ratner] are selling the borough on a new boast. Manhattan may get a building or two, but only Brooklyn will have a whole New Jerusalem, signed Frank Gehry.
When you're done "dancing about architecture," cruise on over to Atlantic Yards Report, where Norman Oder clears up some of Davidson's confusion over the facts and most pressing issues.
Posted by lumi at 8:40 PM
Efforts To Downsize Ratner’s Atlantic Yards Get Under Way
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Dennis Holt's latest ramblings on Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards proposal is a sign that Bruce's biggest booster may want to consider retiring, or at least seeking some editorial assistance.
"Belisario from the country of Colombia" and a "member of a hunter-gatherer tribe called Nukak-Maco" on "the future""
“The future — what’s that?”
Starchitect Frank Gehry on the future:
“There is constant change. I think the issue is how you manage change.”
Dennis Holt on the future:
"In one sense, what is planned has never been built before anywhere else."
Posted by lumi at 10:02 AM
Metro NY, Letters to the Editor:
CONDEMNATION HASN'T HAPPENED
ERIC MCCLURE • Park Slope
Regarding “Letting a thousand projects bloom” (May 17): When Empire State Development Corporation Chairman Charles Gargano replied to your question about the Atlantic Yards proposal by saying, “We didn’t really have to use eminent domain because there were friendly condemnations done,” he’s either betraying a woeful degree of disengagement, living in a fantasy world or lying.
Condemnation hasn’t happened yet with this project, but if it does, it certainly won’t be “friendly” — it will most likely be in violation of the U.S. Constitution. It’s just this type of “leadership” from Mr. Gargano and the ESDC that leaves New Yorkers with a hole in the ground in lower Manhattan nearly five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Costs to taxpayers outweigh benefits
LARRY PENNER • Great Neck
Regarding “Letting a thousand projects bloom” (May 17): New York City prospered for centuries prior to the creation of various city and state development corporations over the past two decades. In too many cases, projects have been heavily subsidized by taxpayers, commonly known as corporate welfare. Between direct government funding, low interest loans and long term tax exemptions, the bill to taxpayers may be greater than the benefits. There also is a relationship between Pay for Play campaign contributions from developers to elected officials looking for favorable legislation, permits and subsidies.
Don’t forget the conflict of interest for senior staff from city or state regulatory and permitting agencies. Too many leave at the end of any mayoral or governor administration to become employees or consultants to the same developers they previously oversaw. Too many mega developers try to purchase the support of local community groups by making so-called voluntary donations. They also make promises for capital improvements, which after the major project is completed don’t always appear.
If these projects are worthwhile, why can’t major developers use their own funds or obtain loans from banks, like medium and small businesses?
Real business people who believe in capitalism build their companies on their own. How sad that some don’t want to do it the old fashioned way, by sweat and hard work. They are looking for shortcuts in the form of huge subsidies at taxpayers expense and favors from elected officials.
E-mail your letters to: letters@metro.us. Keep them as brief as possible.
Posted by lumi at 9:48 AM
If a wall falls in Brooklyn...
If a wall falls in Brooklyn and no one is injured, does it make a sound? Not in the world's largest media market.
"If it bleeds it leads" — the mainstream media wakes up when someone gets hurt but has little interest in scrutinizing Bruce Ratner, a real estate mogul who professes to be so concerned with safety that he exploited a loophole in NY State law that allows for emergency demolitions if a property poses a public safety threat, while at the same time flagrantly disregarding the public's safety at his construction and demolition sites.
Yesterday, NoLandGrab received a report that late in the day a new fence was being erected at the 461-463 Dean St. site, on which two brick townhouses stood, before the Ratner wrecking crew recently dismantled them, piece by piece.
Previously, the site was secured by a free-standing plywood wall that blew down on Sunday, collapsing onto the sidewalk. The wall was repaired, but blew down again, this time towards the site. Luckily, no one was hurt in either incident.
We hope the new fence is not another flimsy free-standing symbol of Ratner's broken promises to the community. Judging from the looks of this photo taken last night, the unfinished fence is... free standing and made of plywood.
And speaking of the community, thank you to all those who called the City to report the accident. The Department of Buildings logged the complaint (#3191408) and... did nothing.
Since Forest City Ratner's safety record has recently taken a hit, perhaps this incident will prompt Brooklyn's Development Czar to consider safety as a serious community concern, not just a loophole to facilitate demolition before the Environmental Review process has been completed, ...or not.
Posted by lumi at 8:39 AM
FCE's 10-K: has developer spent more on Nets than for Atlantic Yards?
Atlantic Yards Report takes a look at Forest City Enterprises' filing with the SEC, which suggests that the parent company of Forest City Ratner has actually spent more on the Nets than for the much more expensive Atlantic Yards project.
Are some costs hidden, or were they logged too recently to appear on the form? Is FCR hedging its bets? Has the company merely acquired options on most of the property it now "controls?" Check it out and see for yourselves.
Posted by lumi at 7:56 AM
Brooklyn Zoo
Dan Zanes builds an interactive kid rock empire one starstruck toddler at a time
The Village Voice
By Josh Goldfein
Every two-year-old in Park Slope knows that Dan Zanes is a rock star. At Franny's on Flatbush Avenue the other night, I watched one burst into Beatlemaniacal sobs the second he walked in—you can't miss his elegantly clashing wardrobe of thrifted suits, shirts, and socks, accompanied by a penumbra of Don King–at-Woodstock hair. Even when the "family music" phenom is quietly buying apples at the Cadman Plaza farmer's market, he looks like he just stepped out of the Sesame Street green room.
...
Zanes is venturing into activism himself, signing on to play a June 3 show for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn in its fight against Ratnerville. "What makes Brooklyn so special is not just the architecture, but the small-scale community," he says. "Say goodbye to all that."
Posted by lumi at 7:45 AM
DOWNTOWN TOWER PLAN
The NY Post
By Lois Weiss
An update on the Ratner-Gehry project in Lower Manhattan:
THE Frank Gehry-designed project that Forest City Ratner is developing on the NYU Beekman Downtown Hospital parking lot is starting to shape up.
The tower's just-revealed 876-foot height will top off as the tallest City Hall area structure - yes, taller than the nearby venerable 792-foot Woolworth Building. Nevertheless, despite earlier reports, it will be shorter than all the new buildings at ground zero.
That is taller than Gehry's "ego trip," Miss Brooklyn.
The building will contain the most expensive public school in NYC history, medical offices, luxury aparments and luxury condos.
No renderings have been released.
Gehry's spirited and wavy designs are slowly taking shape as buildable ones for Forest City's other huge project in Brooklyn for the Nets and Atlantic Yards.
A Forest City spokesperson was unaware of the details and had no comment.
Carol Willis, director of the Skyscraper Museum, said, "I'm certainly curious to see it because I'm sure it will be a tower with personality, and I would welcome that on the skyline."
Posted by lumi at 7:31 AM
Ratner Bros.
NY Daily News
Elizabeth Hays's profile of Kevin Keating ("Getting rough on Rudy," May 23), director of the newly released documentary, "Giuliani Time," mentions that Michael and Bruce Ratner are brothers, but not the minor fact that Michael Ratner is also an owner of the Nets:
The film began in 1998 as a short segment investigating First Amendment cases brought against Giuliani, with seed money raised by Michael Ratner - brother of Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner - who runs the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Posted by lumi at 7:23 AM
May 22, 2006
Ratnerville safety hazard update
The wall is still down at 461 and 463 Dean St. and no one has secured the demolition site.
This photo shows the latest conditions of Bruce Ratner's demolition site, where the safety wall blew down not once, but twice. The second time, thankfully, the wall blew in towards the site, unlike yesterday when the wall collapsed onto the sidewalk.
The only safety precautions appear to be two orange cones warning pedestrians of something. [The police cruiser in the photo was passing by and did not stop to take notice of the site.]
A reader has emailed to tell us that the Department of Buildings has been called, but inspectors have not arrived on the scene.
Brooklyn resident and Forest City Ratner Executive VP Bruce Bender has previously stated in the Brooklyn Papers that "Should... a wall collapse on the street, then we would be at fault."
Original post, Ratner's latest public-safety hazard
Posted by lumi at 12:15 PM
I love Brownstone Brooklyn, NY
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| ORIGINAL FOR SWEDISH BROOKLYNITES | WE SWEAR IT'S NOT MACHINE TRANSLATION |
Riv sju bostadskvarter på Söder, bygg tio skyskrapor och en stor arena. |
Tear down seven block in Söder (hip neighborhood in Stockholm, think Williamsburg), and build ten skyscrapers and a big arena.* |
Varför klaga, det kommer ju att gynna hela Stockholm, att hyror i fastigheter runtomkring kommer att höjas med 100%, det gör väl inget, eller......?! |
Why complain, it will benefit all of Stockholm, the rents in the neighborhood will be raised with 100% and that's ok, or...?! |
En sådan "utopi" har engagerat de flesta i Brooklyn, de senaste åren. Även för mina vänner, som bor i det berörda området. |
An "utopia" like that has gotten most Brooklynites engaged in the recent years. So also my friends, who lives in the threatened neighborhood. |
Jag kan bara rekommendera, om du besöker New York. Våga, åk över till Brooklyn, innan "Atlantic Yard Project" har förstört mina vänners hus. |
All I can do is recommend that, if you go to New York, dare to go to Brooklyn before the "Atlantic Yards Project" have destroyed my friends houses. |
Kan man inte utveckla ett område, utan att förstöra? http://www.dddb.net/ |
Can't you develop an area without destroying it? |
Posted by lumi at 11:04 AM
TONIGHT: Hunter Center for Community Preservation and Development
WHEN: Monday, May 22, 7 PM
WHERE: FIFTH AVENUE COMMITTEE
621 Degraw Street
(between 4th Avenue and 3rd Avenue)
Brooklyn, NY
Dr. Tom Angotti of the Hunter Center for Community Preservation and Development (Hunter CCPD) will be leading a presentation by Hunter students. Angotti's urban planning class has spent all semester working on some of the impact issues of the Ratner Project.
The Hunter Center for Community Preservation and Development will be participating in the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods’ EIS analysis of the Atlantic Yards proposed development.
The presentation is open to the public.
Posted by lumi at 10:26 AM
Brooklyn Papers, Letters:
Ratner's fix fails to please critics
In reference to your recent article on Frank Gehry's new Atlantic Yards design ("Meet Miss Brooklyn," May 13), maybe we really should comment Gehry. After all, he said his new designs were the result of listening to the body language of Brooklyn.
No wonder his tower looks like someone giving the arena the finger!
— Deb Goldstein, Sunset Park
Words to live by
I recently received Ratner's 12-page flyer ("Ratner's glossy fantasyland," May 6) and am sending the "reply card" to you rather than to Ratner because, I suspect, you will pay it more attention than he will.
— Howard Klang, Brooklyn Heights
As for Marty...
Here's an open letter to Borough President Markowitz:
When I spoke with you some time ago, at the march to save the historic view corridor between the statue of Minerva in Brooklyn's Greenwood Cemetery and the Statue of Liberty (to refresh your memory: I was the guy in the "Yo Markowitz: It's the Community, Stupid!" traffic-sign t-shirt), you had just made a great little speech about the importance of protecting the human-scale quality of low-rise Brooklyn.
In this speech, it sounded as if you had swiped your talking points from Dan Goldstein [of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn]. But your words so contradicted your position on the hugely non-contextual Atlantic Yards project that I had to confront you with the disparity.
First, you claimed that the area in which Ratner had staked his greedy claim was not residential, as opposed to the outlying "suburban" areas of Brooklyn — Bay Ridge, etc. — which, you said, should be protected from out-of-scale overdevelopment. That, of course, is an absurd assertion. Prospect Heights is largely residential.
If you'd bother to walk around the neighborhood with your eyes even half open, you'd see that most of it is low-rise, livable, lovable Brooklyn.
Second, you told me to just wait and see. You suggested that Ratnerville would be scaled back considerably. But last week's unveiling of architect Frank Ghery's slightly revised design puts the lie to that claim as well.
This thing is still huge! It's even larger than the original plan—which is the one you and I had been discussion.
Yes, this new plan is a tad smaller than the previously unveiled "Vegas" version, but still bigger than the horrendous original.
To say that it's scaled back is to engage in the same kind of flim-flammery that unscrupulous retailers do when they mark-up prices before a sale, and then offer a small percentage off the previously hiked price.
— Gavin Smith, Park Slope
Posted by lumi at 10:13 AM
It's The Scale, Stupid
A MUST-READ FOR THE PRESS AND PROJECT PROPONENTS AND CRITICS ALIKE.
Brooklyn Views
Here's the one view of the project Frank Gehry's photo renderings didn't offer.
Brooklyn Views sticks it to the Atlantic Yards plan in his analysis of recent comments by designers Frank Gehry and Laurie Olin and goes as far as making concrete suggestions for downsizing to "encourage the design team to provide quality design, rather than defend an indefensible program."
Brooklyn Views makes a couple important points about:
making the world a better place,
How does ignoring any guidelines provided by existing zoning, providing no alternative energy ideas, no concept of security, privatizing public streets and calling them the project’s “open space”, and proposing a development that totally circumvents the city’s process for public review make the world better?
density over a transit hub,
This project (now 8.66 million sf) would be like locating the former World Trade Center towers (only 7.6 million sf combined) plus Madison Square Garden, somewhere near the W.4th Street Transit Hub because of all the trains there.
and infrastructure costs.
Many of the infrastructure costs identified by FCRC are merely a result of the proposed scale of the project, not the other way around.... Don’t provide venue parking and you won’t have to excavate for it. Don’t close the streets and you won’t have to relocate sewers and utilities.
Posted by lumi at 7:23 AM
Ratner's latest public-safety hazard
The scene at 461 and 463 Dean Street yesterday was in stark contrast to the posture assumed by Forest City Ratner (FCR) as a defender of public safety, in order to secure an "emergency action" to demolish buildings they claimed were in "danger of collapse and posed an imminent threat to public safety."
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These photos (click to enlarge) were taken yesterday after the safety wall protecting FCR's site was blown down. Luckily for everyone, no one was injured or killed.
As Forest City Ratner Executive VP Bruce Bender pointed out in a January, 2006 letter to the Brooklyn Papers, "These buildings are under our control and as such are our responsibility. Should a fire break out, a brick fall or a wall collapse on the street, then we would be at fault."
Neighbors and critics of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan had repeatedly called for buildings at 461 and 463 Dean Street to be spared until the public review process was completed, pointing out that the buildings had been recently occupied and that subsequent structural damage to the buildings was possibly caused by the windows Ratner had left open in the rear, exposing the structures to the elements.
Now the buildings are gone.
Last month, a serious accident at Forest City Ratner's Times Tower job site led New York City's Dept. of Buildings to issue several safety violations and to temporarily close that site. It is unclear if the Dept. of Buildings is aware of the Dean St. wall collapse.
The neighborhood didn't believe Ratner when he made the initial claims that the Dean St. buildings posed a threat to public safety, but we are still stunned when presented with repeated evidence of his disingenuousness.
The final approval of the project is still pending the environmental review. However, recent events lead Brooklynites to wonder if Ratner was really just looking for a way to jump start demolitions, since his project is nearly two years behind schedule and is losing public support with every day.
UPDATE: The wall was repaired last night but blew over again. That would make two opportunities for Forest City Ratner to have caused a serious injury in Prospect Heights.
If anyone knows if the Department of Buildings has inspected the site, please send us the tip.
Posted by lumi at 7:21 AM
"Sketches" of Gehry, but unencouraging hints for Brooklynites
Atlantic Yards Report
The ads for Sydney Pollack's new documentary Sketches of Frank Gehry excerpt words from reviews: “absorbing,” “seductive,” “superb,” and “a very fine documentary about our era’s master builder. Refreshing, instructive, and satisfying.”
Yes, Gehry’s designed some terrific buildings and had an important influence on architecture--and the camera loves the curves of the Guggenheim Bilbao and other sinuous structures. But international fame does not equal responsiveness to the community. While the film makes no reference to the Atlantic Yards project, but, viewed through a Brooklyn-centric lens, it offers offers some unencouraging hints: Gehry comes off as artist, not urban planner, is shown to possess a monumental ego, and appears to have been more concerned about being a "good neighbor" in Los Angeles than in Brooklyn. (At right, the director and his subject, old friends.)
Posted by lumi at 6:43 AM
May 21, 2006
Simon Liu's art supply business to move after deal with Ratner
Atlantic Yards Report:
Simon Liu Inc., a highly-regarded art supply business with 25 employees on Dean Street within the proposed Atlantic Yards project footprint, has long been mentioned as a business threatened by eminent domain. Liu last year told the Daily News that he was seeking a new building but that all options were too expensive. (The 6/24/05 article, headlined Unfair & un-American, biz cries, came after the Supreme Court's Kelo eminent domain decision, and focused on another business outside Brooklyn.)Now, however, Liu plans to move; the Brooklyn Papers reported, in an article this week headlined For gallery's last show, look up in the sky (p. 4), that Liu sold his building to Ratner several months ago. (The terms have not been disclosed; will Liu be allowed to discuss the deal with the press?)
"It's a real tragedy," gallery manager Leon Kalas told the newspaper. "Simon's gallery had become an important gathering palce for artists, and now it's all being destroyed."
Posted by amy at 10:40 AM
The Manhattanville Project
New York Times Magazine:
As Justice Clarence Thomas noted in his dissent in the recent Kelo case, concerning New London, Conn., an expansive definition of "public use" in the 50's and 60's permitted local governments to eliminate entire minority neighborhoods through eminent domain in the name of "urban renewal" — soon known as "Negro removal" among blacks. Not surprisingly, Columbia's talk of seizing property does not go over well in Harlem. Still, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has come out in strong support of eminent domain — which also figures in the developer Bruce Ratner's controversial efforts to construct a basketball stadium and condos in the Atlantic Yards area of Brooklyn. Without it, "every big city would have all construction come to a screeching halt," Bloomberg said recently.
Atlantic Yards Report applauds the New York Times for keeping up their impressive error per sentence ratio:
First, it's an arena (indoor facility, with a floor or rink), not a stadium (usually outdoor, with a field).Second, the plan currently would include 4500 rental units and 2360 condos.
Finally, there's no such thing as "the Atlantic Yards area."
Posted by amy at 10:30 AM
May 20, 2006
TODAY: Bake Don't Destroy, Redux
Buy a Cake, Save a Community
Saturday, May 20
10AM—3PM
In front of Edmonds Playground
DeKalb Avenue near Adelphi Street
Fort Greene
All proceeds will be donated to Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn.
For more information, phone 718-362-4784.
Click to enlarge image.
For more information on up-and-coming events, check out our events listing.
Posted by lumi at 11:48 AM
TODAY: Families United for Racial & Economic Equality’ Presents (FUREE) Annual Convention - 2006
Every year, FUREE brings our community together to address the issues we face. This year is an election year & we have invited Candidates from District 10 & 11 Congressional Race 2006 to come & hear us about our issues.
INVITED CANDIDATES INCLUDE:
District 10: Councilmember Charles Barron, Congressman Ed Towns
District 11: Chris Owens, Councilmember Yvette Clark, Assemblyman Nick Perry, State Senator Carl Andrews, Councilmember David Yassky
ISSUES WILL INCLUDE: DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PAY EQUITY FOR CHILD
Lunch will be provided from 1pm to 2pm
FOR MORE INFORMATION Please call (718) 852-2960 (ask for Tamar at ext. 307 or Rusia at ext 300) Visit FUREE at 81 Willoughby Street, Suite 602 (corner of Lawrence Street) Email Us at info@furee.org, rusia@furee.org, tamar@furee.org Check Out FUREE's Website at www.furee.org
Saturday, May 20
1pm to 4pm
p.s. 261 (Pacific on the corner of hoyt)
Posted by amy at 11:47 AM
Bill: State should pay Bruce to build less at A’Yards site
Brooklyn Papers Gersh Kuntzman
To compensate Ratner for the smaller project, Brennan’s bill would give the developer the Atlantic Yards site for free, rather than charging him $100 million for it. The MTA had appraised the site at $214 million.In addition, Brennan’s bill would relieve Ratner of his obligation to renovate the Long Island Rail Road yard, saving him another $200 million, the assemblyman said.
Brennan’s bill would also require the state — rather than Ratner himself — to subsidize the 50-percent of the project that Ratner agreed to set aside as affordable housing.
“This bill is like negotiating with a hijacker,” said Daniel Goldstein, spokesman for the anti-Atlantic Yards group, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn.
Posted by amy at 11:39 AM
Brennan’s bonehead bill
Brooklyn Papers editorial:
Lest we forget, Bruce Ratner did not have a gun to his head when he made the promise to set aside half his project for affordable housing (since downgraded to half the rental units, by the way). He was not obligated by the state or city.He made the vow in a deal that he voluntarily entered into with eight community groups. His underlings have said repeatedly that Ratner made the deal out of love for the community and to meet the needs of Brooklyn. Ratner’s latest Atlantic Yards mailings even tout the 50-percent affordable housing promise as “legally binding.”
But Brennan would not only allow Ratner to reneg on that promise — but pay him to do so! Brennan, a man said to be considering a run for city comptroller, should be ashamed of this bill. The Atlantic Yards project still needs state approval, where it could still be changed or even killed — on its own merits and without a ridiculous “bailout.”
Posted by amy at 11:22 AM
Ratner $$ can’t buy love
Brooklyn Papers covers moms, money and guilt at PS 321. Or "How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Corporate Contributions."
Smartmom, looking decidedly un-’60s in black Aerosole sandals and a silk jacket, was more concerned about the article Dumb Editor asked her to write about the controversy surrounding Forest City Ratner’s cash donation of $7,500, his “underwriting” of the event.For this low, low price, he got a big, big mention in the auction program. For some parents, just seeing “Forest City Ratner” on the program killed the party mood. A few even refused to participate.
...
“He got away awfully cheap,” Cool Architect Mom pointed out. “For $7,500, he gets his name big on the program and creates the perception that PS 321 supports the project. And we don’t. It goes against everything the school stands for.”And that is? “Community,” she said without missing a beat. “This school is about community, inclusion and human scale — the opposite of Ratner’s project.”
Posted by amy at 11:12 AM
Schumer’s Way: Timothy P. Carney on big government serving big business
New York Sun covers Chuck Schumer's position on eminent domain. Hint: He's for it.:
Mr. Schumer’s group had a solution to this vexing problem. His report recommended “[m]aking greater use of public condemnation for assemblage,” explaining that “[t]he use of the powers of eminent domain eliminates a number of the barriers to assemblage by compelling property owners to sell and severing the leases of existing tenants.”Mr. Schumer’s paper specifically called on the government to go after “holdouts,” those pesky landowners who won’t sell, even when it is for the greater good (remember, we’re talking office buildings here, not schools or military bases).
The report exhorts the government to “[a]dopt the practice of removing office site holdouts via condemnation. Holdout condemnation would permit the completion of assemblage when 85% of a site is controlled and development plans are ready to proceed. This would eliminate the leverage of one or two small property owners who might refuse to sell, thereby allowing private developers to move ahead on a development.”
...
Given his full-throated support of eminent domain for corporate gain, it is no surprise that Mr. Schumer reeled in $1.8 million from the real estate industry during his first term, according to the Center for Responsive Politics — more than any other Senate candidate that year.
Posted by amy at 11:00 AM
Two Years Later
The Real Estate:
Suddenly, two years after downtown Brooklyn was rezoned, activists are waking up to a crop of luxury condos thriving in what used to be a low-income area. First, it was ACORN's report on how just 7 percent of the new units planned for the area are affordable to low- or middle-income families. Now, Families United for Racial and Economic Equality will hold a "boisterous march" and forum Saturday afternoon with Congressional candidates from the 10th and 11th districts at P.S. 261.All fine and good, but if they are so against all the luxury housing, where were they two years ago, before the rezoning passed the City Council, when they would have had more leverage?
...
We imagine that on Saturday, the candidates will be asked where they were two years ago also. Three were and are still City Council Members: Yvette Clarke, David Yassky and Charles Barron. Only Barron expressed any dissent towards the downtown Brooklyn plan.
Posted by amy at 10:57 AM
FCRC Mute On Atlantic Yards Security In Event of Terror Attack
Courier-Life:
If terrorists decide to target the Nets basketball ar