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November 30, 2006
3,600 People Vs. Three Men in a Room
Matthew Schuerman is reporting on The Real Estate Observer that:
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn has collected 3,600 form letters, online and on the street, urging the Public Authorities Control Board to postpone its vote on Atlantic Yards until after "the courts" rule on its eminent domain lawsuit -- which, frankly, could take a few years, especially if the case goes all the way to the Supreme Court.
Most of them, spokesman Daniel Goldstein said, were collected in Brooklyn, but there are 400 signers from state Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver's Lower Manhattan district among them.
NoLandGrab: Schuerman implies that the letterwriting campaign is a stall tactic. But there is a valid community concern here.
Developers will often raze properties that have been successfully seized, demolishing the neighborhoods around a few remaining homes or buildings where the property owners are appealing the eminent domain action. If the property owners prevail, the damage to the community has already been done. The most recent example is the case in Norwood, OH.
Bruce Ratner has already demolished all of the buildings for which he was able to get an engineer to declare the property to be a public health threat. There is no reason to believe that he won't quickly do the same to properties he controls if the project is approved by the Public Authorities Control Board.
Posted by lumi at November 30, 2006 12:28 PM