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May 11, 2007
Yassky to city: Hold Ratner accountable
The Brooklyn Papers
By Ariella Cohen
A City Councilman slammed city economic development officials for allocating $205 million to the Atlantic Yards mega-development without getting a guarantee that developer Bruce Ratner will make good on all of his promises to Brooklyn.
The $205-million budget item was formally approved this week by the Council, despite a call by David Yassky (D–Brooklyn Heights) for the city to make sure that Ratner actually provides the job training and education programs he promised in a “Community Benefit Agreement” that helped the developer gain critical black support for the controversial project.
“Taxpayers are putting millions of dollars into this project, [so] there must be a way to guarantee all of the benefits that [Ratner] promised hundreds of times,” Yassky said after the Tuesday hearing.
NoLandGrab: For the record, City Councilmembers Letitia James and Charles Barron have been making this point for the past three years.
It's interesting that just last June, Yassky submitted a $3 million budget request "asking city taxpayers to underwrite a promise that Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner made to a handful of community organizations... after BUILD President James Caldwell and other CBA signatories endorsed his bid to succeed retiring Rep. Major Owens (D-Crown Heights) in the mostly black 11th congressional district in central Brooklyn," (see, The Brooklyn Papers, Yassky bill would push $3M to Ratner crony).
Posted by lumi at May 11, 2007 6:43 AM