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March 9, 2007
City: 100M for Yards land
Pols rip EDC plan to use public funds for private Ratner mega-project
NY Daily News
By Jotham Sederstrom
The city wants to spend $100 million to buy land tied to the Atlantic Yards project - money previously thought to be earmarked for improving infrastructure for the development.
Economic Development Corp. officials acknowledged at a City Council budget hearing Wednesday that about half of the city's contribution to the mega-project will go toward scooping up property on or near the 22-acre site for developer Forest City Ratner.
The agency's admission drew outrage from Brooklyn officials and from critics of the project, who worried that taxpayers would foot the bill on behalf of a private land grab.
"There's no justification to spend public money like this," said Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn Heights). "Government money should be spent on transportation infrastructure, schools and traffic calming - not subsidies for a private company."
In addition:
Forest City Ratner officials declined to comment.
NoLandGrab: Atlantic Yards critics have been telling anyone who would listen that the Memorandum of Understanding between the City and Ratner (1.8MB PDF) states plainly that "The City's capital contribution shall be used for the same purpose as the ESDC's capital contribution, except that the City's capital contribution may also be used to fund a portion of the costs of acquisition of the "Arena Site" (other than the MTA properties)."
No one should be surprised that it is coming to pass, but the outrage is warranted.
Posted by lumi at March 9, 2007 9:35 AM