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September 26, 2007
SATURDAY — WALKING TOUR: The Atlantic Yards Footprint and Environs
Meeting Location: In front of Williamsburgh Savings Bank, tallest building in Brooklyn, Hanson Place at Ashland Place
Time: Saturday, Sept 29 2 PM
Tour Guides: Ron Shiffman and Norman Oder
Walk this area of Brooklyn with Ron Shiffman, planner and founder, Pratt Center for Community and Environmental Development (PICCED) and former New York City Planning Commissioner and Norman Oder, the journalist behind the Atlantic Yards Report and veteran New York City tour guide.The walk reveals the historic and political context behind the controversial Atlantic Yards plan—beginning at the edge of Downtown Brooklyn, where the borough’s tallest building is being converted to luxury condos, a dip into the embryonic Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) arts district, a peek at revitalized Fort Greene. The walk will then take in the fruits of urban redevelopment—1970s tower apartments, 1990s low-rise housing, and two malls—before traversing the footprint itself in Prospect Heights.
The walk, which will last at least two hours, provides an opportunity to discuss highly-charged elements of the Atlantic Yards design, including significant density, the creation of superblocks, the challenge of creating (and paying for) affordable housing, and the possibility of persistent interim surface parking. An update on legal challenges to the project will also be provided.
Ron Shiffman founded PICCED and still teaches urban planning at the Pratt Institute. He is on the advisory board of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, the coalition leading opposition to the Atlantic Yards project.
Norman Oder has written a comprehensive and often critical blog about the project for the past two years; his Atlantic Yards Report has broken numerous stories. A licensed New York City tour guide, he has operated New York Like A Native, which specializes in walking tours of Brooklyn, since 2000.
"Atlantic Yards Photo Map" by Tracy Collins, from his photo book "Atlantic Yards, [De]Constuction of the Neighborhood"
Posted by lumi at September 26, 2007 7:25 AM