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December 31, 2006
New York, Where the Dreamers Are Asleep
New York Times
The city that once lived to dazzle seems no longer able to think big or much past tomorrow. That was for its optimistic youth, when dreamers built Central Park, the marvel of a subway system, the wonder that is the Brooklyn Bridge and an advanced network of reservoirs and water tunnels. A younger New York dared to stage a World’s Fair in the shadow of the Depression.But the bills came due, bankruptcy loomed, President Gerald R. Ford threatened to leave the city in the lurch and the place turned practical. Today’s New Yorkers want to know what something costs and who will pay. Turning landfill into a park, or building a new basketball arena and apartment-retail complex in Brooklyn if private dollars foot a healthy part of the bill — fine. Risking citywide gridlock to impress the world by playing host to the Olympics? Not so fine.
It’s not as if the mayor’s goal of moving traffic and keeping the lights on are utopian concepts. But the public has learned that New York does not follow a script.
Atlantic Yards Report is on the scene to offer corrections in "Times suggests we know the costs of AY and 'who will pay'":
We don't have an accurate sense of the net new tax revenues. And we don't know how much Atlantic Yards would cost the public. That information has been elusive and hidden. But we do know we're risking costly gridlock in Brooklyn and beyond, as transportation engineer Brian Ketcham points out.
Posted by amy at 11:28 AM
From Bach to Borat
New Jersey Star-Ledger's best and worst of 2006:
LOATHED: Our region's continuing inability to build anything truly remarkable and architecturally interesting on a grand scale. Not just at Ground Zero -- anywhere at all. Even on the site of Bruce Ratner's proposed Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn, designed by California architect Frank Gehry (who did just open his first building in Manhattan, a modest office structure for media tycoon Barry Diller). Gehry's dubious residential-high-rise-cum-NJ Nets-arena may get built, but the current design is less than impressive. Cities in Europe, China, Japan, the Persian Gulf and Malaysia, are able to mount world-class projects with success, often using cutting-edge computer-assisted design functions. Hint: Focus on fulfilling human needs, not economic return.
Posted by amy at 11:25 AM
BUSH, RATNER, AND THE VISIONS OF FOOLS
Views from the Bridge
Bruce Ratner rides the same breed of horse as the Neo-Conservatives though he would no doubt vehemently deny it. It is not so much that the ends justify the means with Forest City Ratner, as it is an article of faith that some people are imbued by providence with the ability to plan, decide, and seal the fate of those they regard as less able beings. It is not that Bruce Ratner believes he rules public finance by Divine Right. It is that for him, like George Bush, the law is a secular impediment to his role as the conduit for the divine will. The law just gets in his way.To Mr. Ratner, the Atlantic Yards Project is more than the law, the state, the nation, and its people. We mortals here below are not able to grasp that fact, and so when the high trinity of New York State politics gathered in Albany this month, they “sanctified” Mr. Ratner’s mission in spite of the evidence. Apparently they agree that he is gifted with the angelic visionary ability to create for us what we cannot see we ought to do for ourselves. Like the Archangel Michael, Mr. Ratner wrestles with secular law to beat it into cooperating for the higher – though as yet unseen -- good. To him, those of us who see this as a mass mugging of the public treasure simply have feet of clay. We need indoctrination, not honest dispute.
Posted by amy at 11:07 AM
The NY Observer features 29 power families, but not the Ratners
Atlantic Yards Report looks at the Ratner family tree:
The December 18 issue of the New York Observer, the cheeky weekly that specializes in insider coverage of the city’s professions, featured 29 power families in a number of arenas, including sports, the arts, politics, journalism, and law.
...
But Brooklyn's biggest real estate empire, Forest City Ratner, didn’t make the list of 29. Sure, it’s a judgment call. There’s no younger Ratner joining CEO Bruce as his designated heir, as Jed Walentas will succeed his father David.
...
Michael Ratner has a little-used office at Forest City headquarters in Brooklyn’s MetroTech. He and his wife, both based in Greenwich Village, make political contributions from that office to Brooklyn machine pols. He’s an investor in the Nets. And he hasn’t said a word about eminent domain or gag orders associated with the Atlantic Yards plan.
...
However, it would have been pushing it to ask an Observer staffer to profile the family that includes a colleague, the capable Observer reporter Lizzy Ratner, a daughter of Bruce Ratner and also an investor in the Nets.
Posted by amy at 10:58 AM
Forest City Ratner and the Courier-Life chain: payback time?
Atlantic Yards Report explains why Brooklyn Papers got a stocking full of coal for Christmas from Forest City Ratner:
The two weekly chain newspapers in Brooklyn have distinct identities. The broadsheet Brooklyn Papers, family-owned, is based in DUMBO and focuses on the neighborhoods of Brownstone Brooklyn. The tabloid Courier-Life chain, based in Sheepshead Bay, is a major supporter of the Chamber of Commerce (its publisher chairs the group, and the chain publishes the Chamber's newspaper) and was recently purchased by the New York Post.
...
In this week's issues of the Courier-Life, we get an advertisement from the developer, labeled "Thank You New York." That's a bit odd, given that the project web site, which presumably reaches a broader constituency, banners "Thank You Brooklyn."There's no ad in the Brooklyn Papers this week. But there is that revealing interview with Borough President Marty Markowitz.
Posted by amy at 10:52 AM
Cognitive dissonance from the tabs on Albany & AY
Atlantic Yards Report contrasts the editorial viewpoints of the Post, Daily News and the Times in their negative views of Albany vs. the sunshine and daydreams of Atlantic Yards:
In an editorial Friday headlined THE BIG GOV WHO WOULDN'T, the Post editorialized regarding the 12-year stint of Governor George Pataki:
To put it bluntly, Ol' George let New York down.
Ran off, in pursuit of his own interests.
Even as taxes across the state squeezed out residents and businesses.
And political corruption mushroomed.
...
Today's Daily News, in an editorial assessing Pataki's mixed record, headlined By George, it's bye, George, offers these somewhat contradictory sentences:
Pataki's Empire State Development Corp. fostered the city's building boom, notably rejuvenating Times Square.
...Pataki succumbed to back-room dealmaking with legislative leaders and broke a promise to limit himself to two terms.
...
the Times criticized Albany too, stating in a 12/16/06 editorial:
But we always need our legislators to take the time to do their work carefully — and, we hope, more openly.Today, in an editorial, the Times offers a mixed verdict on Pataki's governorship, criticizing his record on governmental reform and budget issues. There's nothing, of course, about Atlantic Yards.
Posted by amy at 10:42 AM
December 30, 2006
Hardfire EMINENT DOMAIN / DANIEL GOLDSTEIN / PHIL MAYMIN
Hardfire
Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn talks with Phil Maymin (http://www.Maymin.com), former Libertarian Party candidate for congress, 4th district (CT), about abuse of eminent domain and Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.
Posted by amy at 12:09 PM
Silver messed up
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
The following letter from Brian T. Ketcham was published in the December 30th Brooklyn Papers.
To the editor, I wrote this letter to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver after he voted to approve the Atlantic Yards project last week (“Approved,” Dec. 23):
Dear Assemblyman Silver:
Reportedly, you voted to approve the Forest City Ratner Atlantic Yards project on the basis of benefits to New York. [Yet] our analysis shows that the costs of this project overwhelm any benefits.
Our assessment of the project is that it will generate about 38,000 car and truck trips a day, creating nearly 100 million miles of travel annually adding significantly to New York’s current traffic burdens.
And Atlantic Yards will add this burden after more than 50 million square feet of other new development that has been approved for Brooklyn. Traffic from Downtown Brooklyn development will spill across the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges creating gridlock in Lower Manhattan.
Atlantic Yards planners admitted that the project would create gridlock conditions in Downtown Brooklyn, but refused to evaluate its effects on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway or Lower Manhattan lest you figure out the true consequences of this project.
Adding 100 million vehicle miles of travel will increase congestion and lost productivity for motorists and truckers, will increase the number of people injured and killed in accidents and will add to already onerous environmental impacts — all increasing the costs of living and doing business in this city. The dollar cost of these impacts totals $3 billion over 30 years, dwarfing any benefits that Atlantic Yards could possibly bring to New York City.
Sadly, your legacy will be that you brought gridlock to Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan at a cost of billions to me and my neighbors. You have not only sold out Brooklyn, you have sold out your constituents in Manhattan.
Brian T. Ketcham,
Cobble Hill
The writer is a partner in Community Consulting, a development analysis firm.
Posted by amy at 12:05 PM
The Marty outtakes: AY & terrorism, density, and traffic
Atlantic Yards Report looks into the unedited audio version of the Marty interview:
Probably the most memorable passage that didn’t make it to print was this bizarre Markowitz slam at Atlantic Yards critics:
I’ve been the recipient, more than anyone else on this project, I think maybe even more than Bruce Ratner, but certainly as far as any elected official going, a reciptient of more [inaudible] and hate, from those that feel that Atlantic Yards is more important than the issue of Osama Bin Laden and terrorism. There’s no question that there’s an element of people that truly believe that the greatest challenge facing America is the Atlantic Yards Project rather than terrorism and Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda.Does he really believe that politically engaged people can’t keep local and national issues straight? Atlantic Yards is a local issue—probably the biggest local issue in Brooklyn—and Markowitz was elected to be Borough President. That’s why his office filed an extensive response to the AY Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
Markowitz has no role in fighting terrorism and searching for Osama Bin Laden (unless he’s conducting reconnaissance missions in Junior’s). Still, it turns out, terrorism is an Atlantic Yards issue. Despite calls from community groups for the state review of Atlantic Yards to include post-9/11 security considerations, the state took a pass—and Markowitz said nothing.
Posted by amy at 11:55 AM
Atlantic Yards Fun
The Politicker on Marty's Brooklyn Papers interview:
Here's a remarkably pungent year-end interview with Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, an Atlantic Yards Project supporter, by media outlet er he feels doesn't give the project a fair shake: Brooklyn Papers.Here is how the interview started, according to a politely edited transcript.
Q: Did you see our banner headline on the front page this week? "APPROVED."Later, according to an audio clip of the interview posted on Brooklyn Papers' website, Markowitz goes on to say:A: Look, The Paper, in my humble opinion -- and I have a right to criticize -- is overwhelmingly anti-[Atlantic Yards]. Not just the editorials, which you have every right to do, but the stories are tilted every freaking time. That's my humble opinion. I'm sorry, it is NOT a balanced newspaper. It's not. Editorially, you can blast away 'til Kingdom Come. But it is so overwhelmingly against Atlantic Yards. Everyone knows that if there is any way to attack the project, The Brooklyn Papers will be there to do so.
"The truth of the matter is, it comes down to this: when you're against something, fuck it, you'll do anything you can to stop it."
Posted by amy at 11:50 AM
From green to grim
Courier-Life
David Chiu
The Atlantic Yards development will cast shadows over a longtime community garden, a state report has found, confirming fears of local residents concerned their oasis will lose sunlight.“It will change forever how we are able to garden here,” said Jon Crow, coordinator of the Brooklyn Bears Pacific Street Community Garden since 1985, and an opponent to the development.
Two of the planned buildings at the center of the $4.2 billion Nets arena complex — the so-called Miss Brooklyn tower and a 247-foot structure — will cast shadows across the garden in the morning, the final environmental report by the Empire State Development Corporation found.
Shadows will loom from 20 minutes in the winter to up to four hours in the summer, the report said, cutting off vital sunlight for the garden’s vegetables, trees and flowers, volunteers contend.
Posted by amy at 11:45 AM
December 29, 2006
Affordable housing, AY, & 421-a: the solution that came too late
Atlantic Yards Report
A telling pairing of lead articles appeared on the front page of the 12/21/06 New York Times. The passage of the Atlantic Yards project was deemed the day's second most important story. The lead was the City Council's reform of 421-a legislation, which is expected to lead to some 20,000 affordable apartments over the next decade.Seen together, it's clear how much backers of the Atlantic Yards project benefited from the city's failure to reform 421-a any sooner, much less rezone the 22-acre site designated for the project.
Each action could have guaranteed a significant number of affordable low-income apartments, rather than leaving it to a private deal between developer Forest City Ratner and the advocacy group ACORN, which gave crucial cover to a development of unprecedented residential density.
In other words, in part because of the inclusion of affordable housing--which, it was infrequently mentioned, would be funded by taxpayers--the developer got the state to override zoning and build at a scale that otherwise would not be permitted.
Posted by amy at 9:27 AM
Marty’s humble opinion
Brooklyn Papers
Marty Markowitz takes crazy ranting to a new level in this interview - asking the interviewer to define "fact" while praising the Times' balanced coverage. Or should we just say bop bop bop bop bop bop....
Q: Do you think any paper in the city has analyzed this project credibly and with integrity?A: I think the Times has. They have seriously written things that were definitely pro, middle and anti. Whatever issues that the antis have raised, they have definitely not ignored it. Your paper says, “We’re against it, so f— it.”
Q: Has there been a story in The Papers that had a factual inaccuracy?
A: What is fact? If you’re going to put in your paper that Ratner put up [surveillance] cameras on his building —
Q: We never wrote a word about that!
A: He has a right to put up cameras and protect the area. One of those nut jobs — you don’t know who can come by [and cause a] fire — and then put the blame on him!
Posted by amy at 9:13 AM
News Analysis: Arena Project in a Different Kind of Court
Brooklyn Downtown Star
Norman Oder
Silver's statement about creating open space and upgrading parks did not address criticisms that the planned open space would serve as backyards for the oversize towers. But it did reference Forest City's last-minute pledge to put $3 million into upgrading parks. Given that it would cost the developer some $1.25 million just to build a comfort station at the Dean Street Playground, it was unclear how broad an impact that $3 million could have.The community affairs office referenced by Silver contrasts with the developer's now-you-see-it, now-you-don't marketing center that has occupied third-floor space in Forest City's Atlantic Center mall. Select groups were invited to see models by architect Frank Gehry but it was never open to the community.
As for conforming building heights, Silver meant the developer's agreement to bring Gehry's planned 620-foot Miss Brooklyn tower down a sliver below the 512-foot Williamsburg Savings Bank. That decision was saluted by Borough President Marty Markowitz, who had called for the building's height to be reduced and had remained quiet when the City Planning Commission and the ESDC endorsed it at 620 feet.
Some Brooklynites, learning of the reduction, concluded that Miss Brooklyn would no longer block the bank's iconic clock tower. However, for those looking toward the bank along Flatbush Avenue from Grand Army Plaza, the clock indeed would be blocked. To maintain the view corridor - a pledge that the developer made in 2003 - Miss Brooklyn would have had to be shifted, and that was deemed to not be feasible from an engineering standpoint.
Posted by amy at 9:04 AM
2006: The Year in Review
Brooklyn Papers
Gersh Kuntzmen adds his own year in review:
From the first fireworks of New Year’s Day to the state’s end-of-year approval of Bruce Ratner’s plans to transform a rail yard into a mini-Times Square, this year had it all.May
Lookout, Bruce!: Kids rocker (and Cobble Hill resident) Dan Zanes came out against Atlantic Yards, although his tiny fans napped through the news.
June
Rats!: Chuck E. Cheese, which has a cute mouse for a mascot, was closed by the Health Department for — cue the ironic music! — an infestation of mice.
Posted by amy at 8:59 AM
Year in Yards
Brooklyn Papers
Ariella Cohen takes on the best and worst of the year in Ratnerville, by month. Relive the excitement!
JunePoster girl: Model Sahara Meer, whose photo appeared unwittingly in Atlantic Yards promotional material, becomes a poster child for the development’s opposition.
July
Realty check: Ratner invites thousands of New Yorkers to learn about the mostly luxury development’s below-market-rate units. Many in the crowd are confused by the high prices of the project’s “affordable” housing.
Posted by amy at 8:51 AM
Covering Atlantic Yards
Brooklyn Papers
Editorial
In an interview in this week’s Papers, the project’s biggest booster, Borough President Markowitz, calls us “biased” because our coverage revealed the shocking density of the project, the traffic it would cause, and the subsidy-enriched sweetheart deal Gov. Pataki’s cronies cooked up in Albany to make this project work for Ratner. (See the Markowitz interview on page 4 or listen to it at www.BrooklynPapers.com).Given how we’ve been attacked for such coverage — and the overwhelming support the project enjoys among city and state powerbrokers — many of our readers have wondered why we even bothered. Indeed, it would have been far easier for us to blow off Atlantic Yards, as did the daily papers, and our weekly competitor, the New York Post-owned, Sheepshead Bay-based, Courier-Life chain.
...
So why did we persist in our aggressive reporting? Markowitz contends in the interview that we did it because we simply hate Bruce Ratner. We actually do not hate Bruce Ratner. This isn’t personal.Our obsession with the project’s taxpayer-supported financing, its outright lies about job creation, and its preposterous density is a reflection of exactly what journalists are supposed to do: question authority and ensure that elected officials are doing their jobs.
Posted by amy at 8:47 AM
December 28, 2006
NBA fines Kidd $20,000 for "three blind mice" comment
AP, via Yahoo Sports
By Tom Canavan
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Jason Kidd was fined $20,000 by the NBA on Wednesday for a postgame rant in which he referred to officials Jim Clark, Tom Washington and Eric Lewis as "three blind mice."
The New Jersey Nets' star was angry about the officiating during a 92-91 loss at Detroit on Tuesday night. NBA executive vice president Stu Jackson handed down the fine.
...
"We come to work, and we work extremely hard at this, only for the officials to screw us," Kidd said. "We fought, but that doesn't mean anything when you have the officials take over the game like that. You go with the three blind mice, and it's just sad that Tom screwed up that game for us."
NoLandGrab: Stupid us! We thought that Kidd was referring to Governor Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Bruno and Assembly Speaker Silver, all of whom instructed their representatives to vote to approve Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan.
Posted by lumi at 9:41 AM
Snail Mailbag
We've received two interesting pieces of snail mail during the past week that we thought we'd share with our readers.
Residents on the same block as the very "contextual" NoLandGrab Park Slope branch received this bi-fold four-color mailer from BrooklynSpeaks on December 23. Others in the area received the mailer 1-3 days prior.
The mail-in card urges Gov. Elect Spitzer and Assembly Speaker Silver to, "Please do not approve the project unless its flaws relating to scale and design, transportation policy, affordable housing and public process have been addressed." The Speaker voted to approve Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project on December 20.
This letter from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, dated December 21, arrived at our "production department" on December 26. Speaker Silver is thanking the concerned Brooklynite for their input, stating, "Your thoughts will be useful in upcoming discussion related to this matter." The Speaker voted to approve Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project on December 20.
Posted by lumi at 8:34 AM
At Gargano’s valedictory, transparency on AY still hard to find
Atlantic Yards Report
Outgoing Empire State Development Corporation head Charles Gargano meets the press:
Rather, Gargano made himself available to the media, as he has long done, declared his desire to continue to help “this great city and state,” and took the opportunity to urge his successors to move ahead with the expansion of the Javits Convention Center and a plan for Moynihan Station. (Most questions concerned the stalled Moynihan Station project.)
When asked some tough Atlantic Yards questions, Gargano, for the most part, deflected them. Perhaps a cross-examination might have drilled down farther, but his answers spoke for themselves, depicting an agency for which transparency has not been a high priority.
Here's a particularly interesting exchange with reporter Norman Oder, who is still trying to get to the bottom of who's paying for what and how much will Forest City Ratner make from the Atlantic Yards project.
Q: My understanding, from reading one press account, is that there is a more full account of the net new revenues. I know that there was a five or six page memo that was released in the week after the December 8 meeting, but I’m told that there’s a more full analysis of the net new revenues.
A: Well, we do provide full analysis of the financial part of the project—there’s no question about it. If there were was some additional information required, that’s what we forward—
Q: When would that be made public?
Eileen Mildenberger, the ESDC’s Chief Operating Officer, responded from the wings:
We gave that to them on the basis of a confidentiality agreement, so we’re not sure that it is going to be made public.
Gargano picked up the thread:
This is a confidentiality agreement that we have with the developer itself. Naturally, the members of the PACB need that information for them to make a decision, but we are under a confidentiality agreement with the developer.
NoLandGrab: Is it just us, or is anyone else getting the sneaking suspicion that developer Forest City Ratner is going to make a killing off this deal? Which leads us to wonder, isn't there a cheaper way to build affordable housing?
Posted by lumi at 7:43 AM
Techies are of two minds
Elite HS' alums divided on plan for new building
By Tanyanika Samuels
This is rich — United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten trades her support for Atlantic Yards for a new building for Brooklyn Tech, built by Ratner. Only there are no details about the deal (like who's paying) and renovations at the school are already underway.
The tentative plans for one of the city's top high schools stem from the $4.2 billion Atlantic Yards project, which was greenlighted last week by a key state panel.
As the controversial project faced a vote in Albany, developer Forest City Ratner hammered out a deal to "work with the city, state and the United Federation of Teachers on the creation of a new 21st century Brooklyn Tech High School."
A spokeswoman for Ratner said last week that the plans were in the "formative stages." Key details, such as costs, a construction timeline or even a location, remain hazy.
The news still rattled some alumni who questioned the move in light of the $10 million fund-raising goal the school reached last year.
"If the school was in decay, then fine, but it's not," said Melvin Band, Class of '59. "They took our money to build up that school, and now they're doing away with it. It's a disgrace."
NoLandGrab: Should Randi Weingarten have let Bruce Ratner off so easily? This plan does nothing to address near-capacity conditions at local public schools and the impact of 15-18K new residents in the district.
Posted by lumi at 7:30 AM
Nets Move to Brooklyn All But Approved
Hoops World
Basketball News Services has chronicled the process of the potential move of the Nets to Brooklyn as part of this “Atlantic Yards” project – which also includes 16 towers of housing, office, and retail space – from both sides over the course of the last couple years, but it apparently doesn’t matter what the people living in the area currently think.
Posted by lumi at 7:21 AM
Hardfire EMINENT DOMAIN / RICHARD COOPER / JOSEPH DOBRIAN
Hardfire
Libertarian party activists discuss local eminent domain fights.
Richard Cooper, Chair of the Libertarian Party of New York (http://www.NY.LP.org) talks with Joseph Dobrian, Chair of the Manhattan Libertarian Party (http://www.ManhattanLP.org) about eminent domain. Originally aired November 6, 2006. Taped October 24, 2006. link
Posted by lumi at 7:08 AM
Atlantic Yards: An Extraordinary Team Effort
Neighborhood Retail Alliance
After giving props to Bruce Ratner's "political maestro" Bruce Bender, Richard Lipsky illustrates that he misunderstands the motives of most Atlantic Yards critics in his most recent post on Bruce Ratner's big boondoggle:
And for all of the critics of Richard Lipsky who chastised him for selling out, we have only one perpetual question: What have you ever done to prevent any development that might have posed a danger to a neighborhood or the small businesses in it? All these armchair quarterbacks who've never gotten their hands dirty should simply shut up; or better yet, join with the Alliance in its upcoming fight against the Wal-Mart that wants to come into downtown Brooklyn. Then, perhaps, they'll experience the thrill of victory rather than the agony of defeat.
NoLandGrab: Local activists aren't criticizing Bruce Ratner's project in order to win an empirical victory. Many are seasoned activists and volunteers who are involved in a laundry list of issues. They didn't pick this fight — it was dropped on their heads.
Lipsky, on the other hand, has chosen to align himself with Bruce Ratner, even though the developer's box stores, like Lowe's and Target, are anathema to the local mom-n-pop businesses that Lipsky represents.
In October, Ratner scuttled a deal with Costco in favor of bringing Target to Manhattan. This switch is considered to be a net-negative for the local economy, since Costco offers higher wages than many box stores, plus health benefits to full-time employees. Meanwhile, Target is busy defending itself against accusations of the type of predatory and exploitative corporate and employment practices usually associated with Wal-Mart. Only the cheap-chic sophistication of "Tar-zhay" has insulated the corporation from big-box activists like Lipsky.
Even though many Brooklynites have lost the campaign to convince politicians to do the right thing for once, the eventual loser will be Lipsky and his local small-business constituents. The energetic Richard Lipsky has chosen not to shoot straight by only going after fat targets such as Wal-Mart, conveniently sidestepping the larger big-box phenomenon to the benefit of his Forest City Ratner pals. Sadly, Lipsky's in-your-face-Dan-Goldstein end-zone dance is a slap in the face to his own constituents.
Posted by lumi at 6:19 AM
December 27, 2006
How Is Atlantic Yards Like Ishtar?
The Real Estate Observer
By Tom Acitelli
In a strongly worded editorial, analyst Peter Slatin unloads on two major New York real estate projects that recently took big steps forward.
Mr. Slatin calls the Freedom Tower, for which steel columns were placed last week, "the egregiously clunky and skyline-sucking icon that Larry Silverstein and outgoing New York Governor George Pataki are determined to force on the city."
He, however, reserves his most searing ire for the Atlantic Yards project, which was approved by the state Public Authorities Control Board last week. Declaring some parts of it admirable (the new Nets arena, the fact that it will eradicate an old train yard), Mr. Slatin nevertheless dubs Atlantic Yards no better than one of the worst Hollywood movies yet made...
NoLandGrab: How is Atlantic Yards like Ishtar? It's not a stretch of the imagination: Overblown budget, big stars, panned by industry critics.
Posted by lumi at 7:36 PM
PRESS RELEASE
Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods Asks: “Hey, NYS Assembly: SHOW US THE MONEY!”
- Infrastructure improvements money: $100,000,000
- Community EIS Review money: $0
- Dysfunction and cronyism in Albany: Priceless!
Some folks just don’t pay their bills or honor their commitments.
The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods in early 2006 was told by the New York State Assembly that they would provide CBN with $100,000 to be used for the community expert review of the Atlantic Yards Environmental Impact Statement. Based on these assurances CBN contracted a large team of environmental consultants and produced a highly praised independent analysis that is being used by officials in evaluating the Atlantic Yards proposal. One problem…the Assembly money has “disappeared.”
What happened?
Outgoing Assemblyman and early Atlantic Yards supporter Roger Green twice blocked the money, and twice after meeting with CBN members who addressed his concerns he agreed to remove his freeze. CBN would really like an accounting of where that money has gone and why.
“Public money was promised three times for a community review of this EIS. The community deserves to know what happened to that money. We hope the media and all government officials will insure these questions are answered. We aren’t going to let this drop without an accounting,” said James Vogel, spokesman for CBN.
It’s just so easy to skip paying bills during the holidays, especially if you’re the government!
The COUNCIL OF BROOKLYN NEIGHBORHOODS (www.cbrooklynneighborhoods.homestead.com) is a coalition of recognized diverse community groups active in Community Boards 2, 3, 6, and 8. CBN is comprised of 40 community organizations that have joined together to ensure meaningful community participation in the environmental review of the proposed Atlantic Yards development in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods
201 Dekalb Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205
718-408-3219 Office
cbrooklynneighborhoods@hotmail.com www.cbrooklynneighborhoods.homestead.com
Posted by lumi at 7:19 PM
ARENA CRITICS SLAM CAMS
NY Post
Big Brother is watching in Downtown Brooklyn . . . and his name is Bruce.
[Correction: It's three years since Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan was first unveiled, and the ignorant press is still confused. It's "Prospect Heights Brooklyn," NOT "Downtown Brooklyn." Please don't make Norman Oder have to start PostRatnerReport.com.]
Specifically, Bruce Ratner, the Atlantic Yards developer who in recent months has quietly installed nearly 30 surveillance cameras outside properties he owns within the 22-acre footprint of his planned $4 billion project.
While some of the cameras are positioned outside vacant buildings, others are installed at buildings still occupied by tenants or facing properties the developer wants to obtain through eminent domain.
...
Yvonne Clark, who lives in a building Ratner owns on Dean Street, said she feels her "privacy is being violated" by two surveillance cameras installed outside her front door."I definitely don't like it because I don't want people knowing who is coming and going from my apartment," she said.
Posted by lumi at 8:23 AM
Ratner's profit likely would exceed IRR, but the public's still in the dark
Atlantic Yards Report
So how much profit would Forest City Ratner make? Remember, a real estate expert consulted by New York Magazine estimated 25 percent, though he didn't have enough figures to be certain.
Two things are clear, however. First, the "internal rate of return" (or IRR) figures in the KPMG audit commissioned by the Empire State Development Corporation don't tell us anything about Ratner's profit.
Second, the public still doesn't know whether this is a good deal or not.
Norman Oder takes the KPMG audit to a professional, who leaves us with two outstanding questions:
One, have public resources been adequately protected in the sense of public officials or administration officials getting good value for money going in? Two, even assuming they have relative to this transaction, is this a good use of money relative to other things those public resources could be used for?"
Learn what a "development fee" is, which could factor into the developer's profit margin, a number that is a closely guarded secret.
Posted by lumi at 8:14 AM
ATLANTIC YARDS DEVELOPMENT FAQ’S
You don't have to go far down the New Jersey Nets Atlantic Yard Development FAQs to find eyebrow-raising facts (hey, we're talking about Ratner PR!).
We don't know quite how to take this question "frequently asked" by fans who are worried about traveling through "Crooklyn."
7. Where is the new Arena located? What type of neighborhood is that?
The new Frank Gehry-designed arena will be located at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, an area in close proximity to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, the central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Brooklyn Museum. It is within easy walking distance from several neighborhoods, such as Park Slope and Fort Greene. The new arena and development will add a dynamic, diverse, and urban cultural center to the area.
FAQ forgets to mention the cultural resources in Ratner's malls — like Buffalo Wild Wings and Chuck E. Cheese and the DMV — just across the street.
The Public Library, Botanic Garden and Museum — or even Grand Army Plaza — were not deemed close enough to be included in the traffic study.
And since everyone is thinking it, we'll say it: questions regarding the "type of neighborhood" means that people want to know what "type" of people live, work and play there (read: their complexion).
Here are two other FAQs that caught our eye:
8. How far will the arena be from the Meadowlands?
Fifteen miles.
For you NJ drivers, 15 miles typically adds another 15 minutes to your trip, unless it is through traffic-clogged city streets and arteries (no main arterial routes were included in the Atlantic Yards traffic study) — then it's anyone's guess.
11. How will I get to the new arena? Will there be adequate parking?
The arena will be located directly over New York City's third largest subway hub, with 10 subway lines and the LIRR stopping at the arena, making it a 10 minute ride from downtown Manhattan and 20 minutes from Midtown. There will also be parking lots in close proximity to the arena for those who choose to drive.
We're getting kind of worried here, because we're afraid this might be the executive summary of the "comprehensive" traffic plan that Ratner has been promising.
Posted by lumi at 7:42 AM
December 26, 2006
EMINENT DOMAINIA
The Canton Repository, NOTES & QUOTES
“Your houses, your homes, your family, your friends. May they live in misery that never ends. I curse you all. May you rot in hell. To each of you, I send this spell.”
Greeting card sent by Susette Kelo, to New London, Conn., city officials and members of the city’s development agency. Kelo lost a controversial eminent-domain case in the U.S. Supreme Court last year.
Castle Watch, Queens, NY: House of Spices May Be Replaced By Bland Development
The “Iron Triangle” area of Willetts Point in Queens is a lot more than a collection of auto parts suppliers and other businesses. It’s also a haven for immigrants who are attracted to the neighborhood to find steady employment and learn English.
But if the City of New York gets its way, it could be responsible for destroying the jobs of hundreds of those immigrants. That’s because the City has its eye on the area to demolish the more than 200 small businesses, most of which were started by immigrants themselves. The proposed redevelopment area, just east of Shea Stadium, would include a bland slab of upscale retail and luxury housing, typical of the developments that city councils want nationwide to generate higher tax revenues.
One of the many businesses that have thrived in Willetts Point for generations is “House of Spices,” an Indian food supply company owned by third-generation American Neil Soni. Soni boasts that roughly two-thirds of his employees are new immigrants, originally hailing from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The Cincinnati Enquirer, Eminent domain legal bill: $850K
The Institute for Justice, a civil-liberties law firm that successfully represented at no charge the property owners who fought Norwood's use of eminent domain, is seeking more than $850,000 in compensation from Rookwood Partners.
Rookwood Partners wanted to build a $125 million commercial development at Edwards and Edmondson roads.
But the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in July that Norwood illegally used eminent domain to acquire properties on the proposed Rookwood Exchange site from people who didn't want to sell.
That ruling stopped the project from being built.
Scott Bullock, attorney for the Institute for Justice, said Ohio law allows non-profit organizations that win cases involving constitutional law to be compensated for fees and expenses even when no fees have been charged to their clients.
Posted by lumi at 11:46 AM
The Times defends the front-page scaleback story, but then practices "rowback"
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder has been trying to get the NY Times to acknowledge that the paper made a mistake, falling hook, line and sinker for Bruce Ratner's story about the 6%-8% scaleback.
This has led to a copious amount of correspondence with numerous editors, including the Public Editor Byron Calame.
Though the Gray Lady won't cry uncle, many of Oder's points have been added to subsequent coverage, without the paper admitting error.
NoLandGrab: Though the Times has made a fool of itself with its Atlantic Yards coverage, the real losers are Times readers in Central Brooklyn.
Posted by lumi at 11:35 AM
511 Ft.
Much is being made of Miss Brooklyn being "shaved down" to a height one foot shorter than the neighboring Williamsburgh Savings Bank building. This was a condition set by Borough President Marty Markowitz during his testmony at the only Public Hearing for the Atlantic Yards Environmental Impact Statement in August, 2006.
Lo and behold, an alternative plan with a shorter Miss Brooklyn emerged from the shadows at the last minute before the Public Authorities Control Board voted to approve the project. [Note: Norman Oder discovered documents that considered this option as early as October 10.]
Does anyone remember this item that NoLandGrab ran on August 25?
Community Activist Philip DePaolo offers this observation and analysis in response to Marty's position tweak calling for the project, especially Miss Brooklyn, to be downscaled:
Just a small side note. At the ESDC hearing I was sitting right behind FCR'S Jim Stuckey. He seemed to get quite a chuckle over Marty Markowitz's comments. And his surrounding posse of yes men and women also got a good laugh. Marty was doing damage control with the community. Nothing more.
So it seems that Bruce Ratner took an urban planning concern, turned it into a technicality and then sent Marty Markowitz to testify like a trained monkey, much to the delight of his henchmen.
There's nothing illegal about this elaborate political theater, but we thought you'd be interested in what happens when one connects the dots in Ratnerville.
Posted by lumi at 7:10 AM
Bad news for Bollywood fans in New Jersey
Indo-Asian News Service, via HindustanTimes.com
Bad news for Bollywood fans residing in New Jersey and New York as seven-screen movie house CinePlaza is on the verge of closing down.
"This theatre is like the lifeblood of Indian entertainment; it is a home to us," said Vijay Shah, the owner of CinePlaza. Shah saved the theatre once but this time chances are dim.
Shah's multiplex, located in an underground parking garage has been cast in doubt after the building's owner got approvals to demolish the theatre and replace it with a 29-storey residential and commercial tower, reported northjersey.com.
...
The theatre represents a unique cultural niche where Shah screens about 60 Indian films a year, including eight or 10 blockbusters that sell as many as 15,000 tickets per show.CinePlaza is the largest Indian theatre on the East coast, with a capacity of about 1,300 seats. The closing of the theatre will hugely disappoint the locals.
The owners of the property, Brooklyn-based Forest City Ratner Companies, planned its redevelopment Wednesday when the North Bergen council approved rezoning the property. ...
However, the other tenants in the shopping centre, including a ShopRite and Bally's gym, will be not be affected by the redevelopment plan.
Posted by lumi at 6:46 AM
December 25, 2006
Merry Gridlock to All!
Posted by lumi at 8:50 AM
Eminent domain attorney: look to federal court
Atlantic Yards Report
Eminent domain attorney Michael Rikon, speaking on the Brian Lehrer Show last Thursday, offered both cautionary and encouraging words to those hoping to challenge the Atlantic Yards project in court.
...
"The challenges I've made, which had really good merit as far as I'm concerned, have never been successful," Rikon said. "It's extremely difficult to stop a condmenation proceeding in New York State. In federal court, there's a much better chance. I think the judges who hear those cases are more open to the arguments being made by opponents of the project."
Posted by lumi at 8:48 AM
We Three Men of Albany Are
We three men of Albany are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Buildings rise, subsidies and lies
Following yonder star
Born a King on Cleveland’s shore
Goldstein’s home and many more
Bruce forever, ceasing never
Your money we adore
Chorus:
Oh…
Oh Bruce Ratner, prince of night
Scar on Brooklyn’s beauty bright
Downward leading, ever-greeding
Traffic will be a fright
Frank Gehry will blot out the sky
Bear’s Garden, reflections will fry
Pray'r and praising, temp’ratures raising
Our fealty your money will buy
Myrrh-iad of subsidies bloom
Public process Ratner will doom
Oder tried, request was denied
Thanks to three men in a room
Glorious now behold the highrise
Brownstone Brooklyn sure will despise
Alleluia, Alleluia
Built upon deceit and lies
Posted by lumi at 8:47 AM
Screening of Isabel Hill's documentary "Brooklyn Matters"
Upcoming.org
When:
Thursday, January 4, 2007
6:00 PM
Where:
Center for Architecture - NYC Chapter
536 LaGuardia Place (between West 3rd Street and Bleecker Street in the West Village)
New York, New York
Description:
No single event will have a more drastic and more long-lasting impact on Brooklyn than the proposed development of Atlantic Yards by Forest City Ratner. This uncommon proposal, however, is mostly misunderstood. Brooklyn Matters is an insightful documentary which reveals the fuller truth about the Atlantic Yards proposal and highlights how a few powerful men are circumventing community participation and skirting legal protections to try to get the deal done.
Posted by lumi at 8:46 AM
It came from the Blogosphere...
Gumby Fresh, When The Ship Goes Down...
Ponderings from across the pond:
I remember reading, but can't be arsed to search for, an article in the times about the growing power of Park Slope liberals in city politics. That's bollocks right there. This nasty little deal was cooked up between Albany, the Manhattan real estate elite, and the morally bankrupt liberal/Democratic establishment in Brooklyn.
NY Sports Blog, Nets To Brooklyn - What Does it Mean to YOU?
A sports fan offers his take:
Now this is what has been my concern from the very beginning. Ratner and his group could have garnered support without lying to his supporters. Those same supporters will not benefit from the arena in any way, shape or form. The Brooklyn Basketball Community that supported Ratner have already felt the disrespect when Ratner went across the bridge to Chelsea Piers in Manhattan to tap the owners of Basketbll City to run the Nets camps and clinics in Brooklyn. After showing Ratner all sorts of support, the Brooklyn Basketball community (many who already operate camps & clinics) was completely overlooked when it came time to operate a Ratner funded camp/clinic program, complete with a budget.
Karrie Jacobs, A White Xmas in Brooklyn
The design/urban planning writer is troubled by one of the big flaws with the Atlantic Yards project:
I don’t have a problem with the idea of developing the air rights above the Atlantic Avenue rail yards. I think it’s basically a good idea. And while a basketball arena isn’t exactly the thing I believe the neighborhood needs, I figure that if you’re going to build one, you might as well put it above a transit hub. Yes, I believe the project is clearly too big and its plan — from what I’ve seen so far — is hostile to the surrounding neighborhoods. But that’s not what makes me angry. The thing that I find outrageous is the process…or the lack of process.
What Goes Around Comes Around, [PSN] State approves Atlantic Yards; fate of project now lies with the Courts
A blogger posts a year-end message from Park Slope Neighbors:
This past Wednesday, New York State's Public Authorities Control Board voted to approve Forest City Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards project. While the approval was widely anticipated, given the support for the project of the Governor, Mayor and Borough President - and the developer's relentless lobbying and public relations efforts - the vote still comes as a bit of a surprise, if only because Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver ignored the wishes of the four Assemblymembers whose districts will be most affected by the project: Hakeem Jeffries, Annette Robinson, and Park Slope's own Joan Millman and Jim Brennan. All four had called for postponement of the PACB vote, citing a number of issues, including a lack of information about the project's financing, the development's overwhelming scale, and the insufficiency of proposed mitigations for the project's potentially adverse effects.
The Assemblymembers were joined in their opposition by Park Slope's two State Senators: Velmanette Montgomery, who's been an outspoken critic of the project, and newly elected Eric Adams, who has voiced numerous concerns and called for a review of security issues.
...
What happens next? While the project has passed its final political hurdle, it still faces multiple obstacles in the courts.
Posted by lumi at 8:19 AM
FREAKISH 'CONTROL'
STATE BOARD'S POLITICAL PLOYS & FISCAL FOULS
NY Post
By Charles Sahm
ASSEMBLY Speaker Sheldon Silver last week opted not to use his vote on the Public Authorities Control Board to shelve the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. But the fact remains that he could have - after all, he shelved two major Manhattan development projects in the last 18 months. It's time to rethink the PACB - an obscure, but incredibly powerful, state board.
The PACB has three voting members - one each appointed by the governor, the Assembly speaker and the Senate majority leader. It's supposed to vet projects funded by state authorities to make sure they're financially sound. (Authorities are quasi-governmental agencies that have the power to levy user fees; most have the ability to borrow funds by issuing debt.) Instead, it's just another forum for political horse-trading.
The law chartering the PACB clearly states: "The board may approve applications only upon its determination that, with relation to any proposed project, there are commitments of funds sufficient to finance the acquisition and construction of such project."
In other words, the PACB is, by law, only supposed to consider the financing of projects. Instead, though, politicians - with Silver only the most notorious - use it to hold big projects hostage to their own parochial concerns.
Posted by lumi at 8:11 AM
December 24, 2006
Sunday Comix
A lighting-fast public comment period,
ignoring the concerns of existing residents,
using eminent domain for Bruce Ratner,
repeated refusal to disclose financial information,
for a project of historical proportions,
how did the "Three Men in a Room" in Albany let this happen?
Hey, hey we're the Monkeys...
Posted by lumi at 9:20 AM
Forest City press release emphasizes Nets, downplays subsidies
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder looks for clues and interprets some of the subtle (and not-so-subtle) messaging in the Forest City Enterprises press release about the Public Authorities Control Board vote to approve Atlantic Yards.
The press release from parent company Forest City Enterprises, dated December 21, a day after the approval vote, and headlined Forest City’s Atlantic Yards Project Approved By State Board:
CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Forest City Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:FCEA) and (NYSE:FCEB) today announced that New York’s Public Authorities Control Board (PACB) unanimously approved the Company’s Atlantic Yards project, a mixed-use development in downtown Brooklyn whose main attraction is expected to be a new sports and entertainment arena for the Nets NBA basketball team.
Note the use of "downtown Brooklyn."
Posted by lumi at 9:11 AM
The Times Magazine correction comes too late
Atlantic Yards Report
From today's New York Times Magazine:
An item in the Year in Ideas issue on Dec. 10 about the increasing size and scale of urban planning referred imprecisely to the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. The New York City Planning Commission endorsed it but did not approve it; approval can be given only by state officials.
Now they tell us.
As I wrote the day the item was published, a correction was required in the daily paper, since it might be too late to correct it in the Magazine before the scheduled vote December 20 by the Public Authorities Control Board.
Posted by lumi at 8:39 AM
Ratner Gets Thumbs Up For Atlantic Yards - As Expected, Albany Gives Stamp of Approval
Courier-Life Publications
By Stephen Witt
Here's a good on: in the online edition of this week's article about the Public Authorities Control Board's vote to approve Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, which includes a new arena for the NJ Nets, the Courier-Life is running an ad for the NBA Online Store (click image to enlarge).
How's that for synergy?
Posted by lumi at 7:51 AM
2006 Year In Review: High Profile Court Cases Dominate Headlines
NY1
By Jeanine Ramirez
High profile court cases dominated headlines in Brooklyn this year, whether it was about criminal proceedings or a development that will cause major changes in the borough. NY1’s Jeanine Ramirez takes a look back.
...
Developers of the Atlantic Yards project fought in court as opponents continue their battle to stop plans for a downtown mega sports and housing complex. In one court action, developer Bruce Ratner won the right to tear down some buildings which sit in the footprints of the proposed project citing safety concerns.Now opponents are suing, claiming abuse of eminent domain because Ratner would have to demolish their properties in order to build. But Ratner cleared a major hurdle when he won state approval for his project. To appease community concerns about its enormity he scaled back the project by five percent. But community groups say it is still larger than the original design by architect Frank Gehry.
article, video (dialup/broadband)
Posted by lumi at 7:49 AM
Silver Votes 'Yes' On Atlantic Yards
Statement from NY Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
I have been supportive of the Atlantic Yards project and put the first funding for the plan in this year's state budget. I have voted for it today because I am satisfied it meets all the necessary criteria under the PACB statute.
Furthermore, I am pleased the developer is committed to addressing numerous community concerns through several specific actions that will result in significant neighborhood improvements.
...
I have not supported numerous projects that were brought forward for consideration that simply were not ready for discussion. And while an MTA appraisal was made with respect to Atlantic Yards, that requirement was not honored with respect to evaluating assets in the Moynihan Station project.
Posted by lumi at 7:46 AM
STATEMENT BY GOVERNOR GEORGE E. PATAKI
"I want to thank ESDC Chairman Charlie Gargano for his leadership on this effort as well as on the Javits expansion, the creation of Brooklyn Bridge Park, the 125th Street and Harlem revitalization, the Yankees and Mets stadiums, and the Times Square renewal."
"I look forward to seeing Bruce Ratner and Frank Gehry’s grand vision turned into reality and to eating a hot dog as I watch the Brooklyn Nets play in Brooklyn’s new arena in the 2009-2010 season.”
Posted by lumi at 7:41 AM
December 23, 2006
Pataki, Ratner, Silver and Bruno: Crony Capitalism at its Worst
The Daily Gotham
Albany is broken and it is affecting Brooklyn. Albany is broken, and the approval of Ratner's get richer with government help scheme is a giant indication of how bad Albany has become.Shelly Silver, the only Democrat (until Eliot Spitzer takes over) in Albany’s infamous “room” where three men purportedly meet, has sided with Republican Joe Bruno (under investigation by the FBI) and Republican George Pataki to basically violate the basic principles of private property by evicting private property owners from their private property to benefit Pataki’s law school buddy, Bruce Ratner.
Let me rephrase and reiterate that: the NY State government is seizing private property to benefit a crony of the Governor’s. This is not good old-fashioned American free-market capitalism. This is not good government. This is not even good economics. This the odd hybrid economy of state-sponsored crony capitalism that Bush has championed since he moved from Texas to DC. Pataki, Bruno and Silver are helping to undermine one of the basic principles of the American economy: private property. They are wallowing in a culture of corruption that we have seen permeate the Republican party and, with Shelly Silver, seems to affect NY State Democrats as well.
The main beneficiary of this use of the government’s power of eviction is not the community, but an individual, Bruce Ratner. In exchange for the muscle of government and taxpayer (our) money behind him, Ratner has promised jobs, affordable housing, and tax revenues for the city. Problem is none of this is legally binding and we are asked to take on faith that Ratner will be good for Brooklyn the same way we have been asked to take on faith that what was good for Enron or Halliburton is good for America. But since when did office space and an arena generate good, long-term, union jobs and why is Ratner, whose record of job creation is non-existent, being trusted with this project? Most of the promised affordable housing doesn’t even match what is considered affordable in Manhattan and there is no guarantee that that housing will remain affordable. And, once again, why is Ratner, who has no record at all of creating affordable housing, being trusted with this project? And the tax revenue promises have already been scaled back considerably (by $500 million) before the first spade of earth is turned.
Posted by amy at 12:05 PM
Is the Daily News in the tank when it comes to AY?
Atlantic Yards Report
But the Daily News has a problem, and it goes way beyond the practice of a tabloid editorializing on its front page.Inside the news pages, the newspaper has truly embarrassed itself, in both overhyping and underplaying stories. Take yesterday's slight and speculative story, following up on news announced Wednesday, headlined Nets go High Tech: Ratner throws in new home for elite Brooklyn HS in arena deal.
First, Ratner has made no such promises stated in the headline. As the article stated:
Ratner agreed in a statement to "work with the city, state and the United Federation of Teachers on the creation of a new, 21st century Brooklyn Tech High School, at a yet to be determined location in the borough." Ratner spokeswoman Joyce Baumgarten said yesterday plans were "still in the formative stages."What does "work with" mean? Contribute space in a new Ratner development? Sell space at a certain rate? I couldn't get any answers this week. There's no story beyond the vague statement. If the developer had pledged to build a new school, we would've been told. Similarly, the developer has allocated space in one planned Atlantic Yards building for a school, but the city is paying.
Posted by amy at 11:44 AM
The Gehry contradiction
Atlantic Yards Report (inadvertently?) starts the Frank Gehry deathwatch...sure to become a popular new event at Freddy's.
From an interview (reg. required) with architect Frank Gehry in today's Wall Street Journal:
Frank Gehry is 77, white haired, paunchy, and when we talked one afternoon in late autumn the topics of age and death never seemed far off. Mr. Gehry is, of course, one of the world's great architects, creator of the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao and enough of an icon to have been among the personalities featured in Apple's "Think Different" campaign. Describing what it takes for him to accept a commission, Mr. Gehry says, "The determining factor is: Can I get it done while I am still alive?" Explaining why he doesn't build houses any more, Mr. Gehry says, "They involve a lot of personal hand holding. I guess at my age I don't have the patience."(Emphasis added)
The Atlantic Yards project, unmentioned in the interview, would take ten years to build, at best, and even supporters and cordial critics believe it more likely would take 15-20 years.
Posted by amy at 11:32 AM
The Architect
Wall Street Journal
In this relatively dark conversation, one story that Mr. Gehry told me and which made him chuckle was that of a friend who is a chiropractor and who asked him to help her lay out her office. "I love doing that kind of stuff," Mr. Gehry said. The friend came over and brought her floor plans and Mr. Gehry spent several hours noodling over them. "I've always had the fantasy of having a little kiosk in the mall where I could do that. Where people would line up and you would charge them 25 bucks and you would look at their plans. I love doing that kind of stuff. They think you are a genius when you move one little wall and get an efficiency and nobody had thought of that before. Small pleasures."
article
NoLandGrab: There are more than a few people in Brooklyn hoping that Frank gets his mall kiosk...and leaves Brooklyn alone.
Posted by amy at 11:25 AM
STATEMENT FROM BP MARKOWITZ ON PACB APPROVAL OF BROOKLYN’S ATLANTIC YARDS PROJECT
“Brooklyn’s bright future is indeed here today. I am thrilled with the PACB approval of the Atlantic Yards plan. This means our borough will soon be benefiting from thousands of union jobs, affordable housing, an enhanced and vibrant downtown, and our much-anticipated return to sports' major leagues. I am very encouraged as well that the PACB acted on our suggestion that the project’s “Miss Brooklyn” building not be taller than Brooklyn’s Williamsburg Savings Bank building. Add to all of this the project’s world-class architecture, on-site school, street-level shopping, and accessible public open space, and you can see why Atlantic Yards is the right project, in the right place, at the right time for Brooklyn.”
—— Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz
STATEMENT FROM MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG ON PACB APPROVAL OF ATLANTIC YARDS PROJECT
“Today’s approval of Atlantic Yards is the final step towards starting work on this enormously important project, which is vital to the resurgence of downtown Brooklyn. I thank Speaker Silver for providing the leadership in moving this forward and I applaud the Governor and Senate Majority Leader Bruno for their steadfast commitment to this project. Unique in scope and ambition, the Atlantic Yards project is the biggest private sector investment in Brooklyn’s history and the ultimate example of mixed-use development. It will create jobs, provide affordable housing and offer new retail and entertainment options, including a return of major league sports to Brooklyn. Atlantic Yards also demonstrates that when City and State government work together with the private sector, we can still achieve projects on a grand scale and ensure that New York remains a city where big things happen.”
Posted by amy at 11:17 AM
Atlantic Yards......a bad idea
The News Blog
What Ratner did was buy support. What they did not do, is project what will happen in the years ahead.You see the scale of those red buildings? Notice everything around them. How long you think that lasts? The people who approve this project today will be driven out by rising prices and gentrification. The surrounding blocks will see their value climb, but for small business owners, the character of the neighborhood will shift. They're being told that they will benefit. Please. Compare Hoboken 1985 to 2006. If you didn't own a home, you live somewhere else. The character of the businesses will change. As will the color of the owners.
As for jobs: construction? How binding are any training and apprentice agreements? If they aren't enacted. what happens? My guess, nothing.
Lets understand something. Most of the people Ratner bougtht off want jobs and have ZERO power to enforce any deal. The people who are opposing this have a very good idea of what comes next. They aren't seeing the follow on of having those large, ungainly buildings in their midst. Which is a very different, very white neighborhood, the new Hoboken.
Posted by amy at 11:11 AM
2006 Year In Review: High Profile Court Cases Dominate Headlines
NY1
Developers of the Atlantic Yards project fought in court as opponents continue their battle to stop plans for a downtown mega sports and housing complex. In one court action, developer Bruce Ratner won the right to tear down some buildings which sit in the footprints of the proposed project citing safety concerns.Now opponents are suing, claiming abuse of eminent domain because Ratner would have to demolish their properties in order to build. But Ratner cleared a major hurdle when he won state approval for his project. To appease community concerns about its enormity he scaled back the project by five percent. But community groups say it is still larger than the original design by architect Frank Gehry.
Posted by amy at 11:06 AM
Ratner Gets Thumbs Up For Atlantic Yards - As Expected, Albany Gives Stamp of Approval
Courier-Life
Stephen Witt
On the flip side, City Council member Letitia James, who like Jeffries represents the development area, called the PACB vote a sad day for democracy and the community she represents.“I am disappointed to learn that PACB has approved the Atlantic Yards project today,” James said.
“For almost three years, I, and many others have raised questions regarding this gigantic project, and these questions remain unanswered,” she added.
Specifically James said the community deserves to know more about the project’s financials, and a better CBA that is government monitored and “not a private contract between a corporation and hand-picked groups.”
Posted by amy at 11:00 AM
December 22, 2006
Why can't the Times say AY might take 15-20 years?
Atlantic Yards Report
With The Times already reeling from a fierce hit by New York Magazine's Chris Smith, Norman Oder risks being flagged for piling on, citing the Paper of Record's failure to acknowledge that construction of Atlantic Yards may take as long as two decades.
Unmentioned, however, is that even supporters and cordial critics doubt the announced project timetable. Earlier this month, Kathryn Wylde of the Partnership for NYC predicted that it would take 15 to 20 years. Kent Barwick of the Municipal Art Society spoke similarly on Monday.
Posted by lumi at 11:07 AM
A groundbreaking coalition
When it comes to adding jobs & housing, majority rules with a winning plan
NY Daily News
by Errol Louis
The Atlantic Yards' #1 columnist-cheerleader returns to his favorite subject:
Standing in the path of progress are middle-class civic groups whose mostly white leaders profess concern for low-income New Yorkers - and even claim to speak for them - but shed the illusion of liberal compassion the minute the poor folk get uppity and start negotiating their own deals for the future of their families and communities.
NoLandGrab: Is it us, or do Louis's columns just seem to write themselves?
Atlantic Yards Report offers its take on the accuracy of Mr. Louis's "facts."
Posted by lumi at 10:49 AM
Miss Brooklyn, though shorter, would still block the clock
Atlantic Yards Report is too polite to say that making Miss Brooklyn one foot shorter than the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building is creating a technicality out of a real urban design concern, thus turning the debate into a joke.
It was a concession, right? Among several relatively minor changes announced Wednesday, Forest City Ratner agreed to lower the announced 620-foot Miss Brooklyn tower a sliver below that of the iconic 512-foot Williamsburgh Savings Bank nearby.
Or was it?
Yes, it met the request of Borough President Marty Markowitz, who in his August 23 oral testimony on the Atlantic Yards plan had called for the bank to remain the borough's tallest building.
But many residents also asked that architect Frank Gehry's self-described "ego trip" not block the bank's signature clock tower. To achieve that, the developer would have had to make a much greater sacrifice: make the tower even smaller and/or move its footprint.
Indeed, Jasper Goldman, who studied the plan for the Municipal Art Society (MAS), confirmed to me: "The Williamsburgh Savings Bank is blocked by Miss Brooklyn from Grand Army Plaza because of its location, not its height. To retain this view corridor, the developer would need to move Miss Brooklyn to the east."
Posted by lumi at 9:18 AM
THANK YOU, SHELLY SILVER
NY Post, editorial
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver came through for New York City big-time Wednesday in approving a huge new development project for Brooklyn.
For that, he deserves the city's thanks.
Within three years, if all goes well, the borough will have its own major-league sports team - the Nets - for the first time in half a century.
Work on 16 buildings and an arena for the team might start as soon as next year.
...
Think jobs. Customers for businesses. Housing. Office space. Tax revenue.
NoLandGrab: We're trying to think positive here, but we're still stuck on "eminent domain, boondoggle and traffic."
Posted by lumi at 9:14 AM
A WINNING $HOT
BROOKLYN EATERY TO BE COURTSIDE
By Rich Calder
Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report is a catalyst for coverage again, this time for a story about cheesesteaks:
A new Brooklyn business is making a buzzer-beating bid to score big off the Nets arena that will be the centerpiece of the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project.
Sporting a storefront sign reading, "Shoot Hoops, Not Guns," the mother-son-run High Stakes Cheese Steak in Prospect Heights is set to open today on the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street - just outside the footprint of the controversial 22-acre project.
An additional item at the end of the article quotes a homeowner who talks to the media for the first time:
[Bruce Ratner] has been furiously buying up property within the footprint for the past year and a half, but there are some staunch holdouts and he will likely have to make a case for eminent domain to get the state to foreclose the remaining private property.
Jerry Campbell, 35, of Dean Street, is one of those holdouts.
His beautiful, two-family, four-story, red-brick and aluminum-siding home is in excellent shape and doesn't appear "blighted," as the area was deigned by the Empire State Development Corp.
"If this area was really blighted, why would [Ratner's company] Forest City Ratner want it?" asked Campbell. "They want it on the cheap, and condemnation is the best way."
Posted by lumi at 9:06 AM
Big Brother Bruce
From Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn:
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There has been a lot of attention paid to the Atlantic Yards project lately, what with that PACB thingee yesterday–something about 3 guys up in Albany lording it over Brooklyn.
We decided to take a look at the Atlantic Yards project too, and found that somebody is paying a lot of attention to the footprnt itself these days.
We walked the Dean Street and Pacific street blocks bounded by 5th Avenue, Vanderbilt Avenue and Flatbush Avenue, to tally up the number of Surveillance City Ratner Eyes in the Sky. We counted 29. Check it out.
NoLandGrab: If only New York's politicians paid half as much attention to the holes in Ratner's proposal....
Posted by lumi at 8:57 AM
BROOKLYN DODGERS
The Slatin Report
Despite the noise that this operation will generate, the 8 million-square-foot, $4 billion Atlantic Yards is a true mixed bag.
...
But in its attempt at achieving the same effect on a grand – or grandiose – scale, Ratner and Gehry's Atlantic Yards, however, is more like "Ishtar" than, say, "Vertigo": big and stupid. Gehry's design deftly succeeds at simply overpowering itself and its surroundings, and offers its residents no homey concessions to the place they call home. It has all the urban charm of Cabrini-Green.
...
We were mildly supportive of this project when it was announced in 2003. We liked its boldness and the dynamism of its vision for returning professional sport to Brooklyn. It was expected to cost $2.5 billion; that cost has ballooned, while estimates of tax revenues to the city that it will generate have been sliced by at least a third. Anti-Ratner forces have insisted that Ratner has overstated the true economic impact of the project while understating its environmental impact, particularly on traffic. Today, we'd like to see Ratner and Gehry head back to the drawing board – all the way back – and figure out how to build something that honors Brooklyn and Brooklynites at least as much as it pays homage to Ratner's investors.
NoLandGrab: This kind of post-game analysis is insignificant after the final approval was granted, but thanks for paying attention.
Does this remind anyone of Bush-supporters-turned-critics of the Iraq war?
Posted by lumi at 8:48 AM
Atlantic Yards Enters New Phase, and Faces Next Hurdle: Lawsuits
The NY Times
By Nicholas Confessore
On paper, the project’s developer, Forest City Ratner Companies, expects to begin construction sometime next month, though much of the early work will take place below street level, amid the Vanderbilt railyards along Atlantic Avenue. The plan calls for the eight-acre area to be rebuilt, then covered by a platform from which portions of the project would rise.
Forest City has privately purchased much of the property it needs to build the project. But it faces a federal lawsuit by some residents and business owners on the site, who refused to move or sell their properties to Forest City and now face condemnation from state officials.
...
City and state officials last year rebuffed alternative proposals that would not have required eminent domain, and now Mr. Goldstein and others say they are left with no choice but to fight in court.“We’re confident we will win this lawsuit,” [Goldstein] said yesterday. “Our victory will force a reshaping of the project, while protecting owners and renters nationwide from abuses of eminent domain.”
Posted by lumi at 8:44 AM
NY board approves big Brooklyn redevelopment plan
AP, via NY Newsday
By Michael Gormley
To supporters, it stands for jobs, housing and major league sports in Brooklyn for the first time in half a century.
To opponents, it amounts to destroying neighborhoods, creating a traffic nightmare and forcing people unwillingly out of their homes.
From any perspective, the $4 billion Atlantic Yards redevelopment stands to reshape Brooklyn with an NBA basketball arena, office towers and thousands of apartments. The project got state approval Wednesday, though it still faces a federal lawsuit filed by Brooklyn property owners and tenants. They have charged that it's unconstitutional to seize their property for the development under the legal doctrine known as eminent domain.
NoLandGrab: The coverage since the state's approval of Atlantic Yards has been pretty good, like in this article. However, to the credit of Ratner PR, the press attention comes a little too late to affect the political battle.
Posted by lumi at 8:37 AM
Jay-Z's NETS' Redevelopment Plan Approved By NY Board
Vibe
By Mariel Concepción
First it's Jay-Z's team, now it's Jay-Z's "Nets' redevelopment plan." What's not clear from the headline is whether they mean Atlantic Yards or a plan to rebuild the team that keeps coming up short in the post-season.
New Jersey Nets owner Bruce Ratner's $4 billion redevelopment project, which could reshape Brooklyn with the basketball arena, office towers and thousands of apartments, was approved Wednesday (Dec. 20).
The article is pretty much boilerplate — it mentions low- and moderate-income housing, but not eminent domain.
Posted by lumi at 8:26 AM
NY State Oversight Board Approves Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn
Commercial Property News
By Gail Kalinoski, Contributing Editor
Forest City Ratner Cos.' $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in downtown Brooklyn received final approval late Wednesday from a New York state oversight board to move ahead with construction of a new Nets basketball arena, 6,430 market-rate and subsidized housing units, a 180-room hotel, office and retail space on 22 acres.
Despite the approval, opposition to the plan still exists and lawsuits against the project (pictured), including one on eminent domain issues, are expected to continue.
...A spokesman for Forest City Ratner said company officials were not conducting interviews today. However, in a statement released after the board voted, Bruce Ratner, Forest City Ratner president & CEO and chairman of the Nets basketball team, thanked the board for approving the project and Mayor Michael Bloomberg for supporting the plan over the last three years.
...
The developer plans to begin construction at the site in January and start building the 850,000-square-foot sports and entertainment arena in the fall.
Meanwhile, the Municipal Art Society hopes to make the project better while watching the development unfold?
While not opposed to development of the rail yards in Brooklyn, the Municipal Art Society has been working with other organizations “to make the plan better for Brooklyn,” MAS spokesman Brian Connolly told CPN today. Connolly said the plan approved Wednesday is still “too out of scale” for a neighborhood of brownstones.
“We are a watchdog organization on these types of things and will continue to watch this as the next 15 to 20 years unfold,” Connolly said.
NoLandGrab: You can count on developer Bruce Ratner to start demolishing properties he owns as soon as possible. We've seen in nearly every instance in which eminent domain is used that developers will level a neighborhood around properties in dispute.
As to what Ratner can build before the lawsuits are settled, that remains to be seen.
Posted by lumi at 8:11 AM
BROOOOKLYN! Jay-Z Moves Nets In Time For '09 Season
SOHH.com
By Jolene "foxxylady" Petipas
Jay-Z's New Jersey Nets will be soon be calling the rapper's hometown of Brooklyn, NY their new home, all thanks in part to the approval of a $4 billion development project which will include the building of an arena for the NBA franchise.
Posted by lumi at 8:07 AM
Jay-Z gets Brooklyn Nets arena approved
the411online.com
Yup, that's right, Jay-Z was the mastermind behind the entire approval:
They might not have been the main event (that honor goes to LeBron James), but Jay-Z and Beyonce were a featured attraction at the New Jersey Nets-Cleveland Cavaliers game Wednesday in East Rutherford, N.J., aired nationally on ESPN.... Sideline reporter Jim Gray was sitting between the couple when they came back from commercial.... There was some significance to the courtside interview besides the usual ESPN celebrity stalking. Earlier in the day, the state of New York granted approval for Nets owner Bruce Ratner's arena in Brooklyn, which could be ready for the start of the 2009-10 season. In the interview, Jay-Z called out his home in his trademark style before expressing his excitement at the prospects of Brooklyn basketball.
Posted by lumi at 7:47 AM
The steal of the century
The Brooklyn Papers, editorial
Bruce Ratner won ugly.
Whether you support Atlantic Yards or oppose it, all New Yorkers should be disgusted by the endgame of the public approval process for Ratner’s $4-billion mega-development.
Given the “three-men-in-a-room” culture of Albany, it was inevitable that so vital a project would come down to the OK of just one man, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
Earlier in the week, Silver grumbled that he had not been given evidence that the project’s financing — which already includes a $200-million payout by the state and city, plus more than a billion dollars in future subsidies underwritten by Mr. and Mrs. New York Taxpayer — represented a good investment.
Lo and behold, at the 11th hour, state officials rushed to Silver’s office and supposedly gave him heretofore unseen documents that show that Atlantic Yards is indeed a great deal for taxpayers.
Wouldn’t you know!
But we have our doubts. First of all, those documents have never been seen by the public, so there is no way of knowing whether they reflect reality or just part of the elaborate fantasy that Bruce Ratner and his cronies in state government have been spinning for years.
If the report shows that taxpayers aren’t being bilked, why not share the document with the public that paid for it?
The editorial goes on to criticize the incredible shrinking estimated tax revenue (now down to about $15 million/year, before additional subsidies have been tallied), how Ratner greased his way by "cynically" exploiting "class and race politics," the sham MTA bidding process, the "sham state process," the "shifting nature" of the "affordable housing" figures, and "the extremely successful hiding of the true cost in public dollars and environmental impact of the entire enterprise." Lastly, the editorial metes out a tongue-lashing to "the elected officials who are supposed to protect the taxpayers from this kind of fleecing," and "New York’s supposedly ravenous press corps."
NoLandGrab: Like the man said, if this deal is so great for Brooklyn, then why keep documents hidden, or lie about facts and figures, for that matter?
Posted by lumi at 7:44 AM
Atlantic Yards scorecard
The Brooklyn Papers drafted a "scorecard" of winners and losers in the fight over Atlantic Yards. We're not sure how Norman Oder is feeling about sharing in the "winners" column with Bruce Ratner.
NoLandGrab: Missing from the "losers" column are tens of thousands of residents who will have to live through decades of construction and deal with the environmental impacts of the densest residential community in the western world (yo, these buildings are a lot taller and closer together than most people think!), all shoehorned into the Heart of Brooklyn.
Posted by lumi at 7:40 AM
APPROVED
State OKs Ratner’s Atlantic Yards
Green light opens floodgates for billions in subsidies
The Brooklyn Papers
By Ariella Cohen
The political battle over the biggest real-estate development in Brooklyn’s history is over — and Bruce Ratner has won.
The state’s Public Authorities Control Board voted Wednesday to approve Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project, giving a final governmental nod to the $4-billion, Frank Gehry-designed mini-city of 16 towers, hundreds of thousands of square feet of office and retail space, 6,430 apartments, and a 19,000-seat basketball arena.
The historic vote capped three years of rancorous debate, but the battle now becomes a judicial one, with suits challenging eminent domain condemnations pending in state and federal courts.
Brooklyn Papers gave a lot of space to this article, which includes quotes from NYC Councilmember Letitia James and ESDC Chairman Charles Gargano, and which covers the question of the developer's profit, the incredible shrinking estimated tax revenues, the "last-minute" concessions political theater, and State Assemblymember-elect Hakeem Jeffries's hope that incoming governor Eliot Spitzer will lift a finger to make the plan better for the actual existing residents.
Posted by lumi at 7:29 AM
NYMag’s Chris Smith Skewers NYTimes’ Coverage of Real Estate Mega-Deal
mediachannel.org
By D.J. Waletzky
The author, a life-long Prospect Heights resident and former Times employee, uses Chris Smith's harsh criticism of the Times as a starting point for his own assessment of the Greying Lady:
Chris Smith rails against the New York Times’ reporting on the proposed 22 acre development in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights neighborhood as “three years of irresponsible, lazy coverage by the Times” and faults them for ignoring the corruption and scandal involved in the project’s shepherding through the political process.
...
The New York Times’ most recently profitable year was the result of a real estate deal with Forest City Ratner Companies, the publicly-traded real estate developers behind the Atlantic Yards project. Through Bruce Ratner’s political connections, the Times and FCRC had a swath of prime midtown real estate condemned by New York State and cleared to make way for a new 52-story headquarters for the Times, while selling their old Times Square HQ at a massive profit.The NY Times has often been criticized for its coverage of and involvement with Ratner, and as FCRC’s latest and largest deal has received final approval from the state (just before Bruce Ratner’s law-school roommate, George Pataki leaves the Governor’s office), the Times declared yesterday that the three-year struggle between community activists and the company had been “capped.”
...
The Times article doesn’t even mention Prospect Heights, the residential brownstone neighborhood many residents feel will be destroyed in the process.
NoLandGrab: Norman Oder, of course, also noticed Smith's appraisal of The Times's coverage.
Posted by lumi at 7:04 AM
Regifting coverage?
The Courier-Life Publications re-gifts two of last week's articles under new headlines.
Gift-Wrapped Yards Plan Heads to Albany ran last week as Atlantic Yards Heads For Final Lap In Albany and Opponents Push to Delay Atlantic Yds. Vote got repackaged as Atlantic Yards Foes Resolute In Fight to Defeat Plan.
It's not often we come across re-gift wrapping.
Posted by lumi at 7:01 AM
Eyesore or eye-opener? The new Brooklyn
• New York's biggest ever private project approved
• Opponents go to court to halt 'out of kilter' scheme
The Guardian, UK
By Ed Pilkington
An overview of the Atlantic Yards fight for the folks across The Pond features criticism of architect Frank Gehry, the environmental impacts and weakness of the "affordable housing" plan.
Welcoming the planning approval, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York city, which is contributing part of a $500m (£254m) public subsidy for the project, said it would create jobs and affordable housing. "We can still achieve projects on a grand scale and ensure that New York remains a city where big things happen," he said.
But Brooklynites have expressed reservations, much of it directed at what they say is the misguided use of Gehry's architectural creativity.
Posted by lumi at 6:35 AM
Chris Smith on Atlantic Yards: The ‘Times’ Screwed Up
New York Magazine, Daily Intelligencer
A must-read for a glimpse into how corrupt many feel the political process to approve Atlantic Yards and the local media's coverage has been — political reporter Chris Smith lays it into The NY Times:
So there it is on today's front page: "State Approves Major Complex For Brooklyn; Vote on Atlantic Yards Caps 3-Year Conflict." And it is correct that the Public Authority Control Board — really George Pataki, Joe Bruno, and Sheldon Silver — yesterday signed off on Bruce Ratner's $4 billion stadium-and-skyscraper project. But what was truly "capped" was a farcical, corrupt political process and three years of irresponsible, lazy coverage by the Times.
Individual Times reporters have written significant stories along the way. But the Times, collectively, has never demonstrated the will or interest to examine Atlantic Yards in anything close to the proportion demanded by one of the biggest real-estate schemes in the history of the city. Maybe it's because Ratner is the Times' partner in building the paper's new Eighth Avenue headquarters. Maybe it's because Times editors think Atlantic Yards is an objectively good idea. Maybe it's because the Times, along with the rest of the city's mainstream media, does a lousy job of covering anything outside our midtown backyard. Whatever the reasons, the effect has been an abdication of the Times' civic and journalistic responsibility.
NoLandGrab: Reporter and blogger Norman Oder has carefully documented the Times's shoddy — and often lacking — coverage of Atlantic Yards during the past year and a half, first on his blog Times Ratner Report and then on Atlantic Yards Report.
Posted by lumi at 6:33 AM
N.Y.C. arena for New Jersey Nets approved
From UPI, via Washington Times:
Ratner threw in some sweeteners, including a high-tech high school and an increase in the amount of affordable housing in the mix. But many residents and politicians plan to continue fighting the project. They say it will put too much high-density pressure on a neighborhood that is now mostly blocks of brownstones.
Posted by lumi at 6:30 AM
Forest City wins big in Brooklyn
Pittsburgh Business Times
By Dan Reynolds
NY State's formal approval of Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn hasn't escaped notice in Pittsburgh, where Forest City Enterprises just lost a real open-bidding process to build a giant slot machine parlor:
The owners of Pittsburgh's Station Square entertainment complex rebounded Thursday after a tough loss.
Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises Inc. on Wednesday found that it had lost its bid to build a casino at Station Square. But Thursday, Forest City announced that its plan for a 22-acre residential and entertainment development in Brooklyn, N.Y. was approved by New York's Public Authorities Control Board.
...
The project is led by Bruce Ratner, a cousin of Albert Ratner, the co-chairman of Forest City Enterprises who took an active role in trying to win a $50 million casino license in Pittsburgh.
Posted by lumi at 6:23 AM
Nice bounce for Brooklyn
NY Daily News, editorial
With approval at last from an obscure state board, after three turbulent years of legal and political arguments, Brooklyn now takes a giant leap forward with developer Bruce Ratner's $4 billion Atlantic Yards project - a grand vision that will bring jobs, housing, sports and civic pride to the city's most populous borough.
article (scroll down the page to the second editorial)
Posted by lumi at 6:23 AM
Nets go High Tech
Ratner throws in new home for elite Brooklyn HS in arena deal
NY Daily News
By Tanyanika Samuels
Brooklyn Tech High School may be getting new digs from an unlikely source - Nets arena developer Bruce Ratner.
The tentative plans for a new Brooklyn Tech - one of the city's elite high schools - emerged after Ratner's $4.2 billion Atlantic Yards project won crucial approval from a state panel Wednesday.
As part of the deal, which includes 16 soaring towers and the pro basketball arena, Ratner agreed in a statement to "work with the city, state and the United Federation of Teachers on the creation of a new, 21st century Brooklyn Tech High School, at a yet to be determined location in the borough."
Ratner spokeswoman Joyce Baumgarten said yesterday plans were "still in the formative stages."
NoLandGrab: Before the public wets its pants over this deal, note that this does NOT address the school overcrowding that will likely be caused by the addition of 15-18K new residents to Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
Also, Bruce Ratner has NOT SAID he will PAY for the new school.
Sheldon Silver struck a deal to get a public school built as part of Ratner's Beekman St. project, also designed by Frank Gehry. The taxpayers are now shelling out for the most expensive public school (per square foot) in New York's history in that deal.
Posted by lumi at 6:15 AM
PRESS RELEASE: Jo Anne Simon
Atlantic Yards Proposal Still Fundamentally Flawed
“I could not be more disappointed with the vote in favor of the Atlantic Yards proposal in return for some concessions that the developer has neither the authority nor the means to effectuate,” said 52 A.D. District Leader Jo Anne Simon. “While I am pleased that the Williamsburg Bank tower will remain visible to Brooklynites, the proposal’s serious failures do as well. This proposal should have gone back to the drawing board.
Simon, a former president of the Boerum Hill Association, a neighborhood directly impacted by the proposed project, chaired the Association’s Task Force on the proposal. “While the height of “Miss Brooklyn” is a serious problem, the project’s problems go far beyond height. The flawed, 1950's urban design with its superblocks and taking of the city’s streets creates new and intractable problems. The financial picture is woefully incomplete. As a matter of policy, the PACB’s decision is extremely disturbing. As a matter of fact, the promised public benefits are illusory. The proposal needs to be fixed and Brooklynites must play a meaningful role in that process.”
A long time advocate for progressive transportation and land use policies, Simon said yesterday’s vote doesn’t end the dialogue. “I look forward to continuing advocacy for development that makes sense. We need housing that is affordable to real Brooklynites, provides real open space and real answers to the Borough’s traffic and transportation needs. As currently configured, this proposal does not contribute to New York’s real need to grow in an environmentally sustainable and fiscally responsible way. Brooklynites deserve better.”
Posted by lumi at 6:11 AM
December 21, 2006
Gersh Kuntzman on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show
The Brooklyn Papers editor Gersh Kuntzman and eminent domain attorney Michael Ri