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February 7, 2007
Atlantic Yards fight in court as mayor weighs in
AM NY
By Michael Clancy
Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the use of eminent domain Wednesday as residents fighting the mammoth Atlantic Yards project made their first court arguments in the case.
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"The entire ESDC process is a sham and a pre-text," said the plaintiff's lawyer Matthew Brinckerhoff. "It was a decision that was made already. We are entitled to prove that."
Bloomberg, who was not in court Wednesday, weighed in on the controversy, arguing individual needs can't trump a project of public benefit.
"In terms of development, you can't let one little person that -- one person that owns one little piece of property stop big developments, because otherwise we wouldn't have the housing that we need, we wouldn't have the schools that we need, we wouldn't have the infrastructure that we need," he said.
NoLandGrab: Yeah! You can't let "one little person" or even a dozen little people stop politically connected developers from circumventing local review to erect their privately owned projects. No way — this is America, damn it!
Posted by lumi at February 7, 2007 8:54 PM