No Land Grab

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.