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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 May 27, 2006 9:28 AM