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August 8, 2006
Supporters of Eminent Domain Never Say “Great, My House First”
Footprint resident Leigh Anderson led off last week's Community Board 6 hearing on Atlantic Yards with a viewpoint that most people in New York City can relate to.
My name is Leigh Anderson and I’ve been a tenant on Pacific Street (in the footprint of the proposed arena) for almost ten years.
When I first heard about this project, I was surprised, because I thought that eminent domain was only used for public projects, like schools, and then only in areas that were blighted. Forest City Ratner has been trying to spin this as a public project—but it’s not. It is purely and solely for Bruce Ratner’s profit.
We can develop the railyards, we can create jobs, we can build affordable housing—we can even have an arena—all without razing my neighborhood. But Forest City Ratner has refused to consider any other options. They won’t scale back the project. They won’t tear down the ugly and failing Atlantic Center Mall. They won’t listen to the people who live in the neighborhood.
In fact, they deride us as “privileged brownstoners who want to preserve their exclusive community.” And then they say the neighborhood is blighted. You can’t have it both ways.
The definition of blight is now whatever a developer wants it to be.
My neighborhood is just an ordinary New York City neighborhood. Some parts are beautiful. Some parts are ugly. Some people are rich. Some people are poor. This neighborhood doesn’t deserve to be torn down any more than Bruce Ratner’s or Mike Bloomberg’s or Marty Markowitz’s neighborhoods deserve to be torn down.
[Editor's note: Bruce Ratner and Mike Bloomberg live in the same neighborhood on the Upper East Side.]
We’re a city full of intelligent people. There are solutions to our problems other than destroying an entire neighborhood.
Bruce or Mike or Marty wouldn’t want their houses torn down for a Chuck E. Cheese or a basketball arena or a Bath and Body Works—and neither would Bertha Lewis, who claims to speak for the community but signed a contract that obligates her to publicly support the project—and neither would the members of BUILD, which is now housed in a Forest City Ratner building.
We who live in Prospect Heights and Fort Greene and Park Slope and Crown Heights—we are the community.
I urge you to reject this project. Not in favor of no project, but in favor of a better one.
Posted by lumi at August 8, 2006 8:39 AM