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September 22, 2006
Atlantic Yards Countdown
The Brooklyn Papers
The Empire State Development Corporation invited Brooklynites to comment on the agency’s draft environmental impact statement for the Atlantic Yards project by sending letters to ESDC’s Maria Mooney, 633 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 or e-mailing atlanticyards@empire.state.ny.us by 5:30 pm on Sept. 29.
We’ve asked our readers to send copies of their testimony to newsroom@brooklynpapers.com. Here are this week’s letters:
Samples from the letters follow:
Planting enormous glass towers in an area of brownstones and townhouses makes no sense other than financial sense for the developer, and shows no respect for Brooklyn, its history or its residents.
While those in the outer reaches of Brooklyn or outside the borough may find the prospect of a sports stadium exciting, I find it horrifying.
But even more horrific is the response of elected officials like Borough President Marty Markowitz. He and other elected officials who have given this project their full support are playing games with our neighborhoods. They should be ashamed.
— Daniel P. Wiener, Park Slope
Brooklyn is known for its low-rise three- and four-story brownstone neighborhoods. This building type is so appealing that it is the image that Forest City Ratner uses in its publicity brochures.
However, the Atlantic Yards project would destroy this character and replace it with 16 buildings rising as high as 60 stories. This is completely out of context with the surrounding neighborhood.
Yet the DEIS states that “the new land uses ... would be similar to, and compatible with, those in the surrounding primary and secondary study areas.” There is nothing compatible with the building types in Atlantic Yards.
Xenia Urban, Park Slope
Posted by lumi at September 22, 2006 8:47 AM