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October 5, 2007
City Planner Calls Eminent Domain Condemnees "Hostages"
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
The NYC Planning Commission's hearings on the Columbia University expansion plan provide a good example as to why Bruce Ratner and his political supporters were eager to avoid NYC's land-use reivew process, in favor of the less stringent State process.
Clearly, Bruce would want to avoid city officials mouthing off for the wrong team:
...one city planning commissioner--Irwin Cantor--expressed the same outrage business and homeowners in Prospect Heights and in West Harlem have expressed about the abuse of eminent domain, in one case by Columbia U. and the ESDC, and the other by Forest City Ratner and the ESDC.
From the Spectator:
CU Questioned On Expansion By Anna Phillips and Melissa Repko
...[Columbia University Senior Executive Vice President Robert] Kasdin also took heat from [City Planning] commissioner Irwin Cantor, who said that by threatening to use eminent domain on businesses that refuse to sell, the University is “holding the owner hostage."...
It's no wonder that Forest City Ratner and its political supporters wanted to avoid that kind of scrutiny and criticism of "Atlantic Yards" by avoiding the oversight of every elected and appointed official in New York City from the Community Boards on up to the City Council.
Posted by lumi at October 5, 2007 8:14 AM