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June 7, 2006
Wrap-Up: June 5th Candidates Night Forum at Brown Memorial
Question presented: Would you change the CBA, and how?
Running for State Assembly, 57th AD
Freddie Hamilton
No, I'm not in favor of reopening the Community Benefits Agreement. I am a signer on this agreement. I think that it's important that we stay at the table.
Hakeem Jeffries
"Mend it don't end it." Conceptually I think the CBA is a good idea. -Also mentioned that the jobs portion of the CBA is largely unenforceable as there is no punitive response and that additional stakeholders should be brought in.
Bill Batson
I would like to see the CBA reopened – I would like to see more stakeholders put on the CBA. It is largely unenforceable language. This developer and other developers have made promises in the past and some of those promises have not been kept.
Unions have come out strong for this for great reasons. We need to be building, we need to be building in Brooklyn, we need to be building big, but promises have to be real.
I can never support this project because of its use of eminent domain. I have never heard Mayor Bloomberg so excited. What do you give a billionaire who has everything? The power of eminent domain.
Running for US Congress, 10th District
Kevin Powell
I do not support eminent domain – it is removing and displacing people. On the issue of Atlantic Yards – either you are for, or against it. I cannot support any initiative that is displacing people. I did not move to Brooklyn to live in Manhattan. Eminent domain should be for the public good – not for the riches of a handful of people.
Charles Barron
The divisive person is Ratner. You think you will get jobs, you think you will get affordable housing? Wait till he's finished building. 60 story towers, and they don't care about your babies, getting air pollution, more stuff in their lungs, because they didn't even respect the EIS process – before we even DID that people supported it. Our babies are suffering in our communities, but we didn't care about that because we got jobs, we got affordable housing. Everything you build is going to get you jobs – you don't have to have THAT. What we need to have is an open, competitive bidding process. We did not have that.
Remember Metrotech? They promised us jobs. We didn't get no jobs. When I asked the people what are the 6,000 permanent jobs, Ratner's own person, Stuckey, sitting at a City Hall meeting said "we're not controlling the permanent jobs." The people that rent in the office building, they are bringing their own people. If you're looking for a job with the Nets – they only play 81 games. That's 81 working days. You've got to go beyond jobs, you've got to go beyond affordable housing.
Posted by lumi at June 7, 2006 12:11 PM