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May 11, 2007
State will watch Bruce — times 3
The Brooklyn Paper
By Gersh Kuntzman
State officials have gone three-faced on Atlantic Yards.
The Empire State Development Corporation — which approved developer Bruce Ratner’s the $4-billion mega-project last year — says it will create two new positions to oversee the project, in addition to an already created (though yet to be filled) job of “environmental monitor.”
Though this announcement comes on the heels of the partial collapse of the Ward Bakery building, the ESDC wants you to know that they've been working on this for a while:
“This [new oversight] has been in the works since at least early March,” said agency spokesman Errol Cockfield.
NoLandGrab: That's nice, but does it explain why Ratner was given the go-ahead to start the deconstruction phase before these measures were in place?
Local pols said the move was overdue. “This sort of oversight should have been put in place from the get-go, but it is good to see that ESDC has taken steps,” said Sam Rockwell, a spokesman for Councilman David Yassky (D–Park Slope).
Yassky’s colleague, Letitia James (D–Prospect Heights), was not as satisfied: “The community is still left out. My office gets e-mails and calls every day. People worry about asbestos and air quality, street closings, water service interruption, and many other issues. My office is clearly not set up to deal with these issues. … I hope the ombudsman will fill the void.”
The ESDC spokesperson sorta explains how this is supposed to work:
Cockfield suggested that the ombudsperson would do just that, serving as a point of contact for the community and elected officials. The environmental monitor will alert ESDC to damage to existing infrastructure, and monitor such things as noise, air pollution, traffic, and rodent infestation. The “owner’s rep” would bring concerns to Ratner.
“It’s going to be an intense level of oversight,” he said, adding that ESDC had been planning the move all along.
“This was not in reaction to the Ward Bakery,” he said.
NoLandGrab: Uh right, we got it, it had NOTHING to do with the Ward Bakery collapse.
Posted by lumi at May 11, 2007 8:12 AM