« September 2006 | Main | November 2006 »
October 31, 2006
FOIL follies III: Ratner's mysterious tower at City Tech
Atlantic Yards Report
While the controversy over the Atlantic Yards project continues to brew, Forest City Ratner was awarded the bid to develop "a huge mixed-use facility on the New York City College of Technology campus (aka City Tech), in Downtown Brooklyn."
When this project was announced, The Brooklyn Papers noted that:
Though two bidders competed for the rights, state officials would not release information about either bid, nor what Forest City Ratner agreed to pay for the right to develop the tower on the site of the Klitgord Center, where the Atlantic Yards hearings were held.
Norman Oder started poking around; armed with Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests, he got... pretty much nowhere.
The NY State Dormitory Authority sent a copy of the Request for Proposal, but other than that, Oder got nothing: no financial plans, budgets, technical proposals, nada, not even the name of the other bidder.
In a familiar refrain, the City University of New York told Oder he'll get answers, "only after the 'final agreement.'" Apparently, like the Empire State Development Corporation and Atlantic Yards, they are still "negotiating" with the developer even though Forest City Ratner has already been named.
Two things Norman "the Mad Overkiller" Oder did get for his trouble was: 1. fodder for the third installment of his series on FOIL requests (links for Part I and II) and 2. a mysterious reference to a property located in the Atlantic Yards footprint (the building where Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn spokesperson and eminent domain litigant Dan Goldstein lives).
Some good news on the FOIL front: NY State agencies can now send documents (or decline Norman Oder's requests) by email, according to the Journal-News (see, "E-mail FOIL law request takes effect today").
Posted by lumi at 7:13 AM
'PUBLIC' BOARD SHAPES CITY
Big development decisions have local pols and citizens sitting up and taking notice of a powerful yet obscure state board.
City Limits Weekly
By Rachel Nielsen
The Public Authorities Control Board is a little-known government body that's been giving its yes or no to the financing behind giant public projects across the state for years. But just recently it’s gotten a lot more attention in New York City because it's the PACB – widely considered lacking in transparency and accountability – that will in essence make the final decision about the controversial Atlantic Yards development that could transform downtown Brooklyn. [Note: Um... the Atlantic Yards project was still in Prospect Heights when we checked this morning.]
Mayor Bloomberg is making a big stink that the Public Authorities Control Board (proxies of the proverbial "Three Men in a Room") get the final say on large city development projects. This is a big change of pace for the Mayor, since he welcomed the usurpation of local authority over the Atlantic Yards plan by the Empire State Development Corporation. However, during the past two years, the Public Authorities Control Board has doled out defeats to two of the Mayor's coveted projects, the Westside Stadium and Moynihan Station.
Who are these proxies of the Three Men in a Room [and who are these three men, for that matter]? How does the Public Authorities Control Board get to vote on projects sponsored by the Empire State Development Corporation? How do they come to a decision? What happens when they don't? Who knows? Who cares?
Answers to these burning questions and more in this article at CityLimits.org.
Posted by lumi at 6:58 AM
Urban Memory Project: Lost in Translation
The Urban Memory Project works with students to introduce them to the changes in the physical landscape occurring around them, and to analyze and document those changes.
Opening
Tuesday, November 14
Lost in Translation:
Williamsburg and Carroll Gardens
Hosted at the New Visions for Public Schools
320 West 13th Street
6th Floor
New York, NY
Opening Reception: 5-7 PM
Click here for more information and to view a slideshow.
NoLandGrab: We were interviewed by students this month at the New School for Social Research for "Bring Your Favorite Eminent Domain Activist to School Day." Look for the students' projects on the Atlantic Yards issue to be published on NoLandGrab in the coming weeks.
Posted by lumi at 6:42 AM
Empire of the son
The Daily News
By Douglas Feiden
Though gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer talks tough on reforming quasi-governmental corporations like the Emipire State Develop Corporation — the state "agency" that is sponsoring the Atlantic Yards project — don't hold your breath on him taking a hard look at the Atlantic Yards project itself.
According to the Daily News, Spitzer's fortune comes from the NYC real estate empire built by his father, and the candidate has already expressed support for the project, calling the 8% scaleback to the original size a "reasonable compromise."
Posted by lumi at 6:28 AM
Forest City in the News: Malling America, One Open-Air Mixed-Use Regional Lifestyle Center at a Time
Business Wire, Forest City Announces Grand Opening of Northfield Stapleton Retail Center in Denver
Forest City Enterprises, Inc. today announced the grand opening of the 1.2-million-square-foot Northfield open-air regional lifestyle center at the Company’s Stapleton mixed-use project in Denver.
NoLandGrab: An "open-air regional lifestyle center" is commonly known as a mall.
The [Lehigh Valley] Morning Call, Summit mall set to break ground
Ground could be broken by year's end at the Summit Lehigh Valley in Bethlehem Township, the only one of the Lehigh Valley's four proposed malls that has not announced which stores would fill the bulk of its space.
...
The new timetable calls for an opening date of September or October 2008, according to Brian Ratner, president of East Coast development for co-builder Forest City Enterprises.Ratner said the Summit's backers are still eyeing a mix of high-end and mass-market stores in an open-air setting. The project also is slated to include homes and office space.
Posted by lumi at 6:00 AM
October 30, 2006
Plotting offense in Atlantic Yards fight
Attorney for project foes says developer-driven Brooklyn plan is unconstitutional
Metro NY
Last year the U.S. Supreme Court gave states broad powers to seize private property for projects benefiting the public. Yet last week a group of Brooklynites in the way of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the $4.2 billion development would rely on an unconstitutional use of eminent domain. Plaintiffs’ lead attorney Matthew Brinckerhoff explained how he intends to prove that Ratner’s plan for a basketball arena surrounded by 16 towers does not meet the court’s definition of public use.
Posted by lumi at 9:04 AM
The unreality of Atlantic Yards
Metro NY, Op-Ed By Norman Oder
Norman Oder has become a one-man campaign to shed light on some simple facts about Atlantic Yards:
Before we can debate a major project like Atlantic Yards, we must get the facts straight. Regarding some key aspects of the development — its size and the cost or benefit to the public — too many people are in the dark.
Posted by lumi at 8:57 AM
Three Men in a Room: our dysfunctional state government--and how to change it
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder recently read former State Senator Seymour Lachman's book, "Three Men in a Room: The Inside Story of Power and Betrayal in an American Statehouse." This in-depth analysis and exposé of the political workings of NY State has given the Atlantic Yards analyst much food for thought.
The phrase “three men in a room” describes much more than the PACB, as former State Senator Seymour Lachman describes in his timely book of analysis and advocacy, Three Men in a Room: The Inside Story of Power and Betrayal in an American Statehouse. Indeed, the entire legislative and governmental process is distorted by an absence of democracy. (Lachman, who calls Albany “one of the country’s most secretive and misruled statehouses,” will be a guest on WNYC radio's Brian Lehrer Show today at 10 a.m.)
Few of our elected representatives come off well. Is it no surprise that several of the officials who back the Atlantic Yards plan are among those who benefit from and support the systematic dysfunction? Or that Brooklyn Assemblyman Jim Brennan, who has tried unsuccessfully to foster transparency in the state’s budget process (and found himself on the outs with legislative leaders), has been out in front in seeking more financial details about Atlantic Yards?
The push for reform has come less from politicians than from a handful of good-government groups and the press. Given that the New York Times has editorially chastised the Legislature for a lack of transparency and for a perpetually late budget, it becomes all the more glaring that the Times has failed to fill a vacuum and editorially scrutinize the Atlantic Yards project.
Posted by lumi at 8:34 AM
A View from Brooklyn
The Center for Study of Brooklyn
By Paul Moses
Have you been wondering how a $4.2-billion project, on 22 acres, the size of the Empire State Building three times over, using eminent domain, sited at one of the busiest intersections in Brooklyn, near neighborhoods with some of the highest asthma rates in the nation, next to the developers two other malls, and which also happens to be the largest single-source private development in NYC's history, is a mere footnote in the media coverage?
Veteran Brooklyn journalist Paul Moses says it most succinctly:
Nowhere in the country do so many people get so little local coverage.
Though the situation looks bleak, Moses examines how Cablevision's News 12 could make a difference.
Posted by lumi at 8:17 AM
EMINENT DOMAINIA: Voting Booth
Poughkeepsie Journal, VOTER'S GUIDE: Comptroller
Libertarian candidate for State Comptroller John J. Cain focuses on eminent domain abuse in his party's platform. It seems that Cain and Hevesi answered the candidates' questionnaire.
US News & World Report, A Host of Questions. Voters will take on eminent domain and a lot more
Rod's Grill, in Arcadia, Calif., has really been Manny Romero's grill since he bought the place 10 years ago. And in that decade, he has built a loyal following. So when the city wanted to seize the restaurant property through eminent domain and turn it over to a nearby car dealership seeking to expand, the community objected-and the restaurant survived. "I have the same right to do business ... as the Mercedes-Benz dealership," Romero insists.
He isn't the only one chafing under the current use of eminent domain. Twelve states-including California-will vote November 7 on limiting the government's ability to regulate and seize property. The ballot measures signal outrage at the Supreme Court's 2005 decision in Kelo v. New London, which seemed to broaden governmental power to take private land. But opponents of the measures see them as a misleading effort to further a radical property-rights agenda.
...
Zoning? Polling suggests all four regulatory takings initiatives will pass; backers are focusing on examples of eminent domain abuse. But Howard Rich, a New York real-estate investor who has spent millions of dollars trying to get the measures on the ballot, says, "It doesn't matter if government takes your property outright or regulates it to the point of little or no value; the result is the same."Critics of the regulatory takings measures, including conservation and anti-tax groups, say they could strain government budgets or severely limit the ability to enforce environmental or zoning regulations. In Oregon, where a similar law has been on the books since 2004, the state has largely waived any sort of property restrictions rather than compensate landowners. Suzie Kunzman, an alpaca farmer in Molalla, Ore., became a cautionary tale after her neighbor tried to build a gravel mine behind her house; that issue is still unresolved.
The Arizona Republic, Prop. 207 ads don't tell complete story
Courts in the state of Arizona have already ruled that private-to-private property transfers are an illegal use of eminent domain. So why is an eminent domain abuse initiative on the ballot?
The ads for Proposition 207 may be most notable for what they don't say: much about the other part of the initiative that requires compensation for "regulatory takings."
The only commercial that mentions it briefly is the one with Richards. But that is the part of the proposition that has drawn opponents' attention. They characterize Proposition 207 as a Trojan horse: It is being sold to voters as eminent domain reform while the real danger is hidden.
Environmental groups, neighborhood associations, cities, developers, public safety associations and veterans groups warn that the measure could freeze zoning, neighborhood protections and environmental laws because of fears of costly court battles.
LA Times, Stopping the government's property grab
California's Proposition 90 is being sold as an eminent domain abuse bill, but critics say that eminent domain is just a Trojan Horse for limiting land-use regulations.
THE PROPERTY rights movement has been building for years, but the Kelo decision lighted the fuse. In some respects, the states with measures on the November ballot are taking their cue from Oregon, which for more than 30 years had the most restrictive statewide land-use regulations in the nation. Fed up with the restrictions, in 2004 voters overwhelmingly passed a retroactive measure that requires the relevant agencies to either compensate owners for their losses or waive the restrictions. Not surprisingly, most have chosen the latter course.
When made to pay for the goods it otherwise acquires through regulation, "the public," it seems, has second thoughts.
Lincoln Tribune, State News : N.C. Property Rights Coalition Releases Legislative Voter Guide
A group in North Carolina published a voter's guide which lists candidates’ positions on a potential state constitutional amendment to prevent eminent domain abuse.
Statesman Journal, Measure 39 rightly limits government power
In Oregon, Measure 39 on this year's ballot really does seem to be a straight-up effort to limit eminent domain abuse.
If you've read or scanned the other articles linked in this post, you'll know that Oregon already has some of the toughest laws in the nation requiring compensation for changes in land-use.
Posted by lumi at 7:49 AM
October 29, 2006
Walking tour of proposed Atlantic Yards footprint next Saturday
Atlantic Yards Report
A walking tour with "The Mad Overkiller" seems perfect for Halloween!
I have a small walking tour business, New York Like a Native, and have been giving tours of Brooklyn neighborhoods since 2000. For the past years, the Atlantic Yards plan has intersected briefly with a couple of tours.Given how much time I spend thinking the Atlantic Yards project, I decided to offer a tour about it. The best way to understand the controversy--including issues of scale, design, and blight--is to take a look around the proposed site and the surrounding neighborhood. (Here are some contrasting views of the site and the proposals.)
Saturday, November 4, 1:30 p.m. $15/person. (Rain date: Sunday November 12 at 1:30 p.m.)
The tour will last 2-2.5 hours. We'll meet outside Brooklyn's tallest building (for now), the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, Hanson Place at Flatbush Avenue, near the Atlantic Terminal transit hub. More info here.
Posted by amy at 11:11 AM
Taking 'Takings' to the Voters: The California, Idaho, Arizona, and Washington initiatives.
The Weekly Standard
Save a wetland, get a bulding permit! Enviro organizations should really consider that as their new premium. Does anyone really need another miniature plush spotted owl?
But the hypocrisy of this tactic was recently exposed by Steven Greenhut of the Orange County Register. He reported that the California Public Securities Association--a group of financiers and attorneys, much of whose business consists of providing services to local governments--has donated $400,000 to California's "Vote No on Prop. 90" campaign. Similarly, Forest City Residential, a Cleveland-headquartered real estate company with many building projects in California, has contributed $250,000 to the "no" campaign. These businesses are big enough to absorb the costs of complying with wetlands and other land-use regulations. What they want most is a good relationship with local authorities so that they can obtain speedy variances and building permits for their mega-projects. "Their support is motivated by business, not ideological reasons," says David Gilliard, spokesperson for the "Protect Our Homes" or "Yes on 90" coalition. "This is simply Big Business's attempt at pay-to-play." No developer has made donations anywhere near this large to the pro-initiative side, he notes.
Posted by amy at 10:53 AM
HARDFIRE TV TAKES AIM AT EMINENT DOMAIN ABUSE
LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF NEW YORK
The “Hardfire” community access television show presents Libertarian Party of New York State Chair Richard Cooper on the topic of eminent domain abuse in New York. “Hardfire” is a libertarian cable-TV political discussion program, produced in Brooklyn, NY, by Gary Popkin. The show will air the first time on Monday, November 6th but is available now on the show’s website, www.hardfire.net. “Hardfire” appears on Brooklyn cable on Mondays at 10:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time on Time-Warner channel 35 and Cablevision channel 68. Reruns of “Hardfire” are also seen on Manhattan Neighborhood Network on Tuesday evenings at 8:30, on Time-Warner channel 56 and RNC channel 84.Interviewed by Manhattan Libertarian Party Chair Joseph Dobrian, Cooper explains what eminent domain abuse is and why libertarians oppose it. He recounts the partial victory of the Libertarians in achieving a better result for St. Luke’s Pentecostal Church in New Cassel (a hamlet adjoining Westbury, Long Island). Cooper takes aim at Bruce Ratner’s Brooklyn Nets Arena and links it to the earlier NY Times eminent domain case that he dubbed “Time$cam.” Not all is grim as he recounts the story of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum’s designs on the neighboring building. Cooper advises that “You can’t buy eminent domain insurance but you can do the next best thing. Vote Libertarian.”
All of the Libertarian Party’s candidates are opposed to eminent domain abuse. The statewide candidates are Jeffrey Russell for US Senate, John Clifton for Governor, Donald Silberger for Lt. Governor, John Cain for Comptroller, and Christopher Garvey for Attorney-General. The Libertarians are running Dr. Steve Finger in the 11th District and Mike Sylvia in the 24th District for Congress.
Posted by amy at 10:48 AM
October 28, 2006
Atlantic Yards Plan: Be Afraid. Very Afraid
NY Times letters to the editor in response to last week's "resident" profiles:
To the Editor:I know the Atlantic Yards project will affect a number of neighborhoods in Brooklyn, but why wasn’t anyone from Prospect Heights featured in “On the Block”? Isn’t Prospect Heights where the project will be based?
Susan Fein
Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
To the Editor:In “On the Block” (Oct. 22), about the Atlantic Yards plan in Brooklyn, all the Fort Greene residents you interviewed were against it and all the Crown Heights residents were for it. It is easy to be in favor of a project that is more than a mile from your home, is a convenient destination for shoppers or basketball fans, and is far enough away to avoid the many negative influences on quality of life for the real neighbors of the project.
...
Projects of such scale should be planned much more carefully than this one has been planned, and should not be rammed through by cynical politicos.Frank A. Rogers
Park Slope, Brooklyn
The writer was an urban designer in the administration of Mayor John V. Lindsay.
Posted by amy at 9:50 PM
Drum Major for the Marchers of New York
NY Times proves you can't throw a rock without hitting someone protesting Atlantic Yards. Who's throwing those damn rocks anyway? Owwwww....Just glad no one threw this one...
To Todd Eaton, the gregarious 44-year-old who is behind NYProtest, a two-year-old daily listing of progressive street demonstrations and gatherings in the metropolitan area. The listing appears on Riseup.net, a site that offers “mail, lists and hosting to those working on liberatory social change.”
...
Around age 8, he attended his first protest, against the proposed widening of Atlantic Avenue. During his years at New York University, he participated in the No Nukes movement, and since then, he said, he has taken part in more than 100 street demonstrations, protesting everything from the militarization of space to the Atlantic Yards project.
Posted by amy at 9:42 PM
Bloomberg on eminent domain: majority rules!
Atlantic Yards Report catches Bloomberg adding another descriptor ("frivolous"!) to the eminent domain lawsuit plaintiffs on WABC's call-in show. Misguided, myopic, and selfish wasn't enough?
Mayor Mike Bloomberg is clearly a savvy businessman and, many believe, a good public official. But he's never claimed to be a constitutional lawyer, and it shows. During his weekly appearance yesterday on the WABC AM call-in show hosted by John Gambling, Bloomberg offered a grab-bag defense of eminent domain that failed to engage the issue and suggested that, if most people want a project, condemnation for it is defensible.The first caller from the public was Daniel Goldstein, spokesman for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and a plaintiff in the eminent domain suit filed Thursday. He referenced Bloomberg's recent criticism of the Public Authorities Control Board (PACB), the state body controlled by three members (Governor George Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno) that had just rejected the Moynihan Station plan.
DG: Last week on this show you called three men in a room in Albany undemocratic and unconstitutional, perhaps. And that same three men in a room will decide the fate of Atlantic Yards. And, as you know, yesterday, I and others filed an eminent domain lawsuit to protect our constitutional rights and you called us plaintiffs misguided, myopic, and selfish for trying to protect those rights. I’d like to ask you why you would call us that.
MB: Number one, Daniel, the courts, I guess, will decide whether or not the suit that you filed has any merit. That’s our system and, if the courts say you have merit, then you have recourse, and if the courts say you don’t, they’ll dismiss it. Our belief is that it is a frivolous lawsuit and there is no merit to it. But you’ll have your day in court and that’s exactly what democracy should give you.
Posted by amy at 7:32 PM
City Planning, April 2005: "Public input on the Brooklyn stadium has not started yet"
Atlantic Yards Report
As late as April 22, 2005, nearly a year and a half after the Atlantic Yards project was announced, a city official acknowledged that there had been no public input. The issue came up during the American Planning Association New York Metro Chapter’s 2005 Annual Conference.According to the proceedings, Richard Barth, Executive Director, New York City Department of Planning was on a panel titled "New York Area Mega-Projects: Prospects & Priorities." He was asked:
Many of the mega-projects, such as the Brooklyn arena and the Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning do not appropriately consider scale, neighborhood appropriateness, integration to surrounding communities, and other quality of life issues. Why?His response, at least regarding Atlantic Yards: Public input on the Brooklyn stadium has not started yet.
This is a summary, not a transcript. And it's not clear that public input is the same as public planning--a requirement for the use of eminent domain, according to the Kelo decision.
Posted by amy at 7:29 PM
ART IN THE CONTESTED CITY
Pratt Collaboratives
ART IN THE CONTESTED CITY
A Conference Exploring the Role of the Arts
in Contemporary Struggles over Urban Space
November 3, 2006
Pratt Institute
Higgins Hall
61 St. James Place
Brooklyn, NY
Our overriding goal is to open a dialogue around the intersections between art, culture and urban development so that we at Pratt Institute and around New York can envision new academic initiatives, critical engagement, and collaborations in this area. The key themes of this dialogue will include:
-the increasingly powerful role played by arts and culture in community development -the place of artists and the arts in current struggles over urban space -the impact of the housing and studio space shortage on contemporary art practice -innovative collaborations between artists and social movements addressing issues of sustainable urban development -funding opportunities in the growing field of arts and community development
Posted by amy at 7:25 PM
Fodder for "The Onion"
Don't Worry It's Just Reality: Brooklyn Edition
There are some quotes that are ridiculous you stop and check the source...is this a spoof? Sadly it isn't: Mayor Bloomberg:Bruce Ratner is as good a developer as you can find in terms of building quality projects and including the neighbors,If the Mayor's idea of 'quality' is Metrotech and Atlantic Mall, then scary times are head..and I don't mean Halloween. Including neighbors? Is the mayor at all aware that Ratner kept our community boards out of the process and all of them have publicly complained about this and have serious objections to the size of this project and the use of eminent domain? That politicians would say things like this, which fly in the face of reality indicates to me either Ratner is extraordinarily charming at Upper East Side cocktail parties (doubtful) or extraordinarily good at backroom deals (likely).
Dreadnaught apparently does not know about Ratner's Visionary Leadership...
Posted by amy at 7:20 PM
Kelo v. Pataki. Not.
Homeland Stupidity
When Atlantic Yards was announced in 2003, it was made clear that property within its perimeters would ultimately be acquired via eminent domain, under the aegis of New York State’s powerful and quasi-public Empire State Development Corporation. The “public use” justification required by the U.S. Constitution would be the projected trickle down effect of increased tax revenues, construction jobs, and “affordable” housing. Over the past few years Forest Ratner has been buying out property owners. Some went willingly. Others bowed to what they feared was inevitable. But a hard core didn’t move or mourn. Instead they organized an surprisingly effective resistance.The resistors’ latest gambit is a federal law suit (Goldstein v. Pataki) filed on October 26th in the Eastern District, charging that the use of eminent domain on behalf of Forest City Ratner and Atlantic Yards is unconstitutional. Among those named as defendants are Governor George Pataki, Bruce Ratner, Forest City Ratner in its various permutations, Empire State Development Corporation Chairman Charles Gargano, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
No one can say Brooklynites lack brass.
Posted by amy at 7:16 PM
The World is Round
flavorpill NYC
Ratner enters the fray of the burgeoning Brooklyn art world with a public art exhibit in the oh-so-public space of Metrotech:
Public Art Fund makes the best of Brooklyn's MetroTech Center — the original Forest Ratner neighborhood-crushing behemoth — by commissioning young artists to create new installations on the premises. Masters of polystyrene foam, Chris Hanson and Hendrika Sonnenberg cast a trio of soapboxes in aluminum and, fittingly, place them near Oratory Place. Diana Guerrero-Maciá's enormous, flattened icosidodecagon (a 32-sided shape) is a soccer ball spread out like a world map; Matt Johnson's boulder, 4eva, on the MetroTech lawn, also speaks about universal languages if you look closely enough at its quartz veins. For digs at the institution, Ryan McGinness, the splashy manipulator of corporate iconography, has embedded imposter wall signs among the real ones at MetroTech Commons.
Posted by amy at 12:00 AM
October 27, 2006
Atlantic Yards Suit Highlights Eminent Domain Issues
Commercial Property News
The court’s decision may ultimately hinge on whether the public process was appropriately carried out, a concern cited by Justice Anthony Kennedy in his concurring opinion on the Kelo case, said Cliff Levine, a partner and land-use specialist at Thorp Reed & Armstrong L.L.C., a Pittsburgh-based law firm. The Supreme Court also ruled that economic redevelopment is a legitimate use for eminent domain, but a compelling question for Atlantic Yards is whether the project’s different uses are linked. “You have to show here that this is integrated, good planning,” Levine said—a gray area that the courts may be reluctant to address.A spokesperson from the city law department said that the city had not seen the lawsuit, but in a press briefing yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg said the lawsuit was without merit. “The Atlantic Yards project is something that Brooklyn and this city really needs. Bruce Ratner is as good a developer as you can find in terms of building quality projects and including the neighbors, and there will be more traffic in some places and less in others, but that's the real world. You cannot sit here and not have development.”
Posted by amy at 11:14 PM
Lane, Fierstein, Osmond, Jersey Boys and More Help Christopher Reeve Foundation's "A Magical Evening"
Playbill News
Sunday Funnies. Except it's not Sunday. And they're not joking.
The Christopher Reeve Foundation will present the first-ever Dana Reeve Hope Award to Cristina Carlino, founder and CEO of philosophy, inc. The Visionary Leadership Award will also be bestowed upon Forest City Ratner Companies President and CEO Bruce C. Ratner and The Honorable Thomas H. Kean.
Guess they missed the NY Press Super Villain edition...
Posted by amy at 10:55 PM
Ratner plan hit with suit
Eviction targets seek to stop Yards
NY Daily News
By Elizabeth Hays and John Marzulli, with Lisa Colangelo
The plaintiffs will have to overcome a landmark decision last year by the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled that governments have the right to seize private property for public use.
But the suit contends the Atlantic Yards project is being driven by the personal "needs, motives and vision" of the developer, and not the public good.
"The exercise of eminent domain to seize plaintiffs' property in this case is not only unconstitutional, it is unnecessary," the complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court argues. "Development in this section of Brooklyn can be done successfully and profitably without taking a single piece of privately owned land."
City Councilwoman Letitia James (D, WFP-Prospect Heights) ridiculed the state's argument that the area is blighted, noting that condos in the area have sold for more than $1 million recently.
"This is nothing more than the biggest land grab in the history of New York City," she said.
Oh, and the Mayor called the reasons cited by people who want to stop the Atlantic Yards project as being "either misguided, myopic or selfish." Take your pick.
Posted by lumi at 11:50 AM
Brooklyn residents sue to stop Atlantic Yards
A group of ten Brooklyn property owners and tenants sued the city, state and developer Forest City Ratner to try and stop the $4.2 billion Atlantic Yards project from going forward.
Crains NY Business
By David Jones
"Plaintiffs will not stand idly by while their properties are seized by the state and given to Bruce Ratner to maximize his enrichment," said lead attorney Matthew Brinckerhoff in a statement.
...
The Gelin Group, which owns a one-family residence at 491 Green St., two other residential property owners and six rent-paying residents, along with Freddy's Bar and Backroom on Dean Street are among those suing.
The plaintiffs would like for the eminent domain issue to be settled before Ratner is given the go-ahead to start knocking more buildings down.
The plaintiffs want the Public Authorities Control Board to postpone a vote on the Atlantic Yards project until the courts have ruled on the eminent domain issue. They are also asking the court to force the Empire State Development Corp. to delay its approval until the issue has been resolved.
Posted by lumi at 11:50 AM
Some credulousness, some skepticism: two AY stories in the Times
Atlantic Yards Report
A tale of two articles — Norman Oder compares recent articles from The New York Times:
First up, the 9/5/06 page-one story about Forest City's announcement that the project was scaled back. There was no mention that the the "scaleback" returned the project to approximately the original size that was announced in 2003.
Today's story about Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's eminent domain lawsuit ran on page B4. The Times calls the suit a "legal maneuver," even though this suit might end up being an important property-rights case on the national stage. [The case seeks to challenge the Atlantic Yards project on the grounds that it is unconstitutional and has crossed the line set forth by the US Supreme Court in last year's Kelo decision.]
NoLandGrab: What Norman Oder is too polite to say is that it sure seems like the Times has a thing for Forest City Ratner, or is allergic to news about eminent domain law suits. [Back in 2002 the Empire State Development Corporation seized private property via eminent domain for the Times Tower project, developed by Forest City Ratner and the NY Times Corp.]
Posted by lumi at 11:28 AM
It came from the Blogosphere...
Local blogs are billing the eminent domain lawsuit as the "High Noon" of the Atlantic Yards fight.
A couple blogs featured images from threecee's flickr photoset on Prospect Heights.
Blogs that allow comments indicate that most people are unaware that the US Supreme Court Kelo decision attempted to describe cases that would be unconstitutional. Atlantic Yards seems tailor-made for a legal challenge along those lines.
Gowanus Lounge, The Decisive Atlantic Yards Battle Begins: Critical Eminent Domain Lawsuit Filed
It's on. What will be the decisive lawsuit over the Atlantic Yards proposal was filed in Federal court yesterday by eleven property owners and tenants within the big footprint of the proposed Forest City Ratner Atlantic Yards project.
Brownstoner, Goldstein et al. File Suit Over AY Eminent Domain
B-stoner wraps up the coverage and asks, "What do you think the suit's impact will be?"
RationalReview, NY: Suit challenges land theft for development
A Libertarian legal blog posted an excerpt and link to the NY Times article.
Curbed, Goldstein et al. File Suit Over AY Eminent Domain
The fight over Atlantic Yards is going to court. (Again.) Ten property owners and tenants on the site where Forest City Ratner would like to build Atlantic Yards have filed a Federal suit to stop the development. This should be the lawsuit over the project and the key legal issue, as expected, is eminent domain, and whether the state's use of it to take property is constitutional.
The Real Deal, Group files lawsuit to stop Atlantic Yards
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, an umbrella group opposed to the Atlantic Yards project in downtown Brooklyn, filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday against several defendants, including Forest City Ratner, the developer of the proposed 8.8-million-square-foot project. The lawsuit includes 10 plaintiffs, all tenants or owners who would be displaced by Atlantic Yards.
Posted by lumi at 9:51 AM
SUIT SEEKS TO DUNK ARENA
NY Post
By Patrick Gallahue
The Post went as far as saying that:
Bloomberg laughed when asked about its chances.
"The Atlantic Yards project is something that Brooklyn, and this city, really needs," he said.
NoLandGrab: We want to know if the Mayor's laugh was a mere "heh-heh" or a bona fide "Bwa-ha-ha" belly laugh?
Either way, it might be the first sign of a crack-up, typical for strong-armed NYC mayors in their second administration.
Posted by lumi at 9:35 AM
Atlantic Yards Project Abuses Uses of Eminent Domain, Suit Says
NY Sun
By Joseph Goldstein
The Sun's article focuses on the actual complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. [DDDB posted the complaint on its web site.]
"This is a case about a conscious effort to circumvent community input and the lawful processes of open government; about the misuse of government's power to take property by eminent domain; and, ultimately, about a betrayal of public trust in service of the interests of a private developer," the legal complaint reads.
Later in the article, the reporter missed the point about last year's US Supreme Court Kelo ruling.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Matthew Brinkerhoff, said at a press conference yesterday, that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London could prove a setback for his case.
“That case did erode some of the rights we are interested in,” Mr. Brinkerhoff said. “Not withstanding Kelo, this remains unconstitutional.”
NoLandGrab: Regular readers of NLG will know that the Kelo case was a setback for private property seizures for private developments in general.
However, in more than one instance, the Justices' opinions provided guidance for the lower courts on where to draw the line between private-to-private transfers that are allowed (i.e. projects resulting from a city planning process with legislative oversight), and private projects entailing impermissible favoritism towards a private party and whose public benefits are merely "pretextual." In other words, the lawsuit uses Kelo "to its advantage," as pointed out yesterday by NY Observer reporter Matthew Schuerman.
For more on this point, check out yesterday's NY Law Journal article.
Posted by lumi at 8:41 AM
Brooklyn Property Owners And Tenants Announce Lawsuit Against Forest City Ratner
NY1
The ten plaintiffs say the state is abusing its right of eminent domain to take their properties for the project.
They say eminent domain cannot be used to benefit a private developer, which is being done in the present case with Forest City Ratner.
"This is a textbook case of the government taking a person's private property – their homes and their business – and giving it a private entity, a private company, Mr. Ratner, so that he can benefit," said plaintiff attorney Matthew Brinckerhoff. "And that is absolutely forbidden by the Constitution."
Posted by lumi at 8:30 AM
Slideshow from the City Hall Eminent Domain press conference
Click here to view the flickr slideshow.
 |
Photo by NoLandGrabber Steve Soblick
Posted by lumi at 7:49 AM
Groups Aiming to Block Atlantic Yards Project Cite Eminent Domain
The NY Law Journal
By Tom Perrotta
What is the Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn lawsuit filed yesterday in Federal court about? This article provides the best explanation we've come across:
Residents and businesses who oppose the $4.2 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn yesterday filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the project would rely on an unconstitutional use of eminent domain to seize their property.
The complaint, which was assigned to Eastern District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis and Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy, seeks to attack the state's power of eminent domain via channels that the plaintiffs' attorney says were left open in a controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling decided last year by a 5-4 vote, Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469.
In Kelo, the majority of the Court held that local governments could use the power of eminent domain to take property for a private development deemed in the public interest.
In a concurring opinion, however, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy noted that while a taking was consistent with the Public Use Clause of the U.S. Constitution, it must be "rationally related" to a public purpose.
"The determination that a rational-basis standard of review is appropriate does not, however, alter the fact that transfers intended to confer benefits on particular, favored private entities, and with only incidental or pretextual public benefits, are forbidden by the Public Use Clause," Justice Kennedy wrote.
The Brooklyn suit, Goldstein v. Pataki, led by the group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and the firm of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, alleges that the project does not meet the public use requirement because it was conceived by a developer, Bruce Ratner of Forest City Ratner Companies, not by officials with the public interest in mind. It further alleges that the project did not involve a competitive bidding process or a means of gathering public opinion before it was conceived.
Dana Berliner, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, and co-counsel on the Kelo case explains:
"Kelo left open the possibility that a pure one-to-one transfer, or a condemnation that was made not according to the proper planning procedures, would not pass constitutional muster," Ms. Berliner said. "What the plaintiffs in this case have done is take the Kelo decision and challenge this condemnation under the possible constitutional violations left under Kelo. They are not asking the court to reverse Kelo."
Groups Aiming to Block Atlantic Yards Project Cite Eminent Domain
By Tom Perrotta
New York Law Journal
October 27, 2006
Residents and businesses who oppose the $4.2 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn yesterday filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the project would rely on an unconstitutional use of eminent domain to seize their property.
The complaint, which was assigned to Eastern District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis and Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy, seeks to attack the state's power of eminent domain via channels that the plaintiffs' attorney says were left open in a controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling decided last year by a 5-4 vote, Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469.
In Kelo, the majority of the Court held that local governments could use the power of eminent domain to take property for a private development deemed in the public interest.
In a concurring opinion, however, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy noted that while a taking was consistent with the Public Use Clause of the U.S. Constitution, it must be "rationally related" to a public purpose.
"The determination that a rational-basis standard of review is appropriate does not, however, alter the fact that transfers intended to confer benefits on particular, favored private entities, and with only incidental or pretextual public benefits, are forbidden by the Public Use Clause," Justice Kennedy wrote.
The Brooklyn suit, Goldstein v. Pataki, led by the group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and the firm of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, alleges that the project does not meet the public use requirement because it was conceived by a developer, Bruce Ratner of Forest City Ratner Companies, not by officials with the public interest in mind. It further alleges that the project did not involve a competitive bidding process or a means of gathering public opinion before it was conceived.
"What matters is the purpose, or the intent, of government officials in making this decision," Mr. Brinckerhoff said in an interview. "And they made this decision before knowing almost everything."
Mr. Brinckerhoff's clients are 10 residents of the area, including a condo owner, rent-stabilized tenants, and a bar, Freddy's Bar and Backroom. The lead plaintiff, Daniel Goldstein, is the spokesman for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn.
Joe DePlasco, a spokesman for the developer, said in a statement that the lawsuit was "a sad attempt" to delay the project.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg also criticized the suit while speaking to reporters at ribbon-cutting ceremony for a community health center on Staten Island.
"There are people that want to stop this project in Brooklyn for, I would argue, either misguided, myopic, or selfish reasons," the mayor said, adding that he assumed the suit had "no real merit."
Dana Berliner, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, a non-profit libertarian group that opposes eminent domain, said the suit offers numerous issues for a district court to consider.
Ms. Berliner was co-counsel on the Kelo case for the plaintiffs, who opposed a development plan created by the city of New London, Conn.
In Kelo, she said, the city had followed a specific process, and did not have a developer when it conceived of the project.
"Kelo left open the possibility that a pure one-to-one transfer, or a condemnation that was made not according to the proper planning procedures, would not pass constitutional muster," Ms. Berliner said. "What the plaintiffs in this case have done is take the Kelo decision and challenge this condemnation under the possible constitutional violations left under Kelo. They are not asking the court to reverse Kelo."
As it stands now, the Atlantic Yards project would span 8 million square feet along Atlantic Avenue between Flatbush and Vanderbilt Avenues. Forest City Ratner plans to build an arena, designed by the architect Frank Gehry, for the New Jersey Nets basketball team, as well as a hotel, condos, business and retail space, and rental residences. Among the 16 planned towers, one would stand 650-feet tall.
Jeffrey L. Braun, a partner at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, represents the developer.
-Tom Perrotta can be reached at tperrotta@alm.com
Posted by lumi at 1:27 AM
The next eminent domain donnybrook? AY controversy goes to court
As usual, Atlantic Yards Report fills in some blanks in the mainstream media's coverage of the Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn eminent domain lawsuit:
Kelo permitted the use of eminent domain, but it indicates that there must be a planning process, with the beneficiary unknown—which differs from the process in Brooklyn, according to the complaint. Brinckerhoff acknowledged that it did erode some rights, but emphasized that “the Supreme Court has always said you cannot take private property for a private benefit.”
...Why sue now, even before the [Empire State Development Corporations] has voted? Brinckerhoff responded, “The plantiffs have an absolute right to have claims heard in federal court. If we wait, that would be jeopardized.” While he said that the plaintiffs have enough evidence to go to trial, he predicted that, during the discovery phase, “We will find documents that support our theory that this decision was made years ago.” By filing in federal court rather than state court, the plaintiffs also seek redress in a forum that is more insulated from the local political winds.
Posted by lumi at 1:15 AM
Brooklynites sue over Atlantic Yards eminent domain
AP, via NY Newsday
By Larry McShane
"This is a case about a conscious effort to circumvent community input and the lawful processes of open government; about the misuse of the government's power to take property by eminent domain; and, ultimately, about a betrayal of public trust in service of the interest of a private developer," said the filing in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. ...
"We want to stay in our homes, keep our businesses, and keep our properties," said Goldstein, who owns a Brooklyn condominium. "Our case, at its core, is very simple: Bruce Ratner does not have the right to ask Gov. Pataki to take my home ... and the governor does not have the right to oblige Mr. Ratner."
...
"I think this is just a delaying tactic, and I assume there's no real merit to the case," Bloomberg said. "This is a project whose time has come, that we need in this city."
Posted by lumi at 12:56 AM
Welcome to Forest City Spindale
There were many interesting quotes from the coverage of yesterday's press conference announcing the lawsuit to block the use of eminent domain for Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan, but the most surreal ones came from Der Meisterspinner, Ratner PR Flackey Joe DePlasco.
DePlasco on "fair and beneficial":
“We have tried everything in our power to negotiate fair and beneficial transactions. However, a small group of people have either refused to speak with us or, for whatever reason, we have been unable to reach an agreement.”
"For whatever reason?" The Ratner camp can't seem to understand that there are people for whom unconstitutional, not to mention wanting to keep their homes and businesses, is reason enough.
Another DePlascoism:
"This is simply a sad attempt to delay a project that is supported by over 60 percent of Brooklyn."
Rather than a delay attempt, it looks more like a straight-up plan to defeat the project outright, on the grounds that taking private property for a private development project without a city planning process is illegal.
It's hard to believe that DePlasco gets paid a lot of money for this. Maybe he has some additional hidden talents.
Posted by lumi at 12:42 AM
Suit Against Atlantic Yards Challenges Eminent Domain
The NY Times
By Thomas J. Lueck
The plaintiffs’ lawyers, from firms in Manhattan and Albany and from South Brooklyn Legal Services, said the use of eminent domain would be unconstitutional because it would result in the transfer of private property to a developer without the public benefit that eminent domain is intended to bestow.
“The Atlantic Yards proposal is premised on the abuse of eminent domain,” said Matthew D. Brinckerhoff, the plaintiffs’ lead lawyer. It would mean “the taking of one citizen’s property to benefit a powerful and influential private citizen,” he said.
That citizen, Bruce Ratner, the president of Forest City Ratner, was named as a defendant, along with Gov. George E. Pataki and his chief development official, Charles A. Gargano, the chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation. Other defendants include Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Daniel L. Doctoroff, the deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding.
Posted by lumi at 12:37 AM
Lawsuit looks to block Nets’ shot
Metro NY
By Patrick Arden
In a case that could have national implications, the 10 property owners and tenants in Prospect Heights believe the plan to build a basketball arena and 16 surrounding towers illustrates “the misuse of the government’s power to take property by eminent domain.”
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court gave governments broad condemnation powers for projects benefiting the public, and Atlantic Yards will supposedly create 15,000 construction jobs and 2,500 office jobs. Ratner has also promised to set aside 2,250 of the development’s 6,860 planned residential units for affordable rentals. The plaintiffs call the job claims “grossly misleading,” with no more than 1,500 construction jobs created per year over a decade, and 40 percent of the affordable rentals would go to families earning between $71,000 and $113,000 a year.
This article focuses on whether or not the public benefits are accurate, even though Justice Kennedy was concerned with whether or not the benefits were "pretextual."
In light of the difference between actual and pretextual benefits, the quote from Matthew Brinckerhoff makes more sense:
“This process has been driven by the developer from the very outset. There has been very little public input; there has been no attempt to even consider any other developers. These are the hallmarks of a pure private taking.”
Posted by lumi at 12:31 AM
DDDB Makes a Federal Case out of it
The Real Estate Observer
By Matthew Schuerman
REO takes note of two things in Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's legal strategy:
For one, far from trying to battle last year's Kelo v. New London all the way up to a U.S. Supreme Court re-hearing... the plaintiffs will use the 5-4 decision to its advantage. In the Kelo case, New London, Justice Stevens wrote, "has carefully formulated an economic development plan that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community."
NoLandGrab: The Atlantic Yards process has been developer-driven, not a product of a city-planning process.
Two, the plaintiffs are first filing in federal, rather than state, court, and before eminent domain procedures actually have begun ("because otherwise it would be too late," Brinckerhoff said), which also suggests they feel Kelo will work for them, while New York state's notoriously developer-friendly laws will not.
NLG: The decision to file in Federal and not State court is an interesting one.
Theoretically, State courts would also have to acknowledge some of the guidance provided by the Kelo decision when applying the smell test to a case like this one.
The decision to file in Federal court could also be influenced by the general impression that Federal courts are not as politically influenced as courts on the State level.
Posted by lumi at 12:18 AM
Lawsuit targets Ratner’s ‘domain’
The Brooklyn Papers
By Ariella Cohen
“This lawsuit presents a textbook example of what the Fifth Amendment expressly prohibits: the taking of one citizen’s property in order to benefit a powerful and influential private citizen,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney, Matthew Brinckerhoff.
Ratner faced a similar lawsuit in the 1980s when the state condemned several blocks of Downtown Brooklyn for the Metrotech office complex.
NoLandGrab: Without knowing the specifics of the Metrotech suit, it is hard to know if the comparison goes beyond the fact that Bruce Ratner is the developer in both projects and has been the beneficiary of eminent domain takings in nearly all of his marquee projects.
Keep in mind one thing: this suit was filed in Federal court, not State court, and is being brought on the grounds that using eminent domain for this project is not legal under the U.S. Constitution.
Posted by lumi at 12:07 AM
October 26, 2006
Bloomy attacks state board set to approve Yards
The Brooklyn Papers
By Gersh Kuntzman
When Mayor Bloomberg spoke out against the undemocratic nature of the Public Authorities Control Board, he didn't know that he was auditioning to be the new spokesperson for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn.
Without mentioning Atlantic Yards by name, Mayor Bloomberg signaled last week that he’ll side with opponents of Bruce Ratner’s mega-development in a coming legal battle against the “undemocratic” process that is pushing the project to its likely approval later this year.
In his weekly radio show last Friday, Bloomberg questioned why the three members of the state’s Public Authorities Control Board — Gov. Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Rensselaer) and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) — “have a veto over everything.”
“Why is there [such] a structure at the state level?” the mayor asked. “I’m not sure why that’s constitutional. Maybe somebody wants to take a look at that. I don’t happen to think it’s good democracy to give the governor, the Speaker of the Assembly and the majority leader of the Senate [such power].”
The mayor’s comments came days after Silver held up a vote on the conversion of the Main Post Office in Manhattan into a grand new train station named after Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan — and the mayor was incensed last year when Silver used his vote to block the West Side stadium project.
PACB votes must be unanimous.
Posted by lumi at 11:51 PM
Atlantic Yards foes walk against Bruce
The Brooklyn Papers
By Gersh Kuntzman
Coverage of Walk Don't Destroy 2:
Several hundred walkers participating in the second-annual Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn “walkathon” raised enough to cover plenty of billable hours in the group’s legal battle against the Atlantic Yards mega-development.
Group spokesman Daniel Goldstein said DDDB raised “over $100,000” at the Saturday event, allowing the fight against Bruce Ratner’s proposed 16-tower, arena, residential, hotel and office space complex to move into the courts.
DDDB lawyer Jeffrey Baker promised to sue to stop the project on the grounds that it violates state environmental laws and abuses the state’s right to condemn land via eminent domain.
But mostly, the walkathon was festive and satirical. One woman dressed as a bride — a clear reference to Frank Gehry’s wedding-dress design for the 620-foot “Miss Brooklyn” tower proposed for the crowded intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues. Others who live in the area of the project wore T-shirts reading, “Blight me.”
Posted by lumi at 11:42 PM
Are You Ready For 50K New Neighbors?
Brooklyn Downtown Star
According to study commissioned by the city's Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and made public last week, "Sunnyside Yards is the city's single greatest opportunity to increase the housing supply and simultaneously improve the quality of the public realm."
The 90-page report, written by the consulting firm Alex Garvin & Associates, described several opportunities throughout Brooklyn and Queens to platform over railyards and highways to create more precious New York City real estate.
Councilmember Eric Gioia is looking forward to development of the Sunnyside Yards:
In fact, he has even tried to lure Bruce Ratner's Nets arena to that site instead of the Prospect Heights railyards, but Ratner's people have so far told Gioia no way. The Prospect Heights location was conspicuously absent from the Garvin study of platform opportunities, even though four other sites in Brooklyn were included.
NoLandGrab: The article is referring to the Vanderbilt Yards, the largest chunk of land in Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan.
Posted by lumi at 11:13 PM
News Analysis: ESDC Gives It Up
Brooklyn Downtown Star
By Norman Oder
The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) is passing off a seven-page memo as the complete independent economic analysis of the Atlantic Yards. What did the document leave out and why does it matter?
Does the Empire have any clothes? That's the question after the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) last week belatedly released data aiming to back its claim that the Atlantic Yards project would bring $1.4 billion in new tax revenues to the city and state.
But the ESDC findings, expressed in a seven-page memo, confirmed what critics and opponents suspected: the state agency omitted significant costs and subsidies for the project, such as those for schools, sanitation, public safety, and affordable housing.
...
Brooklyn Assemblyman Jim Brennan, who had asked for a range of financial data from the ESDC and other agencies, called it "a skeleton projection of state and local tax revenue." Indeed, Brennan's request for the project's "business plan" - the estimate of overall costs and revenues - was rebuffed by the ESDC.
Posted by lumi at 11:00 PM
Walk Gets Greener In More Ways Than One
Brooklyn Downtown Star
By Medi Blum
Coverage of last weekend's Walkathon:
The second "Walk Don't Destroy" walkathon raised over $100,000 for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's legal fund this weekend, nearly doubling last year's $60,000.
...
Many participants formed teams with their neighbors and walked under banners and signs such as "Boerum Hill Walks to Win," "No Arena, Go Greener," "Clinton Hill Cares: No Eminent Domain for AY Development," "ESDC Out of Brooklyn," or T-shirts such as the Castle Coalition's "Blight Me."
...
From the jubilant schoolchildren galloping and skipping out in front of the march, to the quirky hip-hop-meets-band-geek musical accompaniment, to the pre-Halloween dress-up of some of the walkers (along with the bride, a fuzzy wolf dressed in street clothes, many real dogs wearing Develop Don't Destroy T-shirts, and, briefly, a Renaissance harlequin or two), to the downright mirth-inducing weather and the post-march concert led by John Wesley Harding, there was a cheerful tone to the walkathon.
Posted by lumi at 10:48 PM
DDDB PRESS RELEASE: Brooklyn Property Owners and Tenants File Federal Eminent Domain Lawsuit Against Ratner, Pataki, Gargano, Bloomberg and Doctoroff
Plaintiffs’ Suit Seeks to Halt the Abusive and Unconstitutional Use of Eminent Domain for Ratner’s Atlantic Yards Development Proposal
NEW YORK, NY— Today eleven plaintiffs–property owners and tenants from the site targeted for Forest City Ratner’s (FCR) proposed Atlantic Yards project in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn–filed a Federal lawsuit, in the Eastern District, to stop the State of New York from taking their properties for the developer’s private benefit through an abuse of its eminent domain powers. The suit says that the defendants’ use of eminent domain for the “Atlantic Yards” project is unconstitutional.
Governor George Pataki, FCR’s President Bruce Ratner, Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) Chairman Charles Gargano, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, Forest City Ratner Companies and its parent Forest City Enterprises, amongst others, are named as defendants in the suit.
Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) has organized a stellar legal team to represent the plaintiffs: lead counsel is Matthew D. Brinckerhoff of the constitutional law firm Emery, Celli, Brinckerhoff & Abady; counsel for tenant-plaintiffs is Jennifer Levy of South Brooklyn Legal Services; co-counsel is DDDB attorney Jeffrey S. Baker of Young, Sommer, Ward, Ritzenberg, Baker & Moore; and a team of dedicated volunteer attorneys.
“This lawsuit presents a textbook example of what the Fifth Amendment expressly prohibits: the taking of one citizen’s property in order to benefit a powerful and influential private citizen. Our case is strong–the sham process employed by defendants to justify the taking of plaintiffs’ property for Bruce Ratner’s ‘Atlantic Yards’ is precisely what was forbidden by the majority in last year’s controversial Supreme Court Case -- Kelo v. New London,” lead attorney Matthew Brinckerhoff said. “The ‘Atlantic Yards’ proposal is premised upon the abuse of eminent domain. Plaintiffs will not stand idly by while their properties are seized by the State and given to Bruce Ratner to maximize his enrichment. We seek a court order prohibiting the State from abusing its eminent domain power in violation of the Fifth Amendment.”
Property owners and tenants in the proposed development have the right to keep their homes and properties. New York State has no legal right to take those properties for a private, favored developer when there is no comprehensive development planning process, no bidding process for the condemned land, a phony “blight” finding and when that project is wholly conceived and driven by that private developer for that private developer’s benefit. This is the case with Forest City Ratner’s “Atlantic Yards” proposal.
Tenant attorney Jennifer Levy said, “I represent low-income renters and most of my clients in this case are rent-stabilized tenants who will be removed from their long-term homes, distanced from their families, and removed from their communities, if this Project is permitted to proceed. This case represents an unjustifiable use of the State’s eminent domain powers, which only permit the use of eminent domain where there is a resulting public use. It is not permissible to use eminent domain for the benefit of a private developer displacing vulnerable populations.
“We want to stay in our homes, keep our businesses, and keep our properties. Our case, at its core, is very simple: Bruce Ratner does not have the right to ask Governor Pataki to take my home and give it to Bruce Ratner, and the Governor does not have the right to oblige Mr. Ratner. We are sure that most people agree with us on that,” said plaintiff and DDDB spokesman Daniel Goldstein. “With our suit here in Brooklyn we are standing up for millions of people across the United States who understand that the abuse of eminent domain can impact anyone and has gone too far. We are excited that our case may rein in eminent domain abuse here in New York City and across the country.”
Lead DDDB legal volunteer Candace Carponter said, “We fully support, congratulate, and deeply respect the courage of these owners and tenants in defending their fundamental constitutional rights. As the Ohio Supreme court said in its ruling for owners in the City of Norwood eminent domain case, 'although the judiciary and the legislature define the limits of state powers, such as eminent domain, the ultimate guardian of the people's rights...are the people themselves.’”
“We are calling on the Public Authorities Control Board–Silver, Bruno and the Governor–to postpone any vote on the proposed 'Atlantic Yards' project until the courts have ruled on eminent domain,” said DDDB attorney Jeffrey Baker. "There is much that is illegal with the Ratner ‘Atlantic Yards’ proposal and its process. Its abuse of eminent domain, which we will show with this case, is at the very foundation of the project’s numerous violations of the law."
The 8.8 million square foot, $4.2 billion “Atlantic Yards” project was first conceived by Forest City Ratner and unveiled in December, 2003, at which time it was made clear that private property (homes and businesses) would be condemned, seized and transferred to the developer to construct his project and bring enormous profits to the development corporation. The City of New York and the State of New York never had any plan for the proposed project site, and thus, “Atlantic Yards” and its dependence on eminent domain abuse is entirely driven by the developer, and the private goals of the Forest City Ratner corporation. The Supreme Court’s Kelo decision in the summer of 2005 forbade this kind of favoritism in takings.
ECBA and the lawyers who work there have developed a national reputation in the field of constitutional litigation, winning important victories in landmark matters such as Morris v. Board of Estimate, the US Supreme Court case that struck down the previous form of New York City government as a violation of one-person/one-vote principles, and Gasperini v. Center for Humanities, the US Supreme Court case that upheld a litigant's right to a jury award. The Firm currently has an active constitutional docket, including two other Fifth Amendment Takings Clause cases, and numerous Equal Protection Clause, Free Speech Clause and other constitutional cases.
The complaint can be found here: http://dddb.net/php/reading/legal/eminentdomain
DEVELOP DON’T DESTROY BROOKLYN leads a broad-based community coalition fighting for development that will unite our communities instead of dividing and destroying them
Posted by lumi at 12:00 PM
New location & condo numbers, old photos & claims from FCR
Without much mainstream media coverage to analyze, Atlantic Yards Report takes a crack at the "Atlantic Yards Project Briefing handed out by Forest City Ratner representatives to some Prospect Heights residents at a meeting Monday night."
The document remains intriguing, especially since the developer persists in claiming $6.1 billion in tax revenues for the project--a highly dubious figure--and showing pictures of demolished buildings under "Existing Conditions." (We get the backlot building at 463 Dean Street and the Underberg Building (twice), though they were torn down in May. At least the developer has found a current photo of 636 Pacific Street, which had previously be portrayed pre-renovation....)
And, curiously enough, the project location is described as "close proximity to Downtown Brooklyn," which differs from the longstanding description of "A Vision for Downtown Brooklyn."
Posted by lumi at 10:03 AM
Eminent domain lawsuit coming today; another suit also in the works
Atlantic Yards Report
Separate from the Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn law suit being filed in federal court today, another parallel suit is coming down the pipe (emphasis added to the crux of the case):
Not part of this lawsuit, but expected to be part of another, are 15 rent-stabilized tenants in two buildings in the proposed project footprint, represented by attorney George Locker. He told me, "I will be raising exclusively state claims, in a separate plenary lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court after issuance of the Final Environmental Impact Statement." That could be in November.
Locker added, "I fully support the DDDB litigation and believe that they will prevail on their Federal claims, which will be applicable to my clients, as my claims will be applicable to theirs." Locker believes that the state and developer are using eminent domain to circumvent state law, which otherwise would require a series of hearings before demolishing buildings containing rent-regulated tenants.
Posted by lumi at 9:55 AM
EMINENT DOMAINIA: Ballot initiative fine print, Kelo backlash and Korean American small-biz owners to demonstrate
NLG: Community Commentary, The Long, Long Arm of the “Kelo Plus” Initiatives
A legal analysis of "Kelo plus" ballot initiatives, which seek to rein in governmental regulation under the guise of property rights, by eminent domain legal scholar and activist John Ryskamp.
Gannett News Service, via HometownOnline, When should government take land? Michigan voters will get to decide the fate of Proposal 4 on Nov. 7:
If approved, the amendment will require the government to decide when to use eminent domain on a case-to-case basis using strict justification. Their authority to declare an entire area as blighted will be limited and determined individually. And only then, if the power of eminent domain is justified the government will be required to pay 125 percent of the fair market value to the owner, Nowling said.
San Jose Mercury-News, Voters should read fine print before making Prop. 90 decision
Polls show that few voters know what Proposition 90 is about, much less understand its significance. No wonder, given that relatively little money has been spent so far communicating messages for and against the initiative.
...
The proposal's promoters are selling it as a reform of eminent domain, the process governments everywhere use to force the sale of private property for public purposes. But it is much more than that. It is a sweeping change in the state constitution that could potentially affect just about every new state or local government regulation adopted in the future.
Prop 90 seems benign enough; it restricts eminent domain to traditional "public use" and prohibits private-to-private transactions, as in New London, CT and Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. But here's the rub:
Proposition 90 would require government to pay owners the amount the property would yield in its "highest and best use'' if the government left the property alone.
NoLandGrab: Here's a hypothetical — if your property is oil-rich but lies in an ecologially sensitive area, the government must pay you for your oil in order to protect the environment.
Sacramento Bee, Editorial: Speak up on 90, Governor
The editorial board of the Sacramento Bee is calling on Gov. Schwarzenegger to condemn Proposition 90:
The governor needs to come out strongly against Proposition 90. If voters were to approve this deceptive law, it would gut Schwarzenegger's efforts to improve flood control, preserve open space in the Sierra, upgrade transportation and ensure that cities and counties have adequate funds for public safety and other priorities.
El Paso Times,
Korean Chamber of Commerce to protest Downtown revitalization
About 160 Downtown business owners plan to close their stores for two hours today and march to City Hall to protest the city's proposed Downtown redevelopment plan, the leader of a Korean business group said Wednesday.
"We want to send a message to City Council and the mayor that we are together; we are here. We are creating Downtown activity," said Walter Kim, owner of KSM Corp., a store on South El Paso Street, and president of the Korean Chamber of Commerce of El Paso. Kim has also been involved in Land Grab Opponents of El Paso, which has threatened to sue the city over the Downtown plan.
NoLandGrab: In NYC, small-business owners are particularly vulnerable to eminent domain takings, many of whom are first- and second-generation immigrants. Ethnically based business networks in NYC have not spoken up against eminent domain abuse as they have in El Paso.
Posted by lumi at 8:30 AM
Forest City in the News
The Detriot News, Developers aim to get Detroit on its feet
Al Ratner will be participating in the the 20th annual University of Michigan/Urban Land Institute Real Estate Forum at Cobo Center in Detroit.
NoLandGrab: It's ironic that the forum will discuss creating pedestrian-friendly infrastructure in Detriot, while meanwhile, back in Brooklyn, Forest City's plans to create surface parking has transportation advocates scratching their heads.
Editor & Publisher, Times Co. Looking for Tenants to Rent Five Floors in New HQ
The NY Times Co. is looking to rent out five of the 29 floors they own in the Times Tower, the new headquarters developed in partnership with Forest City Ratner.
Business Wire, Forest City Offers Westfield San Francisco Centre Tour to NAREIT Attendees
Forest City will be holding a tour of the Westfield San Francisco Centre for attendees of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) convention.
Rocky Mountain News, New gem for Forest City
An article about Forest City's recent developments in Colorado with some historical background.
The final phase of Northfield Stapleton, a 1.2 million-square-foot outdoor shopping center, debuts at 10 a.m. today.
It's the latest from Forest City Enterprises, the Cleveland-based developer that has begun several other area projects since becoming master developer of the 4,700-acre redevelopment project in 1999.
...
Most recently, Forest City was named developer for the 160-acre Fitzsimons Bioscience Park in Aurora, whose aim is to attract bioscience companies and about 10,000 jobs in the next couple of decades.Forest City was one of about a dozen developers that vied for the job, said Jill Sikora Farnham, executive director of the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority.
...
Forest City Enterprises has its roots in a lumberyard business founded in 1921 by Polish immigrant siblings Charles, Max, -Leonard and Fannye Ratner.The company went public in 1960 and today owns, develops and manages diverse real estate projects in 25 states. It reported revenue of $1.2 billion last year.
...
Northfield Stapleton was built with enough sustainable characteristics to win it LEED-CS Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Posted by lumi at 7:52 AM
Brooklyn Property Owners and Tenants to Announce Federal Eminent Domain Lawsuit Against Ratner, Pataki, Gargano, Bloomberg and Doctoroff
MEDIA ALERT: October 26. 1pm Press Conference. City Hall
Plaintiffs’ Suit Seeks to Halt the Abusive and Unconstitutional Use of Eminent Domain for Ratner’s Atlantic Yards Development Project
NEW YORK, NY— At 1pm on Thursday October 26th on the steps of City Hall, Brooklyn property owners and tenants, along with their legal representatives, and supporters will announce the filing of a Federal lawsuit (Eastern District) against the abuse of eminent domain and the taking of their properties by New York State for Forest City Ratner's "Atlantic Yards" development project in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
Governor George Pataki, FCR’s President Bruce Ratner, Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) Chairman Charles Gargano, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, Forest City Ratner Companies and its parent Forest City Enterprises, amongst others, are named as defendants in the suit.
Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) has organized a stellar legal team to represent the plaintiffs: lead counsel is Matthew D. Brinckerhoff of the constitutional law firm Emery, Celli, Brinckerhoff & Abady (ECBA); counsel for tenant-plaintiffs is Jennifer Levy of South Brooklyn Legal Services; co-counsel is DDDB attorney Jeffrey S. Baker of Young, Sommer, Ward, Ritzenberg, Baker & Moore; and a team of dedicated volunteer attorneys.
ECBA and the lawyers who work there have developed a national reputation in the field of constitutional litigation, winning important victories in landmark matters such as Morris v. Board of Estimate, the US Supreme Court case which struck down the previous form of New York City government as a violation of one person/one vote principles, and Gasperini v. Center for Humanities, the US Supreme Court case that upheld a litigant's right to a jury award. The Firm currently has an active constitutional docket, including two other Fifth Amendment Takings Clause cases, and numerous Equal Protection Clause, Free Speech Clause and other constitutional cases.
More information will be available at the press conference and later today
WHAT:
Press conference to announce lawsuit against eminent domain abuse stemming from Forest City Ratner’s “Atlantic Yards” development proposal
WHEN:
Thursday, October 26th. 1pm.
WHERE:
The Steps of City Hall in Manhattan
(R/W train to City Hall, 4/5/6 train to Brooklyn Bridge, 2/3 train to Park Place)
WHO:
Attorneys, Brooklyn property owners and tenants threatened by eminent domain abuse, and supporters
Posted by lumi at 7:27 AM
October 25, 2006
Building Miss Brooklyn
n + 1
By Nikil Saval
An analysis and synopsis of the fight over Atlantic Yards, this article tells the story of how Bruce Ratner is co-opting NYC-style progressive liberalism to expand his substantial real estate empire:
But paradoxically, we are now asked to accept the notion that modestly wealthy residents of Park Slope have less interest in the poor and the unemployed than billionaires like Bloomberg and Ratner; that outsized urban complexes containing mostly condos and high-priced rentals are the best available solution to the problems of gentrification. Real estate magnates will bring the working class back to Brooklyn; the “black and brown” have their best friend in Bruce Ratner.
Posted by lumi at 9:45 PM
ESDC says FCR's timetable isn't accurate; still, Nov. 2 may be Final EIS deadline
Breaking news from Atlantic Yards Report is no news.
Spokeswoman Jessica Copen contacted me to say, "We haven't scheduled any special meetings for November. We're working towards finalizing the Final Environmental Impact Statement as soon as possible, within the statutory timeframe."
Read Norman Oder's post for an explanation of "statutory timeframe."
NoLandGrab: Was Forest City Ratner blowing smoke when they handed out their timeline at Monday evening's neighborhood meeting (see "The Speedy FEIS?")? Or is the ESDC's Copen the one with the spin moves? State law would appear to indicate that the FEIS would need to be complete by early November, though on the other hand, it could allow for more time.
Posted by lumi at 11:23 AM
Tish James, DDDB welcome Bloomberg's PACB comments
Here's one we missed from Atlantic Yards Report, covering Mayor Bloomberg's disgust with the Public Authorities Control Board (the three unknown representatives of the proverbial and perennial "three men in a room"). Just last week, Sheldon Silver's representative to the PACB killed the Moynihan Station project, and did the same last year with the West Side Stadium proposal.
Yesterday City Council Member Letitia James, who represents Prospect Heights and environs, including the area slated for the Atlantic Yards project, issued a statement: I agree fully that the Public Authorities Control Board (PACB) is not a good example of representative democracy. "Three men in a room" should not have control over development in our city- not at Moynihan Station and not at Atlantic Yards.
The mayor suggested someone might want to "look at" the constitutionality of the PACB. There are many in this community, including myself, who have been doing just that. Of the numerous lawsuits that will be filed in relation to Atlantic Yards, one may very well deal with this undemocratic process, and the near total lack of citizen input.
DDDB issues a press release as well (full text after the jump) arguing:
“Mayor Bloomberg is absolutely correct: three-men-in-a-room control over Ratner’s ‘Atlantic Yards,’ and other enormous development projects in New York City, is clearly undemocratic and, as he suggests, may be unconstitutional. We’ve been saying that for the past three years,” said Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) spokesman Daniel Goldstein. “We sure hope that the Mayor is not suggesting that he accepts and abets this undemocratic process when it suits his goals, and rejects it when it doesn’t. That would be Machiavellian. Indeed we will be ‘looking at that,’ as the Mayor urges, over the coming months.”
Mayor Bloomberg Says Three Men in a Room Develop Don’t Destroy Says That's Right
BROOKLYN, NY—Once Forest City Ratner’s “Atlantic Yards” proposal receives inevitable approval from the board of the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), the project would have to then receive an unanimous vote from the Public Authorities Control Board (PACB). The PACB is currently controlled by Governor George Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.
Last Friday, on his weekly WABC radio show, Mayor Michael Bloomberg strongly criticized the very same PACB that killed the Jets Stadium, and just last week put up a major roadblock to the Moynihan Station project in Manhattan. Commenting on Assembly Speaker Silver’s squashing of Moynihan Station, the Mayor said of the PACB:
"Why is there a structure at the state level where three individuals basically have a veto over everything? This PC, PSA, whatever the board is that approves it. And I'm not sure why that's constitutional. Maybe somebody wants to look at that. I don’t happen to think that it’s good democracy to give the governor, the speaker of the assembly, and the majority leader in the senate—no matter who they are, whether they agree with me or not—that’s not representative democracy, that’s not letting everybody have a say, because in fact, it isn’t everybody…
You can argue the governor is elected by the whole state, but then the majority leader and the speaker are representing really only their own districts, and that’s not what I think we should have."
“Mayor Bloomberg is absolutely correct: three-men-in-a-room control over Ratner’s ‘Atlantic Yards,’ and other enormous development projects in New York City, is clearly undemocratic and, as he suggests, may be unconstitutional. We’ve been saying that for the past three years,” said Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) spokesman Daniel Goldstein. “We sure hope that the Mayor is not suggesting that he accepts and abets this undemocratic process when it suits his goals, and rejects it when it doesn’t. That would be Machiavellian. Indeed we will be ‘looking at that,’ as the Mayor urges, over the coming months.”
In 2005 Mayor Bloomberg signed over the city’s chartered right to oversight and review of Forest City Ratner’s 8.8 million square foot “Atlantic Yards” development proposal. This decision by the Mayor gave complete control of the largest mixed-use development proposal in the history of New York City to the unaccountable and unelected ESDC and the “undemocratic” (his words) PACB. The agreed to state override took control of the project out of the hands of three community boards, the Brooklyn Borough President, City Planning Commission and the entire City Council. None of those bodies have any official role in the project, and the override of the City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) bypasses the City Council’s vote on such projects. Instead, the ESDC and the PACB are the only entities that have any official role in determining the fate of the “Atlantic Yards” proposal.
“We’re with the Mayor on this one. ULURP is democratic, the state override with PACB control is an undemocratic abuse of power,” Goldstein concluded.
Posted by lumi at 9:54 AM
The speedy FEIS? Ratner anticipates AY approval in a matter of weeks
Atlantic Yards Report
Ratner has publicly announced the timetable for the remainder of the approval process at a neighborhood meeting on Monday night, which leaves Brooklynites like Norman Oder to wonder, just who is really in charge.
Developer Forest City Ratner (FCR) anticipates that the Final EIS will be certified by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) during the first week in November.
Then, according to the timeline handed out to Prospect Heights residents by FCR officials at a community meeting Monday (click on graphic to enlarge), ten days later the ESDC will hold a special meeting to approve the EIS and eminent domain findings, and to approve the General Project Plan (GPP).
Posted by lumi at 9:23 AM
FOIL follies II: Brennan's request for business plan rejected
Atlantic Yards Report serves up the second installment of its four-part series on Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests, a law whose use has proved to be very important and necessary to shedding light on many of the obscured details of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards proposal.
FOIL Wars, "The Empire State Development Corporation Strikes Again"
Yes, the Empire State Development Corporation finally released a memo attempting to back up its prediction that the Atlantic Yards Project would generate $1.4 billion in new city and state taxes.
But that wasn’t what Brooklyn Assemblyman Jim Brennan really asked for. Indeed, his FOIL request for the project’s “business plan”—the crucial estimate of overall costs and revenues—was rebuffed by the ESDC. Now he’s appealing that rejection.
...
Not all agency documents are subject to disclosure. Brennan said that the agency stated that, according to the law, it may deny access to records or portions thereof that "are inter-agency or intra-agency materials which are not... statistical or factual tabulations or data."In other words, if they are statistical or factual dabulations or data, they should be disclosed. The ESDC's rationale, Brennan said, must be that the business plan is not a statistical or factual tabulation. He believes that it is.
Posted by lumi at 8:50 AM
Re-Imagining Downtown Brooklyn
...and other opportunities for the outer boroughs.
Project for Public Spaces
While Brooklyn may have great neighborhoods and destinations, Project for Public Spaces explains that "the inner core of Brooklyn is not performing anywhere near its potential."
The PPS newsletter directs sharp criticism at Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards, a project that promises "yet more concessions to traffic and carte blanche for the architect's ego:"
The Forest City Ratner proposal for the Atlantic Yards site has many weaknesses (which we'll address shortly), but the truth is that no development--even one much stronger than what's on the table now--can truly succeed there without also addressing the area around the intersection of Atlantic, Flatbush, and Fourth Avenue. This intersection should be an iconic space--a source of pride for Brooklyn as a whole. Not only is it a gateway to major assets such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Downtown Brooklyn, and even the cultural institutions near Grand Army Plaza, but it is also the threshold to many of Brooklyn's great neighborhoods. Done the right way, development here could transform the intersection into the "Crossroads of Brooklyn."
If this major intersection is ever to become important to Brooklyn, the first priority must be to define it as a great destination. Right now it is dominated by vehicles -- it's just a place to drive through. The pedestrian experience is a nightmare, and there is no plan to deal with this major obstacle. Any development on any portion of this intersection will be a failure if surface transportation issues are not dealt with.
Posted by lumi at 8:32 AM
Brooklyn Bound
Travel & Leisure
By Peter Jon Lindberg
New Yorkers looking for the small-town quality of life in the big city, and visitors who shun the spoon-fed tourist spots, are now flocking to Brooklyn. Travel writer and Brooklynite Peter Jon Lindberg often travels the world without leaving Brooklyn.
It seems that a postcard from Brooklyn isn't complete without a couple of paragraphs about Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards proposal:
The fiercest battle, however, centers on Atlantic Yards, a $4.2 billion development that would bring 16 residential and commercial towers and a Frank Gehry–designed basketball arena to the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, already one of the most congested intersections in the city. The 22-acre complex would replace a derelict rail yard—as well as seven residential blocks of not-at-all-derelict Prospect Heights. Most tenants and homeowners in the project’s footprint have already vacated their apartments, but a handful still remain, refusing buyout offers and possibly forcing an eminent domain action.
The pros and cons are both outsized. According to an environmental-impact study, Atlantic Yards would cast a literal shadow over surrounding low-rise neighborhoods, place a significant strain on mass transit, and knot up some 60 intersections in gridlock. It would also supply 2,250 subsidized apartments for low- and middle-income residents (an increasingly threatened population in New York), create thousands of jobs, add up to $1.5 billion in tax revenue, and relocate the New Jersey Nets to a legendarily jilted sports town that’s gone five decades without a big-league team.
Brooklyn desperately needs affordable housing. And an NBA franchise would be a potent symbol and point of pride for still bereft trolley dodgers. Yet Atlantic Yards seems grotesquely proportioned, the proverbial bazooka-on-a-quail-hunt. If approved, it will be the biggest and costliest development in Brooklyn’s history: a Manhattan-scale megaplex in a borough defined by its small neighborhood charms.
NoLandGrab: Lindberg might want to check that $1.5-billion number with "The Mad Factchecker" Norman Oder, who finds that the Empire State Development Corporation calculates the benefits at around $1.4 billion, but without considering substantial public costs.
Posted by lumi at 8:05 AM
our development subsidy panel - watch and listen online
Drum Major Institute Blog
In case you missed DMI's Marketplace of Ideas panel last month - or if you're doing research for your own brilliant blog post - check out the audio and video we have of the panel now on the DMI website.
Norman Oder already posted on this forum (link). However, if you are interested in learning more about holding companies, like Forest City Ratner, accountable for public subsidies, and the wisdom of using public money for sports venues, you may want to check it out.
Everyone on the panel from good government advocate Assemblyman Brodsky to crusading New York Daily News collumist [sic] and Atlantic Yards supporter Errol Lewis was extremely passionate and pointed in their discussion.
Posted by lumi at 7:53 AM
Bobb well ahead in fundraising for school board chief
The Washington Times
The Ratner clan is making large contributions to a big-money fight in the nation's capital for... School Board Presidency(?).
Former D.C. Administrator Robert C. Bobb has raised $160K, more than four times the amount raised by all of the other candidates combined, and an unusually large sum for a local school-board election.
Mr. Bobb picked up several thousand dollars in contributions from members of the Ratner family, which runs Ohio-based Forest City Enterprises. The company is redeveloping property along the Anacostia River.
Posted by lumi at 7:46 AM
Clarke's opponents hang tough
NY Daily News
By Elizabeth Hays
City Council[member] Yvette Clarke has taken it easy since winning a bruising Democratic congressional primary last month - but that doesn't mean the race is over.
Clarke (D-Flatbush) still faces three opponents in the 11th Congressional District in next month's general election, even if it's assumed that in heavily Democratic Brooklyn, the Democratic primary winner is a shoo-in.
Steve Finger, a doctor from Sheepshead Bay, is running as a Republican and Libertarian, while activist Ollie McClean is running as an Independent.
...
McClean, the daughter of immigrants from Barbados and a founding member of the United African Movement, said she had planned to stay in the race if City Councilman David Yassky, who is white, won the nomination for the traditionally black seat.But after Clarke beat Yassky in the primary with 31% of the vote to his 26%, McClean said she was asked by supporters to stay in.
"Now, it's not just to have a black face in a high place, we have to have accountability too," said McClean, who opposes the Atlantic Yards arena/commercial/residential project, which Clarke supports.
Finger, who regularly appears on a Libertarian cable access talk show, also opposes Atlantic Yards, "on eminent domain grounds."
Posted by lumi at 7:42 AM
TODAY: Protest Rally in Response to Atlantic Avenue Carnage
AABA Press Release via StreetsBlog, which points out that "AABA has been fighting for years for more neighborhood-friendly traffic policies along the Avenue." The press release targets traffic mitigations for the Atlantic Yards proposal and a move in the wrong direction.
Wednesday, October 25 at 10:00 am on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Bond St.
JOIN AABA FOR A PROTEST RALLY AND PRESS CONFERENCE
Excess speed kills two on Atlantic Avenue this October. One of them, Al Fernandez, a long time neighbor, was crushed to death while sitting on the sidewalk.
Stand with merchants and residents to show your outrage at Department of Transportation’s policies to move traffic without regard for community safety. Demand a safer Atlantic Avenue. Demand that the 4-7 PM parking ban be lifted which hurts small businesses.
Act now before Atlantic Avenue becomes even more dangerous by plans to widen the road by eliminating more parking and moving traffic even faster by increasing green time. These are proposed as "mitigation" measures for the Atlantic Yards Development Project.
We can have a safer Atlantic Avenue. We can have more parking to benefit the restaurants, and other small businesses on the Avenue.
ATLANTIC AVENUE IS A DESTINATION, NOT A HIGHWAY !
At the press conference, AABA will present solutions for a safer and more business friendly Atlantic Avenue.
Merchants and residents will be joined by Elected Officials and Transportation Alternatives.
Posted by lumi at 7:35 AM
October 24, 2006
NYT backs off space at its new headquarters
Crain's NY Business
By Julie Satow
Here's the latest drama at the Times Tower:
The New York Times Co. is giving up five floors at its new corporate headquarters before it has even moved in.
The publishing company, which reported a 39% drop in third-quarter profit, is on the hunt for a tenant to occupy 155,000 square feet on the 23rd through 27th floors at 620 Eighth Ave. -- the brand spanking new skyscraper that is under construction between West 40th and West 41st streets.
The Times partnered with Forest City Ratner to develop the 52-story building, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano. The publisher of The New York Times had planned to occupy the first 29 floors, with Ratner leasing the remainder of the building. So far, Ratner has signed leases for more than 75% of its 700,000 square feet.
Posted by lumi at 10:26 PM
It came from the Blogosphere...
Picketing Henry Ford, On Debord, on Urbanism, on Deception
An esoteric (read, "hyper-intellectual") post from Stuart Schrader for those who are curious about radical/avant-garde architecture theory and how it relates to Atlantic Yards (read, "not Bruce Ratner").
Brownstoner, Atlantic Yards: What The Archetypes Are Thinking
B-stoner's take on the "archetypes" in the Times's City section article from this weekend:
The Times asked nine area residents to discuss their views on the Atlantic Yards project. What struck us in reading the responses was what a war of hyperbole and propaganda this whole thing has been, from the promises of hand-outs and subsidies to the scare renderings showing Fort Greene being cast in a perpetual shadow. What continues to amaze us is how many of the poorer people in favor of the project seem to think they actually have a decent statistical chance of getting anything out of this.
One Hanson Place, Atlantic State Condos on market
As the Atlantic Yards projects barges ahead, more and more buildings are being erected along the Atlantic Avenue corridor. Start with the Boerum Heights complex, which recently changed marketing hands to Brooklyn Properties. Then there's a newer project a few blocks down at 489 Atlantic Avenue.
Posted by lumi at