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October 3, 2007
Time Doesn’t Relieve the Pain, or Change the Facts (Except When Times Changes the Facts)
The NY Times
By Dave Anderson
This weekend's article about the Dodgers' traitorous emigration from Brooklyn perpetuates the myth that Bruce Ratner's Nets arena would be located in Downtown Brooklyn on the site on which Walter O'Malley wanted to build a new ballpark for the Dodgers.
Fifty years later, historical revisionists have all but beatified Walter O’Malley for absconding to Los Angeles with the Brooklyn Dodgers after the 1957 season.
NoLandGrab: Alas, four years after Bruce Ratner unveiled his plans, revisionists have all but placed Atlantic Yards in "downtown Brooklyn" in an "area O'Malley supposedly wanted."
O'Malley in Ft. Greene NOT Downtown Brooklyn
Yes, in 1955, [Robert] Moses rejected O’Malley’s $6 million offer — a big number in that era — to build and operate a domed stadium in downtown Brooklyn at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues because it did not fit under the Title I Housing Act of 1949.
O'Malley's ballpark would have been located in what was then called the "Fort Greene Title One Area," which was in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
Ballpark area ALREADY developed
O’Malley deserves credit for his foresight in expanding Major League Baseball to California, but Brooklyn’s hindsight remains. Basketball is the game there now; the Nets hope to move into an arena in the downtown area O’Malley supposedly wanted.
Um, there seems to be something already built in the "downtown [Ft. Greene] area O'Malley supposedly wanted." What the... could it be... Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Center Mall?
Q: If Bruce Ratner's mall is on the land O'Malley wanted, then where is Ratner planning on putting a new Nets arena?
A: Across Atlantic Avenue in Prospect Heights, which is still NOT in Downtown Brooklyn (see, photo and map).
Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report has an interesting article about the distinction between locating Ratner's controversial project on the "same area" vs. "same site," and how the media casually glosses over the distinction.
Moses vs. O'Malley: Traffic and Eminent Domain
Robert Moses was firm in his belief that locating a ballpark at Atlantic, Flatbush and 4th Avenues would create a "China Wall of traffic," and, like most Americans, Moses believed that the government's power of eminent domain was limited to public projects, not a private ballpark (see, Moses letter to O'Malley).
Luckily for O'Malley, Los Angeles didn't share Moses's beliefs about the use of eminent domain, and Dodger Stadium was built (see, Wikipedia entry on "Chavez Ravine").
Posted by lumi at October 3, 2007 7:16 AM