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October 17, 2006
Better Late Than Never? Pol Seeks Answers About Atlantic Yards
Courier-Life Publications just published the weekly update on Atlantic Yards by reporter Stephen Witt. Below are some excerpts with running commentary, or you can click here to go straight to the article.
Opponents and skeptics of Bruce Ratner’s proposed Atlantic Yards project are leaving no stone unturned as the process moves toward a final thumbs-up or thumbs-down.
The latest rub comes as Assemblymember James Brennan last week officially submitted freedom of information law (FOIL) requests to city and state development agencies for all financial information related to the project.
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Not to be outdone, the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN) submitted their own FOIL of the sign-in sheets, actual speaker order and complete transcripts of the three recent ESDC public meetings on the project.
NoLandGrab: To insinuate that there is competition between groups submitting Freedom of Information requests is just silly, especially when the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods submitted their request before Brennan.
Meanwhile, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), whose spokesperson Daniel Goldstein remains one of the few holdouts living in the footprint of the project, continues to hammer home outrage against the blight study portion of the DEIS and GPP.
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Meanwhile, a visual walk around the rail yard portion of the footprint reveals homeless people still in the area as well as overgrown weeds, broken glass and litter.
NLG: Meanwhile, Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report pointed out that the broken glass and litter is largely on MTA property, and is the responsibility of the state agency. But we thank Courier-Life for pointing it out — maybe the MTA can do something about that.
Finally, City Councilmember David Yassky showed up at last week’s Community Board 2 meeting to elaborate on his written testimony given to the ESDC about the project.
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Specifically, Yassky said every ticket sold to a Nets game must come with a MetroCard. ...
The Flatbush/Atlantic Avenues intersection should also be eliminated through either a overpass or underpass, he said.
NLG: Yassky makes a good point about getting serious about traffic, but his idea of rerouting Flatbush and Atlantic over or underground gets an award for bodacity. Can you say, "Big Dig?" Rerouting nearly a dozen subway lines so that you can bury traffic underground would rival the entire project in terms of cost.
Posted by lumi at October 17, 2006 9:49 AM