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April 19, 2007
Closing Fifth Avenue for Atlantic Yards, But Why So Soon?
Downtown Brooklyn Star
By Norman Oder
An interesting article trying to get to the bottom of the announcement that the 5th Avenue bus will be rerouted because the street north of Flatbush will be permanently closed on May 27, is a chilling vignette depicting how Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner gets government agencies to comply, even behind the back of the major player sponsoring the project, the Empire State Development Corporation:
Everybody following the Atlantic Yards plan knew that it would involve the closing and demapping of Fifth Avenue between Flatbush and Atlantic avenues to accommodate Frank Gehry's flagship Miss Brooklyn skyscraper, which would straddle the street and open, if all goes as predicted, by 2009 or 2010.
However, no one knew exactly when it would be closed until last week, when Brooklyn Community Board 6 got a letter from New York City Transit (NYCT) indicating that NYCT and the Department of Transportation (DOT) intended to revise service on the northbound B63 bus route on May 27, eliminating one stop.
The reason? "The closure and demapping of Fifth Avenue" between Flatbush and Atlantic "in the near future," according to NYCT's Lois Tendler.
But why so soon, given that several cases affecting and potentially blocking the project remain in court, and will not be resolved by the end of May? NYCT spokesman Charles Seaton said that the agency was simply reacting to DOT's plans: "If they demap the street, we can no longer run a bus."
But NYCT seems to be overstating the case. While DOT can close the street, it can't be demapped until it's been acquired by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), the state agency overseeing Atlantic Yards.
...
DOT, apparently, is the agency that could explain the timing of the change and the claim that the street would be demapped. However, despite four requests for comment over four days, the DOT did not respond by press time.
Posted by lumi at April 19, 2007 8:13 AM