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May 31, 2007
It came from the Blogosphere...
The Real Deal, Downtown Brooklyn 'land rush'
Blurb and link to this week's Village Voice story on the Downtown Brooklyn plan and how small business owners and long-time residents are getting the boot:
"While Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards megaproject and the insta-towers popping up across Williamsburg have gotten more attention, an equally big land rush is stalking downtown Brooklyn in the wake of a rezoning approved by the city in 2004." Some of the current plans for the area include the construction of an underground parking garage connected to a rising Sheraton; the development of a 594,000-square-foot, mixed-use building called Willoughby West; and the razing and redevelopment of what is now the Albee Square Mall. As the various plans begin to take shape, many longtime businesses are being served with eviction papers.
The DCeiver, Nobody Knows Who You Are!
Okay. I saw the latest Spiderman sequel, and liked it. Yeah, the second one was better, yadda blah de blah. I still found it enjoyable, in spite of or perhaps because of the way my expectations were calibrated by the lukewarmy reviews.
Nevertheless, there were five things that struck me as just sort of lame or implausible:
- Can a construction crane really freak the fuck out like that? Because DC is home to, like, ten kabillion cranes, and I've never heard of one going all whirly like the one in the movie. I'm just going to have to accept that scene as Sam Raimi making an allegorical statement against the Atlantic Yards project.
I'm seeing green, Sideways Costs
A planner discusses the "externalities" of Atlantic Yards (aka the costs that are obvious to anyone but developer Bruce Ratner and local politicians).
The externalities of the Atlantic Yards project should have been well addressed by the Environmental Impact Report...
Alas, the DOT's one-way plan (which was killed before it hit the streets), impending utility rate hikes and school overcrowding were not "well addressed."
Posted by lumi at May 31, 2007 7:34 AM