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December 18, 2006
Eminent Danger
The NY Sun, Editorial
We are under no illusions that a vote by Mr. Silver this week against Atlantic Yards would represent principled opposition to the idea of private property being seized by the government to be handed over to another private owner for economic development purposes. It would likely just be an example of Mr. Silver’s legendary negotiating acumen — he takes a deal to the wire and extracts every possible concession, even if he favors the project in question. But the unusual situation only underscores the perils of the way this project has evolved.
The Sun oulines the evolution of the Atlantic Yards project:
We start out from a position of favoring private-sector building and investment in New York City.We have no objection to the density of the $4.2 billion plan by developer Forest City Ratner to build a Nets basketball arena and housing designed by Frank Gehry near the Atlantic Avenue subway stop in Brooklyn. Initial indications were that the project would be primarily privately funded and that, because most of the land for the project was either owned by the Long Island Rail Road or had been privately acquired, the use of the government’s power to condemn property through eminent domain would not be needed.It is good news that Forest City Ratner is interested in investing this much money in Brooklyn.
The project, however, has evolved considerably since it was first announced. First, as Mayor Bloomberg kissed Bertha Lewis, the New York executive director of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, developer Bruce Ratner agreed to devote half of the rental units on the site — 2,250 of 4,500 apartments — to “affordable” housing. That opened the door for Forest City Ratner to seek subsidies for those units in the form of tax-exempt financing. The project started to look less like free-market investment and more like a classic market-distorting income-redistribution scheme in which the hardworking taxpayers of New York pay the price for those few lucky enough to score an “affordable” apartment.
Now comes the news that Mr. Pataki’s Empire State Development Corporation is moving to evict what the New York Post reports are 60 households and 13 businesses using eminent domain power. With the notable exception of the Brooklyn Papers, a chain of weeklies in Kings County, the press has been cheering on this trampling of property rights.
The conservative editorial board completes the argument against Atlantic Yards and the use of eminent domain by explaining that "property rights is bedrock. It’s Locke. It is one of the ideas upon which this nation was founded."
Posted by lumi at December 18, 2006 9:12 AM