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October 15, 2007
Will Atlantic Yards security get a state hearing (and would streets close)?
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder reports on issues raised at yesterday's press conference, and Borough President Marty Markowitz's response to calls for more information about security measures for Bruce Ratner's planned arena:
NEWARK: CANARY IN A GOLD MINE
Atlantic Yards opponents and critics yesterday called for a state-level hearing to address security at the planned Atlantic Yards arena, citing the announcement last week that the city of Newark would partially close streets during events at the Prudential Center arena, scheduled to open October 25.
SECURITY ISSUES SHOULD BE DISCLOSED BEFORE CONSTRUCTION
"Study security issues through a public process before construction," declared Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) spokesman Daniel Goldstein (right), at a press conference held before DDDB's third annual Walk Don't Destroy walkathon. "Common sense dictates" that the unique location, use, and density of the project "makes for an attractive terror target." (DDDB points to multiple scenarios.)
"We don't know what the setbacks are" along Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, where the glass-walled arena will connect with the glass-walled Miss Brooklyn tower, Goldstein said outside Freddy's Bar & Backroom, at the corner Dean Street and Sixth Avenue, scheduled to be demolished for the project, at the southeast corner of the planned arena block.
SECURITY MEASURES SHOULD BE DISCUSSED
At the press conference, Jim Vogel of the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN) said a hearing should reveal the impacts a security plan would have on: public access to streets and other public areas during arena events; the people in the residential towers planned around the arena; the people across the street from the arena; and the cost and funding of security plans.
MARTY AGREES, AT LEAST WITH ONE POINT
Later that afternoon, I ran into Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz at a stop on the Prospect Heights House Tour. I pointed out that the ESDC didn't consider a terrorist attack a "reasonable worst-case scenario" but the Newark police director did so.
"I happen to agree with the Newark police director," Markowitz said, offering a commonsense interpretation of the phrase, rather than the ESDC's more legalistic one. "That's why I'm confident Forest City Ratner has taken into the construction of the new arena the issues of security."
Should these issues be discussed publicly? "As the plan moves forward," he said, "we'll be informed."
When?
"Way before two weeks."
Would or should streets be closed?
"I don't know," he responded.
When will we know?
"At the appropriate time."
Posted by lumi at October 15, 2007 11:42 AM