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August 16, 2006
A response to John Atlas on ACORN & Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder mad overkills ACORN Exec. John Atlas's City Limits editorial, published this week.
In the August 14 issue of City Limits Weekly, in a letter headlined YOU GOTTA GIVE IT TO ACORN, John Atlas, who's writing a book about ACORN, made some fundamental errors in his analysis of ACORN and its role in Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.
Oder describes how:
* the 50/50 affordable housing plan quickly became unraveled just days after its announcement,
* the polling of the ACORN membership was extremely skewed (Oder has a copy of the poll questions),
* ACORN's core constituency would only be eligible for approximately 13% of the available on-site units of the Ratner "affordable housing plan," and
* families that qualify for Section 8 vouchers would be eligible for fewer than half of the "affordable" units.
In light of these facts, other omissions and misrepresentations, one may argue that John Atlas is overselling Bruce Ratner's private project to the people he serves.
Posted by lumi at August 16, 2006 9:30 AM