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February 26, 2007
Brooklyn's Team-to-Be Hasn't Found Welcome Mat
The NY Times
By William C. Rhoden
Could this be some kind of record? Two days after running an op-ed criticizing the project, a NY Times sports columnist takes a hard look at the how a project that is supposed to unite Brooklynites behind one sports team, has remained controversial:
Three hours before the Nets were scheduled to play the Knicks in New Jersey yesterday, Rev. Clinton Miller sat in his office at the Brown Memorial Baptist Church in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn.
Miller wanted to talk basketball, not Knicks-Nets basketball, but the business of basketball. Specifically, he wanted to talk about the Nets' move to Brooklyn for the 2009-10 season.
The Nets are coming to Brooklyn as part of the $4.2 billion Atlantic Yards development. The project, by Forest City Ratner, was unveiled in 2003. Forest City Ratner is also the development partner in building the Midtown Manhattan headquarters for The New York Times Company.
The revitalized Atlantic Yards would include residential and office towers and a basketball arena for the Nets. A substantial portion of subsidized housing will be for families at different income levels, but only about one-seventh of the project's roughly 6,000 units will be affordable for tenants making less than half the median income for the New York City area.
NoLandGrab: The veteran columnist falls into the same trap as other NY Times reporters, by referring to the "revitalized Atlantic Yards." Atlantic Yards is Bruce Ratner's name for the entire 22-acre development. The eight-acre rail yard is called Vanderbilt Yards.
Another correction worth noting: The Empire State Development Corporation and Forest City Ratner assert that the project will now cost $4B, not $4.2B.
Link (TimesSelect subscribers only)
Posted by lumi at February 26, 2007 9:57 AM