No Land Grab

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August 31, 2007

Desktop Day

For the past two weeks Brit in Brooklyn featured Atlantic Yards in its end-of-week feature, Desktop Day.

Click on the image to surf on over to Brit in Brooklyn's downloading instructions.

Flatbush and Fifth The bright red JRG Cafe has been Ratnered and the Williamsburg Bank clock is still shrouded.

Gehry, Thy Name is Eminent Domain This piece of graphic art from the Atlantic Yards footprint will brighten up any pc desktop.

Posted by lumi at 8:19 PM

Wrecking balls

The Brooklyn Paper

Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner will move forward with a long-planned demolition this week, leaving a family that is suing to stop the project to live, literally, in the shadow of its progress.

Over the next week, the developer will complete the emergency demolition of the Wards Bakery parapet, which collapsed in a near-fatal accident in April, and also move forward with preliminary demolition of buildings at 814 and 818 Pacific St., between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues, according to a construction update issued by the Empire State Development Corporation.

For the village of holdouts that remain in the project’s largely abandoned footprint, the construction notice was dismissed with a sigh.

“All the buildings are coming down. Sometimes if feels like it makes no sense for ours to be standing up,” said Maria Gonzalez, who has lived at 812 Pacific St. with her husband, Jose, for 35 years.

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NoLandGrab: Taking down every building in sight is a tried-and-true tactic straight from the land-grabbing developers' playbook. And Maria Gonzalez's response to it is exactly the emotion Bruce Ratner is aiming for.

Posted by lumi at 8:37 AM

The Times knows how to do better, just not when it comes to Atlantic Yards

Atlantic Yards Report

The New York Times is capable of fact-checking dubious or incomplete claims and it's capable of sustained reportorial attention--just not enough when it comes to Atlantic Yards.

Consider the tough analysis of the post-Katrina recovery, as noted in an article published Thursday headlined Commemorations for a City 2 Years After Storm. (Click on graphic to enlarge.)

Imagine if, say, the Times had similarly fact-checked the projection (according to a document by developer Forest City Ratner) that Atlantic Yards would be finished by 2015, given that the official date is 2016 and the the timetable is already behind schedule?

Or if the Times had reminded readers that the claim of 15,000 construction jobs really means 1500 jobs a year over ten years?

Or if the Times corrected the multiple claims, which it reproduced uncritically, that Atlantic Yards would be built on the "same site" as the proposed new Brooklyn Dodgers stadium?

Or if the Times, belatedly but responsibly, corrected the flagrantly inaccurate 12/11/03 claim, by then-architecture critic Herbert Muschamp, that the project site "is now an open railyard."

Maybe it's tougher to correct your own mistakes, but the Times has had a significant impact on framing the Atlantic Yards story.

Norman Oder wonders who's responsible.

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Posted by lumi at 8:34 AM

Art attack: City to evict art space for … art space!

The Brooklyn Paper

This is the third land grab we've heard about under the Downtown Brooklyn plan, the other two being Duffield St. and Track Data.

This one is particularly ironic because an arts organization is supposed to be displaced for ANOTHER arts organization.

The city wants to use its power of eminent domain to push out an almost-finished arts venue in Fort Greene to make way for a Manhattan-based dance troupe and 150 new housing units that comprise the centerpiece of the so-called BAM Cultural District.

“Our goal was to create a live music-and-arts venue,” said Todd Triplett, one of the three friends behind the Amber Art and Music Space, which is being built in a former liquor store at Fulton Street and Ashland Place.

Lured by the promise of the burgeoning “Lincoln Center of Brooklyn” that the city envisions for the area around BAM, Triplett and his partners invested more than $1 million, and spent a year and a half turning the run-down, three-story space into a performance venue, recording studio and an arts non-profit.

That grand idea was shattered on Aug. 21, when Jack Hammer, the director of Brooklyn Planning for the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, informed the three partners that the agency wants to seize the site by eminent domain to make way for the Dancespace Project, a Manhattan-based dance group.

“We were four weeks away from completion, and we get this letter. The city is f—king us,” said Triplett, who has already gotten a liquor license and booked musical acts into 2008. “I’ve never seen anything this egregious. This is in the tradition of Robert Moses.”

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NoLandGrab: Ya think the City could find someone else to hand out eminent domain letters, someone not named "Jack Hammer."

A lesson for ALL New Yorkers living and doing business in a neighborhood undergoing rezoning: if your plans for your property do not conform to the EXACT goals of the rezoning plan, then you could be the next to get screwed.

Triplett could just as well have said that this is in the tradition of Mike Bloomberg.

Posted by lumi at 8:10 AM

Changing the Face of NYC: The Mega Development Roundup

The Indypendent
By Chris Anderson

New York City is in the mood to expand. While the recent death of Jane Jacobs and the rehabilitation of Robert Moses may signal the passing of the “livable city” zeitgeist, the real impact of the city’s newly assertive development policies will be felt by ordinary New Yorkers in neighborhoods across the five boroughs. Here’s a look at three mega-development projects and the issues involved.

Atlantic Yards
Possibly no development battle has been more bitter than the fight over the Forest City Ratner Atlantic Yards project in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. The centerpiece of the project, according to supporters, will be the Barclays Center, which will serve as the new home of the NBA ’s New Jersey Nets. Along with the basketball arena, the Atlantic Yards development includes retail and commercial space and 6,430 units of mixed income residential housing.

Controversies: By far the most controversial aspect of the Atlantic Yards project is the expected use of eminent domain to clear remaining residential holdouts out of Prospect Heights. An additional major criticism is the size of the project. At 6,430 units holding a New York City average of two people per unit, the resulting population increase would make the area around Atlantic Yards the most densely populated census tract residential community in North America. Project supporters, which include the nominally left-leaning community group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), contend that project opponents are little more than a middle-class clique of NIMB Ys (Not In My Backyard).

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NoLandGrab: Officially, Bruce Ratner's controversial megalopolis is so big, it spans more than one census tract, thus diluting the definition, if not the effect, of the extreme density of the project. The Atlantic Yards proposes an historic experiment in residential density — the proper expression is, if built, the project would be the densest residential community in the nation by more than a factor of two.

One more thing. Is it just us, or is the NIMBY-card played when project supporters run out of nice things to say about the project?

Posted by lumi at 7:55 AM

NBA Photo Wire

ESPN.com
Photo, Mark Lennihan for AP

The Atlantic Yards Vanderbilt Yards, center, are shown in an aerial photo on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Developer Forest City Ratner plans to construct 16 skyscrapers and an 18,000-seat arena for the NBA's Nets above and around the Long Island Railroad yards. The project is to include office suites, a hotel, 6,400 apartments and a 500-foot glass tower. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

link

NoLandGrab: "Atlantic Yards" is the name of Ratner's project; the proper name of the railyard is "Vanderbilt Yard."

This photo nicely illustrates the location of Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards project in relation to "Downtown Brooklyn," which is the first bank of buildings well behind the Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower. Most of Ratner's pr materials, including www.atlanticyards.com, locate the project in "Downtown Brooklyn." The correct location of the project is Prospect Heights.

We've taken the same photo and outlined the footprint of the Atlantic Yards plan. Two long city blocks slated for demolition and clearance at the east end of the project (bottom right) are not included in this aerial view.

Posted by lumi at 7:33 AM

Forest City in the News

dBusinessNews Cleveland, Forest City's First-Half Earnings Conference Call

TO: Interested analysts, brokers and investors
FROM: Forest City Enterprises
RE: Forest City's First-Half Earnings Conference Call
Forest City Enterprises will release its first-half 2007 financial results on Monday September 10, 2007 and will hold a conference call on Tuesday September 11, 2007 at 2:00 P.M. ET to discuss these results. You are invited to dial into the conference call with Charles A. Ratner, President and Chief Executive Officer.

The conference call is scheduled for 2:00 P.M. ET, Tuesday September 11, 2007. To participate, dial 800.591.6942 using access code 18356008, approximately five minutes before the call and tell the operator you wish to join the Forest City First-Half Earnings Conference Call. The live broadcast will also be available online at .

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Master developer sought for Hazelwood site

Efforts to bring a $400 million development with housing, commercial space, community amenities and greenspace to a 178-acre former LTV Corp. coke works property in Hazelwood will move forward under new direction, officials said.

A master developer is being sought to spearhead development of the prime riverfront site since Cleveland-based developer Forest City Enterprises Inc. is no longer actively involved.

"By mutual agreement with Forest City, we've decided to move in another direction," Robert Stephenson, president of the Regional Industrial Development Corp., said this week.

TampaBay.com, Hillsborough seeks Wiregrass halt

Slightly more than a month after Wiregrass Ranch won approval from Pasco officials, Hillsborough County has filed an appeal to stop the 5,000-acre development.

Hillsborough commissioners told the Florida Department of Community Affairs on Thursday that they want the developer to give $28-million to widen the segment of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard between County Line Road and Pebble Creek Boulevard.

Hillsborough is remaking the road from four to eight lanes, but its officials say Wiregrass will eat up 80 percent of that new capacity.
...
Hillsborough officials say they've tried repeatedly to ask for help from Pasco and Wiregrass developers, which include Pulte Homes, Forest City Enterprises and the Goodman Co.

Posted by lumi at 7:16 AM

August 30, 2007

YARD SALE

The Village Voice

The first letter to the editor this week addresses the other N-word:

Chris Thompson's 'NIMBY Love' [August 22–28] trivializes a serious community effort to develop better alternatives to the Forest City Ratner project for Atlantic Yards, Brooklyn's largest (ever) mega-project. This article belongs in a society-page gossip column, because it focuses mostly on the personal lives of two individuals and misses the powerful role of hundreds of community leaders and activists who took part in the planning sessions that led up to the creation and refinement of the community's UNITY Plan. This plan looks at better ways to build over the rail yards. It is definitely not "NIMBY" (Not In My Backyard), and it addresses the transportation, open-space, and affordable-housing needs of the neighborhood. The plan proposes a truly transparent and public planning process for a site that is largely publicly owned, but is being offered to a single private developer to meet that developer's own business plan. We invite the Voice to take a serious look at the UNITY Plan when it is unveiled in September and to talk to the protagonists of the plan, community leaders, and the full technical team that we head up.

Tom Angotti
Marshall Brown
Ron Shiffman
Brooklyn

From Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's response:

The article, half of which was about a plan to develop our "backyard " in a sane manner through a democratic process, witlessly resorted to knee-jerk name-callling.

Posted by lumi at 10:16 AM

Kids Disco Don't Destroy

Dust off your Goody pocket combs (you know, the ones with the handles!) and get out your curling irons because disco might be dead, but it don't destroy.

For more info, check out http://dddb.net/kddd.php.

[Hey, my copy of "Disco Duck" has gotta be around here somewhere.]

Posted by lumi at 9:57 AM

Analysis of the Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn Campaign

A study of how aesthetic choices in the campaign perpetuated class divisions in the movement.

NYC Indy Media
By Jessica Cannon

In the new issue (#5) of the Journal of Aesthetics & Protest (www.joaap.org/5/index2.htm), NYC based writer/artist Jes Cannon looks at how particular choices by the Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn Campaign perpetuated class distinctions among the Brooklyn residents, possibly contributing to the movements' loss.

NoLandGrab: "Loss?" Did someone forget to tell us that we were supposed to pack it in?

NYC Indy Media must have missed the pending lawsuits while they were busy dissecting the movement.

A recent conversation with Joel Towers, a founder of DDDB and practicing architect and educator, shed some light on the challenges of the process: “The DDDB project unearthed a great deal of potential to develop strategies and tactics that are about community organization and agency. It also revealed in rather brutal terms the mobility associated with wealth, the fact that community is a gross term, especially in neighborhoods that are in the midst of transformation. This plan affects one of the most diverse communities. Because of this diversity you have different degrees of mobility, agency, attachment to place, and those forces, ultimately the forces of capital ended up being stronger than our ability to produce community with other kinds of kinship patterns.”

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NoLandGrab: Interesting, but the premise is a little simplistic. Missing from this analysis of the difficulty of maintaining a diverse grassroots, yet well branded, coalition is that the developer Bruce Ratner always has the advantage, not just of money and political and media clout, but the advantage of always playing offense.

Because many of the details of the plan were and still remain hidden from the public, the coalition has had the dual challenge of trying to steer a diverse group toward consensus while uncovering and publicizing many of the more astonishing and murky details of the plan, all the while under fire from Ratner supporters and newspaper columnists who have sought to brand the coalition as NIMBY.

This additional layer is probably still too simplistic, and the whole topic deserves further analysis and thought.

Posted by lumi at 9:28 AM

PHOTO IRONY: THE STREET IS OUR BRUCE'S STADIUM

Photo, Tracy Collins, via flickr

One of the streets bounding this triangle in the footprint of Atlantic Yards, if Bruce Ratner has is way, IS going to be part of a stadium, or more precisely, an arena.

AD COPY:
THE STREET IS OUR STADIUM

STREET GAMES
THURSDAYS 10PM
SNY THE SPORTS OF THE BOROUGHS, FROM STICKBALL, TO HANDBALL, TO THE BIKE MESSENGER RACE WWW.SNY.TV/STREETSGAMES

Posted by lumi at 9:08 AM

EMINENT DOMAINIA

New Yorkers have seemed immune to the national outrage over the abuse of eminent domain for private developers, but we're sensing a change. Perhaps it has to do with an increase in the City's and State's appetite for using eminent domain to take land for politically connected private developers, or maybe because the local media are finally devoting more coverage to the issue. One thing is certain — the issue isn't going away as the protracted battles continue to heat up.

Yesterday's amNY published a letter in response to their extensive coverage of the fight to save the Duffield St. Abolitionist homes, and an article about the possible use of eminent domain in Coney Island:

Destroying NYC history

Re "Last Stop for Slave History" (Aug. 27): Unfortunately, I am not surprised to hear that once again, the city is using eminent domain to destroy more of our rapidly vanishing history. Not surprised, but very disgusted. All for what? Another faceless, homogenized strip of Starbucks, Duane Reades and unaffordable condos? Even if the Underground Railroad connection can't be proven, these are beautiful, historic homes in their own right, more than 150 years old. Give Bloomberg and Co. another few years, and this great city will be indistinguishable from virtually every other suburb in this country, and to me, that is completely unacceptable. People are losing their homes, neighborhoods are being destroyed and we are being robbed of our history. Fellow New Yorkers — some outrage?

— Deirdre MacNamara, Brooklyn

Eminent domain in Coney Island?

Though it's unlikely, NYC could use the threat of the use of eminent domain to force developer Joseph Sitt to come up with a plan for Coney Island that conforms more closely with the City's vision for redevelopment.

As city officials play hardball with a developer over the future of Coney Island's amusement zone, rumblings of a land takeover by the Bloomberg administration through eminent domain have surfaced in published reports.

But that scenario remains a long shot, say eminent domain experts.

"It is a possibility, but I would say it's a remote possibility," said William Ward, a New Jersey attorney who has worked for the government and in the private sector, serving clients on both sides of eminent domain cases.

What we found most interesting about the Coney Island article is that it ranked #1 among yesterday's most popular stories online, outpacing the good fortune of the late "Queen of Mean's" pooch.

Posted by lumi at 8:41 AM

In Case of 421-a Reform, Good Governance Is In Eye of Beholder

State Bill Overhauls Affordable Housing Requirements for Tax Breaks

Brooklyn Daily Eagle
By Sarah Ryley

This article does a pretty good job of explaining the bill, and is worth a read. NoLandGrab is only going to focus on the Ratner Clause today:

Adding to the confusion over the controversial bill — which determines how much affordable housing, if any, developers have to include to receive property tax breaks — few people close to the issue were clear on exactly what the bill says, particularly in regards to the controversial Atlantic Yards “carve out.”

Here's Ryley's explanation of the Atlantic Yards "carve out" (footnotes, ours)

Atlantic Yards would be the only project within the exclusion zone that receives tax breaks for buildings that have only market-rate condominiums, but the tax exemption was changed from 25 years to 15 years, according to Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s office.

[This concession, touted by the Governor's office, appears to have made the carve-out more politically palatable.]

The original bill allowed only Atlantic Yards to average the income level of tenants in the “affordable units” so it would equal 70 percent of the area median income (versus requiring that tenants earn no more than 60 percent of the area median income). After recent revisions, the developer can make 20 percent of its units affordable to those earning up to 120 percent of the area median income, as long as they all average out to 90 percent. The new requirement is the same that other heavily government subsidized projects must adhere to, mainly because those projects were originally conceived to create more middle income housing in the city.

[This is where the benefits to Ratner get really fuzzy. This suggests that Ratner's affordable housing is more of a middle-income than a low-income housing plan. Also, It's not clear what "other heavily government-subsidized projects" refers to, though it's likely that the reference pertains primarily to Queens West, the CIty's favorite project du jour.]

It should be noted that Atlantic Yards was planned under the old legislation, when developer Bruce Ratner promised to include low- and middle-income housing in the project even though he could have built no affordable housing in any of the buildings and still received a 25-year tax abatement.

[This is a reminder that Ratner was planning on reaping even more benefits.]

Although no one will come out publicly in support of the special provisions within the legislation, including developer Forest City Ratner’s own people, privately some are calling it a grandfather clause. Also, Ratner is expecting other subsidies and financing that dictate what percentage of the housing in the project must be made affordable — but none would have given the company tax abatements for the market rate buildings.

[We repeat: the actual benefit is murky because, as we mentioned above, it looks like it's more of a middle-income housing plan, but "Ratner is expecting other subsidies and financing" which will ultimately help "dictate" how many units must be provided to applicants in different income bands (determined by percentage of the area's median income).]

“It’s unfortunate that again, public benefits are again being utilized to subsidize middle-income housing in Atlantic Yards,” says [NYC Councilmember Letitia] James. “So many community-based organizations came out in support of Atlantic Yards primarily because of the alleged affordable housing.”

[James makes the same observation — that it appears that Ratner's "affordable" housing will be directed more towards the middle-income applicants, thus making his "affordable" housing plan more expensive for those who need it most.]

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NoLandGrab: There are not a lot of developers who can get personal legislative consideration, especially in a "reform" bill, but there's only one "Bruce."

Posted by lumi at 8:04 AM

New downtown? The Atlantic Yards office space, in DC context

Atlantic Yards Report

In honor of yesterday's shortsighted Wall Street Journal article on Atlantic Yards office space, it's worth a look at how big that office space might be. Remember, when it was proposed on 12/10/03, Atlantic Yards was to contain 2.1 million square feet of office space, as "New York City requires... additional office space to create and retain new jobs."

But those four office towers, which led columnist Andrea Peyser to rhapsodize about 10,000 office jobs, have mostly been traded for condos. After two rounds of cuts, the proposed Atlantic Yards office space now would cover 336,000 square feet, with space for 1340 jobs and likely 375 new jobs.

That's hardly the new downtown some have claimed for Atlantic Yards, especially since there's no need, as yet, for all the office space proposed in the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning. Atlantic Yards would consist of an arena, a mixed-use office/condo/hotel tower, plus a residential complex--a latter-day Stuyvesant Town, much more dense but at least with retail in the base of the buildings.

Norman Oder sizes up Atlantic Yards office space using DC as an example.

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Posted by lumi at 7:50 AM

Attacking Overdevelopment on Several Fronts

Brooklyn Downtown Star
By Shane Miller

City Councilman Bill de Blasio and Congressional Representative Yvette Clarke speak out against overdevelopment (really).

Downzoning? Landmarking? Moratorium on all new construction? Yes, yes, and yes, say residents of Carroll Gardens.

Such was the general consensus at a town hall meeting hosted by Councilman Bill de Blasio, which saw upwards of 100 people pack into Scotto Funeral Home on 1st Place last Thursday evening.

Though the two supporters of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards, the historically dense ode to overdevelopment, don't see a connection between overdevelopment in Carrol Gardens and the Gowanus Canal area and overdevelopment just a few blocks over in Prospect Heights, the people who live here do:

Marlene Donnelly of Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus (FROGG), for instance, would rather see the area along the canal restored to a natural wetland state. Donnelly worries that more development, along with the proposed Atlantic Yards project, will only tax the canal further, and that the areas around the Gowanus Canal are being rezoned to facilitate a downzoning of the greater Carroll Gardens area.

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Posted by lumi at 6:59 AM

August 29, 2007

atlantic yards, brooklyn

Photographer Melissa Cacioppo just posted the photos that appeared in last year's Footprints: Portrait of a Brooklyn Neighborhood art exhibit.

[The Footprints exhibit was reprised in an abridged non-"hagiographic" version at the Brooklyn Public Library in February 2007, with banned work exhibited in Freddy's Salon des Refusés.]

Posted by lumi at 9:51 AM

Our lagging infrastructure, the mismatch with municipalities, and the AY (bad) example

Atlantic Yards Report

There's been a lot of concern about crumbling infrastructure in America's cities. What's being done, or not done? Why? How did Atlantic Yards become the posterproject for misplaced priorities?

Norman Oder connnects the dots:

A bridge collapse in Minneapolis and a steam-pipe explosion in Manhattan serve as a jumping-off point for a lengthy New Republic essay by architecture critic Sarah Williams Goldhagen, headlined American Collapse (subscribers only).

And, yes, Atlantic Yards eventually surfaces as a bad example of a public-private partnership that skirts real public needs. Both she and Joel Kotkin, an analyst writing in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, point to an unhealthy municipal focus on sports facilities and other sideshows.

Links:
Atlantic Yards Report
Wall St. Journal, via joelkotkin.com, Road Work
The New Republic, American Collapse (subscribers only)

Posted by lumi at 8:51 AM

NYC Live Music Calendar 8/29-9/9/07

From Lucid Culture:

Fri Aug 31 the Freddy’s Bar crew takes over Hank’s, Atlantic Ave. and 3rd Ave. (they intersect), any train to Atlantic Ave. and walk back on Atlantic toward Brooklyn Heights.

This night is pretty appropriate since both venues’ days are numbered by encroaching luxury housing, [Freddy's] by the Ratso Ratner Atlantic Yards goons while Hank’s owner has put the place up for sale as a “development site” – you know what that means. John Sharples and his jangly crew play around 10 followed by Plastic Beef who will have the nonpareil Erica Smith singing this time, and jam the hell out of everything they touch with some pretty way-out results.

link

Posted by lumi at 8:41 AM

The Wall Street Journal, on real estate and AY, needs some footnotes

Atlantic Yards Report

Norman Oder provides footnotes to a Wall Street Journal article about commercial space in Brooklyn, which features Atlantic Yards. [It's currently only available to subscribers, but we'll post it when we get the full text.]

Oder consults documents obtained from Forest City to check the numbers cited in the article, and notes constantly shifting justification for more office space in Brooklyn:

The article continues:

Miss Brooklyn is expected to command rents in the $50-to-$60-a-square-foot range, according to MaryAnne Gilmartin, executive vice president for Forest City Ratner. That is above the $30 average asking rent in Brooklyn, which has historically appealed to financial-services companies as an affordable back-office location that offers good value in comparison to Manhattan. But Glenn Markman, an executive director at Cushman & Wakefield, believes the borough will attract new types of companies, such as those in creative industries that will be willing to pay higher rates for a signature building.

Maybe. Actually, according to projections in a Forest City Ratner document released in response to the lawsuit by Assemblyman Jim Brennan and State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Class A office space is expected to rent at $39 for the first five years, $42.90 for the next five years, $47.19 for the next five years. It would top $50, at $51.91, only beginning in year 16.

Unmentioned: the severe cutback in planned Atlantic Yards office space, from about 2 million square feet to 336,000 square feet, and thus a cut in projected jobs. While Brooklyn may attract creative industries, the justification for the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning, and the initial Atlantic Yards office space, was to meet the need for back office space--large floor plates in large building sites for non-creative industries like financial services.

NoLandGrab's two cents: It's noteworthy that, due to vacancies, MetroTech is NOW being rebranded as space for the creative-services industries (see, MetroNY, March 21, 2007).

The real story, totally missed by the Journal reporter, is that, having failed to attract enough back-office corporate operations, and with government agencies having failed to fill the vacancy gap (the City of NY is MetroTech's largest tenant), Brooklyn Class-A office space (most of it already held by Ratner) is now being marketed to the creative industries. This concept seems like a stretch, and has yet to be proven. To be featured in reference to a project that still faces signficant hurdles is creative reporting.

Oder also catches a Forest City Executive in one of their regular prevarications:

The article concludes by giving the developer the benefit of the doubt:

Ms. Gilmartin says Forest City has cut about one million square feet from the project and has worked with state, city and local leaders to address issues of scale and density. In addition, she says the project's location over one of the city's biggest transit hubs makes sense because it will give people access to public transportation, which can help limit traffic.

Gilmartin seems to be channeling her mysteriously-departed predecessor, Jim Stuckey: the project, in terms of square footage, is about the same size as announced, an issue that flummoxed the press nearly a year ago.

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Posted by lumi at 8:15 AM

Forest City Gets The Green Light to Move Forward

ABC30, KFSN
By Maureen Naylor

There Forest City goes again, using eminent domain and massive taxpayer subsidies to build a "mixed-use urban village."

NoLandGrab: Seriously, where's the risk when they keep using other people's land and other people's money? And, WTF is an "urban village?" Either it's urban or a village, right?

Enough ranting, from the report:

Today's decision did 4 things:

• Approved concept of the project.
• Gave the go-ahead for the environmental impact report.
• Extended Forest City's exclusive rights to develop the South Stadium project until January 2009.
• City Agreed to find public funding.

Public Funding has become a point of contention. The mayor has expressed concern about the city putting forward possibly $163 million over the projects 3 phases. He says the city may be making a mistake by putting up so much money for a company that hasn't produced anything in years.

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NoLandGrab: Final approval will allow for the use of eminent domain to seize land from property owners who decline to sell.

The reporter mentioned that the presentation featured a "public park" — as Brooklynites know, Forest City's parks are generally "private," though "publicly accessible," despite what executives tell the media. It will be interesting to see if Fresno residents get a real public park in the deal.

Posted by lumi at 7:46 AM

OKLYN AIDS K FORCE

Photo by Tracy Collins, taken 03/28/07

From the ATLANTIC YARDS RATNERVILLE CONSTRUCTION DEMOLITION UPDATE:

Abatement will continue at 465 Dean Street (block 1127/lot 54).

465 Dean Street is the former home of the Brooklyn AIDS Task Force, which, according to their web site, is now located a block and a half away on Bergen St.

Posted by lumi at 7:22 AM

It came from the Blogosphere...

Illuminati Under the Microscope, Zionist family links 666 Terrorist law firm and Fox News to Flight 93
If it's on the Internet, it must be true, right? Finally, a working hypothesis for the String Theory of Ratnerville:

Three siblings of a powerful and wealthy zionist family weave an interesting web of intrigue and coincidences that connect a law firm that represents accused terror suspects, Fox News the NBA New Jersey Nets and their new home in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center to the truth behind the Flight 93 and 9/11 story.

It is up to the reader to determine if the following information is simply a chance event or if it is yet additional evidence that a powerful cabal orchestrated the attacks as a means to create a national security police state in America. The evidence will speak for itself.

Duffield St. Underground, Failure to inspect basements
Monday's firings of fire officials for failure to inspect the basement of the Deutsche Bank building "is in stark contrast to AKRF, which wrote an environmental review of the Duffield Street homes [Brooklyn's other land grab]. After working for more than two years and receiving a reported $500,000, AKRF failed to send an archeologist inspect the basements of the Duffield and Gold Street properties."

Brownstoner, Condos of the Day: 543 Dean Street
Yesterday's "Condos of the Day" have some pluses and minuses and one wild animal:

The elephant in the room, of course, is everybody's favorite decade-long construction project known as Atlantic Yards. Only time will tell how big a hurdle that will be in trying to move these babies.

NoLandGrab: 543 Dean St. is in the middle of the block surrounded on three sides by Bruce Ratner's historically dense Atlantic Yards plan, which, if you ask Ratner, will take ten years to build, or much longer if you ask anyone else.

Posted by lumi at 6:48 AM

August 28, 2007

UWAGA! AZBESTY

POWODUJA RAK PLUC MASKI TWARZOWE I UBRANIE OCHRONNNE WYMAGANE.

Photo by Tracy Collins, uploaded August 12, 2007

Though the "Azbesty-filled" dumpster was shot on the lot on the southwest corner of Pacific St. and Vanderbilt Ave., Collins informed us that he thought it could be for the abatement at 814 Pacific St or for the demolition at 546 Vanderbilt Ave., where, according to the past three Atlantic Yards RATNERVILLE Construction DEMOLITION Updates, "Demolition has commenced... and is anticipated to be underway for the next two–three months."

[For the record, the Uwaga was also posted en Español and in English.]

Posted by lumi at 1:09 PM

It's official, Atlantic Yards to get special subsidies under "reform" bill (or something like that)

Either Atlantic Yards is getting special subsidies or is being treated the same as other developers, depending on what you're reading, and Ratner is getting hundreds of millions of dollars or saving the City hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on who's spinning:

City Limits, DEVELOPERS' INCENTIVES: NOW WITH MORE CAVEATS

The state legislature's language also means special provisions for Atlantic Yards, the enormous residential and commercial development under way in Brooklyn.
...
Under the legislature’s bills, Atlantic Yards will be allowed to have tenants with higher incomes in its affordable housing units than generally is allowed under 421-a. The language in the bills also says Atlantic Yards would be allowed to meet the requirements for affordable housing across all of its units, a number that developer Forest City Ratner projects at 6,400. The legislation means – and will mean until the fourth bill passes with amended wording – that the Brooklyn development could receive tax abatements for affordable housing before any such housing is built. Under the proposed fourth bill, A. 9373/ S. 6446, the development will be required to meet the 421-a affordability requirement every 1,500 units, however.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Tax Bill Reduces Low-Income Requirement for Atlantic Yards
Sarah Ryley is reporting:

Under the revised bill, Atlantic Yards would have to follow the same requirements as other projects that are heavily subsidized by the city, state or federal government.

Those developers, including Ratner, would now be required to provide 20 percent of their rental units to those earning, on average, 90 percent of AMI, and no more than 120 percent AMI. For-sale units would be capped at 125 percent AMI.

According to a spokesperson for Gov. Spitzer's office, Matt Anderson:

Anderson said Spitzer “shared the city’s concerns over the level of subsidies for the Atlantic Yards project. We believe, however, we’ve reached a fair compromise here.

“At every phase of the [Atlantic Yards] project, 20 percent of housing units for Atlantic Yards must be affordable to receive these abatements. Moreover, the length of the tax breaks was reduced from 25 years to 15 years for the market-rate buildings, which will save the city roughly $100-150 million.”

Anderson was referring to the portion of the revised bill that measures the “affordable” units in the Atlantic Yards project in increments of 1,500 units, versus over the course of the entire 6,400-unit project, as the earlier version had done.

NoLandGrab: If you're confused, then join the rest of us. Hopefully, soon, we'll get this explained to us in plain English so that we can translate it to you in more plain English.

Posted by lumi at 11:09 AM

Ratners reign with eminent domain

We told you that the Ratners were eminent domain-addicted sultans of subsidy. Now do you believe us?

We first caught wind of this project back in 2005, so apparently Forest City has been eyeing this development for years. Today the mammoth developers present their plan to the Fresno Redevelopment Agency, in hope that the City will use its powers to:

• use eminent domain to force the sale of property by any unwilling owners,
• provide city money for land acquisition and infrastructure improvements,
• grant Forest City sole rights to develop the project, and
• secure federal, state and city subsidies.

Yes, we KNOW this sounds familiar — it's the Ratner-family business model.

Fresno Bee, Autry, Fresno council at odds; Rift arises over direction for $425m downtown project
In case you thought that the Ratners only renege on promises in Brooklyn:

On Monday -- a day before a crucial council vote -- Autry said the city's Redevelopment Agency would be making a mistake to invest more than $160 million in Forest City Development's plans, because the developer failed to deliver on earlier promises.

One Fresno City Councilmember, Jerry Duncan, is certain that the council will override any veto, if necessary:

"This plan isn't about gimmicks," Council Member Jerry Duncan said. "It's about what will work with a proven company."

Duncan predicted a unanimous vote today that would signify the council has more than the five votes required to override a veto.

A unanimous vote would render the mayor's veto powers useless.

ABC30, KFSN, Fresno, Downtown Fresno Businesses Not Yet Worried About Forest City Project

The local ABC affiliate covered the story from the eminent domain angle:

Four generations of Baskins have worked at the family auto upholstery shop in downtown Fresno which is right in the middle of the proposed development.

Bruce Baskin, business owner, says "We don't want to go anywhere, but with eminent domain, they don't give you much of a choice. I think it's a bad idea, it's kind of a pipe dream, I don't think it will fly down here."

Fresno leaders hope Forest City will draw more people to downtown with its three phase $300 million project covering 19 blocks southeast of Chukchansi Park.

Naturally, Councilman Jerry Duncan doesn't think that eminent domain will be a problem:

Jerry Duncan, Fresno City Council Member, says "I don't see that as a big issue, this project and the area down here we've been talking about for a long time. And frankly a lot of these property owners that we've talked to are like, when can I get my check."

Posted by lumi at 9:15 AM

"Owner Use," gentrification and Atlantic Yards

One block from Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards project, the "owner use" clause has pitted rent-stabilized tenants against their new landlords. The Fifth Avenue Committee, South Brooklyn Legal Services and local politicians pitched in to help the tenants stay put at a rally this past Sunday.

One question on people's minds is whether or not the Atlantic Yards plan warps the neighborhood's real estate market — or was it already a fait accompli?

Village Voice Blog, Block Party Against Brooklyn Owner-Evictions

The answer for four families who live in rent-stabilized apartment at 533 Bergen Street would appear to be no as they are fighting eviction proceedings brought by the new owners of their building. The new owners of the four-story building—who purchased it for $866,000 in March of 2006—are seeking to evict the tenants under the owner-use clause of the state rent stabilization law, which says building owners can remove rent-stabilized tenants when they want a unit for themselves or a family member.

Atlantic Yards Report, The “owner-use” eviction controversy comes to Prospect Heights

As property values skyrocket in New York, the cheapest—though perhaps not the least risky—route to a substantial living space may be the use (or exploitation) of the “owner-use” clause in state rent regulations, which allows landlords of rent-stabilized buildings to take “one or more apartments” for personal use.

And that’s the issue on Bergen Street in Prospect Heights, where dozens of neighbors, along with some elected officials, on Sunday protested plans by the new owners of 533 Bergen to use five of eight apartments for their family, thus evicting rent-stabilized tenants from four railroad apartments, each averaging not much more than 800 square feet.

Posted by lumi at 8:58 AM

Forest City Set to Break Ground on 1.2M-SF Mixed Use Later This Year

Project to Achieve LEED Certification

CoStar Group
By Sasha M Pardy

Later this year, Cleveland, OH-based Forest City Enterprises' Ratner division will officially break ground on a massive mixed-use development located near the NY State Thruway and Spain Brook Pkwy in Yonkers, NY. The 1.2-million-square-foot Ridge Hill Village Center will be complemented by 1,000 residences (including affordable and senior housing), 156,000-square-feet of office space, a hotel, and conference center. Completion for the 81-acre project is anticipated for 2009; tenants have yet to be announced, as a $630-million construction loan was just secured. The New York City office of Ripco Real Estate serves as leasing agent for Forest City on the project.

As part of the company's ongoing commitment to sustainability, Forest City has identified Ridge Hill as a development it plans to achieve LEED Certification on. The company currently has been awarded LEED certification on the 1.2-million-square-foot Northfield Stapleton in Denver and is in process with LEED Certification at its recently delivered Promenade Bolingbrook in the Chicago area.

article

NoLandGrab: The article doesn't share the fact that Forest City fell short of its pledge to achieve LEED certification in the Times Tower building.

Posted by lumi at 8:37 AM

August 27, 2007

Forty Years of Growth, Except Where It Was Expected

The NY Times
By David Gonzalez

Reality challenged all of the assumptions of what was supposed to happen when NY City used eminent domain to clear away whole blocks for urban renewal. Even now, none of the rules seem to apply — one city planner calls for "urban planning therapy."

Sometime in the 1950s, Amelia Delgado planted a sapling outside her Lower East Side tenement at 145 Clinton Street, where she and her husband, Ramon, were raising five children. The children are grown, have done well and now have children of their own. Her husband died 14 years ago.

Amelia Delgado and her family had to move from an urban renewal site. She said that “everything was knocked down.”

Her tree still stands, tall as a building, even if the building has long been gone.

It was torn down, along with dozens of other rickety tenements, in 1967, after the city gave the Delgados and nearly 2,000 of their neighbors in a 14-block area 90 days to pack up and be relocated in the name of urban renewal.
...
Attempts over the years to do anything with those lots have failed. On one side are housing advocates who want to preserve housing for residents of modest means as the area goes upscale with nightspots, high-rises and renovated tenements. Their efforts have been rebuffed by residents of the nearby co-op complexes — built by labor unions for their members decades ago, but in more recent years home to young professionals paying higher prices — who want to protect their investment with development that is mostly, though not exclusively, market rate.

While politicians are falling over themselves to support Bruce Ratner's extreme-density luxury high-rise plan, one of NY's top dogs is staying conspicuously silent, while his own staffer spilts hairs:

Recent attempts by the housing coalition to gain support have been met with silence from Speaker Silver’s office. Well, not total silence. Ms. Cohen said she was told by a senior aide in the speaker’s office that he would not meet with them.

Dan Weiller, a spokesman for the speaker, said Mr. Silver has met with many local groups over the years. But he added that the city — not Mr. Silver — was responsible for anything that happened on the urban renewal site.

article

NoLandGrab: After reading this article and having spent years examining "the man behind the curtain," Bruce Ratner, one has to appreciate the snow job he's done on Brooklyn and how well he negotiates community and political minefields.

Last month, City Councilman Bill de Blasio held court with local bloggers and justified his support for Atlantic Yards by explaining, "there are not a lot of places where we can envision this number of units." Well, here's a site where guys like de Blasio should be falling over themselves to build more affordable housing — except that one of the State's top Democrats won't have it.

Also, it is totally disingenuous for Silver's staffer to pass the blame to the City, when Silver is one of the most brilliant backroom negotiators in all of NY. NoLandGrab readers will recall how the Speaker forced the City's hand to build a public school in the other Ratner/Gehry project, on Beekman St. in his district.

Posted by lumi at 8:13 PM

Cracks are starting to appear in office rents

Crain's NY Business
By Theresa Agovino

The credit crunch that is roiling the stock market, paralyzing merger and acquisition deals, and stalling building sales is also slowly chilling Manhattan's hot commercial rental market. The financial services sector--the key driver of lower vacancy rates and higher rents in recent years--accounts for about one third of the space leased in Manhattan. There's now concern that firms will slash staff and relinquish space.
...
Most vulnerable to a downturn: those buyers who have paid staggering sums for office towers and need continuing substantial rent increases to be able to refinance or meet their debt obligations.

article

NoLandGrab: Since we first began tracking Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards plan, we've kept an eye on the market for Class A office space in NYC, which was depressed when the project was first announced, but then rebounded during the past couple of years — except in Brooklyn, where Ratner has been trying to remarket his MetroTech complex to the trend-setting creative-services industries.

Any shake-up in the market in Manhattan could keep prices depressed in Brooklyn, but, more importantly, a sustained credit crunch would affect Ratner's ability to secure financing and affect his bottom line for the reasons stated above in the Crain's article.

Posted by lumi at 7:26 PM

It came from the Blogosphere...

Curbed.com, Markowitz to Two Trees: Love Ya, But...

The Brooklyn Paper reports that Markowitz has come out against Two Trees' plan to build a six story annex on a neighboring parking lot, because the proposal is 10 feet too high for the existing zoning within the Cobble Hill Historic District. Said Markowitz (who has granted other exceptions on the site): "Should this intrusion be granted, it would set a precedent for other sites throughout the entire district to seek such an exception.” Of course, Markowitz's flip-flopping on such issues gives the Brooklyn Paper the perfect excuse to trot out a highly entertaining Marty Markowitz/Atlantic Yards op-ed that's sort of a greatest hits of complaints about the project. From off in the distance, a single "Oy vey!" is heard.

Stay Free Daily, History Is Coming Soon!
OK, this post has nothing to do with Atlantic Yards, but in real estate, truth is stranger than fiction.

Brownstoner, Tenants Fight Eviction on Bergen Street
B'stoner reports:

A Prospect Heights block party yesterday had homemade food, loud music and a louder message: “Good neighbors do not evict neighbors.” The Fifth Avenue Committee-organized event was aimed at drawing attention to the plight of four rent-stabilized tenants facing eviction from 533 Bergen Street, and it highlighted bubbling tensions over affordable housing, gentrification and Atlantic Yards.

onboardBlast, New York City Construction Boom

Given that there is currently a construction boom of large scale public and privately funded projects in the NYC metro area – stadium plans for the Yankees and Mets, the Atlantic Yards and Ground Zero – what will become of the Real Estate market in New York City with the recent national mortgage and lending scare?

From the national perspective, New York is in a bubble compared to the rest of the country’s Real Estate decline. However, if the current construction boom with funding focused from several public and private lenders is unable to complete even large scale projects in an effective and efficient time schedule – what additional effect will this have on the homeowners market?

All of the major public projects mentioned underway are finding that their original construction budget estimates have dramatically fallen short of the actual costs to build in New York today.

Posted by lumi at 6:47 PM

Summer in Ratnerville

Nature turned the tables in August on what's "blight" and what's "progress" in the footprint of Atlantic Yards. Naturally, both are in the eye of the beholder.

Photo, by Tracy Collins, posted August 12, 2007.

Posted by lumi at 6:33 PM

MAS: Walking Tour of Prospect Heights

Take a walking tour of the historic neighborhood that's gonna get smaller if Ratnerville gets built.

Sponsored by the Municipal Art Society:

Saturday, September 15, 2:00 p.m.

Every once in a while, you walk the streets of a neighborhood and can’t believe it wasn’t designated as a historic district years ago. Prospect Heights in Brooklyn features some of the best late 19th-century brownstone blocks in the city, filled with outstanding Italianate and neo-Grecian row houses, as well as fine churches, institutional buildings, commercial buildings, and apartment houses, all in a vibrant multi-racial enclave that in recent years has filled with good restaurants, cafes, and shops. The Municipal Art Society worked with the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council to survey and catalogue more than 1,100 buildings in the neighborhood. That work formed the basis for a submission to the Landmarks Preservation Commission for historic district designation. Join us for a tour full of surprises in the area between Grand Army Plaza and the Vanderbilt railroad yards, where the “Atlantic Yards” mega-development has been proposed. Leader: Francis Morrone, architectural historian. Meet at the N.E. corner of Vanderbilt Ave. and Sterling Pl., a short walk from the Grand Army Plaza. (Transit: # 2, 3, 4 trains to Grand Army Plaza; Q train to Seventh Ave.)

DETAILS Event Date: Start Time: Fee: Members Only: RSVP:

9-15-2007 2:00 pm $15, $12 MAS members No No

Posted by lumi at 5:41 PM

ATLANTIC YARDS RATNERVILLE CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

Here's the latest Ratnerville Demolition Update straight from the Empire Strikes Back Development Corporation's web site, with a few minor corrections.

Weeks of August 27, 2007 – September 3, 2007

In an effort to keep the Atlantic Yards Ratnerville Community aware of upcoming construction demolition activities, ESD and Forest City Ratner are providing the following outline of anticipated upcoming construction activities.

Please note: the scope and nature of activities are subject to change based upon field conditions.

Long Island Rail Road/Vanderbilt Yard Work

• Mid-block piles are complete; excavation and lagging to begin from mid-block piles south.
• Excavation of material and preparation to drill piles at Southeast Gas Station (block 1121, lot 47)
• Continue test piles for Temporary Train Trestle foundation piles.
• Continue test pits on Pacific Street within the area which has already been closed pursuant to the Pacific Street Maintenance and Protection of Traffic Plan (MPT) on block 1121 to confirm location of existing street utilities proximate to layout of piles.
• Mobilization to East Portal; preparation for drilling of piles.
• Continue soil excavation and removal in block 1121 west to east.
• Continue construction and debris removal.

Abatement and Demolition Work

All work described below will comply with the additional oversight and protocols by the Department of Buildings (DOB) that were established on April 30th.

• Demolition has been completed at 175 Flatbush Avenue (block 1118, lot 6), and 177 Flatbush Avenue (block 1118, lot 5). Cleanup and backfill will be underway.
• The double-shift abatement and emergency demolition work on the parapets at 800 Pacific Street (block 1129, lot 25) will be completed, and then the completion of the roof abatement will commence with an anticipated duration of four-six weeks. Once all of the abatement is completed, demolition of the building will commence.
• Demolition has commenced at 546 Vanderbilt Avenue (block 1129, lot 54), and is anticipated to be underway for the next two–three months.
• Abatement will continue at 814 Pacific Street (block 1127, lot 45), 818 Pacific Street (block 1127, lot 46), and 542 Vanderbilt Avenue (block 1127, lot 50).
• Abatement will continue at 465 Dean Street (block 1127/lot 54).

Posted by lumi at 11:55 AM

"NIMBY love" indictment continues, including factual errors

Brooklyn Daily Eagle recycles a Village Voice article that stuck the "NIMBY" label on the Develop Don't Destroy community activists who are about to get married (never mind the fact that the group has pitched in on a non-land-grabbing, neighborhood-respecting alternative plan).

Inexplicably, Eagle reporter Sarah Ryley also recyled another myth, first created by the Voice:

...the epic battle coming to a close — the outcome of two major lawsuits expected to be resolved in the fall."

article

NoLandGrab: Since Ryley has been covering Atlantic Yards during the past year, she should know better than most:

• that oral arguments for the appeal of the ruling to dismiss the Federal eminent domain suit are scheduled for Oct. 9, which, if the plaintiffs are successful, will send the case back to trial, and
• that a ruling in the environmental lawsuit is expected soon, which, depending on how Judge Madden decides, could deal a serious setback to the project.

So, yes, the cases could be resolved this fall if Ratner decides to give up, but to assume that they will is hubris on the part of the impartial media.

Posted by lumi at 11:26 AM

Bloomberg's Bossist Approach to Willets Point

NY Observer
By Harry Siegel

More on Willets Point and the City's policy of "municipal blight:"

Despite the roughly $1.1 million a year the area generates in direct tax revenues for the city, most of Willets Point has never been connected to the sewer grid (the only storm drain is used by Shea Stadium), so Porta-Potties and cesspools abound, and its roads are hardly paved nearly always flooded.

Other than a largely successful push by the city to reduce mob influence, The Iron Triangle, as the strip it's known, has been left to fend for itself, and a hardy culture of industrial businesses has evolved to profit from an environment most of us would see as uninhabitable. Squint, and you're liable to think it's a set from Mad Max.

So far as the Bloomberg administration is concerned, it's all blight. And the city, which has long aspired to redevelop the area, likes it that way.

The blight is what gives City Hall a strong legal case for using eminent domain to claim private property assessed at some $181 million (a figure that urban affairs and planning professor Tom Angotti notes is comparable to other areas zoned for heavy industry) and to bring in private developers to remake the area wholesale.

article

NoLandGrab: Though the municipal blight of Willets Point is on a much larger scale than the MTA's Vanderbilt Railyards in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, the concept is the same: government negligence used to create characterisitcs of "blight" in order to justify the use of eminent domain.

The article continues by explaining the Bloomberg administration policy in a nutshell:

...the Bloomberg administration is reverting to an M.O. of forcefully displacing politically unconnected private owners on behalf of wealthy and plugged-in new private owners, while purchasing the backing of much of the usual resistance from the left by compelling the new ownership to include affordable housing. This also allows the administration to tout the number of new subsidized units that have gone up on its watch, few of which are actually very affordable. Some 60 years into the city's endlessly subsidized eternal housing "crisis," the shell game continues apace.

Posted by lumi at 10:40 AM

The future of Coney Island will not look quite like this

Atlantic Yards Report

Just as Bruce Ratner led his PR campaign for Atlantic Yards with BBall.net, Joseph Sitt has been exploiting the iconography of Coney Island to help sell his controversial plan.

...it's unlikely that the future will be defined by the enduring Coney Island icons--the Cylcone, the Wonder Wheel, the Parachute Jump--Thor has chosen for its oft-repeated graphics, which line the walls of prime but empty property along Stillwell Avenue, the straight shot from the subway to the beach.

For Atlantic Yards watchers, it may hearken back to 2003, when the 16-tower Atlantic Yards megaproject was launched with a web site called BBall.net.

article

Posted by lumi at 9:16 AM

EMINENT DOMAINIA: The Big Apple Bites!

WILLETS POINT, QUEENS
DrinkingWithBob.com, Eminent domain...

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN
amNY, Will Duffield Houses be railroaded?

Lewis Greenstein owns a house that stands at the center of a wrenching controversy over the preservation of black history versus the revitalization of Downtown Brooklyn.

His home, 233 Duffield St., built in 1847, contains what he says is clear evidence that it was used to shelter and feed black slaves escaping along the legendary Underground Railroad to Canada.

But a half-million-dollar report commissioned by the city found otherwise, and now a city agency has recommended the use of eminent domain to bring down Greenstein's and other similar homes on the street to build a park and parking lot seen as the centerpiece of a major redevelopment project.

Slideshow tour of Greenstein's Duffield St. home.

WEST HARLEM
El Diario, West Harlem no se vende
OPINIÓN - par Jordi Reyes-Montblanc

La Columbia ya es dueña o controla las dos terceras partes de las 17 acres que ha designado como blanco de su expansión en Manhattanville. La universidad ha decido que esas 17 acres son esenciales para ellos y si pueden comprar todas las propiedades le han pedido al estado que las condene las expropie y se las de a la Universidad.

La quinta enmienda de la Constitución permite que el gobierno expropie propiedades privadas para uso público, como construcción de un hospital, una carretera, o una escuela publica. La Universidad es una entidad privada, no lucrativa pero no de beneficio publico ya que cuesta aproximadamente $60,000 al año para poder estudiar en ella. Por tanto, la CB9M se opone firmemente a la condenación y expropiación de las propiedades que rehúsan venderle a Columbia.

SOUTHEAST QUEENS
The NY TImes, Southeast Queens Is Split Over Makeover Proposal
During the past several years, the Bloomberg administration has repeatedly demonstrated that neighborhood redevelopment plans have little consideration for current residents and business owners. In Southeast Queens, one of the currents residents' concerns is the use of eminent domain.

Planners got a friendlier response from Community Board 12, which represents Jamaica, South Jamaica, Hollis and St. Albans. Ms. Black, the board’s chairwoman, said her constituents were willing to support the plan after being reassured that they would not be required to sell their property under eminent domain and that sections of one- and two-family homes would be preserved. The difference in responses, she said, has to do with “socioeconomic status.

Posted by lumi at 8:15 AM

Forest City Volleyball

Nets Daily, Ratner Thinking about Brooklyn Beyond Basketball

When the winners of the AVP Brooklyn Open were given their $28,000 check Saturday in Coney Island, the presenter was none other than Vince Carter…and the winning volleyballers were both wearing those red Nets’ jerseys with the number 15 emblazoned across the front. (In keeping with a recent trend in volleyball, the winners were both Carter-sized…and a lot bigger than Nets owner Bruce Ratner, whose head can barely be seen peering over the over sized check.)

It shouldn’t really surprise anyone that the Nets are pushing their connection to Brooklyn, but the AVP Open is not just about marketing the team. It’s about other opportunities the Nets’ owners see in sports, both professional and amateur, as well as entertainment. And not just now and not just in Coney Island, but in the future and at the Nets’ Brooklyn arena, the Barclays Center.

Atlantic Yards Report, A Nets fan's candor: 2009 deadline "increasingly unlikely"
Norman Oder notes that Nets Fan Daily expresses doubt about Ratner's timeline for moving the team:

As part of a blog post yesterday on the efforts by Forest City Ratner to become more of a sporting presence in the borough, via Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment's (BSE) sponsorship of events like the pro volleyball tour, the anonymous fan behind the NetsDaily Blog lists potential arena events and muses, "None of this can happen until the arena is built and that 2009-10 deadline looks increasingly unlikely."

Oder concurs:

Indeed, the project is way behind schedule.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn’s Volleyball King

Brooklyn native Leonard Armato has seen it all during his career as an agent for NBA greats like Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon and Kareem Abdul-Jabaar. He has also handled lucrative endorsement deals for the likes of Michael Jackson, Paula Abdul and Heather Locklear. Now, Armato is hoping to spread volleyball fever to Coney Island, where he is staging this weekend’s Second Annual AVP Brooklyn Open with promotional help from Bruce Ratner’s Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment. While BSE handles the local sponsorships, tickets, hospitality and concessions for the tournament, Armato, the AVP’s commissioner, continues to push what he believes will be one of the bigger sporting events in our borough in years to come.

From the Eagle's exclusive interview:

Q. Do you see this event becoming a regular summer happening on Coney Island?
A. We anticipate coming to Coney Island for many years to come with the support of our wonderful partners (Nets owner) Bruce Ratner, (Nets president) Brett Yormark, (Nets vice president of property sales) Chris Brahe and the rest of the Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment team.

Atlantic Yards Report, At the beach volleyball tourney, Nets synergy but no ticket promotion
Norman Oder notes the differences between this year's and last year's beach volleyball tourneys:

Last year, according to an interview quoted by NetsDaily, a BSE executive referred to the new company as "Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment in partnership with Atlantic Yards." And that, of course, is what the signage said last year.
...
One noticeable difference: unlike at last year's event, there was no booth promoting Nets tickets next to the main ticket table.

What to make of it? Was it more important last year to promote the Nets? Were ticket sales too low to make it worthwhile? Is the focus now on selling high-rollers access to more expensive suites in the planned Barclays Center?

This year's model, however, eschewed the Atlantic Yards mention, though a press release mentioned it. Of course, Barclays, which bought naming rights to the planned arena, signed on as a sponsor.

Does Atlantic Yards no longer need a plug, now that it's been approved?

The Daily Plant, This Weekend In Parks
The NYC Parks Department online calendar billed the event thus:

Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, in partnership with Atlantic Yards, and the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Crocs Tour have brought pro volleyball back to Brooklyn.

Posted by lumi at 7:19 AM

August 26, 2007

This is Reform?

Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn

Reform-minded Governor Eliot Spitzer had that reform slip his mind this week when he signed the 421-a property tax "reform" bill with a special provision giving a $200 million tax break exclusively for politically-connected, billionaire developer Bruce Ratner. That's right, under the new bill Bruce Ratner is the only developer who can get a 15-year tax break for constructing buildings comprised entirely of unaffordable units; that's right, a tax break not to build affordable housing. This means that if "Atlantic Yards" is ever built there would likely be 4 entire buildings of luxury condos paying no taxes for 15 years. That is a loss of $200 million as estimated by New York City.

Who gains? Bruce Ratner can sell those units at a higher price by passing on those tax savings to the new luxury condo owners. The Ratner Clause also allows Bruce Ratner to segregate residents of the "affordable" units from residents of his unaffordable units. Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries of the 57th District has called this "economic segregation."

article

Posted by amy at 10:31 AM

Nets Dancers Kick Up and Dig in Their Heels

New York Times dedicates no less than 627 words to the vital subject of the Nets dancers' workouts. Yet they could only muster up a measly 227 words for yesterday's 421-a article, missing the Ratner carve-out component completely.

“I worked out body parts I didn’t know I had,” Adar Wellington, the squad’s captain, said after a full day’s workout, the first of four days that she and her teammates spent flipping tires, rolling beer kegs, swinging sledgehammers, and running and squatting with sandbags.

“It was kind of a scary workout,” said Brenna Klingler, a rookie who leapt to the N.B.A. from Rutgers, where she was the captain of the dance team last season.

link

Posted by amy at 10:24 AM

Civic project? The (unmoored) Nets net Wrigley as "off-season presenting sponsor"

Atlantic Yards Report

Still pending, with a decision expected in September, is a lawsuit, filed in state court, by Atlantic Yards opponents and critics challenging the legitimacy of the environmental review. “The legislature did not intend a privately owned sports facility” to be a civic project, plaintiffs' attorney Jeff Baker contended in court on May 3.

But what is a civic project? It's defined as “A project or that portion of a multi-purpose project designed and intended for the purpose of providing facilities for educational, cultural, recreational, community, municipal, public service or other civic purposes.” Attorneys for the Empire State Development Corporation argue that sports facilities of course constitute civic projects.

That may be so, but how much are sports franchises about community spirit--remember the attorney for the MTA cited "civic pride"--and how much are they about marketing opportunities?

Wrigley's and the Nets

That brings us to... gum. Wrigley has become the National Basketball Association's official chewing gum. And a Forest City Ratner press release avoids the location New Jersey--no civic pride for the Garden State?--in announcing some special news regarding the Nets:
The Nets have named Wrigley as the first-ever off-season presenting sponsor for a sports team in the metropolitan area.

link

Posted by amy at 10:16 AM

August 25, 2007

Rally and Block Party In Brooklyn Against Evictions

NYC Indymedia

Owner-use evictions, which are on the rise in Brooklyn, especially in the shadow of proposed development at Atlantic Yards less than a half-mile from 533 Bergen, are based on a provision of New York State rent laws which allows landlords to evict rent-regulated tenants to reclaim units for themselves or their family members—without any limit as to how many units are cleared. So-called “owner-use abuse” is also often exploited in order to de-stabilize rents and convert units to market rates. “Over the past year or so, our office has seen a sharp increase in ‘owner use’ eviction cases” says Brent Meltzer, an attorney with South Brooklyn Legal Services who is representing one of the threatened households. “These landlords are not content with taking just one apartment and often seek to displace an entire building full of rent stabilized tenants”.

link

Posted by amy at 12:24 PM

421-a compromise sent to gov’s desk - Democratic boss says deal will help minimize the impact of gentrification

Courier-Life
Stephen Witt gets points this week for mentioning the Atlantic Yards carve-out in his coverage of 421-A. Then, he quickly loses those points by saying that the carve-out has been completely reformed. In fact, the value of the carve-out to Forest City Ratner was only reduced from $300 million to $200 million.

Also under the compromise, the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project, which was originally excluded from the new 421-a bill, which critics of the project called a “carve-out,” was renegotiated.

After talks between the city and the Atlantic Yards developer, Forest City Ratner (FCRC), the original Atlantic Yards component was reformed to ensure that all promised affordable units are completed and integrated throughout the project.

Under the new legislation, FCRC buildings in the project must meet the new affordability requirements in order to qualify for a 25-year tax abatement.

Also FCRC agreed to ensure that their affordable units will be built simultaneously throughout the development of the project.

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Posted by amy at 12:18 PM

Who's paying for the affordable housing? New Domino-watchers want to know

Atlantic Yards Report

If one of the lessons of the Atlantic Yards project for developers--like those of the New Domino project proposed in Williamsburg--is that they should hook up with affordable housing advocates to override zoning (or achieve a rezoning), a lesson for critics is that they should follow the money.

After all, Atlantic Yards has been touted as "providing" affordable housing without any reference to the public funds behind the units or any analysis of whether they represent a good bang for the buck.
...
There's no guarantee those questions will be answered. Last year, the MAS, in comments filed after the Atlantic Yards Final Environmental Impact Statement was issued, asked:
In order to accurately assess whether the Atlantic Yards proposal will result in a net gain of affordable housing units, there needs to be an accounting of the public expenditures on this project versus the total amount of public subsidies available in the same fiscal year so that decision makers can accurately assess the public costs versus the public benefits. What percentage of the city’s total funds for housing will be required to build the project’s 2250 units?

In response, the Empire State Development Corporation offered only generalities. (Only after the project was approved did details emerge.) Will DCP be more forthcoming? The EIS will be written by the same environmental consulting firm, the ubiquitous AKRF.

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Posted by amy at 11:19 AM

The Times corrects some ten-year-old errors; what about the "same site" error?

Atlantic Yards Report

A correction in the New York Times on Thursday:
An article on Aug. 13, 1997, about an investigation into the police beating and torture of Abner Louima while he was in custody at a Brooklyn station house misstated his age at the time. (The same error appeared in at least nine other articles in 1997 and 2002, the year his case came to trial.) He was 30 then, not 33, and is now 40. A reader of The Times’s Web site noticed the error on a Times Topics page that was updated around the 10th anniversary of the attack.

The attack was 8/9/97, which means that, for the anniversary, the Times managed to do the research and issue a correction in about two weeks.

So why has it taken so long for the Times to correct the multiple errors, from 8/8/03 to 11/13/05, in which Atlantic Yards was described as potentially occupying the same site Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley wanted for a new stadium? The newspaper was put on notice more than two-and-a-half months ago.

link
Using the 10 year correction waiting time as a barometer, a correction from 2003 should hit the paper in about 6 years. Let the countdown begin!

Posted by amy at 11:13 AM

Governor signs 421-a revision; Times, others ignore "Atlantic Yards carve-out"

Atlantic Yards Report

So Governor Eliot Spitzer has signed the reform of the 421-a tax break, which includes an "Atlantic Yards carve-out" worth up to $200 million for developer Forest City Ratner. When the "carve-out" was worth $300 million, it was criticized by Mayor Mike Bloomberg, ACORN's Bertha Lewis, Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez, affordable housing advocate Brad Lander, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), the Brooklyn Paper, and others.

When it was reduced but not eliminated, the only official to offer measured criticism was Jeffries. (He issued it after I queried him, but he may have been prepared to issue a statement anyway.) DDDB seemingly stood alone in its forceful criticism.

Affordable housing advocates, city officials, state officials, and the public at large all had something to gain in the revised legislation, beyond the "carve-out." So perhaps some critics felt they could only go so far.

But what about those seemingly independent? Good government advocates were silent, as were editorial pages beyond that initial Brooklyn Paper comment. The New York Times, in its reporting, managed to mangle the historical record. No one beyond a few Brooklynites questioned whether signing the bill comports with Spitzer's claim of being a reformer.

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Posted by amy at 11:08 AM

New Laws for Housing Tax Break

The New York Times

The Times is very excited that Spitzer signed the 421-a revision. So excited, in fact, that they forgot to add the part about the Ratner Clause, a special little carve-out that makes the "more stringent affordability standards" LESS STRINGENT FOR RATNER.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer signed into law yesterday three bills to revamp a popular tax break for developers and encourage the construction of thousands of apartments for low-income New York City residents.

The laws are expected to expand the number of neighborhoods where developers are required to include apartments for residents of limited means in order to receive tax breaks. Advocates for lower-cost housing have long said the laws would mean more housing for low-income residents and fewer incentives for developers to build luxury high-rises.

“This legislation will allow New York City to target its limited tax abatement resources to more effectively promote the construction of affordable housing in the neighborhoods that need it most,” the governor said. The tax program that is being revamped, known as 421-a, was started in the 1970s to spur housing development of any kind. Under it, developers received a 10-to-25-year exemption from increases in property taxes resulting from their work. But government officials and advocates for affordable housing say that given the change in New York’s real estate market since the program’s inception, the tax breaks are no longer needed in Midtown and other thriving parts of the city.

Under the new laws, developers will be required to meet more stringent affordability standards, give priority to neighborhood residents for lower-cost units, and ensure that units remain affordable for at least 35 years.

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Meanwhile, the existing affordable housing stock in the neighborhood is quickly disappearing. This in from our neighbors on Bergen:

Block party to support the tenants in 533 Bergen Street (Carleton & 6th Avenue) this Sunday, Aug 26 12pm-6pm. There will also be a press conference at 12:30pm.

The residents of this building are rent stabilized tenants who have lived in the community for decades. Their new landlords, Dan Bailey and Felicity Loughrey, are trying to evict four families from the building so that they can create one huge apartment and live in luxury. Join us in supporting the Bergen Street tenants' fight for survival and in telling Bailey and Loughrey that good neighbors don't evict neighbors.

DJs! Art! Food! Games! Balloons! Sprinklers! Support Your Neighbors!! Save Your Hood!!

Posted by amy at 10:57 AM

August 24, 2007

ESDC says it's not not-hands-on, but could it do more?

Atlantic Yards Report

The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) is indeed a little touchy about whether it's perceived as not-hands-on-enough regarding Atlantic Yards.
...
The ESDC's effort regarding AY may be no less vigorous than regarding other projects, but the agency is vulnerable to criticism that it is less vigorous than it could be. For one thing, Foye was supposed to take a walking tour of the AY footprint in March; as far as I know, that hasn't occurred.

And, however much the ESDC wants to be careful in choosing an ombudsperson, the clock has already hit 108 days. While the current administration isn't responsible for the timetables of its predecessor, Brooklynites weren't given the same kind of slack in responding to the voluminous Draft Environmental Impact Statement. It was issued 7/18/06; comments were due little more than two months later, on 9/29/06.

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Posted by lumi at 9:52 AM

Financial Firm Swept Up In Eminent Domain Decision in Brooklyn

City Has No Project to Replace 150-Employee Firm

Brooklyn Daily Eagle
By Sarah Ryley

The future of a financial services firm and its 150 employees is fraught with uncertainty now that the city has approved the use of eminent domain to seize the company’s building within the BAM Cultural District.

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) issued its eminent domain ruling on Monday, which concerned Track Data Corporation’s property along with 20 others on three blocks in Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn. There is no project planned to replace Track Data, which set up shop at 95 Rockwell Pl. two decades ago, “when there were crack vials on the ground and nobody wanted to come here,” said one employee.

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Duffield St. Undergound posted this article yesterday and commented, "Seth Donlin, an HPD spokesman says that eminent domain is used to obtain consolidated pieces of property so comprehensive redevelopment plans can be realized. In practice, this means that Brooklyn-based companies are no longer welcome."

NoLandGrab: The fact that there are currently no plans for development on that site, yet the City is proceeding with the eminent domain condemnation, sounds outrageous, right?

If that doesn't already suck, would you believe that homeowners in New London tried to plead that very point in the case that went to the US Supreme Court, and in the landmark decision, Kelo v. New London, the court upheld the constitutionality of taking of property for a redevelopment plan, even when the plan does not specify what the property will be used for.

This part of the Kelo case didn't get as much airtime as the general unfairness of private property being seized for private developers, but eminent domain watchdogs were deeply troubled by this further expansion of what is allowed by the Supreme Court.

Posted by lumi at 9:26 AM

Marty’s varying views

The Brooklyn Paper

We were gonna say that Marty's stand against overdevelopment, in light of his support of the Atlantic Yards mega-project, is LAUGHABLE, but Brooklyn Paper beat us to it:

The developer who is bringing Trader Joe’s to Court Street wants to build a six-story annex to that store on a parking lot on Atlantic Avenue that is only zoned for a five-story building.

That single extra story — 10 feet! — drew the ire of Borough President Markowitz last week when the Beep recommended that the city deny the developer, Two Trees Management, a variance to build a little higher.

Yes, this is the same Marty Markowitz who continues to cheer the Atlantic Yards project, a massive, 16-tower, highly subsidized mega-development that would overshadow thriving neighborhoods all around it, create life-draining “superblocks,” suck up taxpaper resources, congest local streets and use the state’s power of eminent domain to evict residents so their land can be turned over to a private developer — in this case, his friend, Bruce Ratner.
...
It is no secret that this page has frequently clashed with Markowitz over his support for the [Atlantic Yards] project, which remains his greatest error in judgment since he took office.

But his attempt to now present himself as a foe of overdevelopment because he opposes a 60-foot building in a 50-foot zone is laughable.

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Posted by lumi at 9:15 AM

We have issues

THE DIRT ON COMBINED SEWERS
The Gowanus Lounge, Gowanus Flooding Redux

The August 8th storm was a perfect illustration of why residents around the Gowanus Canal basin are pissed that the City and State are supporting Atlantic Yards and a massive population influx without first fixing (and we mean REALLY FIXING) our severely overburdened sewers.

DEMOLITION OVERSIGHT: IT TAKES A TRAGEDY
NY Daily News, Where have you gone, Scoppetta & Bloomy?

NoLandGrab: Atlantic Yards watchdogs already know what happens when the City and State take a hands-off approach to demolition. Serious demolition accidents are commonplace, especially in Brooklyn, where developers are in overdrive. All of the recent incidents, especially the parapet collapse at the Ward Bakery building in the footprint of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan, should have been the canary in the coal mine.

However, no one was listening, and Saturday's tragic deaths at the Deutsche Bank demolition site were compounded by yesterday's events, in which heavy equipment fell from the upper floors and crashed through the sidewalk safety shed, on to the heads of two firefighters working below.

And, as Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez points out, no one is talking, and even worse, Mayor Bloomberg is lobbying Governor Spitzer to veto State Assemblyman Jim Brennan's bill calling for increased oversight of construction sites at which safety violations have already been issued.

Posted by lumi at 9:08 AM

EMINENT DOMAINIA

The Kansas City Star, Missouri governor appoints eminent domain ombudsman

Here's an idea for states that are serious about safeguarding property rights:

There’s a new czar in Jefferson City, and his job is to help protect people’s property rights.

Gov. Matt Blunt on Thursday announced he had appointed an eminent domain ombudsman, a position in the Office of Public Counsel that lawmakers created to help citizens in disputes with governments over land-takings.

NoLandGrab: Forget New York State — since meaningful legislative reform is not expected in the foreseeable future, an eminent domain ombudsman would only enforce the state's own laws, which are written to grease the skids for easy pickins.

The Deleware News Journal, Eminent domain efforts may backfire
Though the landmark Kelo case allowed for private property to be condemned for economic development, this case in Wilmington is more akin to the case against Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan, because under the respective state laws, the area must be considered "blighted."

The Salt Lake Tribune, The little guy fights back against abuse of eminent domain
A community group threatened with condemnation fought back with the help of the Institute for Justice — National City gave in after the developer agreed to redesign the condo project.

The Cincinnati Enquierer, Norwood quarreling continues
More than a year ago, the Ohio State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Norwood property owners. Why are the City, developer and property owners still in court?

Hint: the developer wants his money back and the property owners want to be compensated for the home that was looted and trashed after they were forced by the city to evacuate.

Institute for Justice, Manual de Supervivencia contra el Uso Abusivo del Dominio Eminente
The Institute for Justice's "Eminent Domain Survival Guide" is translated into Español.

From the press release:

The Manual de Supervivencia is especially useful in explaining the concept of eminent domain abuse, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled was constitutional two years ago in Kelo v. City of New London. This translation helps navigate threatened property owners through the eminent domain process, giving readers the tools they need to fight back. In addition, it provides Spanish speakers with the English vocabulary they will encounter as they defend their property. The Manual de Supervivencia is available at http://www.castlecoalition.org/Espanol.

“In the past, the Spanish-speaking population has had limited access to the vital information necessary to save their homes and small businesses from eminent domain abuse,” said Steven Anderson, director of the Institute for Justice’s Castle Coalition. “With the Manual de Supervivencia, those days are now over.”

Posted by lumi at 8:13 AM

Errol Louis denounces jock spousal abuse, but where's JKidd?

Atlantic Yards Report

Daily News columnist Errol Louis on Thursday took up the case of Michael Vick, the quarterback with an unsavory appetite for dogfighting. In a column headlined It's a dog and pony show: While Vick gets ripped for animal cruelty, the jocks who beat their wives get a pass, Louis made a quite reasonable point:

The same sports execs falling over themselves to sever Vick from the sport have been downright lenient when it comes to other offenders.

His examples:

• Michael Pittman of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a fourth domestic-violence arrest.
• Lionel Gates of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, charged with beating a pregnant woman.
• Lamar Thomas, formerly of the Miami Dolphins, put his pregnant fiancée's head through a window.
• Brett Myers of the Philadelphia Phillies allegedly dragged his wife around by the hair publicly.
• Bobby Chouinard of the Colorado Rockies, doing a year in jail after putting a loaded pistol to his wife's head.

What about JKidd?

I wondered if Louis would cite an example closer to home: New Jersey Nets point guard Jason Kidd, whose wife Joumana, in a recent divorce filing, accused him of serial adultery and regular physical abuse--front-page news in Louis's own newspaper.

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Posted by lumi at 7:52 AM

It came from the Blogosphere...

mcbrooklyn, First We Had the Blue Thingies -- Now We Have the Press Conference (At Brooklyn Borough Hall)
Evidence that "Atlantic Yards" is on many people's list of things you'd rather forget, only like the war and the presidential election, it hasn't obliged.

Forget about Iraq, Atlantic Yards or the presidential election. You know those blue thingies on the steps at Brooklyn Borough Hall?

mrnyc, Airport Village
OK, this is the second day in a row we've stumbled over the use of "boondoggle" to describe Atlantic Yards. This time Bruce Ratner's controversial development is offered as an example of what, hopefully, isn't going to happen in Queens:

In some parts of this city (in Manhattan mostly, but also that looming boondoggle called Atlantic Yards), you see development on top of development - buildings that are way too big, commercial space people can't afford or use - and much of it changes the character of the neighborhoods.

Citizen Arcane, Leather Lanyard or Marble Madness?
And if you want to learn more about the word, "boondoggle," Citizen Arcane expores the origins.

Bridge and Tunnel Club, The Bride, Until Last Month, Resided In A Building On Pacific Street . . .

B&T cites this week's Village Voice article and notes, "This may be one of the few examples of the Sunday Styles vows section as clever political protest."

Posted by lumi at 6:54 AM

Forest City Ratner Sponsor of 15th Annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival

ejazznews.com

If you're a jazz lover and in town this weekend, you may wanna check this out, and don't forget to thank NY's favorite eminent domain-addicted overdeveloper, Bruce Ratner:

City Parks Foundation is proud to announce the 15th Annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. For one music-filled weekend in August, Marcus Garvey and Tompkins Square Parks draw jazz lovers from across the region to celebrate the famous saxophonist.
…
Special thanks to our sponsors and media partners who include: Bloomberg, ConEdison, Health Plan of New York, JPMorgan Chase, The New York State Music Fund, The City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs, NYSCA, National Endowment for the Arts, Forest City Ratner Companies, Time Out New York, Time Warner Cable, Jazz 88.3 WBGO, and NY Moves Magazine.

link

Posted by lumi at 6:26 AM

August 23, 2007

BOOK REVIEW: "New York Calling: From Blackout to Bloomberg"

Harper's Magazine
By John Leonard

More proof that "Atlantic Yards" is to "boondoggle" as Cindy Crawford is to "supermodel:"

On the eve of yet another 9/11 anniversary, NEW YORK CALLING: FROM BLACKOUT TO BLOOMBERG (Reaktion, $25) is an exacting look at the state of the city after thirty-five excruciating years of civil war. Marshall Berman, an urbanologist and literary critic, and Brian Berger, a poet and photographer, have assembled novelists, journalists, college professors, art historians, film editors, food critics, computer programmers, and jazz musicians to remember and revile all five boroughs from, roughly, the Pleistocene epoch of Ed Koch, Woody Allen, and "Son of Sam" to the Atlantic Yards real estate boondoggle.

subscribers only

NoLandGrab: Being in the thick of things, we hardly noticed that the fight against the "Atlantic Yards real estate boondoggle" may have quietly passed a threshold; like the legendary Westway project, win, lose or draw, Bruce Ratner's controversial project has earned its own spot in NYC history.

link to the book

Posted by lumi at 1:49 PM

SAVE THE DATE: Sunday, October 14

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