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July 24, 2006
New York Times weekend coverage not on Atlantic Yards
The McMansion Wars
In this NY Times editorial, Westchester communities deal with "American giantism" and some of the same issues as Central Brooklynites face: density, size and taste.
Communities around the country are becoming stricter about lot sizes, density and setback requirements to keep neighborhoods from being overwhelmed by residential supersizing.
New York’s Fat Political Budget
$100 million for Ratner, plus other gravy-boatfulls of spending, really add up in this editorial about next year's budget:
Comptroller Alan Hevesi reported last week in his department’s preliminary analysis of this year’s session that the state will spend over $114.7 billion, including federal funds, in the current fiscal year. That is an increase of $10.1 billion over last year’s spending. And the increase in state funds alone is about 13 percent, a full four times the inflation rate.
Admittedly, times are good. And the state suddenly has — make that had — a $2 billion surplus. But New York’s politicians spent the surplus and then some because nobody seems to have thought that this Wall Street boomlet might be temporary. Or that the price of oil might hit three digits.
Debate Rages on Housing at Planned Brooklyn Park
Brooklyn Bridge Park plan is worthy of consideration on a slow Atlantic Yards-news day, because it give us the chance to ponder how our city politicians and planners eagerly bend over backwards to developers.
The debate over the Brooklyn Bridge Park reprises controversies over the West Side of Manhattan and raises fundamental urban planning questions: When is a park not a park? And how far should government go in granting concessions to developers — in this case, allowing profitmaking housing on public land — to subsidize nonessential public services?
Why does a "park" have to be "self-sustaining" while Bruce Ratner is first in line to receive more than a billion dollars in subsidies for Atlantic Yards?
Posted by lumi at July 24, 2006 11:25 AM