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December 17, 2006
Shooting from the lip
NY Daily News
Mike Lupica
It came out the other day, as Charles (Rubber Stamp) Gargano and his Empire State Development Corporation rubber-stamped Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, that the project isn't going to be quite the windfall for taxpayers it was advertised as being.Not even close.
Imagine that.
Norman Oder, a tough journalist who has done the best reporting on Ratner in his blog, is the one who noticed that a third of the revenues that Ratner has been pitching simply disappeared in the last six months.
Oh, sure.
In July taxpayers were told that Ratner World was going to generate $1.4 billion in new revenue.
By the time the thing crossed Rubber Stamp Gargano's desk, the figure was $944 million.
Gargano, of course, didn't say a word, and neither did any of the major politicians who have shilled for this thing from the start.
Why?
Because they want to shove this project across the goal line while George Pataki is still governor, that's why.
You know what else was in the new plan approved by the ESDC?
Language that wasn't in there before about what happens to the project if Ratner sells the Nets.
According to Ratner and Markowitz of Brooklyn, head cheerleader for the project from the start, this was supposed to be all about sports.
Sports was just a way to get Ratner's foot in the door.
This was always about the real estate.
About the deal.
Which was always going to benefit Bruce Ratner more than it was ever going to benefit the borough of Brooklyn, N.Y.
Posted by amy at December 17, 2006 11:18 AM