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January 31, 2007
Atlantic Yards: Now Twice As Expensive (for the City)
New York Magazine political reporter Chris Smith explains how Bloomberg just doubled the City's direct cash subsidy public assistance for his pal Bruce:
Turns out Mayor Mike — in between doling out tax breaks like the Republican he purports to be and money for the arts like the Democrat we know he secretly is — hasn't forgotten his pal Bruce Ratner. He is doubling the city's direct subsidy to the Atlantic Yards megaproject. Yup, City Hall is now set to kick $205 million across the Manhattan Bridge; for context, that's more than 5 percent of New York's overall budget surplus.
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Here's how: The funding is for "infrastructure improvements" that are supposedly independent of the construction. They just happen to be, um, concurrent with it.
Posted by lumi at 8:49 AM
At B'klyn protest, bank shots will fly
NY Daily News
By Michael O'Keefe
A prominent Fort Greene minister is inviting Brooklyn religious leaders to a Sunday afternoon news conference to protest the Nets' naming-rights deal with Barclays, the British bank that activists have claimed profited from apartheid and the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Rev. Clinton Miller of Brown Baptist Memorial Church, a critic of Nets owner Bruce Ratner's controversial $4billion Atlantic Yards project, said Brooklyn clergy members have told him they are troubled by the team's naming-rights agreement with Barclays. Ratner's development company, Forest City Ratner, unveiled the deal - worth up to $400 million over 20 years for the naming rights to the Nets' proposed Brooklyn arena - earlier this month.
"I'm troubled and concerned with this project's ties to this bank," Miller said.
Miller said he'll call on Ratner to terminate the agreement with Barclays or negotiate a better deal for the community. As part of its agreement with the Nets, the bank has agreed to spend $2.5 million to renovate Brooklyn basketball courts and other youth sports venues, but Miller said that's not enough.
Posted by lumi at 8:47 AM
Hidden Costs For Atlantic Yards
Gotham Gazette
Advocates reading the fine print in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s budget have unearthed at least one item the mayor probably would have preferred remain unnoticed: a doubling of the city subsidy for the Atlantic Yards megaproject in Brooklyn. The added funding – allegedly for infrastructure improvements (i.e. not the luxury high rises themselves) — “brings the city’s direct contribution to $205 million,” the Sun reports.
Details have been hard to come by, but Doug Turetsky of the Independent Budget Office told the Voice that the money will probably go for items “some of which might have been on the books prior to Atlantic Yards, but some substantial amount of which is likely related to the scale of the project—such as the need for expanding sewer and water capacity.” And, of course, no one knows how much the city will eventually have to ante up because of increased automobile traffic, demands for classroom space, strain on city facilities and so on that could arise from the project.
Posted by lumi at 8:44 AM
Buildup to arena hits big screen
NY Daily News, Brooklyn edition only By Joyce Shelby
"Brooklyn Matters," a 50-minute video produced by filmmaker Isabel Hill, follows the proposed 22-acre project as it moves from the drawing board through various stages of government approval.
Architects, lawyers, politicians, journalists, community leaders and residents all weigh in on the project, which calls for an 18,000-seat basketball arena for the Nets as well as soaring towers for office suites, retail space and thousands of units of housing.
Hill, an urban planner and preservationist who lives in Brooklyn, said she began her research on the development in August 2005. Shooting started a year later.
"I had many questions about the Atlantic Yards project when I started to look at it more fully," Hill said. "My goal was to help other people understand what was being proposed and the long-term impact."
However, there is one voice that is conspicuously absent from the documentary - that of developer Bruce Ratner.
"I made multiple requests for interviews with Bruce Ratner," said Hill, "but got no response."
NoLandGrab: Check out our Events page for upcoming screenings or go to www.brooklynmatters.com.
Posted by lumi at 8:33 AM
Jay-Z to boycott Barclays?
The online Hip-Hop news media has gotten hold of the Barclays story in reference to NJ Nets minority shareholder Jay-Z (nee Shawn Carter), who recently spearheaded a boycott against the pricey champagne Cristal.
At issue are the international banking giant's roots in the slave trade and the boycott of the bank in the '80s that forced the corporation to divest in apartheid South Africa.
Reactions in the comments section range from, "Hypocrite!" to, "Get over it, already."
Here's a sampling:
TMZ.com, Jay-Z's Team Nets $400M from Ex-Slave-Trade Co.
Will Jay-Z boycott his own team -- the New Jersey Nets -- for taking $400 million from a bank that some say was built on profits from the slave trade?
... Since then, Jay-Z (real name: Shawn Carter), who owns less than one percent of the team, has declined to comment. His his rep told TMZ that there would be no statement given or action taken by Carter. The rapper has a history of boycotting: Last year, he stopped drinking and serving Cristal champagne after an executive with Cristal's producer made disparaging remarks about rappers and their affinity for the bubbly.
MemphisRap.com, Slave trade profits may fund Jay-Z's New Jersey Nets' Brooklyn arena
Two black supporters involved with the project questioned and scolded the owner and real estate developer about the project which is estimated at $4 billion dollars and which would include the selling of the sports venue naming rights to the Barclays.
"This agreement is insensitive and offensive," Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries told the Daily News. "All options should be on the table, including terminating this deal."
Hip Hop DX, Jay-Z Works With Slave Owners?
Jay-Z, part owner of the New Jersey Nets, announced recently that the new arena for the team will be built in Brooklyn, his hometown. The arena's naming rights were purchased by Barclays, a UK-based bank, paying $400 million for 20 years. Just after the January 18th announcement though, local politicians and journalists criticized the team and its majority owner, Bruce Ratner, for taking money from a bank whose founding family profited from their ownership of slaves in the 18th century and their involvement with the South African government in the 1980s.
Posted by lumi at 7:50 AM
Help Us, Governor Spitzer!
This crusading reformer has his work cut out for him.
City Journal
On "Day 31," Nicole Gelinas's litany of issues crying out for gubernatorial reform cites Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards as the poster project for public authorities run amok:
A recently approved ESDC-backed project, the Atlantic Yards basketball and housing project in Brooklyn, sponsored by politically connected development firm Forest City Ratner, is a perfect example of this wasteful superfluity. To build its stadium and 6,000 or so apartments in central Brooklyn, FC Ratner needs about $500 million in state and local subsidies, and it depends, too, on the state’s eminent-domain power to condemn properties in the project’s footprint. But much of the state’s involvement here is unnecessary. The central Brooklyn area where FC Ratner plans to build was an up-and-coming neighborhood, winning new private residential and commercial investment, long before the state-supported development firm announced its plans three years ago.
Posted by lumi at 7:42 AM
Blight, 1938: it's about profitability
Atlantic Yards Report
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A visit yesterday to the new exhibition at Columbia University, Robert Moses & the Modern City: Slum Clearance and the Superblock Solution, turned up this quote from Mabel Walker's 1938 book Urban Blight and Slums:
"Blight is a condition where it is not profitable to make or maintain improvements."
NoLandGrab2007: Blight is a condition where it is more profitable for some than others.
Posted by lumi at 7:24 AM
January 30, 2007
DDDB PRESS RELEASE:
Atlantic Yards andRatner/Barclays Arena Are Not Viable
Property Ownership Map Explains Why
NEW YORK, NY-- More than 5 acres of the proposed project site for Bruce Ratner’s “Atlantic Yards” are privately owned or controlled. These properties–homes and businesses–are spread throughout the proposed site and some of the properties are located precisely where Ratner intends to build his arena. Unless the developer can gain the deeds and leases to these properties, the arena cannot be built. In addition, much of the rest of the project, including the de-mapping (removal) of City streets required to construct superblocks, cannot be built as proposed.
A map of the project site, overlaid by a property ownership and control map, illustrates how the project’s viability is impacted by the Federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of eminent domain–State seizure of private property which would then be handed over to Forest City Ratner for demolition–for “Atlantic Yards.” In addition to the twelve plaintiffs (representing 2 businesses and 26 residents) on that Federal suit, there are numerous other individuals who own or control their own property.
The map can be found here: http://www.dddb.net/php/ownership
“Private citizens own and rent a significant portion of the land where Ratner intends to build his arena, and much of the rest of his ‘Atlantic Yards’ project. This land amounts to more than 5 acres spread throughout the proposed site. Unless the State of New York and Forest City Ratner can seize these private properties, ‘Atlantic Yards,’ as we know it, cannot be built. This decision will be left up to a Federal court, ” said Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn spokesperson Daniel Goldstein. “Even if early construction begins, a victory in Federal court will keep the homes and businesses in the hands of their rightful owners and Bruce Ratner will have to go back to the drawing board.”
Posted by lumi at 9:49 AM
Brooklyn Mystery: Why Won't Albany Pay the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods???
The Gowanus Lounge
Way back when, the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods was promised $100,000 to report on the Environmental Impact Statement for Atlantic Yards. The group did a good job of coordinating the "community expert review" of a terribly complex document and was vigilant in monitoring what some would say was a deeply flawed process. It turns out they were never paid.
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Now, the group has started a campaign among each of its members to contact elected officials in Albany to find and turn over the money that has "disappeared" or that was made to vanish by political opponents such as former Assem. and Atlantic Yards supporter Roger Green.
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Hopefully, a public airing of what would seem to be a hardball political payback will help resolve the situation so that everyone that did good faith and top-notch work analyzing the Atlantic Yards document will be paid.
Posted by lumi at 8:41 AM
Mo' Money on the QT?
The NY Post explained that the amount "has quietly risen from $100 million to $205 million."
Atlantic Yards Report used the word "obfuscatorily" to describe how City Hall went about giving Bruce Ratner mo' money and took their time to come up with a boilerplate explanation.
It's really too bad for City Hall that it has to actually itemize these things because, as Neil DeMause reported in Power Plays, everyone who's building a new sports venue is getting an unexpected(?) windfall. DeMause explains that for the Yankees, Mets and Nets:
Total city capital funding for the projects appears to now be as high as $586 million—a nearly two-thirds hike from the $360 million (not counting tax and lease breaks) that Bloomberg had promised taxpayers would be on the hook for when the projects were first announced.
That part in the parenthesis means that the cash contributions doesn't include the total cost to taxpayers, which is really hard to tally because there's all sorts of math involved.
If not for independent journalists and a community group who has nothing better to do but complain about even more public assistance for rich sports team owners, we'd still have no clue about the bait and switch.
We're not saying that anyone was trying to pull a fast one, but it almost appears that Mayor Bloomberg sold the public on one set of figures, while assuring sports team owners that there would be more money available, and then tried to slip it through "quietly" and deal with it "obfuscatorily."
Posted by lumi at 8:02 AM
City Hall, obfuscatorily, admits doubling AY funding
Atlantic Yards Report
Here's the latest installment from Norman Oder on the increase in public money for Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan and the explanation from the Mayor's office:
Mayor Mike Bloomberg's capital budget, released last Thursday, includes $205 million designated for Atlantic Yards, though the city had earlier agreed only to $100 million.
The news didn't generate much scrutiny until I raised the issue on Saturday and Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) sent out a press release yesterday declaring the increase part of the "blank check" known as “extraordinary infrastructure costs.”
In a nutshell, NYC promised $100 million in the Memorandum of Understanding, but another clause in the same document left the door open to provide more money. How much more? It doesn't say and no one knows.
One thing is clear: with each increase of public money going to Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards, the net benefit to the city decreases.
[NYC Deputy Press Secretary John] Gallagher ended his brief message with some boilerplate: "This project will create jobs, provide affordable housing and generate billions of dollars in tax revenue and represents a solid investment of taxpayer resources."
Whatever the tax revenue, the net new revenues, previously estimated at $944 million, apparently just went down more than ten percent.
What about the fact that this story was broken by an independent journalist and, only after Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn made a big stink in a press release, was picked up by a mere two of four paid-circulation daily papers?
Could you imagine if cities like Houston (fourth-largest) or Philadelphia (fifth-largest) quietly planned to double their contribution to the most ambitious development project in their city's history?
Surely, a reporter at the Houston Chronicle or Philadelphia Inquirer would've noticed the numbers in the mayoral budget. In New York, however, the mayor's office is covered by reporters for the dailies who don't know much about a project in Brooklyn, and the reporters in those dailies' Brooklyn bureaus are often stretched too thin to dig.
Posted by lumi at 7:27 AM
Section 8 boost means 22,000 families housed affordably
Atlantic Yards Report explains how the infusion of federal dollars for Section 8 housing relates to Atlantic Yards:
Those eligible for Section 8 can earn up to half the median income--$35,450 for a four-person household. Among the 2250 affordable rental units planned for the Atlantic Yards project, 900 would be within the Section 8 income limits.
Posted by lumi at 7:21 AM
Bloomberg's Budget Doubles Subsidy For Atlantic Yards
The NY Sun
By Eliot Brown
The city has doubled its direct subsidy for the Atlantic Yards project, adding an extra $105 million to the proposed development.
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Forest City Ratner did not return several calls seeking comment.Council Member Letitia James, whose district includes Atlantic Yards, was upset by the budgeting for additional funds, her chief of staff, Kate Suisman, said. Ms. James has been an outspoken opponent of the project, but Ms. Suisman said she did not think the added $105 million would derail the passage of the mayor’s proposed budget.
A former president of the Boerum Hill Association, Jo Anne Simon, said she opposes many aspects of the project, though infrastructure could be a good thing. “This is part of the problem,” she said. “Of course there are needs for infrastructure, but I don’t know why this amount of money and what it’s going to go for.”
Posted by lumi at 7:12 AM
CITY DOUBLE-COVER$ B'KLYN ARENA
NY Post
BY Rich Calder
The Bloomberg administration is now kicking in $205 million toward Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn - more than double the amount anticipated.
The mayor's preliminary 2008 budget revealed that the city's subsidy for the $4 billion project - which includes an NBA arena and 16 skyscrapers filled with residential and commercial space - has quietly risen from $100 million to $205 million.
Posted by lumi at 7:02 AM
The City That Never Walks
The NY Times Op-Ed, with additional hyperlinks via StreetsBlog
In an Op-Ed piece about the suburbanization of New York City and the current administration's surrender of city streets to the automobile, Op-Ed contributor and Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn Advisory Board Member Robert Sullivan takes a swipe at Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards:
The great shame of the 22-acre Atlantic Yards mega-development in Brooklyn is that it seems like something out of Atlanta in the 1990s.
Not today’s Atlanta. Today’s Atlanta is building a circular hiking, recreation and even transit trail, a little like the still unfinished Manhattan greenway.
Click here to read more about how "New York is acting more like the rest of America, and the rest of America is acting more like the once-inspiring New York."
Posted by lumi at 6:49 AM
January 29, 2007
Nets' city subsidy doubled?
Field of Schemes
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg released his capital budget on Thursday, and Atlantic Yards Report proprietor Norman Oder noticed something odd about it: The sum allocated for developer Bruce Ratner's Nets-arena-and-condo-towers-and-office-tower plan has more than doubled, from $100 million to $205 million. Oder noted that it's possible this somehow includes the $100 million in state funds that were also promised to the project - or that the extra $105 million is part of the mysterious "additional contributions for extraordinary infrastructure costs" that were noted in the city's original memorandum of understanding with Ratner.
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As of this morning, the mayor's office still hadn't responded to questions about the inflated city capital costs. Watch this space for further updates.UPDATE: As I just reported over at the Village Voice's Power Plays blog, the extra $105 million really is an extra $105 million...
Posted by lumi at 9:41 PM
Bloomberg Adding $226 Million for Nets, Mets, Yanks?
Power Plays, political blog of The Village Voice
By Neil DeMause
Buried in the nether reaches of the preliminary capital budget that the mayor released last Thursday are some curious details on the three new sports facilities—that's Yanks, Mets, and Nets, for those scoring at home—that the city has in the works. Namely, total city capital funding for the projects appears to now be as high as $586 million—a nearly two-thirds hike from the $360 million (not counting tax and lease breaks) that Bloomberg had promised taxpayers would be on the hook for when the projects were first announced.
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It's all enough to make one wonder if New Yorkers are really meant to know what our elected officials are spending our money on. "The city budgets, while they have become increasingly transparent, still are not organized in a way to allow the kind of public scrutiny necessary to evaluate these sorts of items," admits Citizens Union director Dick Dadey, though he says the problem may be less "intentional effort to obfuscate" than the fact that " our city budget is far more complex than most states'." Council speaker Christine Quinn, he points out, has pressed for more transparency in the budget process; it will be interesting to see if an unexpected $105 million invoice will be enough to get the speaker to start asking tough questions of her pal the mayor over the project that would eat Brooklyn.
Posted by lumi at 9:35 PM
Barclays's Truell Betrays His Name
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn fact checks a Barclays spokesperson here.
Posted by lumi at 8:34 PM
MASHUP: More Money Than Brains?
Today's Brownstoner post about a curious flyer that has recently been showing up on front stoops inspired a parody, sent to us by someone with too much time on their hands and who may or may not be feeling some heat from some guy named "Bruce."
Posted by lumi at 8:07 PM
Coda: The "Atlantic Yards"
n + 1
n+1 ran two articles on the project in November, and received a number of letters in response. A reply to the letters from one of our authors provoked yet more letters, which are posted below.
From Jonathan Lethem:
Dear Mr. Liu,
Okay, let's make it even simpler. You and I seem to agree: a creative dialogue between community activists and Mr. Ratner or Mr. Gehry would be ideal. Guess which side has utterly cold-shouldered such a dialogue? Were you under the impression that they'd made themselves available? When you write as if 'negotiation' was presently an option, you're either mistaken or disingenuous.
From Daniel Goldstein:
I invite Jonathan Liu to come say this:
"…What seems quite untenable, however, is the current strategy employed by folks like the ‘Atlantic Yards’ opposition in the name of progressive ends: namely, the appeal to historically regressive positions regarding, for instance, the mistrust of eminent domain and the conservative-populist denigration of avant-garde architecture..."
to our faces. If he is willing to do so he might learn a thing (or a thing + 1) about which he writes, from our mouths, instead of the caricature with which he comforts and satisfies his threadbare, predetermined views.
From Malcolm Armstrong, Ft. Greene:
Given the horrendous track record of centrally planned mega projects, I am surprised to here anyone not in the payroll of Forest City supporting Atlantic Yards, but Jon Liu seems to do just that in his response to Jonathan Lethem.
"Why not engage in the process and ask Frank Gehry, a fellow artist, for better?"
We have Jon, his response, we’re horse and buggy people picketing Henry Ford.
Click here for the complete letters.
Posted by lumi at 7:47 PM
DDDB Press Release:
Public Cost of 'Atlantic Yards' Continues to Balloon
City Doubles Direct Taxpayer Subsidy for Ratner Plan From $100 Million to $205 Million
NEW YORK, NY—Ratner gets richer as the public’s burden for 'Atlantic Yards' increases yet again
New York City’s taxpayers have now been forced to double their direct cash subsidy for Bruce Ratner’s “Atlantic Yards.” The subsidy has climbed from $100 million to $205 million as revealed in the new City budget. The ballooning number comes after the project received its only political approval by the State’s Public Authorities Control Board in December, amounting to a bait and switch at taxpayer expense.
The new $205 million taxpayer subsidy is only part of the City’s subsidy package to Ratner, a package which includes tax abatements and credits, housing subsidies, undervalued City-owned land, and a blank check called “extraordinary infrastructure costs.” The total subsidy and public investment from the City and State comes much closer to $2 billion).
“We’ve always known that Bruce Ratner’s ‘Atlantic Yards’ would cost the public much more than we’re being told. This doubling of the City’s taxpayer cash subsidy to $205 million for Ratner’s project is just the first blast of helium into a very large balloon of public money,” said Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn spokesperson Daniel Goldstein. “There will be many more installments made to Ratner under a blank public check euphemistically called ‘extraordinary infrastructure costs.’ Who will put a stop to this?”
When the City, Forest City Ratner and the State signed an “Atlantic Yards” Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in February 2005, there was a blank check agreed to called “extraordinary infrastructure costs.” It appears that that blank check has started growing.
“The Mayor has told us over and over that New York City taxpayers would be forking over $100 million to Ratner, but before seeing if the project can even survive serious federal and state lawsuits, let alone begin construction, the Mayor has increased the Ratner handout to $205 million,” Goldstein concluded.
Posted by lumi at 6:57 PM
Roger Green, CBN, & $100K--an alternative sequence
Atlantic Yards Report attempts to establish a timeline of events that may or may not have led to former NY Assemblymember Roger Green's withholding of $100K to the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods.
Does Green's explanation to the Brooklyn Papers, "that he withdrew his support for CBN’s request because of hurtful, racially charged remarks by members and supporters of CBN and project opponents," make sense? Especially since the reasons he cites primarily occurred before he agreed to the funding?
NoLandGrab: Apparently, we have some explaining to do.
Atlantic Yards Reporter Norman Oder examines one of Roger Green's references, where, in September, 2005, we called the Ratner Community Benefits Agreement a "Cadillac Buying Allowance."
The joke was that one signatory to the Atlantic Yards C.B.A., James Caldwell, was seen around the neighborhood sporting a new Cadillac, just months after signing on the dotted line and around the same time as documents were uncovered indicating that Caldwell's group, Brooklyn United for Innovated Local Development, was receiving financial support from Ratner (despite protestations to the contrary).
So, on behalf of James Caldwell, we'd like to apologize that he played so close to stereotype that we couldn't resist a pot shot.
We actually have no idea whether or not Caldwell got the new set of wheels because he collects a salary from the organization funded by Ratner. However, people of all stripe were astonished that he would drive his new luxury car around the neighborhood while championing jobs at Atlantic Yards that he hopes will go to unemployed residents living in the surrounding community.
Caldwell's actions just seemed thoughtless and insensitive at the time, especially after his own joke about local anti-traffic-congestion activists vs. residents who can't even afford a car. But if a community leader like Roger Green thinks otherwise, we'll mull it over.
Posted by lumi at 8:18 AM
Barclays' millions help to prop up Mugabe regime
Three British firms provide key finance, allowing the Zimbabwe leader to defy world condemnation
The Guardian
By Antony Barnett and Christopher Thompson
Barclays bank is helping to bankroll President Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe, providing millions of pounds of support for his vilified land reforms, The Observer can reveal. Mugabe's opponents describe the bank's activities as a 'disgrace' and an 'insult' to the millions who have suffered human rights abuses.
Barclays is the most high-profile of three British-based financial institutions, which, in total, have provided more than $1bn in direct and indirect funding to Mugabe's administration. The other two companies are Standard Chartered Bank and the insurance firm Old Mutual. According to influential newsletter Africa Confidential, that first disclosed the Barclays' loans, the British organisations provide an economic lifeline keeping Mugabe's regime afloat.
A spokesman for Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, likened the bank's actions to its support of South Africa's apartheid regime and urged a boycott.
NoLandGrab: More food for thought about Ratner's Barclays' naming-rights deal will no doubt provide fodder for critics of City Councilmember Charles Barron, who opposes the sponsorship. Barron has repeatedly, and publicly, expressed support for Mugabe and his policies.
Posted by lumi at 8:08 AM
Rehabilitating Robert Moses
CreativeClass.org
A review of the review of the exhibits reviewing Robert Moses's legacy cites the passage that contains the sentence that The NY Times refuses to correct; you know, the sentence referring to "the reconstruction of Atlantic Yards" (like such a place already exists).
The writer also expresses disbelief of the Times's revisionist history:
I never thought I would see the day, but here it is: a glowing New York Times story on three new museum exhibits set to polish up the image of Robert Moses.
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So now we have this rewriting of history in its most banal form-- a "great man" with his "great projects" did it. Come on.But it's just what the doctor ordered, really, in booming New York City: Someone to make the case anew for a new generation of soulless, top-down, ahuman mega-projects where only the visions of "great" architects, designers and developers count - where living neighborhoods can be run roughshod over and human beings don't matter.
REMINDER: Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report cited Robert Caro, who noted on page 460 of his bio of Robert Moses that there's a history of flattering coverage of the master builder in the NY Times. Ironically, many Brooklynites think the decription could also be applied to Brooklyn's master builder, Bruce Ratner.
"Moses' press releases were treated with respect, being given prominent treatment and often being printed in full. There was no investigating of the "facts" presented in those press releases, no attempt at detailed analysis of his theories of recreation and transportation, no probing of the assumptions on which the city was building and maintining recreational facilities and roads."
Posted by lumi at 7:48 AM
January 28, 2007
Brooklyn Matters: The Website
Brooklyn Matters has debuted a website that includes updated information about where the documentary will be playing as well as an online trailer:
No single event will have a more drastic and long-lasting impact on Brooklyn than the proposed Atlantic Yards development. This uncommon proposal, however, is mostly misunderstood. Brooklyn Matters is an insightful documentary that reveals the fuller truth about the Atlantic Yards proposal and highlights how a few powerful men are circumventing community participation and planning principles to try to push their own interests forward.
Posted by amy at 5:34 PM
Ouroussoff: Gehry faces a developer's constraints in L.A., too
Atlantic Yards Report
Let's try to decode New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ourousoff's new take on Frank Gehry's latest Los Angeles project, in a handwringing essay today headlined Corner of Art and Commerce in Los Angeles. Ouroussoff sets out the question:
Designed by Mr. Gehry for the New York-based Related Companies, the master plan for the site, a choice parcel directly across from Disney Hall, provides a case study for one of the most pressing issues in architecture today. Can the bottom-line world of mainstream development produce something of architectural value at enormous scale? Or is Mr. Gehry simply there to provide a veneer of cultural pretension?
(Gehry rendering via New York Times)
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If Gehry has a public responsibility, why has he been so combative in public? Why hasn’t he met with the community? Why did he not, as he would have preferred, get other architects to design parts of the project? He remains constrained by his client.So the question Ouroussoff might have posed to Gehry is this: how much are you willing to compromise your professional ideals to complete an ambitious project, especially one with a building you call your "ego trip"?
Posted by amy at 5:12 PM
Ratner feels heat on Barclays deal
NY Daily News
MICHAEL O'KEEFFE
Nets owner Bruce Ratner spent years courting Brooklyn's African-American community to support his controversial Atlantic Yards proposal. It's taken less than two weeks for that support to start fraying.Two key black supporters of Ratner's $4 billion project blasted the real estate developer for selling the sports venue's naming rights to Barclays, the British bank activists say profited from the slave trade, South African apartheid and other chapters in human misery.
Former state assemblyman Roger Green, who played a key role in lining up black community support for Atlantic Yards, lashed out against Ratner's deal with Barclays on Friday. So did his successor, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Prospect Heights).
"This agreement is insensitive and offensive," Jeffries told the Daily News. "All options should be on the table, including terminating this deal."
Posted by amy at 5:07 PM
Times fails to correct Moses story, despite ample warning
Atlantic Yards Report
On Wednesday, after I posted my critique of the New York Times's story to be published today (and already online) on Robert Moses, I sent a request for corrections to the Times. I pointed out that the article, Rehabilitating Robert Moses, misleadingly cited "the reconstruction of Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn," an impossibility, given that Atlantic Yards is the name of a 22-acre project rather than an 8.5-acre railyard.articleAnd I pointed out that, while the article--which today is the lead article in the Arts & Leisure section--suggests that post-Moses projects must go through a gauntlet of approval, it avoids mentioning the Empire State Development Corporation fast track process to which Mayor Mike Bloomberg agreed regarding Atlantic Yards.
Develop Don't Destroy points out that the Times did make some corrections this week:
The NY Times, the paper of record, is supposed to strive for accuracy. When it's inaccurate it is supposed to correct those inaccuracies. It did so on January 24th with a bean counting error correction:Correction: An Italian Spot, Larded With Drive A review last Wednesday of the restaurant Porchetta in Brooklyn misstated an ingredient in a chicken dish. They are cannellini beans, not cannelloni beans. (Go to Article)Surely this correction will save many home cooks from embarrassment and Porchetta from misled customers.
Posted by amy at 4:17 PM
More on the Death of Private Enterprise
AntiRust
The fix was never quite in for Forest City Enterprises and its plan for a casino in Station Square. But shed no tears for the company or honcho Bruce Ratner. He not only owns piddling little assets like the NBA's Nets franchise, he is also the driving force behind Atlantic Yards, a $4 billion development in Brooklyn that makes the Pittsburgh casino look like a couple of video poker machines at the local Elks Club. (The plans call for a new arena for the Nets, natch.)NYC's Nurse Bloomberg, unbowed by controversy over what the project will mean for the existing neighborhood, calls it "the most exciting private development Brooklyn has ever seen."
Private development, eh? Here's what City Journal has to say about that:
Sure, a private-sector developer, Forest City/Ratner, conceived the plan to erect the stadium and an instant high-rise neighborhood of 6,430 apartments atop a 22-acre, seven-block “footprint” of central Brooklyn (railyards owned by the state’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority occupy about 40 percent of the area, but the rest of the “project site” is already a developed neighborhood).But this private-sector veil doesn’t mean Atlantic Yards is anything other than a centrally planned, public-sector project. FC/Ratner could never pursue Atlantic Yards without a half billion dollars in public subsidies, the government’s power to condemn private property, and exemptions from city zoning rules.
Posted by amy at 3:41 PM
January 27, 2007
Brooklyn's basketball city evokes fear, hope amid gentrification
AP
The project's size has dismayed thousands of Brooklyn residents who love the village-like feel of the adjoining neighborhoods, and worry about the deadening effect skyscrapers have on residential street life.But Atlantic Yards has its champions too — especially those left behind by the borough's gentrification.
...
Another hopeful, Jacqueline Carthen, a retired corrections officer getting by on a disability pension, said she's also hoping to be among the lucky few — despite having her own concerns about the development."A lot of people are saying that this is gentrification. I don't really know how to break that down," she said. The project, she noted, is just one of dozens under way nearby — mostly for the wealthy.
article
For those still confused regarding Atlantic Yards vs. the other on-going gentrification in Brooklyn, Atlantic Yards gentrification would be instant and complete. And it's not just us who understand - take a look at the poll on the Newsday site...
Posted by amy at 7:02 PM
$205 million for AY seems to double city's pledge
Atlantic Yards Report
Mayor Mike Bloomberg's capital budget, released Thursday, includes $205 million designated for Atlantic Yards--a sum far greater than the $100 million formally pledged.I asked the mayor's press office early yesterday morning for details, but did not get a response by the end of the day.
One explanation may be that the city is relying on a vague clause in a 2005 Memorandum of Understanding to steer more city funds to the project. If so, that opens the door for even more city contributions in the future--a potential Atlantic Yards slush fund.
If not, could the city's capital budget somehow have included the $100 million in state funds also pledged to the project?
Posted by amy at 6:59 PM
January 26, 2007
Bloomberg Cautious Even as City Records $3.9B Surplus
NY Sun
Get out your wallets! The Mayor presents his new budget plan...
On the capital side, it earmarks money for dozens of projects, including $350 million for the Jacob K. Javits Center, $320 million for redevelopment in Coney Island, and $205 million for the Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn. It also includes $28.4 billion in school construction spending through 2017, and increases subsidies for the city's public hospital system. It assumes that Governor Spitzer will increase state education spending for the city by $1.9 billion annually.
Posted by amy at 11:00 PM
Vox UnPop
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn unloads the questions of Brooklyn Paper's man on the street interview:
We think a fairer question might have included the point that the $300 million naming-rights' payday for the publicly-funded arena goes directly to the developer, Forest City Ratner, who doesn't even own the arena and would rent it with a $1.00 99-year lease, if it is ever built. We readily admit that there is not much good for the public coming out of this private naming-rights deal. We also think that were the questions less leading, and solely about those financial issues, the men on the street would have given similar answers.
Posted by amy at 10:54 PM
Gehry: New Ms. Brooklyn on the way
Courier-Life
Stephen Witt
“Miss Brooklyn,” the cornerstone of Frank Gehry’s vision for the Atlantic Yards project, is undergoing major plastic surgery.
...
“Miss Brooklyn – she’s gone. She’s a new one now. I have a new Miss Brooklyn. I haven’t showed it yet and she’s better,” said Gehry, one of the world’s pre-eminent architects.
NoLandGrab: As we have learned from watching "The Swan," it's what's on the inside that counts.
Posted by amy at 10:37 PM
Nets Ticket Blitz Begins - Nets promise plenty of screecher seats
Courier-Life
Stephen Witt
Brooklyn’s hardworking basketball fans will not be forgotten once the NBA’s Nets land in Brooklyn, according to team spokesperson Barry Baum.Baum’s comments fly in the face of a recent published report touting that tickets for Nets games, once the team comes to Brooklyn, are estimated to go for between $51 and $970 each.
“We want to make Nets games in Brooklyn as accessible for everyone and so we’re providing 2,000 $15 tickets for all regular season games in the upper bowl seats,” said Baum.
Baum also noted that the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), signed with eight local community based organizations, calls for the team to designate one luxury suite, four seats in the lower bowl and 50 seats in the upper bowl for community seats.
If only the CBA were legally binding. Sigh.
Jay-Z added his two cents (or $1 million dollars as it were):
"You don’t understand the passion and love that Brooklynites have for each other and something they can claim ownership in."
Ummm...like their own homes and businesses???
Posted by amy at 10:21 PM
Barclays pays big bucks for arena name
Courier-Life
Stephen Witt speculates that not only will Barclays' be naming an arena, they are going to move their operations to Brooklyn and make it the financial hub of the Universe! But wait, there's more!
In addition, the agreement calls for the creation of a $2.5 million Nets-Barclays Sports Alliance, a non-profit organization whose goal is to promote athletics, education and mentor young people in Brooklyn.The alliance will, as its first objective, repair and renovate basketball courts and other sports facilities throughout the borough, as well as sponsor amateur athletic tournaments and clinics for Brooklyn’s youth.
The Barclays spokesperson said the alliance will mirror the Barclays Spaces for Sports program in the UK.
The UK program helps local communities transform neglected land into the sporting facilities they want – from skateboard parks to soccer fields or multi-use game areas.
NoLandGrab: Let's just hope that "neglected land" is not British for "your house is next"!
Posted by amy at 10:11 PM
Building Some Momentum
Investor's Business Daily
MARILYN ALVA looks at the risks of being a developer, using many examples from Forest City Ratner.
It's not easy being a developer, even if you have deep pockets. (Forest City reported $1.2 billion in sales last year.)Upfront costs are huge. They can involve traffic surveys, environmental impact studies and other items to appease planning and zoning boards, government agencies and local watchdogs.
If your eyes aren't too wet yet from weeping over the plight of the developer, read on to more perils!
Overdevelopment is always a risk, as lessons from the housing market teach.
Or as lessons from Metrotech should have taught.
Posted by amy at 10:02 PM
The Barclays Question
The Politicker
Azi Paybarah
Monetary questions aside, is the name of the stadium a relevant point?Daily News man Errol Louis, who is responsible for prompting the most recent mini-debate, says that it isn't. Yesterday, he wrote:
"If the critics are serious about removing the names of slave-linked institutions from public view, they have a lot of work to do. Peter Stuyvesant (as in Stuy-Town, Bed-Stuy and Stuyvesant High) owned 50 slaves. George Washington (Washington Ave., Washington Street, Washington Heights, etc.) owned upward of 200. Chase sponsors dozens of community events in every corner of the city. Where does it end?"It seems like a reasonable question. Does anyone have an answer?
NoLandGrab: We're unsure if Azi is re-asking what Errol is asking, or having a joke on him. Does anyone have an answer? As usual, the peanut gallery does, and most of the answers are pretty well stated.
Posted by amy at 9:49 PM
Atlantic Yards documentary: A review
A lukewarm review from The Brooklyn Papers of "Brooklyn Matters" by Baker Hollingsworth:
To call Isabel Hill’s “Brooklyn Matters” a documentary would be akin to calling Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9-11” fair and balanced.
Like Moore’s film, “Brooklyn Matters” is a clever invective that will preach to the converted — the Atlantic Yards opponents who are its likely audience — a sermon they already believe: Atlantic Yards is bad.
But once any expectation of objectivity is set aside, the film delivers an engaging head-butt to developer Bruce Ratner, the Empire State Development Corporation, Mayor Bloomberg and former Gov. Pataki.
Posted by lumi at 2:23 PM
Predictable outrage over Atlantic Yards
Daily Gotham
The newest spat over Atlantic Yards features some of the usual suspects; on the one hand, there's Errol Louis, on the other, the Brooklyn Papers. This is Kabuki. If you, for example, should ever find yourself needing to know just what Louis' position is on a given issue, do this: imagine the most stereotypical black liberal you can, drawing heavily on all relevant clichés. Imagine what position this liberal phantom would take on the issue you're trying to divine; Louis will take exactly the inverse position to that. Try it; it's a parlor game of sorts in some circles, with an astonishing degree of accuracy.
The Brooklyn Papers, meanwhile, can be counted on to give column inches to every Yards controversy; the paper, perhaps, is seeing the need to expiate its endorsement of David Yassky some time ago.
...
Barclay's is an especially unfortunate choice, needless to say. It's worth pointing out that a parking lot to be created nearby, peripheral to Atlantic Yards, would require the destruction of the historic Duffield Houses, an Underground Railroad site. There's a deep irony that people parking their cars en route to a game in Barclay's Stadium would be parking on the ruins of yet another legacy of slavery.Hence, the outrage. It is somewhat difficult to see insincerity in that. Some people, of course, are invested in finding it. Which could of course, if one were thusly inclined, be termed, well, insincere.
NoLandGrab: No one has invested more than "Caring Bruce," who has sincerely played the race card at every turn.
Posted by lumi at 2:12 PM
Learning from Seattle: a sculpture park and a market
Atlantic Yards Report
Could Norman Oder be trying to live up to his rapper name "Mad O" (short for "Mad Overkiller")? The guy heads out of town for a few days but all roads lead back to Atlantic Yards.
Fresh from his trip to Seattle, he shares his insights from the opening of the Olympic Sculpture park.
Seattle is quite different from Brooklyn, but citizens there have confronted similar challenges—whether to invest public money in a sports arena, and how best to guide growth—and come up with some interesting and instructive answers, like the new sculpture park depicted at right, an oasis in the midst of development. (Photo from Seattle Art Museum)
The Seattle experience may not be directly applicable to the Atlantic Yards controversy, but it does suggest that civic debate—which was short-circuited in Brooklyn when the city/state political establishment backed AY from the gate—can produce alternatives.
Posted by lumi at 2:01 PM
Barclay chief's gaffe recalls Ratner howler
They call it 'doing a Ratner' - in memory of the famous gaffe committed by Gerald Ratner back in 1991, when he admitted selling "crap" in his High Street shops.
BBC News Online
By Bill Wilson
Now the boss of the UK's largest credit card company has done it in such a spectacular fashion that it left business observers open-mouthed.
Barclays chief executive Matt Barrett candidly criticised his own product, suggesting that the astute consumer would do well to steer well clear of it.
Posted by lumi at 11:07 AM
Yards suit tries on a new tack; Lawyers claim state missed a deadline
The Brooklyn Papers
In new court papers submitted earlier this month, attorneys Jeff Baker and Matthew Brinckerhoff argued that the Empire State Development Corporation broke its own rules when it ruled on Dec. 8 that the area around Ratner’s Prospect Heights development site was “blighted” and could be condemned.
That date is more than 90 days after the state’s Aug. 23 public hearing on the project — an apparent violation of the rule that a blight determination must be made “within 90 days of … the public hearing.”
“They blew it,” Baker said. “The state violated the 90 days and anyone looking at a calendar can see that.”
...
Baker and Brinkerhoff, who represent 12 people and one Prohibition-era bar that will be displaced if the project moves forward, were on the right track with the new argument, experts said.“Now they are saying there is a procedural defect, in addition to the substantive ones,” said Dana Berliner, a co-counsel on the Supreme Court’s watershed case, Kelo v. New London, which upheld the right of governments to seize property for new private development as long as the project served a public purpose.
The focus on a tightly defined procedural glitch could help the complex, highly politicized case, added Michael Rikon, an attorney who specializes in eminent domain cases.
“Often, the clear-cut complaint that takes issue with [specific regulations] are the most fruitful before a judge,” said Rikon.
For more info, a couple of weeks ago, Atlantic Yards Report covered the issue and explained how this scheduling snafu came about in the first place.
Posted by lumi at 10:57 AM
Inside Ratner’s big deal$
The Brooklyn Papers
By Ariella Cohen
Community groups and schools will be paying a lot to rent Bruce Ratner’s Nets arena — an apparent pullback from the developer’s promise to make the arena available to local non-profit groups “at a reasonable rate.”
...
Ratner told the auditors that he’ll charge more than $100,000 to rent the designer dome — $62,000 in base rental, plus an estimated $41,000 in “event-related expenses,” according to the confidential audit.
...
Local groups that signed a “Community Benefits Agreement” with Ratner are guaranteed the right to rent the arena for 10 events a year at a “reasonable rate.”But it’s unclear how Ratner will define “reasonable rate,” based on the KPMG audit.
The article also covers other possible revenue streams outlined in the KPMG audit, which peg Ratner's profits around $400 million.
Posted by lumi at 10:47 AM
Black leaders to Bruce: Pay us back!
The Brooklyn Papers
Bruce Ratner's deal with Barclays Bank has somewhat cracked the foundation of his supporters which are largely African-American:
Two black supporters of Atlantic Yards have joined a growing chorus saying that developer Bruce Ratner betrayed his black allies when he sold the naming rights to his proposed Nets arena to Barclays, a global banking firm that was founded by slave traders and did business with South Africa’s apartheid government.
Both Roger Green — a former state Assemblyman — and his successor Hakeem Jeffries came out this week against the Barclays deal.
Jeffries is looking for a way for all parties to save face and is suggesting two options, a termination of the deal and/or reparations by way of financial contribution:
Jeffries demanded a meeting with the developer to discuss the issue. He hasn’t gotten a call back yet.
“All options should be on the table, including payment for past wrongs and termination of the agreement,” Jeffries said.
While Jeffries predecessor, Green, is calling for Barclays to increase their financial support to the community support, again, to serve as reparations:
Green, a strong supporter of Atlantic Yards, moved last week to distance himself from the naming-rights deal. He called on Barclays to pay reparations to American blacks for its role in slavery.
“Barclays must step up and respond to our community the way they responded to Nelson Mandela” over the issue of apartheid in South Africa, he said.
As part of the $400-million naming-rights deal, Barclays has said it will pay $2.5 million to repair public basketball courts through the borough, but Green called that amount, “not enough.”
Posted by lumi at 10:06 AM
Vox Pop: Ratner’s bank job
The Brooklyn Papers does a man-on-the-street (what no women??) overview of Bruce Ratner's deal with Barclays Bank for the naming rights of the new, yet-to-be-built, not-quite-ready-for-ground-breaking-off-unless-the-courts-decide-that-Ratner's-land-grab-is-legal Nets arena.
The question: Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner has sold the naming rights to his new arena for the Brooklyn Nets to a British bank with historic ties to slavery, the Holocaust and apartheid. How do you feel about that?
“I don’t like it. It seems like they’re just stealing from the community. I don’t think they should do it because, they are already taking peoples’ money from taxes. The funding is not right.” Kevin Foster
“I’m for the stadium just as long as it creates jobs and they’re paying the right wages. But I don’t condone the idea of making a dollar off somebody’s hardships. I wouldn’t vote for Barclays. Why couldn’t Ratner pick one of our banks? The arena is in our country.” Billy Joe Walker, Far Rockaway
Posted by lumi at 9:42 AM
A BRITISHER’S VIEW: The aggrieved take a low shot at Barclays Bank
Courier-Life Publications offers a spirited defense of Barclays Bank by Shavana Abruzzo, but offers none of Bruce Ratner:
Blood money?
Calm down.
...
To its credit, Barclays dissolved its relationship with South Africa’s apartheid government a full eight years before the 1994 elections, which finally quenched that country’s racist regime.To its credit, in 1999, Barclays remunerated – to the tune of millions – Jewish Holocaust victims for their suffering.
As for its dabbling in the slave trade, Barclays Bank was part and parcel of an era, which was trafficked in – plus promoted and profited from – by a vast, international rainbow of mid-18th century commercial enterprises, many of which maintain their operations on the North American Continent, today; among them, JP Morgan Chase Manhattan Bank, Lehman Brothers, RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company and Loews Corporation, to name a few.
Posted by lumi at 9:35 AM
Ratner’s ‘Blood Money’ fills the mailbag
The Brooklyn Papers publishes several letters addressing their article about "Blood Money" and the Barclays Bank naming-rights deal.
Two say the Papers has gone too far, one blames Ratner, another appreciates local weekly for sticking their neck out when other papers won't and two letters attempt to extrapolate the argument against Barclays:
"I have noticed that your paper has taken a very non-journalistic stance towards the Atlantic Yards development, but this was too much." — Terrence J. Allen, Prospect Heights
"I bet that in Brooklyn, there are more Jewish folks than any other ethnic group who own Adolf Hitler’s beloved Benz. Just look in the driveways of the mansions on and off Ocean Parkway around the Avenue R neighborhood. Almost every driveway has a Benz or BMW in it! And, these folks are observant Jewish people." — Vigor Eriksson, Bay Ridge
"People who thought that Bruce Ratner had their best interests in mind were fooled by him and by their own ignorance. "— Brian Schnabel, Bay Ridge
"The Brooklyn Paper’s disclosure to the public of relevant facts puts The Paper in a minority media position. In fact, so few media outlets are even covering the opposition to the project.
"The New York Times, the supposed media steward for the city, has only given lip service to the issues, and the New York Post’s harsh op-ed tone is outrageously mean-spirited. The opponents to this project are essentially fighting this battle alone, dismissed by the general news media, borough president, mayor, former governor, and many fellow New Yorkers." — Charles W. McMellon Jr., Park Slope
Here's an interesting point about Citibank, though the Wilpon family, owners of the Mets, haven't courted or even financially supported a largely African-American constituency to stump for their project:
"Citibank was founded on money from the slave trade, too, you know. In November 2002, a lawsuit was filed against Citigroup and 19 other companies for reparations because of alleged support to the apartheid regime that ruled South Africa. Citibank also trafficked in Nazi gold.
"Where was your indignation when the naming rights to the new Shea Stadium was sold to Citibank?" — Mark Phillips, Carroll Gardens
"Following your logic, we should banish Thomas Jefferson from all history books because he actively supported slavery. Following your logic, we should condemn him and ignore the fact that he was the author of the Constitution, who wrote those memorable words, 'We the people.'" — Suzy Hsia, Park Slope
The Papers added, "Thomas Jefferson did not write the Constitution," and rebuts several points from this Sloper's letter.
Posted by lumi at 9:00 AM
DDDB Dialing for Dollars
The Brooklyn Papers
In a bid to pay off an ever-growing mountain of legal bills, the most-vocal opponent of the Atlantic Yards megadevelopment has begun a round of fundraising calls — even calling The Brooklyn Paper for cash (we declined, thank you very much).
...
DDDB spokesman Daniel Goldstein said that the organization has relied on such telephone fund-raising campaigns quite a bit over the course of its three-year battle against the state-supported 16-tower, arena, hotel, office space and residential mega-project.“It’s a direct connection with a person that is able to discuss issues,” he said, “It’s a two-way conversation.”
A two-way conversation that opens on a particular slant, that is. Like developer Bruce Ratner’s much-criticized — and anonymous — “push poll” surveys, the DDDB phone pitch doesn’t lack for spin.
But Goldstein said there’s a difference: “We say who we are and why we are calling.”
Posted by lumi at 8:57 AM
Ratner foes to have their day in Supreme Court
Courier-Life Publications
By Stephen Witt
An update on the legal suits covers the preparations for the environmental lawsuit, and the eminent domain suit, in which the largest non-Ratner landowner in the Atlantic Yards footprint has just joined the court fight.
Posted by lumi at 8:52 AM
The British Are Coming!
Proposed Nets arena to be named after London-based bank
Brooklyn Downtown Star
Star editor Nik Kovac published a colorful piece on what went on last week, inside and outside the Brooklyn Museum, when "movers and shakers from every corner of Brooklyn and beyond" gathered to announce Bruce Ratner's Barclays Bank naming-rights deal.
Inside, where folks were chowing down on filet mignon:
Straight outta Crown Heights was Borough President Marty Markowitz, who gives a speech like Bishop Loughlin High School's own Mark Jackson used to hand out assists - often and well.
Jackson, the Fort Greene prep star and 1987 NBA rookie of the year, who now broadcasts games for the New Jersey Nets, emceed the event, which featured the NBA's current assist king and 1995 rookie of the year, Jason Kidd, and the most famous emcee ever to be raised in the Marcy Projects - Jay-Z, aka Shawn Carter, the rapper from Bed-Stuy who now owns a piece of just about everything, including those Nets, a team hoping to move into the "Barclays Center" arena in less than three years.
Massachusetts's own New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was there, too, no doubt, and was quick to proclaim everything about the big proposed real estate and subsequent branding agreement to be a good thing.
...
Later, in response to some pointed media questions about several lawsuits challenging the 22-acre, 16-skycraper development which would include the Barclays Center, Hizzoner scolded: "Oh no, this is something that's going to get done. We don't have a future if this doesn't get done. Everybody's rallying around it. Go out on the street and just look at the faces on the kids."
Outside, "the faces on the kids" were less than cheerful:
In fact, out on the closest street to the gourmet meal - Eastern Parkway - was a phalanx of police officers holding back several sign-wielding protesters, one of whom was the most famous plaintiff in those asked-about lawsuits, Prospect Heights condo owner Daniel Goldstein.
"This is a financial deal between two wealthy corporations," observed the Brooklyn resident. "Why is it being celebrated in the Brooklyn Museum like it's some kind of civic announcement?"
Check out the rest of the article for the pointed questions from a BBC reporter, who tried to understand the marketing significance of the deal, and for Mark Jackson's parting observation.
Posted by lumi at 8:30 AM
News Analysis: Ratner Bumps a Numbers Grinder
Brooklyn Downtown Star
Norman Oder explains the things your mayor never told you about the financing of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards:
Hailing the Barclays Center naming rights agreement last Thursday at the Brooklyn Museum's Beaux-Arts Court, Mayor Mike Bloomberg declared, "Over the next 20 years, they will be putting more than $300 million into Brooklyn."
But Barclays wouldn't be giving the money - up to $400 million, according to some press accounts - to the city or the state, the latter of which would create a local development corporation to be the nominal owner of the arena. Rather, as went distinctly unmentioned at the press extravaganza, the money would go to Forest City Ratner and, presumably, defray the costs of the project, notably the $637.2 million arena price tag - the most expensive arena in the country.
Oder recounts how he was boxed out by team Ratner and took an elbow (what, no foul?!) as he was trying to ask Ratner if the Barclays bucks would pay for nearly half of the arena's constuction costs.
And speaking about paying for the arena's construction, what about the PILOTS (Payments in Lieu of Taxes)?
Rather, it would offer payments-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOTs, sufficient to cover debt service on the [arena] bonds, including "excess PILOT payments" to defray the cost of operating and maintaining the arena.
The rationale for such financing deals is that, absent the project, tax revenues for the land would be much lower. However, no public officials has explained how much the taxes might be, and whether the PILOTs would be more or less than the taxes.
...
The financing for the arena and project remains murky. "I want to know how much these tax breaks are," said Bettina Damiani of Good Jobs New York, which monitors government subsidies. "That's our bailiwick. How have public officials been able to support a project when they don't know what the costs to taxpayers are going to be, and they don't know what the expenditures for services are going to be? That should be a bipartisan question."
And the "community events?"
How many such community events would there be? It's too soon to be sure, but a traffic planning document that the developer shared with the Department of City Planning in December 2005 listed only eight college sports events and two high school events. There might be 19 graduations, though the KPMG audit cautioned that a projected arena cost of $100,000 would be untenable. In addition, as promised in the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), there would be ten community events at a "reasonable" rental.
Posted by lumi at 8:18 AM
Barclays’ apartheid past further taints Atlantic Yards project
Amsterdam News
by Tanangachi Mfuni
Mfuni places a call to Barclays Bank to get their side of the story and collects opinions from African-American community leaders on Bruce Ratner's Barclays naming-rights deal:
“This is blood money…this is a slap in our faces,” said [NYC Councilman Charles] Barron, vowing to protest the arena’s naming.
“I knew nothing about that,” said Rev. Herbert Daughtry, minister of Brooklyn’s House of the Lord Church. A vigorous supporter of Ratner, Daughtry for decades demanded reparations from companies that profited from slavery.
“I’m profoundly concerned about it because I know a little bit about the history of the Barclays brothers who started the bank and who were involved in the slave trade,” said Rev. Daughtry speaking with the AmNews by phone. “The bank is definitely linked to the slave trade,” Daughtry concluded.
“This is nothing more than a cynical attempt to block a project of critical importance to Black families,” said New York ACORN head Bertha Lewis in a statement. The activist, who negotiated thousands of affordable housing units be included in the Atlantic Yards project, suggested that Barclays’ history is water under the bridge.
“I reject the notion that the past is the past.” [NYC Councilwoman Letitia James] wants Ratner to “rescind the contract [with Barclays] and go with a local bank like Carver,” she said, speaking of the Black-owned American bank. Other opponents would like to see Barclays pay reparations to descendants of enslaved Africans living in Brooklyn.
Posted by lumi at 8:08 AM
Call it Harriet Tubman Park
The Brooklyn Papers, Editorial
In light of the fact that Ratner failed to celebrate Brooklyn's heritage by naming a new Nets arena after Jackie Robinson, the Papers calls on officials to do the right thing and name the Brooklyn Bridge Park for Harriet Tubman.
Harriet Tubman was a modern-day Moses. An escaped slave, she returned repeatedly to pre-Emancipation Maryland to rescue, by her estimate, 7,000 slaves. She later became a spy for the North during the Civil War and even helped plan a raid that freed 750 more human beings.
The naming of “Harriet Tubman Park” would not only raise the profile of this great American hero, but also undo some of the damage Ratner has done with his insensitive partnership with a bank founded on profits made from the blood of the human beings Tubman devoted her life to saving.
Posted by lumi at 8:02 AM
January 25, 2007
Unshackle B'klyn minds
Atlantic Yard foes are picking a hollow fight in decrying arena sponsor's 'blood money'
NY Daily News
Errol Louis
Errol Louis is shocked, shocked:
I didn't think it was possible, but the already bitter public fight over Brooklyn's $4 billion Atlantic Yards project has turned even nastier.
After outlining the questions and concerns about the Barclay's naming rights deal, Louis remarks:
Gimme a break.
I readily concede, and have no doubt, that Barclays - like many companies with household names - profited from an untold number of monstrous crimes over the centuries.
But Barclays is hardly alone - and the people and newspapers trying to claim moral ground by throwing around terms like "integrity" and playing politics with horrors like the slave trade and the Holocaust know this. Or they should.
NoLandGrab: We've been giving Errol Louis a break for some time now, which is why we're still listening even though he regularly omits and conflates the facts.
For instance, in today's column he mentions "apartheid" once, but his rebuttal of opponents concerns is limited to the bank's history of involvement with the Holocaust and slavery. He conveniently overlooks the fact that Barclays profited handsomely from its relationship with South Africa's apartheid regime until 1986 — hardly ancient history by any estimation. And he completely ignores the fact that Barclays was cited by the United Nations for involvement in “shady networks of business and military figures” in the war-ravaged Congo just four years ago.
In addition, his argument for the Barclays Bank deal amounts to an everyone's-doing-it defense, an argument that most people give up trying on their parents by the time they are teenagers.
Just because the Barclays Bank deal didn't raise the hairs on Louis's neck doesn't mean that other Ratner supporters weren't offended and didn't consider the deal tone-deaf at best, a slap in the face at worst.
Posted by lumi at 7:46 AM
AY's Stuckey spins on WFAN; opponent Turner attempts brief rebuttal
Atlantic Yards Report "Oderizes" "Mike and the Dog" and the smooth sounds of Ratner exec Jim Stuckey:
I finally got a chance to listen to the 1/18/07 “Mike and the Mad Dog” show on WFAN radio, in which hosts Mike Francesa and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, rather uninformed about Atlantic Yards, interviewed the smooth-talking Jim Stuckey, president of Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards Development Group.
Notably, Stuckey downplayed the number of people filing suit to block/stall the project (ten rather than 26), hinted that the unfunded day care and health care facilities in the project would serve all new residents, and claimed that property owners who signed deals to sell to Forest City had "come forth" to praise the developer.
While the same day the Barclays Center deal had been announced, the hosts, who began their discussion before Stuckey got on the line, focused more on the legal issues.
Posted by lumi at 7:23 AM
Eminent Domain: Forest City and Bloomfield sever ties in redevelopment project
NJEminentDomain.com
Property owners in Bloomfield, NJ have managed to hold off the town's attempt to use eminent domain to take their property long enough for Bruce Ratner to pull out.
The buzz about Forest City and Bloomfield is confirmed. Forest City is out. The important question is: Who's in? According to Baristanet, McCarthy says the council has not selected another developer.
The removal of Forest City is a positive sign for the small business property owners fighting eminent domain. It doesn't mean the legal battle is over. It doesn't mean that Bloomfield has abandoned the blight designation or the threat to acquire the properties by eminent domain.
NoLandGrab: It's hard to tell from the outside what made Bruce Ratner, one of the most prolific beneficiaries of eminent domain abuse, walk. We're not counting on a change of heart.
However, the Bloomfield eminent domain condemnations had some technical problems which helped the property owners score some wins in court. The legal technicalities no doubt plunged the construction schedule into a black hole.
Also, just last week, two of the Bloomfield property owners learned that their buildings were removed from the redevelopment plan. Could it be that Caring Bruce got all upset, took his wrecking ball and went home?
Whatever the reason, we congratulate the lucky-duckies in Bloomfield for beating back the town and Bruce Ratner and hope that the remaining property owners still under threat of eminent domain are given some relief soon!
Posted by lumi at 7:05 AM
Massive Brooklyn Development Designed by Frank Gehry Gets Green Light
Architectural Record
By Fred A. Bernstein
The architecture trade magazine runs the news of the approval of Atlantic Yards and takes note of the opposition, though it doesn't get into the nitty gritty of the design and urban-planning problems.
With the recently completed IAC/InterActiveCorp.’s headquarters, Frank Gehry, FAIA, has finally made a mark on New York City. Now he is about to make a bigger one. In December, the state’s Public Authorities Control Board gave unanimous approval to plans for the Atlantic Yards, a $4 billion–plus Brooklyn development that is expected to contain more than 6,400 apartments, a new arena for the Nets basketball team, and several hundred thousand square feet of commercial space. Gehry will design every building on the 22-acre site.
...
Indeed, that scale—which involves inserting the approximate square footage of the old World Trade Center into a site just one-third larger—was at the heart of opposition to the development, with some critics calling more neighborhood-friendly elements, like a giant “front stoop” and glass-enclosed public atrium, Trojan horses. Now the project faces at least two lawsuits.
Posted by lumi at 6:54 AM
January 24, 2007
Robert Moses revisionism, Atlantic Yards "reconstruction," and the Times
Picketing Henry Ford's Stuart Schrader remarked this week, "At times this blog nearly writes itself."
One could say the same about Atlantic Yards Report where journalist/blogger Norman Oder had to put another hurtin' on The New York Times for their reference to "the reconstruction of Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn," in this weekend's article about Robert Moses.
NoLandGrab: It remains to be seen if the Times will run a correction. "Atlantic Yards," the name of Bruce Ratner's redevelopment plan, currently does not exist and certainly cannot be "reconstructed" as you can see in the image below. Click here to see the footprint of the "Atlantic Yards" project with the railyard portion highlighted.
Author Robert Caro also gets in on the action in his 1,269-page biography of Moses entitled, "The Power Broker," which goes to show that history really does repeat itself:
From The Power Broker (p. 460):
Mrs. Sulzberger [wife of the publisher] believed that Moses came "close to our ideal of what a Park Commissioner should be"; the Times evidently believed so, too. Its reporters and editors may never have been directly ordered to give Moses special treatment but, during the Thirties as during the Twenties, they were not so insensitive as not to know what was expected of them. Moses' press releases were treated with respect, being given prominent treatment and often being printed in full. There was no investigating of the "facts" presented in those press releases, no attempt at detailed analysis of his theories of recreation and transportation, no probing of the assumptions on which the city was building and maintining recreational facilities and roads. The Times ran more than one hundred editorials on Moses and his programs during the twelve-year La Guardia administration--overwhelmingly favorable editorials.
Oder goes on to explain to anyone who will listen at the New York Times why "Atlantic Yards" is a poor example for current large-scale redevelopment projects in NYC, due to the special use of the State (instead of City) review process.
Posted by lumi at 9:31 AM
Laugh Don't Destroy
Atlantic Yards is so funny we forgot to laugh, but Laugh Don't Destroy will have you in stiches. Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's next fundraiser could be a roofraiser, which, in this case, is better than a groundbreaker.
Posted by lumi at 8:46 AM
COUNTERPOINT
WFAN's "Mike and the Mad Dog" give Scott Turner from Fans For Fair Play a chance to air some of those pesky details that reveal that Atlantic Yards isn't such great deal for Brooklyn after all.
Though the ten-minute interview with Atlantic Yards Development Group President Jim Stuckey was posted on the Internet last week, the three-minute Turner interview has just been made available at http://podcast.wfan.com/wfan/99568.mp3.
Turner explains Ratner's affordable housing scheme, eminent domain abuse, Metrotech's myth and public financing of the Nets arena.
Posted by lumi at 8:28 AM
ESDC claims city/state, before AY, searched for a railyards project "without success"
Atlantic Yards Report
The Empire State Development Corporation's (ESDC) response memorandum of law, filed last Friday in the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case, challenges several arguments made by the plaintiffs, which should make for a contentious oral argument in court on February 7.
One ESDC statement about the Metropolitan Transportation's Authority's working Vanderbilt Yard really pushes the envelope:
In fact—as the ESDC Defendants explained in their opening brief and as the complaint itself makes plain (but as plaintiffs conveniently omit to mention in their response)—it is uncontested that at least half of the Atlantic Yards Project site is in fact blighted. The City made its blight determination nearly forty years ago, and renewed it in 2004. The State and City governments have been searching for a project to remedy that blight ever since—until now, without success.
Norman Oder explains in the rest of the article that the City and State didn't search that hard.
Posted by lumi at 8:23 AM
Brooklyn's O'Malley, Others Paved Way for Ratner
The NY Sun
By Evan Weiner
In a way, the announcement that Barclays Bank will be awarded naming rights for Bruce Ratner’s proposed Brooklyn arena, ends a 50-year sports business saga in the borough that began with Walter O’ Malley’s stadium bid. The arena will be built not far from the hole in the ground that O’ Malley, the president and owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, wanted for his proposed stadium. In early 1957, when it became clear he wouldn’t secure the kind of deal he wanted from Mayor Wagner and his envoy, Robert Moses, the astute businessman began eyeing the West Coast. This year, Ratner moved a step closer to bringing a major professional sports club, the Nets, to Brooklyn — with a great assist from Mayor Bloomberg.
...
O'Malley's wanderlust started with the move in 1953 of the Boston Braves to Milwaukee, where three years earlier Milwaukee city officials had resolved to build a stadium with the hope of landing a major league baseball team.That decision by Milwaukee elected officials is far more significant than the Dodgers and Giants moves. The local government changed the rules for stadium and arena funding and signaled the start of competition between cities for sports franchises. Cities were now willing to put up money for venues — something unheard of until that time.
...
Ratner’s move from New Jersey to Brooklyn will be neither historic nor ground-breaking. It’s just another franchise move in a deal that’s really about the real estate business, not sports. But professional sports have always been about business — the business is just bigger than it was when Walter O’Malley waved good-bye to Brooklyn 50 years ago.
Posted by lumi at 7:39 AM
January 23, 2007
Happy Bruce Day to You!
How old are you now?
From Wikipedia:
Bruce Ratner (born January 23, 1945 in Cleveland, Ohio) is president and CEO of Forest City Ratner, the New York division of Forest City Enterprises, which is based in Cleveland. Ratner was New York City's most active real estate developer during the 1990s. Ratner graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1967 and graduated from Columbia Law School in 1970.
"The Brucester" started out with a promising career in public service:
After obtaining his J.D. Ratner became the director of a Model Cities program for the Lindsay administration in New York City. Subsequently he served in the capacity of chief of the Consumer Protection Division in the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs under Mayor Ed Koch in 1978.
"Birthday Bruce" is known in some circles as the poster child for eminent domain abuse*, but in Brooklyn he's affectionately known as the "biggest guy around" and "Big Brother Bruce."
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn regrets that Bruce didn't get Prospect Heights for his birthday, but expect that tug of war to continue.
* Projects where Bruce Ratner has benefited or intends to benefit from the use of eminent domain include, Metrotech, The NY Times Tower, Atlantic Yards and a mixed-use redevelopment in Bloomfield, NJ.
Posted by lumi at 11:02 AM
Naming Rights and Wrongs Transcend Time Zones
The NY Times
By George Vecsey
Foreign domination is a red herring. The resisters in Brooklyn have better issues: whether the new $4 billion Atlantic Yards project is good for the people and the land and the lifestyle of that dynamic borough. Although the project has government approval, lawsuits are pending that could endanger the 2009-10 opening.
...
In an age of naming rights, we still have Dodger Stadium and Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium, with Yankees management claiming it will retain that hallowed name when the new ballpark on former Bronx parkland is completed in a few years. Walter O'Malley is now associated with an era of taste and restraint. Who would have believed it?
article ("Times Select" only, full text after the jump)
NoLandGrab: The NY Times sports columnist sort of misses the point about concern over the Barclays naming-rights deal.
There are some who wryly noted that Barclays had nothing to do with Brooklyn, but others, who have been deeply concerned with reclaiming property taken from Jews during the Holocaust, or corporations investing in the government of apartheid South Africa, are already familiar with Barclays. The issue, for those who care about these sorts of things, is whether or not this deal branding a new arena in Brooklyn with the name of a corporation that has a lot of baggage when it comes to issues like institutional racism, is a slap in the face to many Brooklynites.
Naming Rights and Wrongs Transcend Time Zones
By GEORGE VECSEY
What would Walter O'Malley have thought about the $400 million naming rights for a sports arena atop the railroad station in downtown Brooklyn, where he once feinted at building a ballpark?
Maybe that kind of money, even at lower 1957 levels, would have kept O'Malley from stuffing the Dodgers into his satchel and lamming it westward.
O'Malley was Irish enough to spend money on green uniforms in spring training every St. Patrick's Day, but I'm guessing he would not have turned down $400 million for 20 years of naming rights because Barclays Bank happened to have originated in England.
O'Malley, the former owner of the Dodgers, did not become rich by worrying about technicalities like foreign domination. Likewise, the people in Brooklyn trying to block the construction of an arena for the current Nets should stick to land-use issues.
I heard protesters on talk radio saying it was time to kick out the English all over again, but it is way too late for that. Globalization is here to stay.
*
Don't get me wrong. I hate naming rights as much as the next crank. I don't bother to learn the geeky names of companies that underwrite some modern stadiums, on the quite rational theory that these sponsors are likely to be defunct by the time I sort it all out.
The reality is, fans can call these new joints anything they want. It's a free country. A certain financial institution that keeps fiddling with its name and its logo recently paid $400 million for 20 years to plop its name on the next ballpark in Queens, and I passively went along with it, at the time.
But lately, as I risk my life on the frighteningly makeshift Whitestone Expressway, dangerously glancing at the early construction of the new stadium, I find myself calling it the New Shea. I didn't plan to do this. My twitchy little brain did it. New Shea. It's even punchier than the name they gave it, which is, aw, but I forget.
This same selective creativity could take place in Brooklyn, down the street from where the Brooklyn Academy of Music turned into BAM. As Richard Sandomir pointed out Friday in The New York Times (great bald minds think alike; I had already come to the same conclusion), that the new arena's name could be shortened to the Bark.
Foreign domination is a red herring. The resisters in Brooklyn have better issues: whether the new $4 billion Atlantic Yards project is good for the people and the land and the lifestyle of that dynamic borough. Although the project has government approval, lawsuits are pending that could endanger the 2009-10 opening.
Any way you look at it, we are all in a world market. Barclays is in 60 countries. Arenas in the United States are already named for multinationals like American Airlines or HSBC, whose headquarters are in Fort Worth and London. Besides, Barclays has a whole lot better karma than, say, Halliburton.
It's a little late for Americans to fret about foreign influence, after we took to the Beatles, Hondas, Kiri Te Kanawa, Dos Equis, Hideki Matsui, Pedro Almodóvar and Dirk Nowitzki. Recently, Major League Soccer paid a fortune for the aging English free-kick specialist David Beckham. We import when we want.
Also, America is marketing its sports like crazy for an international audience, as The Wall Street Journal pointed out Friday, depicting the N.F.L. training place-kickers in China.
At least American sports ownership tends to be homegrown (although Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is from the former planet of Pluto.) England, the home of Barclays, has had 6 of its 20 Premier League soccer clubs bought by raffish adventurers from exotic places like Russia, Israel, Iceland and the United States, with three more clubs likely to be sold.
Talk about naming rights: One of the grand old soccer teams, Arsenal, named for the munitions factory in north London, has moved into its new home - Emirates Stadium. (Arsenal plays Manchester United, owned by the Glazers from America, in the new place today.) Presumably, most fans of the Gunners know the stadium is named after an airline, not the country, but, still, it's not the same as the quaint old place, which was known as Highbury.
*
For my generation, O'Malley remains the devil incarnate for ignoring his Brooklyn roots and whisking the Dodgers across the continent. The weird thing was, after conning the locals out of a valuable ravine north of downtown, O'Malley and his son, Peter, maintained one of the most successful and tasteful sports franchises in the nation.
They avoided most advertisements in immaculate, pastel Dodger Stadium until the family sold the club in 1998, and much of the sedate ambiance survived the brief stewardship of the Murdochites and remains relatively intact under the McCourts.
In an age of naming rights, we still have Dodger Stadium and Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium, with Yankees management claiming it will retain that hallowed name when the new ballpark on former Bronx parkland is completed in a few years. Walter O'Malley is now associated with an era of taste and restraint. Who would have believed it?
Posted by lumi at 7:25 AM
Flashback to 2004: Bloomberg asserts project would be on vacant land, rely on private money
Atlantic Yards Report
It was three years ago, and how things have changed. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in his weekly radio appearance with WABC’s John Gambling on 1/23/04, addressed the announced sale of the Nets to Bruce Ratner (and other investors) and the prospects for the Atlantic Yards project.
Some key statements were either inaccurate or proven wrong as the project evolved. Notably, Bloomberg called the railyard in the proposed project site "vacant land," promised "an enormous number" of permanent jobs, and suggested that the developer would be responsible for nearly all the project funding.
Posted by lumi at 7:16 AM
Barclays and slavery: the Times muddies the issue
Atlantic Yards Report
The NY Times reacts to criticism that "a clarification or correction is in order."
Here's what the Times ran:
Several demonstrators protested outside the museum, accusing Barclays of participating in the state's attempt to use eminent domain to condemn property for the project. They also said Barclays profited from the slave trade yet is aligned with Ratner, who is marketing his team to African-American fans. A company spokesman said Barclays had not been involved in slavery.
Here's an editor's explanation:
Because we accurately conveyed what each group said and because we made no further claims ourselves, we see no reason for a clarification or correction. Thanks again.
NoLandGrab: The Times is clearly no longer interested in "journalism of verification."
Is it enough to run a quote from both sides (i.e. "we've looked, and can find no evidence of weapons of mass distruction" or "we must stop the madman from using weapons of mass distruction")? Remember, it was just this kind of journalism that led The NY Times to drive news coverage and public opinion down the road toward Iraq.
Posted by lumi at 6:42 AM
JAY-Z HELPS NJ NETS MOVE TO BROOKLYN
Chronic Magazine, "a blazin' source of hip-hop news," carried the AP article covering the Barclays-Ratner Nets-arena naming-rights deal.
Posted by lumi at 6:33 AM
Financial companies target brand-building
Investment News
By Charles Paikert
Branding took center stage last week as financial services companies jockeyed to project and amplify their images to ever-larger audiences. London-based Barclays PLC, one of the world’s largest banks, made the biggest splash, as it sought to pump up its anemic U.S. brand by agreeing to pay nearly $400 million over 20 years for the right to have its name on an arena in Brooklyn that hasn’t even been built. Nonetheless, the bank proudly took out full-page color ads in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal trumpeting the Frank Gehry-designed Barclays Center, which developer Bruce Ratner hopes will be built by 2009 as the new home of the New Jersey Nets basketball team.
Prudential Financial, Inc. and Citigroup, Inc. recently signed naming-rights deals in Newark and Queens, respectively.
Posted by lumi at 6:11 AM
Paying so they can play
NY Newsday, Letter to the Editor
Nothing gets the goat of the region's most prolific letterwriter, Larry Penner, like taxpayers getting stuck with the tab by wealthy sports-team owners:
UK Bank 'Nets' Deal to Name Arena' (Jan. 19) concerning Barclays Bank paying $400 million to Bruce Ratner for naming the Nets Brooklyn basketball arena proves my point why taxpayers should just say no to using public funds for any new major sports stadiums.
...
How sad that New York City taxpayers are continually asked to pay for new stadiums. Public dollars on the city, state and federal level are being used as corporate welfare to subsidize a private-sector business.The only real beneficiaries of these expenditures are team owners and their multimillion-dollar players.
Posted by lumi at 6:04 AM
January 22, 2007
Barclays Center: Where Symbolic Violence Meets Street Violence?
Picketing Henry Ford uses the media campaign for the Forest City Ratner-Barclays Bank naming-rights deal to explain the paradox of "globalization" and "financialization."
At times this blog nearly writes itself. The announcement that Barclays, a British investment bank with nary a US commercial branch, will pay for naming rights of the Gehry-designed basketball arena to be built at the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues is one such time. I have argued that undergirding the Atlantic Yards (AY) development is the immense movement of global capital associated with speculative real estate, even as this evolution in capitalism is responsible for the precarious economic position of so many minority communities in Brooklyn, whom Forest City Ratner (FCR) has enlisted for support of the project even though they are the least likely to reap any benefit from it. Additionally, I have argued that this project is especially characterized by a disconnect between superficial images and reality, a disconnect endemic to our hypervisual society, but increased by the use of a sham democratic review process, paid-off supporters, and an architect who, perhaps more than any of his peers, privileges the surface of his structures in order that they might enter into the image-based branding lexicon of their hometowns.
NoLandGrab: If you're too busy multi-tasking to parse through Stuart Schrader's intellectual mumbo-jumbo, think of it this way: it's beginning to dawn on folks that Wal-Mart seduces middle- and working-class America with low prices while undermining the economic (and thus political) stability of the same classes. Stuart Schrader is making the case that Atlantic Yards represents and exploits the same global-economic trends.
Posted by lumi at 10:55 AM
DDDB round-up
Here's a round-up of recent items from Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn:
A Net Loss?
We hadn't had a chance earlier to put up this item about figures DDDB uncovered in developer Bruce Ratner's own socio-economic study.
Let's do the math: "Atlantic Yards" proposes 900 low income units. The FEIS says that there could be 2,920 households at risk of indirect residential displacement. Even if we include all of the "affordable" units, 2,920 outpaces 2,250.
Even in the best case scenario the ESDC says that the "at-risk* population will be much smaller than 2,000." What's "much smaller": 1,000? 1,500? 800? Regardless, we are looking at a wash at best, with a net loss more likely.
Barclays Bank: Not Concerned
DDDB wonders what Barclays could possibly be "concerned" about:
Whether or not the arena construction can go forward? or
About the community's concerns? or
About abusing the Constitution? or
About their image of corporate responsibility and ethical decision-making?
All of this nostalgic drama was to announce that Barclays, not the World, was indeed giving something–$300 to 400 million. But Barclays is giving it to Bruce Ratner's Forest City Enterprises, not Brooklyn.
Posted by lumi at 10:50 AM
It came from the Blogosphere...
More blogosphere reaction on the Barclays naming-rights deal from the usual and unusual suspects:
FunkyPundit, Atlantic Yards' Latest Blemish
Incidentally, if, as the Empire State Development Corp. says, the Atlantic Yards is a "public arena" -- and it's certainly true it's to be publicly financed with triple-tax-free bonds -- then why, pray tell, don't we the people get naming rights?
Sports Business News, Location, Location, Location – the sports naming rights bar is raised again thanks to the Big Apple
In a naming rights agreement that defies economic logic, Barclay’s Bank and the New Jersey (soon to be Brooklyn) Nets last week announced a $400 million, 20-year agreement for the Nets new arena.