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May 1, 2007
It came from the Blogosphere...
The Knickerblogger, Fundamentally Flawed
I attended the Unity Workshop thingy on Saturday and one graphic that really stood out was one illustrating flow of water from Vanderbilt yards to the gowanus canal- which is accomplished by gravity - that sewage water must then be pumped uphill, - back to Brooklyn Navy Yard - where it is treated.
One commentator, forgot her name, pointed out that the site was never built on because it was at the bottom of several hills - and thus a natural collector for rain water. This is already a problem without Atlantic Yards - raw sewage often goes directly into the Gowanus canal, adding 16,000 residents will exacerbate it beyond capacity.
No provision has been made for this...
NLG: To say that "no provision has been made for this" isn't exactly correct. Atlantic Yards (AY) developer Forest City Ratner announced that AY sewer overflows would be collected in catch basins to be released at a later time. Some critics find Ratner's claim that this would result in a net negative for sewage overflow to be a little fantastic.
Almost Hypergraphic, Destroying the Underground Railroad
Word is getting out about eminent domain abuse on Duffield St. and Atlantic Yards:
I don’t think any of you live in NYC, but this is what’s going on in (my) Brooklyn. It’s not cool. Also, the Develop, Don’t Destroy Brooklyn team is going to court against the Ratner folks on Thursday, to fight Ratner’s “Atlantic Yards” project. If the DDDB folks lose the Thursday trial, the push for eminient domain will be strengthened. A lot. And that is not good for anyone who owns property in this country. This is not making me sound like a good capitalist, I know. To balance out this post, let me just say, “Yay Starbucks! Hooray for Wal-Mart!”
NoLandGrab: Hey, don't worry about losing capitalist cred — real capitalists argue that Bruce Ratner should acquire property on the free market like the rest of us. In fact, Ratner's MetroTech project would make a good case study of how public-private partnerships are terrible at timing the market and frequently result in additional corporate welfare when the public has to bail out a faltering project. The "success" of MetroTech is highly questionable, given that the City of New York is the biggest tenant.
The Knickerblogger, What's a Few Historic Buildings When You Consider How Much Brooklyn Can Use More Parking Lots?
Like Almost Hypergraphic, Knickerblogger notes the relationship between Duffield St. and the Atlantic Yards footprint:
If this continues, Brooklyn will look more like a more crowded version of the blandest, poorly designed suburb. Building parking lots, ignoring infrastructure, increasing auto traffic, tearing down historic buildings, wasteful, flamboyant architecture....are Bloomberg and Ratner trying to relive their youth of the 1960s, when super blocks, auto-based infrastructure and wiping out the past were considered progressive?
Brooklyn Heights Blog, Yassky to Spitzer: Stopsky Yards Work
After yesterday's "oops" at Ward Bakery, Brooklyn Paper reports that Brooklyn Heights' City Councilman (and the next Mayor?) David Yassky is asking Governor Spitzer to stop Bruce Ratner's preliminary demolition work for Atlantic Yards before someone loses an eye errr sumthin'.
NY Immersion, Day Eight, Published in Wallpaper
A review of Frank Gehry's IAC building contains this reference to the celebrity architect's most ambitious project to date:
Time will tell how successful Frank Gehry will be with that other New York project, the Atlantic Yards debacle in Brooklyn.
Posted by lumi at May 1, 2007 7:39 AM