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May 9, 2006
Ratner courting Brooklyn support
NY Daily News
By Michael O'Keefe
Bruce Ratner's proposed $3.5 billion Atlantic Yards may face vociferous opposition across Brooklyn, but the borough's amateur sports community is in the Nets owner's corner, especially after Forest City Ratner began sponsoring local basketball events and asked local athletic organizations to draw up a wish list of programs and facilities. Ratner will formalize that relationship this summer with the creation of the Brooklyn Amateur Sports Alliance, a Forest City Ratner-funded organization that will help promote youth basketball and other sports in the borough. Richard Lipsky, the lobbyist hired by Forest City Ratner to reach out to the borough's sports programs, has scheduled a May 30 meeting with Brooklyn sports officials to lay the groundwork for the BASA.
The article continues with a reminder of another organization that was funded by Forest City Ratner.
NoLandGrab: Richard Lipsky is a lobbyist who built his reputation uncovering the negative impacts to the community of large-scale developments containing national chains and box stores. Could it be that Ratner hired Lipsky to eliminate a potentially powerful voice against the project?
Ratner has also hired "Gridlock" Sam Schwartz and Andrew Zimbalist, other prominent experts who typically would voice concerns over traffic-generating billion-dollar boondoggles like Atlantic Yards.
Posted by lumi at May 9, 2006 8:09 AM