« Last word on "two-class" ownership structure | Main | EMINENT DOMAINIA: USA »
August 2, 2007
The Last Residents of 636 Pacific
One Man’s Fight Against the Atlantic Yards
The L Magazine (not to be confused with the fashion mag, which will probably be doing a fashion spread on activist-chic sometime soon)
An article about "what can only be described as a losing battle" profiles homeowner Dan Goldstein and his fight against Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards plan.
“This is the first home I bought,” he says. “I’d been looking for a long time, and I bought it because of the neighborhood and the location — just like Mr. Ratner. It started out that I wanted to keep this home. And by luck of the draw, I bought into a building that’s key to this project happening. The project can’t go forward while I’m here. Putting aside my own feelings, that’s a responsibility that I have. I wouldn’t be doing this if I felt that the surrounding neighborhoods wanted this thing.”
There are a couple of factual errors in the piece:
- the biggest is, "All but two of the units on his block are completely empty" — with about 25 people still living there, the number is more like 18 units occupied on that block.
- "the project, which will include seven skyscrapers far taller than the current tallest buildings (by at least 30 stories)" with the exception of one very tall Williamsburgh Clock Tower building.
The "Atlantic Yards Timeline" is pretty good, though it includes Ratner's very optimistic assumptions as to when the arena will be completed and opened, and the progress of construction.
The article also mentions that Shabnam Merchant started the NoLandGrab web site, which is true in that she and a handful of community members launched NoLandGrab. Early in 2004, Merchant left NoLandGrab to focus on working in the trenches with Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, and has played no role since.
Check out the article here.
Posted by lumi at August 2, 2007 9:48 AM