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December 5, 2006
Billion-dollar Brooklyn: Atlantic Yards
Affordable Housing Institute Weblogs
By David Smith, Founder, Affordable Housing Institute
Replete with illustrations, David Smith presents a three-part weblog series which parses through the fight over Atlantic Yards, using Chris Smith's (no relation to David) New York Magazine article, Norman Oder's Atlantic Yards Report blog and the Jonathan Lethem letter.
What is the property? Mammoth, complex, mixed-use, mixed-tenure, and mixed-income — all the things I endorse! — on a dense and complex parcel, redeveloping an arguably (very arguably!) blighted area of Brooklyn.
What does the public get for Atlantic Yards? * Affordable housing * Increased real estate taxes * Forget the permanent new jobs; those projections are notoriously unreliable, subjective, and generally falling. * "900 units for a family of four with an annual income of $35,000 or less." That's the very low income standard for New York City, truly deep affordability — but it's roughly median for blue-collar Brooklyn.
Why should the public have a voice?
In political terms, scale. That many affected neighbors means that many voters, and for political survival, voters must be heard.
What's the antidote to anti-development voters? Pro-development voters. Developer Ratner has found them in an unexpected place.
Posted by lumi at December 5, 2006 7:20 AM