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September 28, 2006
If a Tree Falls in Brooklyn...
Would City Bureaucrats Be Able To Hear It?
Brooklyn Downtown Star
By Norman Oder
Coverage of this week's City Planning Commission meeting includes a strong reaction from City Councilmember Letitia James.
The day after the launch of BrooklynSpeaks, a new coalition of community groups more moderate than the established Atlantic Yards opponents, yet still calling for substantial changes, the CPC recommended an 8 percent decrease in the size of Atlantic Yards. That cut of 700,000 square feet would bring the project just below 8 million square feet, approximately the original size as proposed in December 2003 - and a far cry from the scale backs, from one-third to one-half, suggested by BrooklynSpeaks.
The reduction was hardly a surprise; developer Forest City Ratner's plans for a proposed cut of 6 to 8 percent had been predicted by confidential sources in a New York Times article earlier this month.
...
City Councilwoman Letitia James, who attended the session and shook her head in frustration several times, observed afterward, "I thought some of the comments from Regina were a little over the top. I think [DCP commissioner] Amanda Burden served as a spokesperson for Forest City Ratner, and judge and jury. The fact that they wanted to respect the Williamsburgh bank but did nothing to cut back on Miss Brooklyn is sort of a contradiction. There was no discussion of the overall policy issues, whether the city should be relinquishing its power to state, with a project of this size. They were just tinkering around the fringe."
Posted by lumi at September 28, 2006 7:19 AM