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December 12, 2006
It came from the Blogosphere...
Mixed Use Development, Mixed use grows in Brooklyn
Multi-Housing News is reporting a fascinating controversy over a huge proposed mixed-use development in Brooklyn. This facility would serve as the new home of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, bringing the NBA team back to New York City. Here is the "breaking news" report from Multi-Housing News.
Note that the residents of existing rent-stabilized apartments have filed a lawsuit against construction of the projects. Mixed use has its opponents, and its supporters must be aware that community opposition can be a serious obstacle to this type of development.
Cultural blah blah.com, Controversy...New York...nah...that NEVER happens...
Yet another architectural project is surrounded by controversy. This time its the Atlantic Yards Project and Frank Gehry. Articles yesterday and today in AMNY and the Village Voice discuss how the community is now looking to Assemblyman Sheldon Silver to help delay the project until New York's new Governor, Eliot Spitzer, takes office. Silver is the one who was able to put an ax to the West Side Stadium last year and delay the building of the Moynihan Station. Gehry and co have a hard road ahead of them...
The Real Estate Observer, Pratt Center Wants Its CBA
A report this month by the Pratt Center for Community Development says "workforce linkages"--which seems to be another name for community benefits agreements--work, and "have not, as some have warned, driven land developers away or discouraged property investment."
No mention made of the Atlantic Yards or Bronx Terminal Market community benefits agreements, however.
Don't Worry It's Just Reality: Brooklyn Edition, Christmas List For Atlantic Yards
Most of all, hoping New York's #1 corporate welfare queen will click his ruby shoes and flit back to Kansas- err Cleveland....
alien & sedition, Profiles in Courage: Pataki Bravely Says Sex Offenders Bad, NY State Leg. Bravely Raises Own Pay
But how do you get such a craptacular piece of legislation through the Legislature? You trade it (oh, and that little Atlantic Yards boondoggle) for a pay raise. Never mind that the New York State Legislature is already the third-highest paid, but the most dysfunctional one in the nation. It's Christmas time, and Christmas means giving, and the gifts you give yourself are always the best of all.
OnNYTurf, Pataki and Albany Lawmakers Play Secret Santa
Albany lawmakers want a raise for Christmas. Pataki wants a pet projects for his buddies approved. So Pataki has proposed pocket stuffers for all.
Rational Review, NY: Nets get key approval for land theft
The headline of the Libertarian blog says it all. The post quotes a NY Daily News article from 12/09/06.
MySpace: DDDB, House & Garden Architecture Critic bulldozes Gehry’s “Atlantic Yards” design
In an article in the January 2007 issue of House & Garden, Martin Filler, the magazine..s long-standing architectural critic, takes Frank Gehry to task over the proposed ..Atlantic Yards.. development. ...
For those who would dismiss Mr. Filler as just another Gehry-basher, or Henry Ford-protester, it should be noted that he has written glowingly of Gehry..s designs for more than 20 years, and was at one time asked by Gehry to author the Starchitect's authorized biography (Mr. Filler thinks that..s no longer such a great idea).
Daily Gotham, Ratner's Vigilantes
Bruce Ratner's security detail for his ugly Brooklyn mall apparently think they can step beyond Ratner's private property and dictate to Brooklynites on public property.
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For the record, I encountered a similar overzealousness when I was petitioning ON A PUBLIC SIDEWALK near Ratner's mall.
Mole333 tells the tale of his rather more polite run in with the Ratner security service.
Brooklyn Record, Prospect Heights: Boom, Boom, Boom
New York Magazine calls it a "battleground for Brooklyn" because it is by far the nabe most affected by Bruce Ratner's proposed Atlantic Yards development. The threat of highrises and basketball arenas hasn't stopped small business owners from continuing to open more and more bars, restaurants and boutiques on the main drag of Vanderbilt Avenue and, increasingly, on the eastern boundary of Washington Avenue.
Left Behinds, How do you like Houston St. these days?
Reports on 15-story animated signage and how the project breaks makes wind provokes this conclusion on Atlantic Yards:
Okay, make that a cross between Times Square and the UN complex. Best. Urban Renewal project. EVAR!
The Real Deal, Ratner's last hurdle
Developer Bruce Ratner's $4.2-billion Atlantic Yards plan has just one more hurdle to clear before construction can begin. The massive project must net unanimous approval from the Public Authorities Control Board...
PSFK.com, The Aerotropolis & Monumentism
Two of the fascinating architectural trends we have featured on PSFK this year have been Aerotropolis - a city designed around an airport - and Monumentism - the rise of bold, striking buildings in our city landscape. The New York Times Magazine has picked up these ideas and published them in their Ideas for 2006 special edition.
NoLandGrab: In the case of Atlantic Yards, we prefer the term "Gigantism."
Posted by lumi at December 12, 2006 11:28 PM