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December 22, 2006
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 December 22, 2006 7:44 AM