« Dean at 6th | Main | EMINENT DOMAINIA »
October 14, 2007
Will Brooklyn Arena Be Safe From Terror?
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
Newark Prudential Center Street Closings Raise Troubling Questions;
Elected Officials and Community Groups Call for State Hearing on Atlantic Yards and Terrorism Security“The terror risk for Forest City Ratner’s (FCR) planned Atlantic Yards project in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn is potentially far greater than that faced by the Newark arena, and there is no reason that Brooklyn should play catch-up sometime down the road. The time for a review of the impacts of a terrorist threat against Atlantic Yards and a state hearing on the issue is now,” said Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) spokesman Daniel Goldstein. “We call on Governor Spitzer’s ‘homeland security czar,’ Deputy Secretary for Public Safety Michael Balboni, to address the need for and testify at such a hearing on Atlantic Yards terrorism security issues, and for Governor Spitzer’s ESDC to learn from Newark’s lack of planning and initiate a proper review of Atlantic Yards and terrorism security.”
Atlantic Yards would be a glass-walled arena surrounded by glass-walled skyscrapers, abutting the busiest (and frequently gridlocked) intersection in Brooklyn, sitting atop the third-largest transportation hub in the city, which was the site of a thwarted terror attack in 1997. It would be the densest residential community in the entire United States. FCR projects about 230 events per year at the arena. Yet the city and state of New York have failed to perform a proper and comprehensive review of terrorism security issues for the project. In the project’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) refused to consider the threat of a terrorist attack, claiming that a terrorist attack was “not a reasonable worst-case scenario” warranting examination in the EIS.
Posted by amy at October 14, 2007 7:15 PM