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August 31, 2006
City kicks in more Ratner cash
The Brooklyn Papers
By Ariella Cohen
The city will kick in another $29 million towards Bruce Ratner’s proposed Atlantic Yards, The Brooklyn Papers has learned.
The new expenditures — which will fund infrastructure improvements around the proposed basketball arena — bumps up the city’s contribution to $129 million, a slight jump in spending that project opponents characterized as unnecessary.
“This is a project of unacceptable cost [to taxpayers] and questionable benefit,” said Bill Batson, an Assembly candidate.
Batson says he uncovered the new money in a final draft of the city’s 2007 budget.
City officials declined to comment.
...
IBO spokesman Doug Turetsky couldn’t confirm Batson’s discovery, but called the latest cash infusion “not unusual,” saying, “Twenty million is a lot to you and me, but in context of a $53-billion budget, it is not a huge amount.”
NoLandGrab: When was the public supposed to find out about the additional expenditure?
The cat-and-mouse games which have dominated the relationship between project critics and the developer-governmental complex is unrelenting, with project opponents constantly having to play gotcha.
For the umpteenth time, we have to ask: if the Atlantic Yards project is so great for Brooklyn, why can't Ratner and his political backers be more upfront about the public cost?
Posted by lumi at 11:11 PM
Ratner-backer runs for office
Brooklyn Papers
By Ariella Cohen
A "Ratner-backer" backed by Ratner is running to unseat controversial project foe:
So why does former City Councilwoman Tracy Boyland think she has a chance in the September 12 primary against 22-year state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery (D-Park Slope)?
The answer is Atlantic Yards.
According to Boyland, Sen. Montgomery's opposition to the Atlantic Yards project has hurt her in many parts of her district.
And this week, the candidate — the daughter of a prominent [former] state Assemblyman, William Boyland Sr., — admitted that the Atlantic Yards developer was "helping" her campaign.
"I love [Forest City Ratner executive vice president] Bruce Bender," the Yards supporter said. "We have a friendship. We worked together on the Council."
Click image to read the entire article.
Posted by lumi at 11:09 PM
Bruce to the rescue?
Library courts Ratner for big cash infusion
The Brooklyn Papers
By Ariella Cohen
Big shots at the Brooklyn Public Library are eying developer Bruce Ratner as the key “partner” they need to jump start their long-delayed Visual and Performing Arts Library just two blocks from his proposed Atlantic Yards project.
No deals have been brokered between the institution and the developer, but officials from Forest City Ratner are talking to library trustees about funding the $120-million arts library, The Brooklyn Papers has learned.
“There have been several conversations,” said Danny Simmons, a member of the Brooklyn Public Library board and brother of rap impresario, Russell Simmons. “He would make a good partner. Ratner is building a huge, huge complex and one of the things that make it more attractive is surrounding cultural attractions. He has significant interest in making sure they succeed.”
NoLandGrab: This rendering of the proposed Brooklyn Public Library Visual & Performing Arts branch does not include Ratner’s Atlantic Yards plan, which would obscure most of the open sky from this vantage point.
Posted by lumi at 11:00 PM
Size matters
State not discussing Atlantic Yards shrinkage with Bruce Ratner
The Brooklyn Papers
By Gersh Kuntzman
State officials moved swiftly last week to deny they were negotiating behind the scenes with Bruce Ratner to decrease the size of his Atlantic Yards mega-development.
After the New York Sun reported on Tuesday that the Empire State Development Corporation had discussed “a reduction in the size of the project” with Ratner, ESDC blasted the report as untrue.
“ESDC has not been in discussion with Forest City Ratner about reducing the size of the project,” spokeswoman Jessica Copen told The Brooklyn Papers.
Posted by lumi at 10:46 PM
Two more chances to vent
The Brooklyn Papers
By Gersh Kuntzman
Stung by criticism that it hasn’t done enough to solicit public opinion on the Atlantic Yards project, the Empire State Development Corporation has set up another hearing on the mega-development.
The original Aug. 23 public hearing drew thousands of people — many of whom waited hours to get inside. Roughly 300 people who signed up to testify did not get a chance to speak.
ESDC had previously announced that a second “community forum” would be held on Sept. 12 at 4 pm at New York City College of Technology’s Klitgord Auditorium (285 Jay St., Downtown).
But after critics — and many elected officials — sniped that Sept. 12 is primary election day, ESDC this week added a new “community forum,” on Sept. 18, at the same time and place. The new “forum” was posted on the ESDC Web site without fanfare.
The article wraps up with quotes from ESDC spokesperson Jessica Copen, Fans For Fair Play activist Scott Turner and 52nd Assembly District Leader Jo Anne Simon.
Posted by lumi at 10:37 PM
As we went to press… Public comment period extended!
The Brooklyn Papers
Web Exclusive
By Gersh Kuntzman
Thursday afternoon, the Empire State Development Corporation announced that it had extended the public comment period on the Atlantic Yards draft environmental impact statement by one week.
...
The one-week extension — from Sept. 22 to Sept. 29 — was announced in a one-sentence press release. No explanation for the extension was given.
...
“We thought it was appropriate, and wanted to give the public more time to review and comment on the project,” ESDC spokeswoman Jessica Copen later told The Brooklyn Papers.
For a more plausible explanation, check out Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's web site:
We think that this August 28 letter [pdf] from our attorney Jeffrey Baker to the ESDC may have forced their hand, and convinced them that abiding by State statutes is the right thing to do.
Baker's letter explained to the ESDC that they might be in legal hot water if they didn't extend the comment period to at least September 28.
As you know, the SEQRA [State Environmental Quality Review Act] regulations require that the lead agency receive public comments on an DEIS for “no less than 10 calendar days following a public hearing at which the environmental impacts of the proposed action are considered”. 6 NYCRR § 617.9(a)(4)(iii). Clearly that regulation applies to ESDC’s “Community Forums”. We are not aware of any factual or legal distinction between the “public hearing” held on August 23rd and the “community forums” to be held on September 12th and 18th. At both the “hearing” and the “forum” comments are being taken on the DEIS, a transcript is being made and all of the comments are being considered... Clearly, the “forums” are nothing more than a continuation of the public hearing. Changing the name of the event does not alter its essential nature. Since the forums are functionally identical to the hearing, the forums must be deemed a continuation of the public hearing and thus comments must be accepted for 10 calendar days following the last public hearing/forum.
Two days later, the ESDC extended the comment period by seven days.
Posted by lumi at 10:12 PM
An evolution on Atlantic Yards
Daily Gotham
By Bouldin
I tend not to have a problem with major development projects; I like big shiny things (it's a boy thing), and I'm aware, as some seem not to be, that this City will add another million residents in the next two decades, two over the next four. Our grandchildren will live in a behemoth of ten million souls, all of whom will need to be fed, clothed, housed, and entertained. Unless the pre-existing population is willing to double up still further, and see our already appalling vacancy rate of 3% citywide shrink still further, we will need to build new housing. This new housing, if we care about the environment and our carbon footprint, will need to increase the density of the City, and that in turn implies a larger number of high-rises, ideally serviced by public transport. One thing is for certain: those two million new New Yorkers will create dislocations for those of us already here; and considering how many of us came from elsewhere (I'm not a native either), we should welcome these new arrivals, and prepare for them. New York City is a global metropolis, and draws to itself the talent and vigor of every continent; that process has been the engine of our growth for two hundred years, and whether we deplore or celebrate it, it will continue. The least we can do is be prepared.
All of that said, I can't support the Atlantic Yards development any longer. That project amounts to the urban equivalent of rape.
NoLandGrab: This gradual conversion of NYC's intellectual set is inevitable, as Atlantic Yards becomes the poster child for overdevelopment, Abramoff-style backroom dealing, eminent domain abuse, taxpayer financing of pro sports and poor city planning.
If New Yorkers can't apply the brakes on this project, then anything goes in the Big Apple.
Posted by lumi at 9:36 PM
For the Fightin’ Eleventh, David Yassky
The Brooklyn Papers has given its editorial board endorsement for the 11th Congressional District to David Yassky.
Some aspects of their endorsement are more tepid than others, such as Yassky's weakness for developer money, but the Yassky back-and-forth-and-back-again position on Atlantic Yards doesn't bother the Brooklyn Papers as much as it does major project critics.
We’re not pleased by the strong support he receives from developers who fill his campaign war chest. Or with the fact that he moved to New York City from Washington, D.C. after the imposition of term-limits created open seats on the Council — or that he again moved so that he would reside within the 11th District before running for the seat.
But while Yassky has been supportive of development, he has also listened to the critics of the Atlantic Yards project. Yes, he supports Bruce Ratner building at that site, but at last week’s state public hearing he reiterated his position that the development must be halted if it is not scaled back.
Posted by lumi at 7:52 PM
CBA accountability? Where are the reports to the community?
Atlantic Yards Report has provided continuing coverage of events related to the signing of the Community Benefits Agreement: Bruce Ratner's funding of the signatories and training sessions, as well as the CBA: Meet & Greet, which was closed to the public.
But what about all of the compliance initiatives outlined in the "historic" document?
Has the developer funded an Independent Compliance Monitor, as the CBA directs?
And what about the environmental challenges posed by the project?
Quarterly reports?
Community liaison?
Project Implementation Plan?
Also, what happened to the First Atlantic Terminal Housing Committee, which was supposed to "establish a Committee on Environmental Assurances?" And who is BEE, Inc.?
Norman Oder made a few calls and snooped around on the web to bring you answers to those burning questions.
Posted by lumi at 12:10 PM
CBN PRESENTS FORUMS ON ATLANTIC YARDS IMPACTS
The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods will be holding a series of community meetings over the next couple weeks, at which they will share preliminary findings from their experts’ on-going review of the “Atlantic Yards” Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Dates, times and locations for these “Neighborhood Impacts Forums” are as follows:
Thursday, September 7th, 7:00 p.m.
Duryea Presbyterian Church
362 Sterling Place (at Underhill Avenue)
Prospect Heights
Thursday, September 14th, 7:00 p.m.
Old First Reformed Church
126 7th Avenue (at Carroll Street)
Park Slope
The sessions, all free and open to the public, will be led by experts from Phillips, Preiss, Shapiro Associates, the Pratt Center for Community Development, and the Hunter College Center for Community Planning and Development. We encourage you to attend.
For more information, please visit http://cbrooklynneighborhoods.homestead.com, send an email to cbrooklynneighborhoods-at-hotmail-dot-com, or call 718-408-3219.
Posted by lumi at 11:42 AM
Yassky Campaign Cancels Fund-Raiser at the Last Minute
The NY Sun
By Russell Berman
Three candidates in the race for Congress in Brooklyn's 11th district attacked David Yassky yesterday after the lawmaker abruptly canceled a fund-raiser with a controversial architect.
On Tuesday Brownstoner broke the news that Brooklyn's other developer with a bad rep, Robert Scarano, Jr.*, was holding a fundraiser for Yassky. Politicker picked it up and when reporters started to sniff around, the event was abruptly cancelled.
11th CD candidate and Atlantic Yards critic Chris Owens likens the reversal to Yassky's flippity-floppity position on Atlantic Yards:
"Mr. Yassky is a political chicken," a rival candidate in the race, Chris Owens, charged yesterday. "He has done this time and time again." Citing Mr. Yassky's recent criticism of the Atlantic Yards project, Mr. Owens said the City Council member frequently takes politically unpopular positions, only to change his mind. "He gets caught, and then he flip-flops."
* Scarano has recently been racking up column inches on blogs and the mainstream media for exploiting his self-certification priviledges (he was secretly constructing buildings larger than what was allowed under the city zoning code) and for dangerous conditions on a site that led to the death of one worker in March.
Posted by lumi at 10:29 AM
BATTLE IN BROOKLYN
The fight over Atlantic Yards heats up
The NY Press
By John DeSio
“Put the shirt on!” cheered one ACORN member, urging the developer to join them in wearing one of ACORN’s signature red shirts. Ratner obliged, and the crowd went wild. Obviously worried about spending too much time outside where he might be seen by the project’s critics and suddenly become a public spectacle, Ratner kept his comments brief. “We have a great mission to do,” said Ratner. “You’ve got wonderful leaders. I can’t thank you enough. It’s a good cause, and we are going to win.”
The crowd was now frenzied, much like fans at a ballgame. And as the enthusiastic group began their march to the hearing, Ratner took a few minutes to personally shake the hands of many ACORN members. High-fives and back slaps were in abundance, and Ratner was thrilled to see it. And then, just as quickly as he came, he was gone. While ACORN walked to the meeting, chanting, “the people, united, will never be defeated,” Ratner quietly headed back to his office in the adjacent Metrotech Center, which he also developed. The raucous nature of the hearing, which drew over 1,000 Brooklynites, was not something he wanted to be a part of.
NoLandGrab: The article mistakenly calls the September 12th "community forum" a "public hearing," a distinction that the Empire State Development Corporation adamantly upholds. It also assumes that the "forum" was scheduled after the hearing on the 23rd of August -- both dates were announced back in July.
Posted by lumi at 10:20 AM
EMINENT DOMAINIA: Long Branch edition
The Institute for Justice is back in the news. The "merry band of litigators" that fought the Kelo v. New London case all the way to the US Supreme Court, and recently scored a win for homeowners in Norwood, OH, have joined up with the homeowners in the MTOTSA neighborhood of Long Branch, NJ to fight the town's attempt to raze the seaside community to build a more upscale seaside community.
The similarity between Long Branch and Brooklyn
NoLandGrab has occasionally linked news about Long Branch because the issue of forced private-property transfer, from one owner to another, is a major sore spot in Bruce Ratner's attempt to build a community from scratch in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
The differences
The main difference between the two plans, aside from the size and scope, is that Long Branch's plan was supposedly crafted in a city planning process, while Ratner's Atlantic Yards was crafted by the development company itself. Whether or not Long Branch is following that plan is one aspect of the homeowner's legal case.
Also, NJ's public advocate has joined the fight against eminent domain abuse, while NYC's Public Advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, is in denial about Bruce Ratner intention to use eminent domain to seize private property in Prospect Heights (it's her understanding that he won't).
The press coverage
AP, via Houston Chronicle, Group Files Appeal for NJ Homeowners
Asbury Park Press, Eminent domain appeal is fight for property rights
The Newark Star-Ledger, Activists and state to fight home seizures in Long Branch
Asbury Park Press, Public advocate joins eminent-domain foes
Posted by lumi at 8:57 AM
It came from the Blogosphere...
Velociraptor.info, Lazy web, lazy web, spin me a yarn
Velociraptor is looking for some good advocacy Google Maps and cited OnNYTurf for the Atlantic Yards map (ONYT has Yankee Stadium and Williamsburg maps now too).
On NY Turf has a couple of good maps that illustrate propose monster real estate developments, but the sad cynic in me believes that the Atlantic Yards are going to be built, all six acres of them in all their 40 foot glory. I really hope I’m wrong, but I don’t have much hope. However, if the project is reigned in at all it will be at least in part because of maps that really illustrate life in the shadow of a 40 story high rise.
NLG nominates the Eminent Domain Map from the Institute for Justice.
Bridge and Tunnel Club, Out: Grimy Auto Repair Shops, Dingy Industrial Buildings And Dilapidated Private Houses; In: Glistening Office Buildings, Putting Greens And Super Bowl Parties
More evidence from the public square that "Bruce Ratner" = very bad developer:
Bruce Ratner should have set his sights on Long Island City in Queens, where apparently they'll build anything...
Don't Worry It's Just Reality, Shareholder Suit Against Nets Owner Ratner?
"Dreadnaught" dreams of a shareholder revolt against Bruce Ratner, which isn't likely because any shareholder action would have to be the result of a Ratner family feud.
Posted by lumi at 7:33 AM
August 30, 2006
DEIS Bogus Points: A flawed DEIS may increase the potential for increased impacts to the environment
Page 4 of the Traffic and Parking section of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) states:
The combination of substantial numbers of new pedestrian trips on the crosswalks and new vehicular traffic may increase the potential for vehicle/vehicle and vehicle/pedestrian conflicts at this intersection, and thereby potentially increase vehicular and pedestrian exposure to accidents, especially during the weekday and Saturday pre-game and post-game peak hours when the greatest increases in travel demand would occur.
Page 82 states:
Overall, the combination of new vehicular traffic and substantial numbers of new pedestrian trips on the crosswalks may increase the potential for vehicle/vehicle and vehicle/pedestrian conflicts at this intersection, and thereby potentially increase vehicular and pedestrian exposure to accidents.
...
As at the Atlantic Avenue/Flatbush Avenue intersection [see photo], the combination of new vehicular traffic and new pedestrian trips on the crosswalks may increase the potential for vehicle/vehicle and vehicle/pedestrian conflicts at this intersection, and thereby potentially increase vehicular and pedestrian exposure to accidents.
And on page 83, you will find the following:
The combination of substantial numbers of new pedestrian trips on the crosswalks and new vehicular traffic may increase the potential for vehicle/vehicle and vehicle/pedestrian conflicts at this intersection, and thereby potentially increase vehicular and pedestrian exposure to accidents, especially during the weekday and Saturday pre-game and post-game peak hours when the greatest increases in travel demand would occur.
Now we're not traffic-and-parking experts (and definitely not English majors), but we know doublespeak when we hear it.
From the Park Slope Civic Council testimony:
"May increase the potential" for conflicts? If traffic increases substantially, and the number of pedestrians increases substantially, doesn't that definitely increase the potential for conflicts? It's possible that it may not actually lead to more accidents, but doesn't it definitely increase their potential? This is but one of the many, many flaws in the analysis of traffic and parking. Sadly, for someone, it could be a fatal flaw.
This flagrant attempt at bureaucratic doublespeak earns a lowly ONE out of FIVE BOGUS POINTS. [We figure that since the authors of the DEIS used it not once, but four times, they actually believe what they are writing and can't be taken to task for their own feeblemindedness.]
We will also being submitting all four statements to the Department of Redundancy Department for a full accounting of the potential increase of redundancy, which may thereby increase the repeated potential for redundancy frequently and often.
Posted by lumi at 2:32 PM
NYTimes Endorses Ratner for CD-11
OnNYTurf smells a "rat," after the NY Times endorsement of David Yassky for the 11th Congressional District.
Today the NYTime's (Arthur Sulzberger) published an endorsement of David Yassky for the CD-11 congressional district in Brooklyn. Yassky is the NYTime's Atlantic Yards candidate.
If one wanted to be generous about David Yassky's position on Atlantic Yards, we could call him wishy washy or a flip flopper. That would be being nice.
Here is Yassky's typical position on Atlantic Yards [transcript from Atlantic Yards Reoprt]:
"...the current project is way too big. There’s no place for 60-story towers in Brooklyn. I believe the project will create traffic nightmares unless it’s inaudible back. I want to see a way to make this project go forward so we can realize the benefits that it does promise--good jobs, affordable housing..."
...
Not only is Yassky in lock step with developers in general, Yassky has asked city council for $3 million to fund the so-called jobs training organization BUILD. BUILD is a sham organization that has no experience in job training and was set up specifically to back Ratner's plan, and received funding from Ratner. The money Yassky asked for was to make up for additional funding Ratner seemed to pull back on after the embarrassing relationship between BUILD and Ratner was learned.
Posted by lumi at 2:00 PM
Letters: Role model
Village Voice
Forest City Ratner Atlantic Yards Development Group President James P. Stuckey is the latest voice from the Atlantic Yards camp to address an article profiling residents who stand to be displaced by the project.
Click here and scroll down nearly to the bottom.
I want to clear up some inaccurate impressions left by Cynthia Carr's piece on the Atlantic Yards Development ["Life in the Footprint," August 2–8]. All renters in the footprint of AY have been offered comparable apartments in the new development at comparable rents, even current tenants of rent-controlled apartments. Forest City Ratner is willing to help find and finance the relocation of homeowners and renters alike. Working families living in AY's below-market-rate units won't be segregated into second-class buildings. Low- and middle-income renters will be in the same buildings, on the same floors as market-rate renters. The AY project is the first development in New York City to sign a legally binding Community Benefits Agreement stipulating that 50 percent of the rental units will be affordable, and insuring the creation of 15,000 construction jobs and thousands of permanent Brooklyn-based jobs. The Atlantic Yards project won't solve the housing crisis, but it will begin to create a new model that ensures affordable housing.
Jim Stuckey
FCRC executive vice president
Manhattan
NoLandGrab: Way back on the 5th of August, Atlantic Yards Report addressed the details from the renters' agreements that Stuckey fails to mention in this letter, but that doesn't stop Stuckey from talking.
From AYR:
So, has the developer agreed to subsidize differential rent for longer than three years for the renters who've already left the footprint? “I just won’t—even though it would be to my benefit to do so—violate confidentiality," Stuckey responded. "I just won’t do it.”
Posted by lumi at 1:39 PM
Richard Lipsky and the "booty capitalists"of the AY CBA
Atlantic Yards Report uses Forest City Ratner consultant Richard Lipsky's own words to deconstruct the "booty capitalitsts" (it's not what you think) lined up behind Ratner.
Credit Richard Lipsky, lobbyist around town against big box stores (yet for Atlantic Yards and other Forest City Ratner projects) for introducing the term "booty capitalists" to the local discussion. Actually, he's used the term regarding Wal-Mart's potential move to Brooklyn, but it's equally apt regarding Atlantic Yards.
As Lipsky has written in his Neighborhood Retail Alliance blog: We have referred to the potential Wal-Mart partners in this effort as "booty capitalists" and although the term was coined by Karl Marx its modern application refers to some opportunists, especially in the African-American community, who, while having few economic resources of their own, will use their political positions and a company's vulnerabilities to their own personal advantage.
(So "booty" is being used to refer to "treasure," rather than the more slangy you-know-what.)
Posted by lumi at 1:33 PM
Imagining a 50% scaleback: shrinkage is not surgery
Atlantic Yards Report says, "shrinkage is not surgery," nor is it rocket science. If a mere journalist like Norman Oder can wrap his brain around the issues of reducing the scale (density and bulk included), then we all can get it, except for maybe the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
As I noted, there's an argument that a 50 percent cut in the project should've been the ceiling for discussion, in terms of density. What might that look like? I asked graphic designer Abby Weissman to take a crack at project renderings. Above, a look at the project elevations facing south. Below, Weissman's rough attempt at a 50 percent shrinkage, including height and bulk. (Click to enlarge)
First, the renderings don't convey scale all too well. Consider that a 50 percent reduction in the density of three buildings, including the flagship "Miss Brooklyn," would still leave them bulkier than the Williamsburgh Savings Bank.
But there's a certain ridiculousness to the exercise--a reduction in scale wouldn't be accomplished by shrinking the buildings; it would be accomplished by various forms of surgery.
Posted by lumi at 1:14 PM
Few New Positions Heard at Wednesday's Marathon Hearing
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
By Dennis Holt
[Published according to the "Fair Use" section of the US Copyright Law (section 17).]
BROOKLYN — By 3 p.m. on an ordinary summer day, Wednesday, August 23, scores of union workers, most in bright orange T-shirts, had gathered on Jay Street and around the corner on Johnson. They had signs and buttons and they were waiting to get into a building to sit down. By the time the doors opened at Klitgord Auditorium at City Tech, the lines had swelled and the 900-seat auditorium filled up, mostly by these workers, in no time.
These were not studious souls reading books while they waited; they were there to cheer and roar their support for the Forest City Ratner Atlantic Yards plan.
And although these workers had not been invited personally by Bruce Ratner, who was across Jay Street with members of the "Brooklyn" Nets — Jason Kidd and Vince Carter in particular — anytime his name was mentioned, yells went up.
They, and several thousand other people who waited patiently in long lines, came to take part in formal public hearing hosted by the State of New York to offer comments on the, by now, well-known proposal.
But the setting really was for shouting rights, both inside and outside the auditorium, and those opposing the Ratner plan, while outnumbered for the first time, held their own.
By 5:15 p.m. 250 people had signed up to speak for three minutes. By 9 p.m., according to the New York Times, 300 people were waiting to speak. Obviously, not all managed to voice their thoughts. A tour of the line still waiting outside at 6 p.m. indicated that most people there at that time were not waiting to speak but simply to get in. The publisher of Time Out New York fretted about breaking into line to join friends waiting for her.
Members of the Municipal Art Society wondered whether their speaker, Stuart Pretz, had managed to get inside to sign up. Elected officials had no trouble getting in.
At 4 p.m., Bruce Ratner had called to order a press conference at 330 Jay Street, a building he had built, featuring a crowd of Brooklyn elected officials, several heads of unions including Randi Weingarten of the United Federation of Teachers, members of groups signing the city's first community benefits agreement, and religious leaders, plus members of the Nets. This was really a pep rally, and one almost expected to see some leggy cheerleaders (or whatever they are called these days) pop out to lead everyone across the street to the hearing.
But throughout all this shouting, cheering, and booing, serious people did have some serious things to say.
"Scale It Back"
Very late in the game — the concept of an arena, office and retail and housing is three years old — an effort is being made to modify the plan or "scale it back," a term now frequently heard.
In part, this could be summed up by a sentence by Pretz of the Municipal Art Society in his prepared testimony: "The MAS believes that the tremendous benefits of the project could still be achieved with a well-planned project that would integrate with, rather than overwhelm and divide, the surrounding neighborhoods."
One of the reasons these kind of thoughts appear late in the game, is that opponents of the project took a "winner-take-all" attitude from the very beginning; that there were no "tremendous benefits of the project." When the Society appeared in Brooklyn this summer with that kind of point of view, it was not really well-received.
"Growth Has Its Limits‚" Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Prospect Heights) was one of those who articulated the anti-Atlantic Yards argument.
"Growth is good but growth has its limits," she said. "If this project were built, there would be far-reaching negative impacts on public health, air quality, infrastructure, waste management, noise abatement, environmental progress and much else. This project would strain to the point of choking our community facilities and resources.
"There is no meaningful or honest discussion of reduced alternatives that would continue to provide affordable housing, open space, job opportunities and other benefits," she said.
A "community forum" is planned for September 12, again at Klitgord. No one at the moment has any idea whether that meeting will be a repeat of the exhausting meeting of August 23.
Posted by lumi at 12:36 PM
Brooklyn Broadside: "Miss Brooklyn" Not Williamsburgh Bank
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by Dennis Holt
Accoring to Dennis Holt, the issue isn't the scale or density, it's the NUMBER of buildings:
BROOKLYN — The hearts of readers of the New York Times who are also opponents of the Atlantic Yards proposal must have sunk last Friday when they turned to page B-5. There, by reporter Andy Newman, was a story on whether the proposed new building, "Miss Brooklyn," at 620 feet, should be taller than the Williamsburgh Bank building, at 515 feet. Borough President Marty Markowitz, for the first time, said it shouldn't.
The story was speculation on what that might mean and several cynical comments were made by various people, but no one stepped forth with the most telling observation and the reason for sinking hearts.
Posted by lumi at 12:18 PM
Dead Ball
StreetsBlog
By Alec
This article lists a littany of urban-planning concerns expressed at last week's public hearing about Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards proposal, and concludes:
Overall, the plan justifies desolate streets by promising jobs and affordable housing. Isn’t that like justifying a team that can’t pass by promising lots of slam dunks? And does anybody remember how Team USA did with that strategy in the 2004 Olympics?
Whatever happens from here, project opponents and project supporters will have to share these streets.
Posted by lumi at 11:35 AM
Atlantic Yards Wednesday #2: Planned Shrinkage End Game?
Gowanus Lounge
Is the talk of shrinkage a spontaneous move on the part of public officials who have heard the drumbeat of opposition in Brooklyn? Or is it calculated ploy by the same powerbrokers so they can say they listened to the public while, in reality, simply cutting fat that was pre-built into project plans in anticipation of this day?
...
Most curious, of course, are the comments of Borough President Marty Markowitz, who has been Atlantic Yards Cheerleader-in-Chief while voicing vague concerns about the project's density. Markowitz used the public hearing to declare that some of the buildings need to be scaled back, that Miss Brooklyn shouldn't exceed the Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower in height and that transportation planning has been seriously flawed.Forest City Ratner officials including Jim Stuckey reacted by laughing, according to community activist Philip DePaolo who was sitting behind Mr. Stuckey and took note of the fact they found the Borough President's remarks funny. One can only conclude that (a). Ratner's people knew ahead of time that Markowitz would be making these remarks in order to do some damage control or (b). They thought that Markowitz's modest suggestions were, well, laughable or (c). They find Markowitz himself a joke. (Note to Marty: You should ask Ratner staff people not to laugh at you in public. Or, at least, not to laugh when you're not telling jokes. It looks bad.)
Posted by lumi at 11:26 AM
Candidates Get Their Endorsements Crossed
Brooklyn Downtown Star
By Nik Kovac
Coverage of the Batson/Barron cross endorsement:
"You just keep being you," City Councilman Charles Barron told State Assembly candidate Bill Batson on the steps of City Hall this past rainy Sunday afternoon. "If you do," continued Barron, who is running for a political promotion himself this fall - to federal Congress, "then you'll have nothing to worry about. Don't sell us out, but I know you won't."
The two candidates have known each other a long time, having protested together in the wake of the Amodou Diallo shooting over seven years ago. Since then, Barron, a former Black Panther, has taken his street militancy inside the halls of municipal power. He has represented east Brooklyn in the City Council since 2001.
"Charles knows," admired Batson, "that we have to fight on the streets and in Albany and Washington. A lot of politicians go off to the corridors of power and disappear. I want to be like Charles. I want my constituents to hear me and see me."
Posted by lumi at 10:25 AM
It came from the Blogosphere...
SubChat.com, Reopening old underpasses - Atlantic Av IRT
From a bona-fide transit-buff message board:
According to the Atlantic Yards DEIS, the closed underpass at the south end could be reopened, which is pretty cool. Anyone here ever use it back when it was open?
OnNYTurf, Worthy Watching: AY Public Hearing
ONYT is telling readers to check out coverage of last week's Public Hearing on the Atlantic Yards Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
Gothamist, Extra, Extra
From yesterday's coverage round-up at Gothamist:
Looks like the political tide around the Atlantic Yards is starting to shift: first Marty Markowitz called for size reductions, and now David Yassky has come out in favor of reducing the scale of the project. [Link to yesterday's Atlantic Yards Report article about Yassky.]
True Hoop, Legal Challenges to Nets' New Arena
Sportswriter Henry Abbott is "interested in the suggestion that this development could in theory happen without the Nets," and is hosting a discussion in the comments section of his website, which usually covers basketball proper.
Don't Worry It's Just Reality: Brooklyn Edition, Down The Ratner Hole...a Peak into the Draft Environmental Impact Statement
Dreadnaught starts reading the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and vents what seems like his first draft of public-hearing testimony on his blog:
I got around to reading some of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement this evening, particularly chapter 8 urban design. Certainly, the writers were inspired by Louis Carrol, because even Alice in Wonderland didn't have so magical a ride as Forest Cit - oops the ESDC is providing us.
He then cites a couple of instances in which the DEIS either defies reality or makes unsupported conclusions.
Dreadnaught's conclusion:
I could see why they don't want the public to scrutinize this too long, if I could find this just reading this in between the wash and dry cycles, just imagine what experts could do in a couple of months.
"Atlantic Yards" Voter Guide, Mr. David Yassky, Yassky, Yassky.
He asked his voters, voters, voters,
If he made any sense, sense, sense,
Despite the flippity, floppity, flippity,
He sat on the fence, fence, fence.
Atlantic Yards Report, Another Atlantic Yards mailer from Forest City Ratner
(Does the parent New York Times Company's business relationship with Forest City Ratner have any influence on the editorial stance? Well, at least the Times discloses the relationship. No such luck with the mailer.)
...Nope, again there are no tall buildings. Like this:
Posted by lumi at 9:36 AM
NewYorkGames: Selling the silverware and height
NewYorkGames.org posted links to coverage about Forest City Ratner's sale of assets, corporate restructuring and operating losses from the NJ Nets, and concludes:
They continue to sell off the silverware and otherwise scramble to pay the rent. At stake: a $1 billion bonanza. But how long can this continue before the cash runs out? (Rhetorical question; it is very unlikely any editor will allow a reporter to find out.)
In another post NYG cites coverage of Markowitz's call for a scaleback and comments, "Markowitz is playing 'hardball': he wants Ratner to lop a few floors off of the one on the left. Don't worry, the record would be more than safe."
NoLandGrab: NYG is referring to the fact that even if the project is dramatically downscaled, by say even 30%, it would still be the densest residential community in the nation by a long shot.
Posted by lumi at 9:11 AM
Not Just an Ordinary Basement
Brooklyn Downtown Star covers Brooklyn's other land grab, where the city wants to replace the Underground Railroad with underground parking.
If a row of antebellum houses on Duffield Street are torn down to make way for a parking garage, then Brooklyn will lose access to a huge facet of its multi-racial history, and a dozen young children of color will lose access to a summer school for musical theater.
Both of these current resources were on full display last Saturday afternoon, as Joy Chatel and Lew Greenstein offered tours of their basements - which were likely used by DoBro abolitionists to hide fugitive slaves during the 1850s - to politicians and passersby.
Posted by lumi at 9:00 AM
Brooklyn Downtown Star stays to the bitter (and sometimes not so bitter) end
Unencumbered by a pressing deadline, Brooklyn Downtown Star stayed to the end of the only Atlantic Yards public hearing.
Brooklyn Exchanges Bronx Cheers
Star editor Nik Kovac covers the passion between the two camps, the bitter catcalling and veiled threats. However, through the din, Kovac manages to capture moments that were missed by the rest of the mainstream media, those fleeting moments, stripped of the artifice of color-cordinated t-shirts and pro-and-con stereotypes, where well meaning community folks talked about the issues and the neighborhoods about which they all care.
And Now For a Little Substance
Norman Oder covers the more geeky "substance" of the hearing. Several groups showed up to offer critique of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), which was the stated purpose of the hearing after all.
Highlights:
"Get real about traffic and parking." — Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz
Atlantic Yards is "not a transit-oriented development but a traffic-oriented development." — City Councilmember Letitia James
"The DEIS admits that increased traffic around the arena could lead to slowdowns in service, but what does it propose as mitigation? More buses!" — Lauri Schindler, Trustee Park Slope Civic Council
"The DEIS would have us believe that this arena lobby and main entrance to the Atlantic Terminal transit station should be counted as open space. But I don't know a lot of moms who bring their kids to play near the ticket windows at Madison Square Garden." — Kristyn LaPlante, Park Slope Neighbors
"I cannot prioritize traffic jams and shadows over housing and jobs." — M'balia Rubie, teacher
"The ESDC is a walking advertisement for Public Authorities reform." — Eric McClure, Park Slope Neighbors
Posted by lumi at 8:12 AM
Brooklyn-Queens Diary: Forgive Me Darryl
Brooklyn Downtown Star
By Kenny Bruno
...I was especially astonished to find that while I was away, the civil rights movement, feared dead since 1968, was reborn in Brooklyn. A new leader of the movement has been anointed. His name is...Bruce Ratner?
Yes, if you listen to the proponents of the Atlantic Yards mega-project, the mall builder from Cleveland is practically the re-incarnation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Both names - King and Ratner - were invoked with reverence by an array of elected officials and celebrities on Wednesday, August 23, at a pep rally masquerading as a press conference.
But wait. Ratner's opponents also wear the Movement's mantle. As Yards supporters march around downtown chanting civil rights inspired slogans, a street full of anti-Yards bicyclists briefly eclipses them with similar chants! And while the pro-Ratner forces sing a mantra of Jobs, Housing and Hoops, anti-Atlantic blogs invoke Selma and Montgomery as the inspiring benchmarks of their tactical determination.
Posted by lumi at 7:53 AM
August 29, 2006
Liar Flyer IV: Coming to a mailbox near you
The latest "liar flyer" might be re-deemed the "tired flyer" — after all, do neighbors of the Atlantic Yards proposal footprint need to be reminded over and over again that "New York's major newspapers all support" the project they love to hate?
Forest City Ratner has dropped another bundle of dough on a fourth direct mailer, trying to convince residents of Brooklyn, with a mere four pages, that Atlantic Yards isn't as bad as they think. This time Ratner lets the daily papers do most of the talking. [Click on pages to enlarge.]
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The joke is that Ratner didn't include any pictures of tall buildings... again.
As for the expected prevarications? Atlantic Yards Report has written extensively on: * the "Guaranteed" seal of approval, * the jobs claims, and * the claims of billions in new tax revenues.
The new brochure backs down from what AYR calls the "$6-billion lie," this time going with the more vague claim "billions in new tax revenues."
But the most tired fabrication that Ratner is unwilling to let drop is the fallacy that the Atlantic Yards plan is in "Downtown Brooklyn" (it's still in PROSPECT HEIGHTS as far as we can tell).
The photo of the gratuitous happy mixed-race couple is a reprise from the previous flyer, which also featured several photos of happy brownstoners, the reluctant Ratner covergirl and many pictures of not-tall buildings.
If you are not tired of the liar flyers, here's blast from the past: * Liar Flyer I ("Live, Work, Play" & NY Times logo) * Liar Flyer II (FAQ) * Liar Flyer III, PDF (The novella & "Rat Girl")
Posted by lumi at 1:49 PM
DEIS Bogus Points: We're not as think as you stupid we are
Bruce Ratner scores BIG Bogus Points for this one.
The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods hired experts to figure out if what Forest City Ratner's experts are telling the Empire State Development Corporation and the public is true.
One deception that the Environmental Simulation Center uncovered is so blatant that any grade-schooler could have spotted it, making it an instant candidate for special Bogus Points. Here are a couple side-by-side comparisons of existing and proposed conditions, which were tweaked to make the project appear to have less of a visual impact. In the first, the photographic perspective was tweaked and ZOOMED IN to show less of the tall buildings proposed by Ratner. |
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In the second, the perspective was left untouched, but the image was ZOOMED OUT to make the tall building in the background seem... less tall. |
Using trompe l'oeil effects to tell visual white lies scores a whopping FOUR out of FIVE BOGUS POINTS. We based the score on Ratner's sheer chutzpah and bald-faced confidence that the public is either too stupid to notice or even care.
Posted by lumi at 12:29 PM
HOW TO RIG A HEARING - COVERAGE OF THE SCAM ATLANTIC YARDS D.E.I.S. PROCEEDINGS
Freddy's Brooklyn Roundhouse
28 min 57mb
Bruce Ratner bussed in and catered lunch for 1,500 hecklers to prevent public discussion about the Atlantic Yards Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Is anyone's home safe from Eminent Domain Abuse? This film details how Ratner and New York State shut Brooklyn out.
If you missed the hearing, this video portrays the flavor of the hearing and some of the speakers who stayed late into the night to address the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
Posted by lumi at 10:29 AM
Daniel Does Destroy: Goldstein Seeks End of Hoop Dreams
Neighborhood Retail Alliance
Richard Lipsky is going to tell anyone who will listen that Dan Goldstein plans to stop Bruce Ratner from plopping an arena on his home, but he won't tell you about the alternative.
Ratner, Markowitz and local politicians all supported siting an arena in Coney Island. Now that the Atlantic-&-Flatbush plan is on the table, they've abandoned the idea.
All that is meaningless to Lipsky, who is ready to line up the bulldozers to get Goldstein:
His opposition to the arena, something we are going to advertise far and wide throughout the borough, means that there are now thousands of newly minted volunteers who will be delighted to man the bulldozer when the legal green flag is waived to demolish this obstructionist's abode. He has now gone from being a legitimate critic to just some self-serving crank and a pest.
NoLandGrab: Wow! And we thought we were shrill.
But Lipsky does bring up a good question: Do those "thousands" of people still qualify as "volunteers" if their leadership receives financial support from Ratner?
Disclosure: Richard Lipsky is a paid consultant to Forest City Ratner.
Posted by lumi at 9:53 AM
New hearing, more questions
Metro NY
By Amy Zimmer
Metro's coverage of the addtional hearing also includes some pointed rhetoric from 52nd Assembly District Leader Jo Ann Simon, who wrote in a letter to the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) head Charles Gargano:
“This hearing treated the environmental process as an inconsequential hoop to sail through and be done with,” Jo Anne Simon, state Democratic committeewoman for the 52nd district, wrote in a formal complaint to ESDC Chairman Charles Gargano last week.
She was upset most backers neglected to comment on the hearing’s stated purpose — the Draft Environmental Impact Statement that ESDC released last month — and that a hearing was scheduled for primary day, Sept. 12. “That’s very Robert Moses-like,” she told Metro.
“Under the law, the public has both a right and a duty to comment on the impacts disclosed,” she wrote. “Instead, [ESDC] permitted the developer’s associates (labor unions and ACORN) to admit scores, if not hundreds, of their members ahead of those who had been waiting for hours to enter the building.”
Metro also published this bulleted list of criticisms of the Ratner "affordable" housing plan:
According to Forest City Ratner’s numbers, 40 percent of affordable units will be for families earning between $71,000 and $113,000 a year.
Ratner has not provided a schedule for when those units would be built. The “general project plan” states the project’s first phase — expected to be completed by 2010 — would have a mix of rentals and condos with “between approximately 1,275 and 2,350 residential units,” 50 percent of which would be affordable. It did not, however, specify how many of the units will be rentals.
Should FCR not meet its housing obligations, it has agreed to pay $500,000 to a fund for community groups backing the plan.
Posted by lumi at 9:36 AM
The murmurings of a scaleback, but not of a 50% goal
Atlantic Yards Report "Oderizes" today's NY Sun article.
Everyone expected the Atlantic Yards plan to be reduced somewhat as part of the endgame as state approval approached, and that discussion has now reached the press. A New York Sun article today headlined Pressure Mounts to Curb the Size of Atlantic Yards states: State officials have discussed with the developer, Forest City Ratner, a reduction in the size of the project, a source said.
The Sun writes that "opponents contend" that the project was upsized before it was downsized, leading Oder to comment:
Opponents contend? The press shouldn't have to attribute factual information to a partisan side. It makes it sound like proponents and neutrals would disagree about baseline data.
Oder, who has been on the forefront of the density debate, reiterates his opinion that a project half the size of the current proposal would have made a good starting point for discussion with city planners and the community.
Posted by lumi at 9:25 AM
Scale Scam
DDDB.net
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn is calling it a "Scale Scam." Whatever the name, the game remains the same.
Don’t be fooled.
Developers have long padded the scale of proposed projects, and then sat back while communities cried foul. Once the press has voiced the public’s concerns, the developers, amidst massive fanfare and a show of magnanimity, role back the project by 25% or less – removing the padding – and claiming responsiveness to the people’s concerns.
DDDB's assesment is followed by its growing list of concerns about the project which would not be addressed by a simple scaleback: * The proposed location of the basketball arena (There is a way out of that problem...) * extreme density, * environmental and socio-economic impacts, * eminent domain abuse, and * an undemocratic process.
For details and links, click here.
Posted by lumi at 9:15 AM
Questions Remain
DDDB.net
"Ratner's Rules of Order" are making a mess out of the public hearing and the public comment period for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
Legal, but Bad Box Office
First, the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) public comment period was limited to a scant 66 days for nearly 4,000 pages of documents. It's legal, but a bad PR move, since every politician who gave a damn, one way or another, lined up to denounce the schedule.
Curious Distinction
The schedule included a "public hearing" and a "community forum" — a curious distinction. The ESDC assured the community and press that the "hearing" and "forum" are the same thing, even going as far as to request a correction from the Brooklyn Papers, wich wrote that the August 23rd hearing would be the "only public hearing" (it still is).
A Tale of Two Forums
Just yesterday, the ESDC scheduled another "community forum," shoehorned between the previously scheduled "forum" and the last day of the comment period.
A Wrinkle in Time
This has caused a new wrinkle in the saga of the ESDC schedule. DDDB posted this explanation of the latest confusion on its web site:
By state law the ESDC is required to hold public written comment open for at least ten days after the public hearing. With the newly scheduled public hearing on September 18th, that would mean the written comment deadline should now be September 28th. Instead the ESDC has kept the September 22nd written comment deadline.
In response to the addition of another "community forum," Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn attorney Jeff Baker is taking the ESDC at its word, and requesting an extension to the comment period:
As you know, the SEQRA regulations require that the lead agency receive public comments on an DEIS for “no less than 10 calendar days following a public hearing at which the environmental impacts of the proposed action are considered”. 6 NYCRR § 617.9(a)(4)(iii). Clearly that regulation applies to ESDC’s “Community Forums”. We are not aware of any factual or legal distinction between the “public hearing” held on August 23rd and the “community forums” to be held on September 12th and 18th. At both the “hearing” and the “forum” comments are being taken on the DEIS, a transcript is being made and all of the comments are being considered. Furthermore, ESDC’s “Basic Protocol for the Community Forums” notes that persons who signed up to speak at the public hearing but were not given an opportunity to speak, will be given priority at the community forums and that persons, including public officials, who already spoke at the public hearing will not be permitted to speak at the forum. Clearly, the “forums” are nothing more than a continuation of the public hearing. Changing the name of the event does not alter its essential nature. Since the forums are functionally identical to the hearing, the forums must be deemed a continuation of the public hearing and thus comments must be accepted for 10 calendar days following the last public hearing/forum.
Therefore we request that you confirm and publish a new notice recognizing that written comments will be accepted until 5:30 PM on September 28, 2006.
Baker letter to ESDC (PDF).
Curiouser
By bending over backwards to accommodate Forest City Ratner, seemingly improvising new rules and law ("Ratner's Rules of Order!") along the way, the ESDC curiously looks like they are itching for a protracted legal battle.
Posted by lumi at 8:27 AM
Yassky calls (almost) for a 50% AY scaleback
Atlantic Yards Report
11th District Congressional candidate and NY City Councilmember David Yassky has been privately telling constituents that the project should be scaled down by about 50%. AYR reporter Norman Oder tries to get an answer for the record:
Q: You said to the Brooklynite something about 33 percent, one-third.
DY: I think it should be brought down more than that.Q: So how much more? I’ve heard from four or five people that you’ve said 50 percent.
DY: I think 50 percent would be acceptable.
...
We were walking, so I wanted to make sure Yassky really meant it.Q: It should be cut 50 percent, is that what you’re saying?
DY: It has to come down substantially. I don’t know if there’s a magic number.
...
Would a 50 percent cut--to about 4.35 million square feet--make the project palatable to community members who oppose the project? Perhaps, for those whose main concern is scale, rather than those who object to the use of eminent domain and the no-bid, no-planning process.Right now, the project, in terms of population, would be twice as dense as the densest census tract in the country, as the New York Observer has reported. Halving the size of the project would bring it to the level, perhaps, from where the discussion should have started.
Posted by lumi at 8:14 AM
EMINENT DOMAINIA: Bruce is addicted to eminent domain and his flagship tenant ironically cries foul over Florida condemnation
ShakinDave, Does This Look Like Blight?
The pictures above show Brooklyn's Prospect Heights neighborhood near the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues. The area contains homes, a neighborhood bar, a sporting goods store, a union hall, a self-storage warehouse, an electronics outlet, a pair of gas stations, and a Guyanese restaurant.
Developer Bruce Ratner wants to replace all of these with a cluster of high-rise homes and offices, and an arena to house the New Jersey Nets, the professional basketball team he bought two years ago for $300 million.
Eminent Domain Blog, Eminent Domain Decision: Appellate panel affirms Judge Costello in Twp. of Bloomfield v. 110 Washington Street
The NJ courts stopped the Township of Bloomfield from condemning property for Bruce Ratner (again). This is just the latest round in the legal fight by local merchants and businessmen to maintain the right to develop their own properties. It also makes one wonder, when does Bruce Ratner NOT use eminent domain?
Palm Beach Post, Target, state road agency tussle over eminent domain
Here's an odd case, in which retail giant Target claims that turn-about is foul play:
At issue is how much Tallahassee owes the retailer in business damages now that it has used eminent domain to force the sale of three Target-owned parcels at State Road 7 and Southern Boulevard in Royal Palm Beach.
First, most of the state road-building agency's eminent domain actions never make it to court, much less appellate court.
Second, it turns the tables on Target. Along with such businesses as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and CVS Corp. pharmacies, Target has benefited when cities or counties hungry for new business seize land through eminent domain and then make it available to the retailers.
"Target is not the first big-box store that, after having taken advantage of eminent domain, finds itself on the receiving end," said Dana Berliner, senior attorney for the Institute for Justice. The Washington think tank supports curbs on eminent domain.
The retailer's strategy has backfired occasionally. U.S. District Judge Charles A. Shaw rebuked Target in 2003 for strong-arm tactics involved in trying to get St. Louis to condemn a store site.
Posted by lumi at 8:14 AM
Pressure Mounts to Curb the Size of Atlantic Yards
The NY Sun
By David Lombino
State officials have discussed with the developer, Forest City Ratner, a reduction in the size of the project, a source said. The officials have said the downsizing should come in the next few weeks, before September 22, the end of the public comment period regarding the draft environmental impact statement, the source said. As proposed, Atlantic Yards would be the largest development project in Brooklyn's history and create the densest census tract in America.
...
City officials said yesterday that the Department of City Planning is drafting written testimony that it will submit to the ESDC that will include comments about the proposed height and how the project fits in the context of the low-rise neighborhood.Previously, the Bloomberg administration has supported the plan without reservation based on its job creation and affordable housing components. City Hall does not have an official vote on the matter, because the proposal circumvents the city’s uniform land use review process.
...
If the developer reduces the project’s size, it should not expect instant community approval of the new plan. A spokesman for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, an umbrella organization of opposition groups, Daniel Goldstein, said a size reduction would not halt a legal challenge over the proposed use of eminent domain.Mr. Goldstein said the organization would oppose the project until the developer changes the 22-acre project footprint, considers not building the basketball arena, and takes eminent domain off the table.He said he expected a size reduction as part of the developer’s strategy to seek approval.
“They shoot for the sun so they can get the moon.When they get the moon, they act like they have listened to the criticism and responded,” Mr. Goldstein said.
Posted by lumi at 7:56 AM
A Brawl in Brooklyn
Public Hearing for Atlantic Yards project stirs anger, not consensus
The Architect's Newspaper
By Alec Appelbaum
On August 23, a public hearing on Forest City Ratner’s 22-acre Atlantic Yards proposal lasted over seven hours, and in its bitter tone, showed that positions for and against the project have hardened.
Technically, the hearing disposed of the Empire State Development Corporation’s obligation to consider the project’s effect on local life. If New York City had assembled the land in question, as it did for rezoning Williamsburg/Greenpoint and rebuilding Yankee Stadium, four public hearings and a 120-day review would have preceded a vote by the City Council. But the state used eminent domain to speed developer Bruce Ratner’s project. Under the state’s streamlined review, the public got 66 days to review a 2,000-page draft statement, which was released on July 18th, and one chance to comment on it. Opponents asked for a longer review period, saying it could generate consensus on a plan that would create jobs without distorting neighborhood scale.
Posted by lumi at 7:49 AM
Freddie Hamilton's campaign web site is back
The campaign web site of 57th Assembly District candidate Freddie Hamilton is back. Though she refused to answer any questions regarding Atlantic Yards at a recent candidates forum, her web site has this statement (in case you were confused as to where she stands on the issue):
The development of Downtown Brooklyn
The Development of Downtown Brooklyn which includes the Atlantic Yards project, The BAM Cultural District and the Development of the old Williamsburg Savings Bank Building.
While change is constant, it's still hard when the change happens to you. I am a signer of the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement on behalf of six community based service organizations in the 57th Assembly District. They are Brooklyn Perinatal Network, Youth America Inc., REBUILD, Jackie Robinson Center for Physical Culture, Grandmothers as Mothers Again, Brooklyn Plaza Medical Center and Child Development Support Corporation.
Although I am a supporter of the Atlantic Yards development, I hope to keep open and honest dialogue with those who oppose the project. This is an evolving process and I believe that continued negotiations will ultimately provide the best outcomes for the community and for the district.
NoLandGrab: The pioneering Community Benefits Agreement for the Staples Center in LA outlined a process whereby the developer negotiates with the community. Since CBA-signer Hamilton has a "seat at the table," she is the one who should be having an "open dialogue" with the developer. To call for an open dialogue with the "community" is a waste of resources and precious time.
When the signers of the CBA accepted money from Bruce Ratner in return for their support, the onus for negotiating for a better project fell on the shoulders of project opponents — the ones who do not have a seat at the table.
Posted by lumi at 7:33 AM
Overview of the Review of the Draft Environmental Review
DDDB.net
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn has a handy page for all things concerning the Environmental Reivew: * testimony, * hearing dates, * links to the documents, * letters calling for more time and * comparison of the draft and final scope of analysis.
Posted by lumi at 7:29 AM
DDDB Press Release:
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn Calls for Apology from NYC District Council Carpenters Political Director Stephen McInnis Should Apologize for Insensitive Remarks
BROOKLYN, NY—Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) calls for an apology to the communities of Central Brooklyn for a statement made today by a union leader.
In an article in today’s New York Observer (“Chris Quinn: Secret Establishment Favorite”), the political director of the New York City District Council Carpenters, Stephen McInnis, is quoted as saying that he sees officials as advocates of one of three worldviews: “build everything, platform over the Hudson River and build 60-story high-rises”; “let’s burn it all down, Atlantic Yards is the worst thing ever, and I’m going to get my name in the paper by saying it’s the worst thing ever”; and, finally, “the middle ground.”
Mr. McInnis’ statement that opponents of developer Forest City Ratner’s “Atlantic Yards” proposal want to “…burn it all down…” is both insensitive and confusing. The statement is insensitive as the communities surrounding Ratner’s proposed project, along the Pacific Street corridor, have recently seen a rash of suspected arsons which have not only burned buildings down but have killed five individuals.
Mr. McInnis’ remarks are confusing because the communities fighting against the Ratner project are opposed to the abuse of eminent domain which would see the state of New York seize and demolish approximately 70 buildings. Presumably Mr. McInnis supports those demolitions. Those same opponents of “Atlantic Yards” favor a different http://dddb.net/php/community/extell.phpdevelopment plan for the rail yards–a plan http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/326092p-278717c.htmlsolicited by them–which would not tear down any buildings. That plan would construct eleven buildings up to 28 stories using union labor, offers the same percentage of affordable housing as “Atlantic Yards” does, and offered substantially more money to the MTA than the Ratner bid.
“We fully support the use of union labor for any development that might occur on the Brooklyn rail yard site and development anywhere in the city. We respect union labor–all we ask is that union leadership respect the communities they wish to come into and build,” said DDDB spokesperson Daniel Goldstein. “We hope that Mr. McInnis can show us that respect and apologize for his insensitive remarks in today’s Observer article.”
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Posted by lumi at 7:17 AM
Press Release: Batson and Barron
Congressional Candidate Charles Barron and NY State Assembly Candidate Bill Batson Cross-Endorse
New York, August 27, 2006 – Today on the steps of City Hall, Council Member Charles Barron, running for the seat in the 10th Congressional District endorsed Bill Batson’s run for the open seat in the 57th NY State Assembly District.
“Mr. Batson is the only independent, real, progressive voice in this race for the Assembly; everyone else is part of the Brooklyn Democratic Machine,” Councilmember Baron said. “We need new leadership in this community,” Barron continued, “and that is why I enthusiastically endorse Bill Batson.”
Both Barron and Batson are running grassroots Brooklyn campaigns fueled by small donors. They are both independent thinkers with long histories of organizing and activism in Brooklyn.
“Charles Barron has been a long-time activist in this city; a man with great integrity who fights every day for his community,” Batson stated. “There is no one I see who is more qualified, more capable of serving the 10th Congressional District than Charles Barron, and I am proud to endorse him for the seat.”
Posted by lumi at 12:12 AM
August 28, 2006
It came from the Blogosphere...
Brooklyn Heights Blog, Nabe Photog Reveals Gargantuan Nature of Yards Project
BHB posts on the photos Brooklyn Heights resident Jonathan Barkey released last week.
As you can see from Barkey's rendering (above) of the Dean Street Playground, buildings appear to be attacking kids enjoying an afternoon of play.
The Politicker, More Atlantic Yards Meetings
The Empire State Development Corporation sent the announcement of an additional "community forum," very official-like, by email:
The Empire State Development Corporation just announced (as in, I just got the email about) two additional meetings they will hold for purpose of "soliciting more comments on the Atlantic Yards Project."
The Long and Continuous Emergency, Scaling Down Atlantic Yards?
Jason at The Long and Continuous Emergency ponders the talk about a scale down of Atlantic Yards and thinks out loud:
This is probably what they intended since the beginning.
Gowanus Longue, Second Atlantic Yards "Community Forum" Added
It would appear that even the ESDC is anxious to avoid a process that looks more like Moscow circa 1986 than New York City circa 2006. In the end, though, unless the fundamental dynamics of the process are altered to allow genuine community input and a deliberate process that allows for full and honest analysis of the benefits and negative impacts of Atlantic Yards, then the ESDC's review and "vote" will still have a distinctly Soviet smell about it with a touch of Robert Moses mixed in.
Daily Politics, Remainders
Ben Smith is reporting that Gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer is getting his way with the addition of another "community forum" date. It's hard to see why that would be the case, since Spitzer called for a longer period for review of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, not another forum. The second "community forum" was shoehorned into the schedule, but the close of the public comment period remains September 22.
Posted by lumi at 11:15 PM
"Community Forums" mea culpa
We stand corrected. Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn attorney Jeff Baker informed us that the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), by law, must hold the public comment period open after a "public hearing" for 10 days, not 30 as we had earlier reported.
Since the next "community forum" is to be held on the 12th of September (ten days before the September 22nd close of the public comment period), it's a total mystery why the ESDC is intent on not calling it a "hearing." However, the September 18th "community forum" wouldn't satisfy that rule.
So we ask again: what's the difference between a "community forum" and a "public hearing," and why is the distinction so important if comments made at both will become part of the public record?
We'll bet the house that the ESDC and Forest City Ratner know the answer. The community, however, will have to wait for a reply to a Freedom of Information request.
Posted by lumi at 10:53 PM
YIMBY! The Williamsburg Hasids want an arena? (Not really)
Atlantic Yards Report
A group of Hasidic Jews from Williamsburg attended last week's public hearing on Atlantic Yards, carrying signs proclaiming "YIMBY: Yes In My Backyard."
That's ironic, because the project wouldn't be in their backyards, and according to a NY Times article unearthed by Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report, the same community is alarmed by "their neighborhood being invaded by 'artisten,' a Yiddish word that in local parlance is used to describe non-Hasidim who live on the north side."
Posted by lumi at 9:32 AM
ESDC: Community Forums (Additional)
The Empire State Development Corporation posted on its web site, to very little fanfare (where's the press release?), that there will be an "Additional" "Community Forum" (not a "Hearing") on Monday, September 18, 2006.
The "Community Forum Protocol" (PDF) reads:
As a result of the significant turn-out at the August 23, 2006 Public Hearing on the Atlantic Yards Land Use Improvement and Civic Project (“Project”) and numerous comments received from the public, ESDC has scheduled an additional Community Forum for the purpose of soliciting comments on the Project. There will now be two Community Forums scheduled as follows:
I. Tuesday, September 12, 2006 – 4:30 pm – 8 pm at the New York City College of Technology (Klitgord Auditorium), 285 Jay Street, Brooklyn
II. Monday, September 18, 2006 – 4:30 pm – 8 pm at the New York City College of Technology (Klitgord Auditorium), 285 Jay Street, Brooklyn
These two items headline the "protocol:"
The Community Forums will be structured similar to the August 23 rd Public Hearing. ESDC representatives will be in attendance. There will be an independent Community Forum officer and a court reporter present and a stenographic transcript will be prepared. There will be no Project presentation, except that the Community Forum officer will make some preliminary comments regarding the procedures to be followed at the Community Forum.
All comments at the Community Forums will be given the same consideration as comments received at the Public Hearing and will be considered by ESDC prior to final action on the Project. All comments will be made part of the public record.
NoLandGrab: So if "all comments" will be "part of the public record," then what's the difference between a Community Forum and a Public Hearing?
By law, the ESDC must hold the comment period open for 30 days after a "Public Hearing" for the submission of written testimony. This does not appear to be the case for a "Community Forum."
This NEW "Ratner rule" allows the ESDC to accommodate Forest City Ratner's schedule, while seeming to allow for ample public comment.
This still hardly addresses the call by nearly every public official, excepting the Brooklyn Borough President and the Mayor, for more time for study and analysis of the 4,000 pages released last month. Most community stakeholders can be seen with their noses to the grindstone as if they were studying for the bar.
Now the outstanding question is why the ESDC has no problem being seen publicly working within the framework of the "Ratner Rules of Order?"
Posted by lumi at 8:21 AM
The mysteries of Site 5: blight and development rights
Atlantic Yards Report
Recently, AYR pointed out that to call state-owned railyards "blighted" was a stretch, because they're RAILYARDS in active use by the Long Island Railroad (see "Bogus Blight" below for peek at the footprint map without the "blighted" railyards). One might just as easily call any street with a pot hole "blighted" under the same reasoning and take those too.
Today, AYR examines Site 5. This lot was deemed "blighted" back in 1960. What has happened since Forest City Ratner built the PC Richards and Modell's? It's still blighted.
According to the blight study:
Although the 30,780 sf lot can accommodate up to 184,680 zsf of built space under current zoning, it hosts a single-story 30,300 gsf building, utilizing only about 16 percent of the lot’s development potential. At the time the lot was developed, the market conditions would not support a large-scale development using all of the development rights... Given its key location in the midst of one of the largest commercial districts in Brooklyn, lot 1 is critically underutilized.
And who owned the air rights to this "critically underutilized" (read "short") piece of land? The City.
So according to the blight study, "market conditions" are to blame for the "blight" caused by the "critically underutilized" city-owned air rights.
Posted by lumi at 8:03 AM
DEIS Bogus Points: Bogus Blight
Atlantic Yards Report uncovered a couple examples of bogus blight after reading the Blight Study, released along with the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and General Project Plan.
First, AYR quoted Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's attorney Jeff Baker, who made a point about the railyards on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show (link):
They’re counting as an element of blight, the Vanderbilt Yard railyard. I’m not sure it qualifies as blight; it’s in active use by the MTA and LIRR… There’s been no effort by any state or city authority for at least the last 30 years to develop it. It could also be considered an asset.
If the state-owned railyards have never been developed, can they be considered "blighted?" If not, then the percentage of "blighted" property in the footprint drops dramatically, as seen in the side-by-side comparison.
In another post, AYR explained that much of the non-railyard property in the footprint is deemed "blighted" because it is underdeveloped, meaning either at least 50% of the lot is vacant or the property is developed to less than 60% of the allowable Floor Area Ratio (in other words it isn't big enough). Under the 60% rule, Bruce Ratner's own Atlantic Center Mall is, like, mad blighted.
The Empire State Development Corporation is bending over backwards to make the case that the area is "characterized by blighted conditions that are unlikely to be removed without public action."
It will be up to the courts to decide whether or not these claims are bogus, but we give the "blight" finding THREE out of FIVE BOGUS POINTS. [It would have scored higher except that it's totally unoriginal — there has never been a blight study that has concluded that the study area was not "blighted."]
Posted by lumi at 6:43 AM
August 27, 2006
TODAY: Barron & Batson Cross Endorsement Press Conference
On Sunday, August 27, 2006, Charles Barron and Bill Batson will be holding a cross-endorsement press conference on the steps of City Hall at 3:00pm.
This cross-endorsement comes right on the heels of another anti-Atlantic Yards co-endorsement. Chris Owens and Bill Batson co-endorsed each other at a City Hall press conference and rally on Tuesday.
Posted by amy at 8:44 AM
Nobody Home on the Atlantic Yards Chatline
Brownstoner
We received an email in the middle of the day yesterday from a reader alerting us to the creation of a party line devoted to the Atlantic Yards project. We were a little skeptical, not believing that pro- and anti-Ratner forces could actually engage in civil conversation. Our tipster had only found one other person on the line earlier in the day but had mentioned that evenings were supposed to be much higher volume. So we were a little disappointed when we dialed in at around 11 o'clock only to find that we were the only ones reaching out to touch someone. Has anyone actually had a conversation on this thing?
Posted by amy at 8:35 AM
It came from the Blogosphere...
Gumby Fresh, Hoop Drools
This came back to me as I watched Vince Carter and top wife-beater Jason Kidd mumble their way through a press conference organised by their boss Bruce Ratner aboout the stadium. Here's the low-down (Realplayer link) from Kidd on why he just loves his boss' project:""He's doing it not just for the Nets, but for the community, for the youth to have role models tobe able to look up to not just for ten years but for longevity."
Carter's statement, which I haven't been able to hunt down, was if anything even less coherent than Kidd's. It's a tribute to Ratner's cynicism that he thinks that merely hauling two athletes onstage to repeat "Youth", "Goal" and "Unity" in an indeterminate order will provide the requisite publicity boost.
Capitoilette, Survivor: Atlantic Yards
Well, on the same day that CBS unveiled its brilliant new Survivor format, Bruce Ratner and friends also decided to showcase just how good a marketing strategy it is to play the race card.By buying-off construction workers with phony claims about jobs, and housing advocates with phony claims about affordable housing (and by simply buying Rev. Herbert Daughtry), Forest City Ratner has managed to paint a portrait of a passionate and predominantly African-American pro-AY team facing off against a rather bloodless group of Anglo anti-Yarders.
It’s a powerful picture, and one that has made many a local elected official a tad antsy about weighing in against the development (Letitia James, to her credit, is a notable exception). No one in Borough or City politics wants to be against minority jobs or affordable housing, and few would want to be seen as anti-African American. I’m sure Ratner and his consultants had some idea all along that they might get so lucky.
vidiotspeak, Sorry for the light posting,
Nobody said what was really going on. Nobody talked about the fact that there is a myth called "private property" in this country. There is no such thing as private property. You may THINK you own your home. But you don't. The bank does. And even if you pay of the mortgage, you still don't own it. Just try to not pay your property taxes and see how long you get to live there. The crux of the Ratner project is the way he acquired the land -- through guise and eminant domain abuse.Mr. Vidiot has coined a really good term for this and he doesn't want me say too much about it yet, and hopefully, he will blog about it soon. (He doesn't blog much. He'd better start. Hint hint.)
We're anxiously awaiting...NoLandGrab loves to propagate new words!
Daily Gotham, onNYTurf: Gmaps for Atlantic Yards and Williamsburg Waterfront development proposals
OMFG! I almost forgot about Will's maps. If you have not seen them, run ASAP. They totally kick ass and are an example of exactly the kind of information the city ought to be putting out for us constituents to review.Why is it that even if we have a mayor who happens to be one of the biggest digital moguls of our era; New Yorkers cannot count on having this kind of information available on the internet and in kiosks around the city for "We The People's" review?
Dreadnaught, "Bruce Ratner promised us housing and all we got were these lousy T-shirts"
Posted by amy at 8:12 AM
August 26, 2006
Chris Quinn: Secret Establishment Favorite
New York Observer traces City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's trajectory from bare-breasted gay activist to "redder-haired, better-dressed" advocate for overdevelopment. Included is a puzzling quote from someone confusing community activists with arsonists.
Some of the projects Ms. Quinn has supported include the expansion of the Javits Center, a rezoning of the West Side and a citywide garbage plan that includes putting a recycle plant in her own Chelsea district.The political director of the New York City District Council Carpenters, Stephen McInnis, says he sees officials as advocates of one of three worldviews: “build everything, platform over the Hudson River and build 60-story high-rises”; “let’s burn it all down, Atlantic Yards is the worst thing ever, and I’m going to get my name in the paper by saying it’s the worst thing ever”; and, finally, “the middle ground.”
Ms. Quinn, he said, is the latter category, skewing toward “build everything.”
Posted by amy at 11:13 PM
Pleasantville vs. Brooklyn, and other DEIS hearing footnotes
Atlantic Yards Report discusses what was missing from MSM coverage of the DEIS hearing and the Pleasantville conundrum.
That means those who spoke late, or never even had their names called, didn't get the ink. For example, other than in the New York Observer's blog The Real Estate and my blog, the critical yet convoluted comments of the influential Regional Plan Association got no coverage.Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn attorney Jeff Baker got no coverage outside of my blog, even though his contention--that a privately-owned arena does not meet the definition of a "civic project"--likely will be part of a major lawsuit. And, as I noted, Community Consulting Services and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC) offered important criticisms about traffic. They were almost completely ignored, though the Courier-Life chain mentioned TSTC.
And reporters who didn't stay until the end didn't capture a potential metaphor: though project proponents for hours had outnumbered opponents, many of the former left earlier to return home, so by the last hour or so, the opponents--most of whom live closer to the hearing (and project) site--dominated the room.
Posted by amy at 11:08 PM
TODAY: Rally Against Eminent Domain Abuse!
Saturday, August 26
3 — 6pm
227 Duffield Street (between Fulton & Willoughby)
The City wants to destroy the slave safehouses from the Underground Railroad to create underground parking.
An engineering firm called AKRF (which is also Ratner's and the Yankee's firm) wants to rewrite history, and we need to make a lot of noise to make sure they don't destroy one of Brooklyn's important historical landmarks.
The rally is being hosted by one of our great community activists, Joy Chatel, and FUREE, a group that has been vocally defending the rights of public housing residents and other issues of economic racism.
The rally will include: * tours of the site, * speeches by community advocates, * food, * music, and * dancing.
It will be part street party, part political education, and fully about creating community!
Posted by lumi at 9:20 AM
DEIS Bogus Points: The GAP Gap
GRAND ARMY PLAZA
Grand Army Plaza is just inside the 1/2-mi. radius of Bruce Ratner's proposed Atlantic Yards project. Currently six lanes of traffic keep the Plaza well defended from the public and make it one of the least accessible public spaces in Brooklyn. The recent renovation of the arch and fountain dressed up what is functionally a great big traffic circle.
OPEN SPACE, YES!
Grand Army Plaza is included in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) tally of Open Space Resources, though pedestrians are limited to two access points at which to safely cross six lanes of traffic: the crosswalk near Vanderbilt Ave. and another near Union St. Cyclists who do not use one of the two crosswalks access Grand Army Plaza at their own peril. [Click on images to enlarge.]
TRAFFIC, NO?
On the other hand, the DEIS did not dare to include Grand Army Plaza itself in the analysis of Atlantic Yards traffic impacts. The study considered two intersections near the circle, but neglected to study the possibility of gridlock within the circle.
Also, drivers traveling southeast on Union St. are familiar with the "queuing" of vehicles (quaint technical term for lots of traffic) throughout the day, seven days a week. Neither the Union St.-GAP intersection, nor the Union-8th Ave. intersection, where gridlock frequently occurs, were analyzed in the traffic study. Why bother studying these intersections when everyone knows they already suck.
For sheer audaciousness and defiance of reality, we award this paradox in the DEIS FOUR out of FIVE Bogus Points. |
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Posted by lumi at 7:41 AM
Hurry Up And Wait At Yards Hearing
Courier-Life
Emily Keller
Shirley McRae, Chair of Community Board 2, was not called to speak until five hours after her arrival, and was denied early entry that is customary for board members. She waited in line for more than an hour to sign in.“They would not have called me if I had not come out to ask them what’s going on,” she said, calling the organization of the hearing “ridiculous”. At 9:30 p.m., three CB2 members had spoken and seven were still waiting to.
Devin Cohen, Chair of the Community Board 6 Public Safety Committee, spent six and a half hours at the hearing but was never called.
“I really hope that people who represent constituencies like community boards will be guaranteed the opportunity to speak at the next hearing and I hope that the tone will be conducive to [allow more people to speak],” said Cohen.
Posted by amy at 3:02 AM
A Chorus of Cross Talk And Sniping : One Down And Just One More Yards Hearing to Go
Courier-Life
Stephen Witt
Proponents and opponents of developer Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project alternately cheered, booed and heckled each other in last week’s public hearing seeking input on the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).But behind the drama of the hearing, held at the New York City College of Technology (Klitgord Auditorium), 285 Jay Street, were several interesting opinions on the 1,400-page DEIS document itself.
Among the more surprising of these opinions came from Borough President Marty Markowitz. Although he is a major supporter of the project, he recommended scaling it down considerably.
Posted by amy at 2:20 AM
August 25, 2006
Atlantic Yards Report on the Media
Today Atlantic Yards Report blogger Norman Oder returns to his original assignment, The NY Times and the media:
The Times on AY: skepticism about construction jobs, but not about revenue
Oder takes a look at yesterday's NY Times article and notices a "rowback," as the Times is suddenly expressing the 15,000-jobs figure as "1500 construction jobs."
What's a "rowback?" What's the difference between the two figures? When will the Times scrutinize the "$1.4 billion tax revenue" prediction? Read the "O-dair Report" to learn more.
Democracy vs. demagoguery, and other AY story lines a columnist might've followed
Gather up the press and blog coverage, maybe add some video, and you can approximate the experience of the seven-hour public hearing Wednesday on the Atlantic Yards Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). But it really needed a writer with more "voice,” a columnist like Jimmy Breslin or Murray Kempton (R.I.P.).
Why didn’t a metro columnist, or even a sports columnist, from one of the dailies cross the river? After all, it was the day’s—maybe the summer’s--most striking piece of street theater. There were so many threads to follow, building blocks for 800 compelling words, stories with drama and maybe even a moral.
Oder lists several different threads that would've made great fodder for Gotham's bevy of columnists.
Posted by lumi at 12:03 PM
Follow the Leader on AY hearing
NY Press political blog Follow the Leader calls the Atlantic Yards hearing in favor of the Ratner supporters even going as far as saying:
Unions, apparently, are better at getting their people to show up on time.
Incivility ruled on both sides, but was particularly noticeable from the opposition, who were pretty personal towards elected officials when the room was quiet. To Marty Markowitz: "you sold out your borough, scumbag," to Roger Green: "you're a criminal," "you're a crook," to Karim Camara: "go hang out with Clarence." One elderly woman even had to be removed for her outburst during Martin Golden's pro-development statement.
Also, John D. notices that David Yassky's "nice-looking signs were displayed everywhere" and "Charles Barron's congressional campaign were (sic) handing out one of the most unprofessional looking pieces of literature I've ever seen."
Today's post on the hearing featured this photo of the de-spectacled Bruce Ratner leading the ACORN demonstration beside Executive Director Bertha Lewis, with the jubilant Bruce Bender in his wake.
NoLandGrab: Follow the Leader may not realize that union members are typically paid for time spent at demonstrations supported by the union leadership.
Also, Yassky's campaign war chest of more than a million dollars buys the "nice-looking signs" that Barron's grass-roots campaign can't afford.
More Follow the Leader coverage of the hearing:
Critical Endorsements, Athlete Edition
Taking a page out of the New York Jets' book, in which you have stars of the past and future come out in support of your stadium project, Atlantic Yards picked up the endorsements of the New Jersey Nets' Vince Carter and Jason Kidd today.
[This post also repe