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November 30, 2007
BREAKING NEWS: Historic Duffield Street Home Saved from Eminent Domain
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
DDDB is reporting that the home of Brooklyn activist Joy Chatel, at 227 Duffield Street, believed by many to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad, has been spared the eminent-domain wrecking ball.
Given New York City's usual M.O., we checked our calendar to make sure today was not April 1st. It's not, and sure enough, Chatel, FUREE, South Brooklyn Legal Services and the Four Borough Neighborhood Alliance have issued a joint press release.
Duffield Street Underground has the release.
Posted by lumi at 12:49 PM
Officials redouble call for AY security study, warn that street closings would unleash a “tsunami”
Atlantic Yards Report
Here is coverage of yesterday's Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods press conference calling for an independent review of Atlantic Yards security issues.
Elected officials and community activists yesterday again called for an independent study of Atlantic Yards security, given the belated revelation last week, thanks to the New York Times, that parts of the planned Atlantic Yards arena would be only 20 feet from Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues.
City and state officials, along with developer Forest City Ratner, have not been willing to explain why the facility would be safer than the Prudential Center in Newark, where two adjacent blocks are closed during (and before/after) events because the arena was deemed too close to the street.
A stern quote from Councilman Bill de Blasio:
“The ball game’s not over,” he said, noting that subsidies and other issues must be resolved for the project to move forward. If the developer doesn’t behave more transparently, “then the future of their project is in danger,” he warned.
Councilwoman Letitia James emphasized the need for an independent security review:
“The project has been shrouded in secrecy from Day One,” declared James, the staunchest political opponent of the project. Acknowledging concerns that too much disclosure could compromise security—the blanket explanation for the cap on public discussion—she suggested that documents could be redacted so some information emerges.
If no independent study is ordered, James said, she will again ask for a hearing on the project before the Council’s transportation committee. Then she topped Yassky's formulation, deeming that the closure of streets near and at a notoriously congested intersection would yield a “tsunami.”
Posted by steve at 7:55 AM
Atlantic Yards Security Issue Also About Trust
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Reporter Sarah Ryley provides some details from Forest City Ratner's campaign to convince reporters and the public that they have the security and terrorism angle all covered.
However, for the public, without the benefit of a third-party analysis, it's also an issue of trust.
A spokesman for Forest City sent along an affidavit from its independent security consultant, Jeffrey Venter of Ducibella Venter & Santore, briefly describing 3,300 hours of work on a security plan for the project, including five meetings with the NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau. Aside from that, it’s been said that the company began considering security issues as early as 2003, and continues to do so today. In contrast, the Newark arena apparently underwent little-to-no security review, given that police decided to shut down streets only two weeks before it was scheduled to open. Since security is found not just in distance from the street, but also in structure, that leads one to wonder what other vulnerabilities afflict the Newark arena.
NYPD spokesman John Kelly said, “The department has met numerous times with the builders, who have been very cooperative and have done everything we have asked.” He also said the department doesn’t foresee any street or land closures, sidewalk widening around the arena or the instillation of bollards. And Bruce Bender of Forest City was more pointed in his response, in a prepared statement: “We do not play around with public safety and neither should politicians who have no experience or background in security issues. Our security plan has been vetted and approved by the NYPD and the best anti-terrorism experts in the city. At some point, a base level of common sense needs to be followed and those people who do not have any security experience need to let the NYPD and the security experts do their jobs.”
...
“Part of our distrust is based upon our four years of experience with this project,” said [NYC Councilwoman] James. “They’ve misrepresented the truth, [the project has been] shrouded in secrecy, and there’s been a lot of misinformation. My distrust is based on my frame of reference.” For those who haven’t been following the project for the past four years, the battles have been ugly, to an epic scale (in the urban planning world, at least, no fatalities so far). And James is accurate that Ratner and the state Development Corporation have not exactly been forthcoming about many details regarding the project, including the amount of taxpayer money that would be used.
Posted by lumi at 6:52 AM
Opponents slam plan to build Atlantic Yards arena near busy intersection
New York Daily News
by Jotham Sederstrom
Coverage of yesterday's press conference on City Hall steps called by the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods.
Critics of the Atlantic Yards project renewed their call Thursday for an independent security review in light of news that a portion of a planned basketball arena would be built just 20 feet from Brooklyn's busiest intersection.
The potential security risk at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Aves. is within reach of terrorists hellbent on crashing into the glass-walled arena, opponents charged.
"The [Empire State Development Corp.] and Forest City Ratner are asking us to trust that they have shared a security plan with the NYPD, and that the NYPD is fine with it," said Eric McClure, member of the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, an Atlantic Yards watchdog group.
Security has always been an issue for Yards critics, but it was only recently that a spokesman for Forest City Ratner revealed just how close arena walls would be to the street.
No Land Grab: This article does a good job of summarizing security concerns for the proposed Nets arena. It is inaccurate, though, to characterize the participants of the press conference as "opponents". Attendees included David Yassky and Bill de Blasio who are frequent critics, but not necessarily opponents of the project.
Posted by steve at 6:43 AM
Community Groups Call For Independent Study Of Atlantic Yards Project
NY1
Several elected officials and community groups gathered Thursday to demand an independent study for the Atlantic Yards project.
...
“The public needs to know why Brooklyn is different than Newark,” said Eric McClure of the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods. “Why is a 20-foot setback in Brooklyn okay, while a 25-foot setback in Newark is not safe?"
article/video (dialup/broadband)
NoLandGrab: Since we don't have our hands on a political-speak code book, we're not exactly sure what Bruce Bender's statement is supposed to mean, but we think that it roughly translates to "F U."
Posted by lumi at 6:35 AM
State finally names an overseer for Atlantic Yards
The Brooklyn Paper
by Gersh Kuntzman
The Brooklyn Paper provides extensive coverage of the appointment of an ombudsman for Atlantic Yards.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have an ombudsman!
Two hundred and three days after promising to appoint someone to oversee demolition and construction work at the Atlantic Yards project — and after three other people reportedly turned down the job — state officials have finally hired their long-awaited watchdog.
And the man for the $105,000-a-year job is none other than Forrest Taylor, former chief of staff to once-time City Council speaker Gifford Miller, a former spokesman for Mayor Giuliani, and a former deputy executive director for operations for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
“I look forward to working with all stakeholders to insure the community has access to current information and swift responses to questions and concerns,” he said in a statement.
Also included is a fond farewell to the No Land Grab "Ombudsman Clock".
Taylor’s appointment brings to rest the spinning “Ombudsman Clock” on the anti-Yards Web site, No Land Grab. The clock is now frozen at 203 days, 8 hours, 38 minutes and 28 seconds.
“At No Land Grab, we never imagined that it would take the ESDC 203 days to retire the count-up clock,” said the Web site’s publisher, Lumi Rolley. “Like most things Atlantic Yards, reality strains credulity.”
Posted by steve at 6:14 AM
Rico Suave!
All we asked for was an ombudsman, but after yesterday's article in the Daily News in which the recently appointed Forrest Taylor called Atlantic Yards a "sexy project" and Brownstoner's mention of Taylor's penchant for single-malt, we're kinda wondering if we got more rico suave than we bargained for.
From Brownstoner:
A 2002 Times profile of Taylor, meanwhile, suggested that he relished being second in command to the Council Speaker (''If you want to be an elected official, go out and get yourself elected and then you can agree with yourself all the time,'' he said) but that he could also be demanding in his own right: His prerequisites for assuming that position included a $161,800 salary, an office with a courtyard view, and a supply of single-malt Scotch. While Taylor’s current salary and booze supply have not been revealed, the new ombudsman said he would “insure the community has access to current information and swift responses to questions and concerns.” And if that ends up being true, we’re certainly willing to toast to it.
Posted by lumi at 6:12 AM
Bruce under oath?
Could this be a photo of Bruce Ratner taking the Fifth? [Maybe, if you're talking about the Fifth Amendment eminent domain clause.]
Seriously, it's just Bruce ceremoniously breaking ground in Yonkers for Forest City's controversial Ridge Hill "regional lifestyle center."
Tuesday was a busy day for the popular Bruce Ratner, who appeared later that evening in Brooklyn for the MetroTech tree lighting.
More ground breaking photos and links at Community First Development Coalition.
Posted by lumi at 6:11 AM
GL Analysis: In Ten Years, Will They Ask "How Did This Happen?"
The Gowanus Lounge
The ESDC has stated (through the Environmental Impact Statement for Atlantic Yards) that a terrorist attack is not a "reasonable worst-case scenario." Gowanus Lounge takes the step to consider what the ESDC, apparently, cannot.
Whether one supports or opposes the Atlantic Yards project, an arena that ignores the threat of truck bombs and other terrorist attacks is far more than a planning blunder: it is a calculated and almost unthinkable act of public negligence. Bromides from city government that the security threat is under control and that the issue simply can't be discussed are unacceptable and dishonest. The Atlantic Yards security issues need to be dealt with publicly before a single shovel of Brooklyn soil is moved.
...
What if nothing is done? Our fear is that in ten or fifteen years, when maniacal mass murderers espousing a cause no one has even contemplated yet detonate trucks loaded with explosives outside of the Atlantic Yards arena during a basketball game or concert, there will be terrible loss of life. It will be followed by one of those wretched "How did this happen?" moments that inevitably follow catastrophes that could have been prevented. There will be an investigation and a blue ribbon commission. In Albany, there will be a legislative panel that points the fingers of blame at Gov. Pataki and at Gov. Spitzer. In Washington, Representatives and Senators will demand national security standards for arenas so there will "never be another Brooklyn." Then, the arena will be rebuilt, set back further from the street, and become the "Barclays Memorial Arena" or the "Freedom Center." More children will lose fathers and mothers, millions of hearts will be broken and billions of tears will be shed.
The risk of a terrorist attack on Atlantic Yards demands impartial studies, public hearings and corrective action before thousands of people are slaughtered in the interest of expediency. To do otherwise would be criminal negligence on the part of every public official that will have a role in a future tragedy.
Posted by steve at 6:05 AM
Ratner Claus!
The Brooklyn Paper
On the same day that news broke of his plan to build Brooklyn’s tallest building, Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner kicked off the holiday season on Wednesday at Metrotech in Downtown Brooklyn with the borough’s first major tree-lighting.
Posted by steve at 5:54 AM
Mr. Brooklyn
The Brooklyn Paper
By Adam F. Hutton
Bruce Ratner is planning to build the city’s tallest residential tower — a whopping 1,000-foot skyscraper that would dwarf the 512-foot Williamsburgh Savings Bank building, Brooklyn’s tallest.
But as with Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development, the secret, closed-door deal is already casting a shadow.
...
Earlier in the day, a Ratner spokesman said by e-mail that the drawing “was quite old and not indicative of current plans.” But the spokesman refused to say what the current plans are.Secrecy is nothing new for Ratner. As at Atlantic Yards, Ratner is partnering with a public agency — in this case, City University of New York — in a process that will not undergo the city’s rigorous land-use review process. Current zoning allows Ratner to build as high as he wants — but neither his company nor CUNY officials would say how high that is.
Read the full article to find out more about what we don't know about Ratner's latest high-rise proposal.
Posted by lumi at 5:52 AM
Another backroom deal
The Brooklyn Paper, Editorial
While we can barely keep up with the known unknowns of the Atlantic Yards backroom deal, the Brooklyn Paper has been keeping tabs on another Ratner-style public-private partnership.
Though the editorial concurs that Downtown Brooklyn is the appropriate place for Ratner's latest plan to build the new tallest building in Brooklyn, Forest City's perennial cone of silence, dropped over this deal, too, really makes you wonder.
All developers make promises, and some of them fall short some of the time. But Ratner has fallen short most of the time, and has been paid handsomely for each insult. From the government-subsidized sterility of his fortress-like Metrotech (with its unused retail spaces and poor job-creation numbers), to the government bailout at Ratner’s pathetic Atlantic Center Mall, to the ever-rising taxpayer subsidy that underwrites his shell game at Atlantic Yards, there has been no accountability. Government keeps on partnering with Ratner — not only on the projects, but on the clandestine planning process, too.
There are already many cheerleaders for Ratner’s City Tech tower. But until public officials answer reasonable questions about this backroom deal, and show us that the public, and not only Bruce Ratner, will benefit generously from this project, we will remain skeptical.
Posted by lumi at 5:45 AM
What? Pay for street parking?!
The Brooklyn Paper
By Mike McLaughlin
An article about last Tuesday's parking and transportation workshop reports that residential permit parking got a lot of attention. This is one of the ideas being bandied about along with the Mayor's congestion pricing plan.
Residents in Park Slope are already experiencing problems with on-street parking and fear it will get worse if Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards arena and high-rise complex is built.
“As Park Slope fills up, this is not going to solve the parking problem ultimately,” said Stuart Pertz, a Park Slope architect who has consulted the Municipal Arts Society on its opposition to the Atlantic Yards project.
NoLandGrab: Though Pertz has personally spoken quite forcefully against Atlantic Yards, the Municipal Art Society (MAS) has not taken a clear position opposing the project (see interview with MAS President Kent Barwick).
Posted by lumi at 5:32 AM
Dolly Williams is fined for her conflicted Yards vote
The Brooklyn Paper
by Dana Rubinstein
The Brooklyn Paper adds to the coverage of the $4,000 fine levied against former Planning Commissioner Dolly Williams. The fine comes as a result of a Conflict of Interest Board investigation done three years after a conflict-of-interest complaint was filed.
“I acknowledge that by voting on the Downtown Brooklyn Plan, which conferred a benefit on the Atlantic Yards project in which I was an investor … I violated [the law],” Williams said in a statement released on Tuesday.
The admission was a far cry from her assertion to The Brooklyn Paper in October that she had served her term with integrity.
Posted by steve at 5:30 AM
City's poor should be Job One
NY Daily News
Columnist Errol Louis
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While the city's unemployment rate is under 5%, the rate for black New Yorkers is nearly 8%.
I can't think of a social problem in New York's black neighborhoods - drug abuse, shattered families, crummy housing, failing schools - that wouldn't improve by leaps and bounds with an increase in the number of parents holding solid, good-paying jobs with benefits and pensions.
That's why city leaders, from City Hall to the smallest neighborhood nonprofits, must seize on this unprecedented opportunity to open doors that will give low-skilled, lesser-educated New Yorkers a shot at some of the city's estimated 123,0000 to 175,000 construction jobs.
Here's where Atlantic Yards comes in:
There's rarely been a better time to attack the long, ugly history of nepotism and discrimination in the building trades.
At the same time that megaprojects are being launched around the city - from the new Yankee Stadium in the Bronx to Queens West, Atlantic Yards and the rebuilding of the World Trade Center area - the average construction worker is 40 years old, and 30,000 are expected to retire over the next 15 years.
The Mayor's Commission on Construction Opportunity, the Bloomberg administration's plan to help cure the construction jobs mismatch, is still in its early stages, boosting funding for training and apprentice programs and the newly created Queens-based High School for Construction Trades, Engineering and Architecture.
Posted by lumi at 5:07 AM
How to Deal with Urban Construction
Construction Next Door
The Cooperator
By Raanan Geberer
For large-scale construction projects like Atlantic Yards, the impacts of demolition and construction are supposed to be identified in the Environmental Impact Statement.
But what's supposed to happen and how are New Yorkers supposed to deal with hassle and noise from all the smaller projects that are popping up on the landscape?
Posted by lumi at 4:56 AM
Eminent domain day at City Hall
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Metro NY Eminent domain was the topic du jour Thursday, as protests here over the Atlantic Yards and Columbia expansion projects were quickly followed by a hearing on the city’s Willets Point redevelopment plan. Queens Councilman Tony Avella believes eminent domain abuse will be a big issue in the 2009 election. “We’re talking about three neighborhoods in three different boroughs,” said Avella, one of only two declared candidates for mayor (the other is U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner). “It’s a fundamental American right to your own piece of property and your own business,” he said. “How can the city say, ‘We need your property, not for a school or a highway but for some rich guy so he can build a project to make more money’? It’s horrendous, and the risk is becoming more evident. If it happened to them, it can happen to you.” |
Posted by lumi at 4:37 AM
November 29, 2007
Colorado BioScience Association Announces Winners Of Its 2007 Awards Program, Honoring The Best of Colorado's Bioscience Industry
PR Web
From a Colorado BioScience Association press release:
The Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA) has released winners of its 2007 Awards Program.
And the Partner of the Year Award goes to... (envelope please)
Forest City Development. In 2007, Forest City Development (http://www.forestcityscience.net) signed a 30-year agreement to develop the $2 billion bioscience park on the Fitzsimons Campus. The development of the Colorado Science + Technology Park at Fitzsimons will add much needed real estate to Colorado's infrastructure and will give companies located throughout the state the laboratory space in which to grow.
Posted by lumi at 8:59 PM
Panel: a stronger public sector might mitigate "oversuccess," but developer reality is scarce
Atlantic Yards Report
The second-to-last panel in the series related to Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York, dubbed The Oversuccessful City, Part 1: Developers' Realities, like several predecessor events, aired a good deal of unease concerning the city's situation, with a partial menu of solutions.
The panel, held Tuesday night at the spanking new Times Center, was summarized by the New York Times under a headline “Can New York Be Too Successful?”, with the conclusion that “no one really argued that the city could be too successful.”
That missed the point; “the dilemmas of affordable housing and out-of-scale development” are exactly a challenge resulting from what Jacobs called “oversuccess," and the solution, at least as some panelists suggested, is a stronger public sector.
Posted by lumi at 8:57 PM
PRESS RELEASE: CBN, Elected Officials Renew Demand for Independent Atlantic Yards Security Study
Revelation of Scant 20-Foot Setbacks from Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues Raises Specter of Street Closings or Unacceptable Risks.
What Makes Brooklyn Different from Newark?
New York, NY –The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, Inc. (CBN) and State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, State Assembly Members Joan Millman and Jim Brennan, and City Council Members Letitia James, Bill de Blasio and David Yassky, today renewed their demands for an independent security study of the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards project, in light of new revelations that its planned basketball arena would be situated a mere 20 feet from both Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues.
In an interview in the November 24th edition of The New York Times, a spokesperson for Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) acknowledged publicly for the first time that portions of the glass-walled arena, six-story glass-walled “Urban Room” and adjacent glass-walled residential and commercial buildings would lie just 20 feet from Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, two of the boroughs most heavily trafficked thoroughfares. Police officials in Newark recently ordered the closing of two streets adjacent to that city’s new Prudential Center arena during events out of concern that a vehicular terrorist bomb could inflict significant damage upon the arena and its occupants. The streets ordered closed in Newark lie more than 20 feet from the arena’s walls.
Eight Brooklyn elected officials, including all those named above along with Assembly Member Hakeem Jeffries and State Senator Eric Adams, and all of whom represent areas in and around the planned Atlantic Yards site, sent a formal request for an independent security study to Governor Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg on October 29th. That request and similar calls by CBN and other community groups have thus far gone unanswered.
FCRC, the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) – the project’s sponsor – and the New York Police Department (NYPD) have said that police security officials have reviewed the plans for Atlantic Yards and are satisfied with their security provisions. But given the recent developments in Newark, Brooklyn elected officials and CBN have questioned why the NYPD believes the smaller setbacks planned in Brooklyn would be less of a security risk than the larger setbacks around Newark’s Prudential Center.
“Logic dictates that Newark police officials were apprised of the Prudential Center’s design well before they made the decision to close streets,” said Eric McClure, a member of CBN’s Steering Committee. “We can’t have the same after-the-fact scenario play out with Atlantic Yards. Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues are already two of Brooklyn’s most-congested roadways, and they’re already frequently gridlocked. Closing them during arena events – even closing a single lane – would be an unmitigated disaster. We need to know why the NYPD believes Brooklyn’s situation is different than Newark’s.”
The same elected officials who have called for an independent security study, along with CBN and other groups, have also repeatedly raised concerns about the effect that the planned Atlantic Yards project could have on traffic in Brooklyn. Newark-style street or lane closings could so negatively affect traffic conditions as to make the intersection of Atlantic, Flatbush and 4th Avenues – widely acknowledged as Brooklyn’s worst – virtually impassable during arena events.
CBN first raised the issue of security when it submitted comments during the scoping hearing for the Atlantic Yards Draft Environmental Impact Statement in October, 2005. The State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) does not mandate the study of security impacts, but the law governing SEQRA was last amended in June, 2000, well before the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy, in announcing the Prudential Center street closings, told the Newark Star-Ledger “you can't construct an arena and put it right against a street in a post 9/11 world.”
CBN again asked that the state conduct a security study in August, 2006, in extensive comments submitted at the public hearing on the Atlantic Yards Draft Environmental Impact Statement. The ESDC rejected that request, and claimed that the threat of a terror attack, including a vehicular bomb, at the proposed site of Atlantic Yards, was not a “reasonable worst-case scenario,” and therefore required no disclosures to the public regarding any aspect of security planning. This assertion is presently under legal review in New York State Supreme Court, and CBN believes ESDC’s position is without merit, since the Atlantic Terminal subway station, which lies beneath a portion of the proposed project site, was the target of a thwarted terrorist bomb attack in 1997.
The Newark police department’s decision to close streets after the Prudential Center was approved and built, along with the NYPD-mandated redesign of already-approved plans for the World Trade Center’s Freedom Tower, which increased building setbacks from 25 feet to 90 feet, are clear evidence that design and security are closely interconnected. The Prudential Center illustrates how security problems can radically alter the surrounding environment, while the Freedom Tower presents an example of significant changes to building design. Both scenarios appear possible in Brooklyn.
“The public must have the benefit of an independent and transparent inquiry into the design of the Atlantic Yards project and its arena, and the management techniques that will be put in place to ensure security at the site,” said Therese Urban, co-Chair of CBN. “Street closures would wreak havoc, and turning the arena into a bunker as a security ‘compromise’ would cheat Brooklynites of the ‘world-class’ design we’ve been promised.”
The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, Inc. is a coalition of community groups formed to provide a community voice in the scoping and review of the Environmental Impact process as it pertains to the development of the Vanderbilt Yards in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. All block associations, church, community and business groups regardless of their position toward any proposed development are invited to join CBN and are encouraged to attend and participate in CBN's bi-monthly meetings. A calendar and all CBN documents can be found at http://www.cbrooklynneighborhoods.homestead.com
Contact: Eric McClure
718-369-9771 / 646-522-2589
Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods
201 Dekalb Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205
cbrooklynneighborhoods@hotmail.com
http://www.cbrooklynneighborhoods.homestead.com
Posted by lumi at 8:48 PM
TODAY: CITY HALL LAND GRAB TRIFECTA
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There are three events at City Hall today concerning various land grabs in NYC. However you feel about any or all of these projects, clearly New York City has entered a new era of eminent domain abuse. |
BROOKLYN, ATLANTIC YARDS
PRESS CONFERENCE CITY HALL STEPS, 12:00 PM
State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, State Assembly Member Joan Millman, a representative of State Assembly Member Jim Brennan, City Council Members Letitia James, David Yassky and Bill de Blasio, and representatives of the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN) will hold a press conference on the steps of City Hall to renew a call for an independent security study of the planned Brooklyn Atlantic Yards project, and especially its basketball arena, in light of this week’s revelation that portions of the glass-walled arena and other adjacent glass-walled buildings would lie a mere 20 feet from heavily trafficked Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. Newark police officials recently mandated the closing of streets adjacent to that city’s new Prudential Center during arena events; those streets are approximately 25 feet from that arena’s walls.
QUEENS, WILLETS POINT
CITY COUNCIL LAND USE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE HEARING, 1:00 2:00PM
Representatives from the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association (WPIRA), a group of the 10 largest land/business owners in Willets Point will testify before the New York City Council's Land Use and Economic Development Committees on November 29, 2007 at 1 2 p.m. in the Committee Room, City Hall.
WEST HARLEM, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LAND GRAB
PRESS CONFERENCE AND RALLY ON THE CITY HALL STEPS, 1:00PM
The Coalition to Preserve Community, the West Harlem Business Group, students from Columbia and others will hold a press conference and rally on the City Hall steps from 1:00PM to 2:00PM.
They will point to the need for democracy in all land use processes, including the development of a Community Benefits Agreement. City Council must hear loud and clear that community planning, not selling out, is what must happen now that the land use process is before the Council.
NoLandGrab: With this level of eminent domain abuse, developers should be getting a volume discount or something.
Posted by lumi at 6:58 AM
Happy Holidays from Bruce Ratner
Brought to you by photographer Adrian Kinloch:
Photographer Tracy Collins posted more photos from the MetroTech tree lighting ceremony in the Atlantic Yards Photo Pool.
Posted by lumi at 6:44 AM
Proprosed Arena to Sit 20 Feet From Street
Brooklyn Downtown Star
by Shane Miller
More coverage of how the proposed Nets arena seems to have some design shortcomings regarding security.
After months of dodging questions about the proximity of the proposed Barclay's Center Arena to the two major streets that will surround it, developer Forest City Ratner admitted to the New York Times last week that at its closest point the arena would only be 20 feet from both Flatbush and Atlantic avenues.
The frank admission may have come as a shock to critics of the project, but the news likely wasn't a surprise, as for years opponents have been calling for an independent security study. Many filed a joint lawsuit claiming that the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), the state agency charged with reviewing the project, has been derelict in its duties by failing to consider certain threats in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The litigation is still pending.
Those calls became much louder in past months, however, after the Newark, New Jersey, police director announced that streets around that city's new Prudential Center Arena would have to be closed during events because of security concerns.
"You can't construct an arena and put it right against a street in a post-9/11 world," he now-famously told the Newark Star-Ledger two weeks prior to that arena's opening about one month ago. "So we're playing catch-up and taking measures to make sure it's safe."
Posted by steve at 6:23 AM
Three years after complaint, Williams departs Planning Commission with a $4000 fine; McRae the replacement
Atlantic Yards Report on Dolly Williams's fine:
The real question here is why it took the Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) more than three years to reach a resolution after a complaint was filed by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB). However, the board is prohibited by law from commenting beyond the disposition it issues.
This resolution can’t be good for Williams’ reputation, but she did avoid any criminal proceeding. And from another perspective, it might be seen as a cost of doing business in New York. Consider that Williams last December gave a $4950 campaign contribution to Markowitz, which is nearly 25% more than the fine she paid.
Also consider that, as the Times pointed out, Williams earned $48,000 a year for part-time work as a commissioner.
The NY Times ran an article on the paper's City Room blog with a curious headline, "A Casualty in the Atlantic Yards Battle." It makes it sound like Williams was somehow a victim.
NoLandGrab: The truth of the matter is that Williams played fast and loose with her governmental appointment and got her reputation handed to her.
Posted by lumi at 6:20 AM
Ratner, Markowitz at the MetroTech tree lighting ceremony
Atlantic Yards Report
Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz appeared yesterday at the annual tree-lighting ceremony at Ratner's MetroTech project.
Posted by steve at 6:10 AM
"It's a sexy project" — the AY Ombudsman
Ex-MTA executive Forrest Taylor takes on role as Atlantic Yards mediator
NY Daily News
By Elizabeth Hays
The Daily News gets the newly appointed Atlantic Yards ombudsman to speak:
"In my mind it's a sexy project. It's an important project. It creates housing and it creates jobs, and it's going to transform Brooklyn," said Forrest Taylor, 50, a longtime player on the city's political scene who was named the massive project's long-awaited watchdog and community liaison this week.
"My job here is to bring people together to work out solutions to move the project along," said Taylor, who served as chief of staff to former City Council speaker Gifford Miller and oversaw the restoration of Grand Central Terminal in a high-ranking job at the MTA.
The article continues with quotes from local politicos and this anecdote from the Empire State Development Corporation:
State officials told the Daily News last month there was no shortage of people interested in acting as a go-between among the various sides that have clashed over the project, which will bring a Nets arena and 16 residential and office towers to Flatbush and Atlantic Aves.
But, they said, three people offered the $105,000-a-year job turned it down.
Atlantic Yards Report, AY ombudsman: "It's a sexy project"
"Sexy project" caught Norman Oder's attention too, who quipped:
And surely he'll learn that a good number of people think Atlantic Yards is much closer to "rough sex" or even a spaceship.
Posted by lumi at 6:08 AM
Questions Await New Atlantic Yards Ombudsman
Runnin' Scared [The Village Voice]
By Michael Clancy
More than half a year after announcing the position, the Empire State Development Corporation has hired an ombudsman for the controversial Atlantic Yards project.
...
After months of waiting for an ombudsman, the public wasted no time in posing questions for Taylor.Norman Oder of the Atlantic Yards Report wanted to know how to contact Taylor, how much he was being paid, and how long his tenure would be?
...
The folks at Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn wonder "What makes the Brooklyn arena's proximity to streets different from the Newark arena that it will not require street closings?"
NoLandGrab: We want to know if the ombudsman will be blogging.
Posted by lumi at 5:55 AM
A community group set up to be bought out by Ratner?
Atlantic Yards Report
At a panel last night held at the Museum of the City of New York, Modernism and the Public Realm, Fred Siegel, a historian and urbanist, offered a tantalizing Atlantic Yards anecdote.
Siegel, a Brooklynite, was highly critical of Atlantic Yards. (More on the panel tomorrow.) At one point, he said, "I know a local politician who began a community group with the express purpose of being bought out by Bruce Ratner."
I caught up with him afterward to ask him to elaborate, but he begged off. But what politician and group could he have been talking about?
Posted by lumi at 5:54 AM
In the news
Two online news wrap-ups carried Atlantic Yards items from other media outlets today:
An architectural rendering, disseminated online, shows a new skyscraper — which would be Brooklyn’s tallest building — looming over Jay Street. The project was proposed by the developer Bruce C. Ratner, but separate from his Atlantic Yards project. Both Mr. Ratner’s company and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership said the rendering was outdated and did not reflect Mr. Ratner’s current plans. [Daily News]
[From The NY Sun]
Ben Sarlin reports: “The New York City Conflicts of Interest Board is fining the city planning commissioner, Dolly Williams, $4,000 for failing to recuse herself from decisions regarding the giant Atlantic Yards development near downtown Brooklyn, the board announced yesterday. Despite her critical role in approving the project, Ms. Williams in 2004 invested $250,000 in the New Jersey Nets, which is owned by the developer of Atlantic Yards, Forest City Ratner Companies. The Nets are scheduled to move into a new arena as part of the $4 billion development, which will also add thousands of units of housing and office and retail space to the low-rise neighborhood.”
Posted by lumi at 5:49 AM
A New Proposal From Ratner: Brooklyn's Tallest Building
Gothamist, A Bigger Brooklyn Building From Bruce Ratner
A rendering of Brooklyn's proposed City Tech Tower, designed by Renzo Piano, at Tillary and and Jay Street sent some into speculation mode, especially since its height seemed to be up to 1,000 feet tall. Which would make just about twice the height of the 512-foot tall Williamsburgh Savings Bank, currently the tallest building the Brooklyn.
The Real Deal via AM New York (in AM New York's print edition only)
A new addition may soon top Brookyn's skyline if developer Bruce Ratner gets his way, according to The Real Deal. The real estate publication reports that the project which is not part of Atlntic Yards, "could reach 1,000 feet, a higher height than the borough's tallest building, the Williamsburg Savings Bank."
Posted by steve at 5:48 AM
Dolly's Follies
Disgraced City Planning Commissioner Dolly Williams Fined for Atlantic Yards Conflict of Interest
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
Though Williams feigned innocence, it only took three years to show that where there's smoke, there's fire:
In August 2004, it was reported in the Brooklyn Paper that Brooklyn's only representative on the City Planning Commission, Dolly Williams, had become an investor in Bruce Ratner's Nets. It was amply clear to us that her financial stake with the team and her role as a Commissioner created a conflict of interest that broke the Ethics Law of the City Charter, which says that a city officer with ownership interest in firms doing business with the city has a conflict of interest. . Days after the disclosure Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn lodged a complaint with the city's Conflicts of Interest Board (click to download the complaint).
At the time, Ms. Williams told the Brooklyn Paper: "It is not a conflict, otherwise I would not do it."
Tuesday, over three years after the complaint was filed, the Conflicts of Interest Board released a disposition by Ms. Williams where she admitted that her partial ownership of the Nets and her vote in favor of the 2004 Downtown Brooklyn Rezoning -- which included a rezoning of a small part of the Atlantic Yards project site which would benefit Forest City Ratner -- was a conflict of interest. The Board also announced a $4,000 dollar fine it has imposed on the now disgraced commissioner. Ms. Williams has not explained why she did not recuse herself from that vote and admit to her conflict much earlier.
Posted by lumi at 5:41 AM
Goodby (sic) Dolly
The Neighborhood Retail Alliance
Lobbyist and Forest City Ratner consultant Richard Lipsky's reaction to the NYC Conflict of Interest Board's fining of Dolly Williams:
The news that City Planning Commissioner Dolly Williams was leaving the body because of a conflict of interest didn't do much to move us; we just don't hold the Commission in enough regard to really react to the news.
However, Lipsky holds Atlantic Yards in high enough regard to continue:
Others, however feel differently. As the NY Sun reports, DDD's Daniel Goldstein looks favorably upon Williams' removal because of conflicts involving Atlantic Yards, and her replacement by Shirley McRae, a sometime critic of the project: "As for the new commissioner: "It's got to be an improvement over someone who's just been fined over conflicts of interest," Mr. Goldstein said. He added that he was encouraged by Ms. McRae's critical perspective on the Atlantic Yards issue during her time on the local community board."
Goldstein should really temper his enthusiasm, it tends to place too much emphasis on the import of all of this minor maneuvering. After all, a conflict at the planning commission, a body that faithfully discharges the mayor's will, has little impact on the resolution of any individual issue; it's not a venue where democracy is exercised.
He does leave us with a relevant parting proverb that applies as much to Atlantic Yards as it does to the Columbia Expansion plan, though we're sure that he'd split every hair on his head in disagreement.
"The law punishes the thief who steals the goose from off of the common; but lets the greater felon loose, who steals the commons from the goose."
NoLandGrab: Lipsky is still smarting from the community's loss before the Planning Commission this week (as are we), where the commission shamefully voted to approve the Columbia University expansion plan, despite widespread public opposition.
Lipsky has a point — any one commissioner doesn't wield very much power. However, he's overlooking the point that Williams sought to use her position to further her own financial interests, which is a hallmark of governmental corruption.
Posted by lumi at 5:22 AM
Ceremonial groundbreaking at Forest City Ratner's controversial Ridge Hill project in Yonkers
Journal News, Ceremonial shovels finally hit the ground at Ridge Hill development
Elected officials and developers wielded polished steel ceremonial shovels yesterday not far from where Whole Foods and L.L Bean stores will rise as part of the Ridge Hill project, this city's biggest redevelopment project to date.
...
Yesterday was a long time coming. Redevelopment efforts began in the late 1990s under former Mayor John Spencer, who attended the ceremony. Then, in September 2002, the city announced Forest City Ratner would develop the site, which once housed a state drug-treatment center and later Lockheed-Martin, the aviation and aerospace giant.Forest City Ratner President and CEO Bruce Ratner, however, said the five years of planning was not unreasonable. "People often say to me, 'My God, it took a long time,' but to be honest, a project of this magnitude, with the back and forth on both sides, often does take a long time," Ratner said.
NoLandGrab: What Bruce means is that political backroom dealing, doing an end-run around the City's own rules and fending off lawsuits is hard work and takes a long time.
Business Wire, Forest City Ratner Companies Breaks Ground on Ridge Hill in Yonkers
From the official press release:
Government officials from the City of Yonkers, County of Westchester and State of New York joined Bruce Ratner, Chairman and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC), today as ground was broken on Ridge Hill, a dynamic and diverse mixed-use project in Yonkers.
“This is a tremendous day for Forest City and the City of Yonkers, and I want to personally thank Mayor Amicone, City Council President Lesnick, and the entire Yonkers City Council for their leadership in making this day possible,” said Bruce Ratner, Chairman and CEO of FCRC. “Ridge Hill will be the next great shopping and entertainment destination in Westchester and we are very pleased to be a significant part of Yonkers’ continuing resurgence.”
Posted by lumi at 5:17 AM
Can New York Be Too Successful?
City Room [The NY Times]
By Sewell Chan
Has New York City’s remarkable economic expansion of the past decade been too much of a good thing? A panel of developers took up this question on Tuesday night in a panel discussion organized by the Municipal Art Society, with the title “The Oversuccessful City, Part 1: Developers’ Realities.”
Not surprisingly, no one really argued that the city could be too successful. Instead, the often spirited discussion — which at times seemed dominated by angry members of the audience — focused on the dilemmas of affordable housing and out-of-scale development. Projects like Atlantic Yards and the redevelopment of the Far West Side came up. Charles V. Bagli, who covers economic development for The Times, moderated the discussion.
...
[Professor Birch] pointed out that three of the most ambitious projects under way or on the drawing board — Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, the Hudson Yards development proposed for the Far West Side of Manhattan, and the creation of a new Moynihan Station at the James A. Farley Post Office Building in Midtown — are going forward not under the city’s aegis but that of the state. “What has happened to city and its ability to lead and direct its own development?” she asked.
Posted by lumi at 5:09 AM
5 Questions: Kent Barwick
Last Exit
More evidence that Kent Barwick hasn't been paying much attention or just doesn't like Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn:
You’d mentioned that the Atlantic Yards proposal was one of the wakeup calls that inspired this series. But you’re gotten some heat for not coming out totally against that project. What good do you think can come of it?
There’s the [Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn spokesman] Daniel Goldstein school of thought, which seemed to us to be well represented, and they were going to go ahead and do the lawsuit and everything. And there were principles that members of Develop Don’t Destroy shared that we didn’t necessarily share. For instance, we thought that it was a good place for high-density development. You’ve got all the subways there. If Brooklyn wants to have an arena, for whatever combination of emotional and psychological reasons — and it’s true of Brooklyn, the loss of the Dodgers is a defining event for longtime Brooklynites – it’s a good place for an arena. It’s not a great place for a rail yard. The rail yard had divided Brooklyn in two. So, there was a lot to recommend the general direction the project in city planning terms. In detail, it was all over the top.
NoLandGrab: Kent Barwick is either purposely ignoring the work that Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn has done to promote the UNITY plan — a plan that proposes more density for the railyards — or he just hasn't been paying attention.
There wasn’t anybody playing the role of the government. And so the developer [Bruce Ratner of Forest City Ratner] was allowed to do whatever he thought best. He has a lot more expertise in some areas than others. If you look at Atlantic Center or Metrotech, you can realize that his company is a lot more comfortable in suburban settings that urban settings.
Anyway, we thought the biggest problem with this project was that it was way over the top, it’s overreaching and there wasn’t anybody paying attention to it.
Here Barwick gets to the truth of the matter:
We have ties to Bruce Ratner. He and I were in the Koch Administration together. Several of my trustees were personally friendly with Bruce and members of the Ratner family. We had a number of trustees were former Koch people, and Ratner is a Koch person. So there was a feeling on our part, yeah, everyone likes Frank Gehry as a person. And Laurie Olin was a very fine landscape architect who has done a lot of fine work in the city and elsewhere.
So we weren’t dealing with the usual schlock, let’s-rape-the-site-and-get-out-as-quickly-as-we-can developers, using anonymous architects and landscape architect. There was clearly a greater set of ambitions here. So we set out to analyze what we thought about that. So we went out in doing that and met with community groups to see what they thought in the neighborhood.
We were invited out to the neighborhood by these groups. We were kind of apprehensive because it’s easy to dismiss us as some Upper East Side group, with headquarters on Madison Avenue. You’re always vulnerable to that. So we went out and made this presentation. I was the presenter. It was a really good, thoughtful presentation. We didn’t tell anybody anything. It was kind of a Jane Jacobs thing, even though we didn’t know it. So we said, OK, let’s look at the plan. Let’s look at the parks in Brooklyn and see which ones work and which ones don’t work and why. Let’s look at the streets. We used examples. We went through the whole idea of we need multi-use retail, we need parks to be close to major thoroughfares, and people really responded. And that’s when we came up with the idea to say, let’s set up an alternative voice. Not the pro-Ratner, pro-Marty Markowitz. Not Develop Don’t Destroy. We knew they were going to do what they were going to do. But there seemed to be a need for a third voice. But there are a lot of people uncomfortable with “No, we don’t want anything, no.”
So think it was finally a useful thing to do. We haven’t felt so much heat. Norman Oder, who writes the Atlantic Yards blog, is harsh with us, but he’s supportive. He attends almost all these Jane Jacobs things. So I feel we’ve been fairly treated. I am proud of the work that we did. I’m glad we did it, and I think it will lead to more. I think there’s a growing feeling in Brooklyn that the city by itself is not going to adequately plan. There’s so much change going on that there needs to be a broader context, a broader set of discussions. Most offensive about Atlantic Yards was the failure of the city to do anything, the failure of the state to engage in the communities. The communities were just ignored. It was really offensive.
Posted by lumi at 4:55 AM
Rats in the City
The NY Times
Robert M. Corrigan, an expert on rodents with the city's Department of Health, is answering readers' questions this week.
Posted by lumi at 4:46 AM
November 28, 2007
CBN Media Advisory: Thursday, Noon Press Conference at City Hall
November 28, 2007
Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN)
WHO: State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, State Assembly Member Joan Millman, a representative of State Assembly Member Jim Brennan, City Council Members Letitia James, David Yassky and Bill de Blasio, State Senator Eric Adams and State Assembly Member Hakeem Jeffries pending, representatives of the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods
WHAT: Press Conference on Atlantic Yards Security Issues / Planned Arena Setbacks
WHERE: City Hall Steps, New York, NY
WHEN: Thursday, November 29th, 12:00 PM
Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods and Elected Officials
Renew Call for Independent Security Study of Atlantic Yards
Press Conference: Thursday, November 29th, 12:00 PM
Brooklyn, NY — On Thursday, November 29th at 12:00 p.m., State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, State Assembly Member Joan Millman, a representative of State Assembly Member Jim Brennan, City Council Members Letitia James, David Yassky and Bill de Blasio, and representatives of the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN) will hold a press conference on the steps of City Hall to renew a call for an independent security study of the planned Brooklyn Atlantic Yards project, and especially its basketball arena, in light of this week’s revelation that portions of the glass-walled arena and other adjacent glass-walled buildings would lie a mere 20 feet from heavily trafficked Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. Newark police officials recently mandated the closing of streets adjacent to that city’s new Prudential Center during arena events; those streets are approximately 25 feet from that arena’s walls.
A spokesperson for Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner last week admitted publicly for the first time that portions of the planned "Barclays Center" would sit back just 20 feet from two of Brooklyn’s busiest thoroughfares. Council Members James, Yassky and de Blasio, Senators Montgomery and Eric Adams, and Assemblymembers Brennan, Millman and Hakeem Jeffries formally requested an independent security study on October 29th, and questioned what would make the planned Brooklyn arena more secure than Newark’s arena. Street closings – or even lane closings – in Brooklyn similar to those instituted in Newark would create a nightmare of traffic and gridlock more than 230 days a year.
Posted by lumi at 5:10 PM
The Atlantic Yards ombudsman cometh, finally, and the questions begin
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder weighs in on the much-anticipated appointment of the Atlantic Yards Ombudsman, and wonders just how direct the "direct information" he'll provide to the public will be:
It's hard to imagine that Taylor will pry more out of the agency than it has already said, but it's also hard to imagine that such questions will stop.
Such challenges may cause the ESDC to try to draw a line between questions that are "informational"--easily accessible as long as the right people/agencies are queried--and those that are "political" and "legal," the answers for which the ESDC has said all that it will say because of internal or legal constraints.
Can Taylor do a credible job while maintaining the credibility of such boundaries? He'll surely have opportunities to prove his value.
Posted by lumi at 9:29 AM
Atlantic Yards Ombudsman Is Named
City Room [The NY Times]
By Sewell Chan
Some background on the Atlantic Yards ombuddy:
The new ombudsman, Forrest R. Taylor, was chief of staff to Gifford Miller when he was speaker of the City Council from 2002 to 2004.
Previously, Mr. Taylor was a protegé of Marc V. Shaw, a former first deputy mayor who now works for the Extell Development Company, and worked as deputy executive director for operations at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where Mr. Shaw was executive director before he joined the Bloomberg administration. Most recently, Mr. Taylor has been manager of Prowess Initiatives and Analysis, which advises companies on government relations and corporate communications.
Mr. Taylor, 46, a Detroit native who graduated from the University of Michigan in 1981, has his work cut out for him. Atlantic Yards, a massive retail, residential and office development that includes a new basketball arena, has been the most controversial project ever to rise in the city’s most populous borough.
As the “dedicated project coordinator,” Mr. Taylor will be the liaison from the development corporation to elected officials, community groups and the public.
Posted by lumi at 5:52 AM
City Planning Commission member fined, successor named
NY Daily News
By Jotham Sederstrom
Controversial City Planning Commission member Dolly Williams was fined Tuesday for voting in support of Atlantic Yards while she was an investor in the project.
The $4,000 fine was announced Tuesday by the city Conflicts of Interest Board at the same time Borough President Marty Markowitz named longtime Community Board 2 Chairwoman Shirley McRae as Williams' prospective replacement for the commission's Brooklyn representative.
Williams could not be reached for comment, although she was seen at Borough Hall briefly just before the press conference announcing McRae's appointment to the post.
"We heard it a little while ago," said Markowitz when asked about the fines imposed on Williams, who was representing Brooklyn when she cast the vote.
Asked about the timing of his announcement of McRae and the news about Williams, Markowitz didn't deny a connection.
Posted by lumi at 5:46 AM
Atlantic Yards Ombudsman Looks Forward to Hearing from You
The Real Estate Observer
By Matthew Schuerman
After more than six months of searching for the perfect candidate for the job (and after three people had refused offers), an ombudsman for the Atlantic Yards project has finally been found: Forrest R. Taylor, a communications and government relations consultant who worked as chief of staff to former City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and as deputy executive director for operations at the MTA. One word of advice to Mr. Taylor: Duck!
Posted by lumi at 5:23 AM
Atlantic Yards Gets Ombudsman
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
By Sarah Ryley
The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) announced Tuesday the selection of Forrest R. Taylor as ombudsman for the Atlantic Yards arena and high-rise project.
The ESDC promised to hire an ombudsman in April, following the partial collapse of the Ward Bakery during asbestos abatement, to act as a liaison between the agency, elected officials and the public in addressing concerns related to construction. Construction is expected to last at least 10 years.
Among other things, Taylor will handle questions and complaints, and regularly brief the community and elected officials on the progress of the project.
Posted by lumi at 5:20 AM
Planning Commissioner Fined for Atlantic Yards Conflict of Interest
The NY Sun
By Benjamin Sarlin
This Sun article covering Dolly Williams's $4,000 fine from the NYC Conflict of Interest Board slightly exaggerates the embattled Planning Commish's role in the approval of Bruce Ratner's controversial megaproject.
Despite her critical role in approving the project, Ms. Williams in 2004 invested $250,000 in the New Jersey Nets, which is owned by the developer of Atlantic Yards, Forest City Ratner Companies.
Atlantic Yards is a state project. NYC's Planning Commission played a bit part, approving changes related to the project, but not the project itself, which was approved last December by the Public Authorities Control Board, which is comprised of representatives of the Governor, Assembly Speaker and Senate Leader.
The article goes into more detail, which clarifies Dolly Williams's actions and the Planning Commission's actual role:
Ms. Williams, the CFO of A. Williams Construction, signed a statement with the Conflicts of Interest Board admitting that she had invested in the Nets just weeks before she voted in favor of the downtown Brooklyn redevelopment plan, which would benefit some of the land to be included in the Atlantic Yards project. The decision by the board comes more than three years after the Brooklyn Paper originally reported that Ms. Williams's financial holdings posed a conflict of interest. After her relationship with the developer was disclosed, Ms. Williams recused herself from future involvement with the project, including design recommendations in 2006 that gave the commission's stamp of approval to the plan.
NoLandGrab: Williams has connsistently displayed a pattern of personal entitlement, as demonstrated by her use of a City Government parking placard to illegally park her signature yellow Porsche.
Posted by lumi at 5:08 AM
$4K FINE FOR DIP IN 'ATLANTIC'
NY Post
By Maggie Haberman
An embattled city Planning Commission member was fined $4,000 for approving part of the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn - a controversial plan that she'd personally invested in, officials said yesterday.
Dolly Williams admitted she violated the city charter section saying public servants can't use their positions to personally benefit themselves or associates, the city Conflicts of Interest Board said.
...
In April 2004, Williams put $250,000 into escrow to start paying for her investment in the Nets basketball team and a new arena at the Atlantic Yards site.Less than three weeks later, she voted to approve the plan that would modify a parcel in the Atlantic Yards plan, she admitted in an affidavit.
NoLandGrab: The appearance of conflict of interest has been festering for more than three years; it is hardly surprising that Williams actually took action to personally enrich herself.
Additionally, the Post reports:
[Williams] continues to serve in her post until Markowitz fills the position.
That explains why Marty Markowitz announced the appointment of Shirley McRae on the same day this decision was handed down.
Posted by lumi at 5:00 AM
Bruce to build tallest building in Brooklyn, after all?
NY Post, A TALL ORDER IN B’KLYN
Preliminary renderings of another Ratner building - the proposed City Tech Tower on Downtown Brooklyn's Jay Street - feature a design by renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano showing a massive structure, which some online estimates yesterday put at 1,000 feet tall.
Sources familiar with the project say they expect it to top off at around 700 feet.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn’s Tallest? CUNY-Forest City Tower Could Be 65 Stories
The design of the proposed tower on the site of the Klitgord Auditorium on the New York City College of Technology (City Tech) campus, at Tillary and Jay streets, has been revealed and it appears to be between 65 and 70 stories tall. Currently, the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, at 512 feet, is Brooklyn’s tallest.
Reported over the holiday weekend first by Wired-NY.com and then by the 110 Livingston blog and Brownstoner.com, it is described as “stunningly tall” and Wired-NY, which counted the floors in the rendering, estimated that, with the spire, the building could top 1,000 feet and could be Brooklyn’s tallest.
Posted by lumi at 4:49 AM
Markowitz Appoints CB2 Chair McRae to City Planning Commission
Brooklyn Heights Blog
The Brooklyn Paper reports that Borough President Marty Markowitz has named Shirley McRae, Chair of Community Board 2, which includes the Heights along with Boerum Hill, Clinton Hill, DUMBO and Fort Greene, to be Brooklyn's sole representative on the City Planning Commission.
...
Ms. McRae has called for greater community participation in oversight of the Atlantic Yards proposal, criticized the conduct of public hearings concerning the Yards, and signed a letter (along with other CB chairs) taking Mr. Ratner to task for claiming that the Boards had participated significantly in a report favoring the development.
Posted by lumi at 4:47 AM
Atlantic Yards, Part 1
Ecotecture analyzes Atlantic Yards based on the project's sustainability — the controversial megaproject comes across looking pretty green:
Atlantic Yards relies heavily on its relationship to transportation hubs, as well as providing on-site commercial amenities.
Atlantic Yards is also intended to connect neighborhoods by transforming the current barrier of rail yards into a connective fabric of parks, residences and commerce.
Architect Frank Gehry has developed Atlantic Yards 16 high-rise residential and mixed-use towers, arranged in a public park.
Landscape architect Laurie Olin has designed the open space that connects the multiple towers. The space is primarily public and encourages a wide variety of activities.
NoLandGrab: When you get your info from the developer, what's not to love?
Posted by lumi at 4:32 AM
DDDB Threefer
A Question for the Atlantic Yards Ombudsman
There is a particularly pressing question that many, including elected officials have been asking:
What makes the Brooklyn arena's proximity to streets different from the Newark arena that it will not require street closings?
Fine for Brooklyn's Conflicted Commissioner
Oddly, more than three years after DDDB lodged a complaint about former Brooklyn-appointed City Planning Commissioner Dolly Williams with the city's Conflict of Interest Board for her conflict — owning a share of Bruce Ratner's Nets while simultaneously sitting on a commission that took a vote that would benefit the Atlantic Yards developer during the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning in 2004 — the Board has issued a report and fined Ms. Williams $4,000 according to the Wonkster blog.
Atlantic Yards Critic Appointed to City Planning
It's nice for Brooklyn to have a representative on the Planning Commission again who can be independent of Mr. Markowitz and the interests of the real estate industry.
...
Chairwoman McRae and her Community Board 2 members were very critical of the Atlantic Yard project's Environmental Impact Statement and its findings, as well as the process that bypassed the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure and thus her Board, and the project's abuse of eminent domain.
Posted by lumi at 4:08 AM
November 27, 2007
PRESS RELEASE: ESDC HIRES ATLANTIC YARDS OMBUDSPERSON
ESDC furthers commitment to increased oversight and information flow
Furthering its commitment to increased oversight and improved information flow at the Atlantic Yards project, the Empire State Development Corporation today announced it has hired Forrest R. Taylor as project ombudsperson.
Mr. Taylor, who has a long and distinguished background in the public and private sectors, will be the dedicated project coordinator and liaison between ESDC, elected officials, community representatives and the public.
“Understanding and addressing the community’s concerns are a high priority for this administration. We believe this important development project will help transform Brooklyn by bringing much-needed housing, transit improvements, open space and jobs to the downtown area,” said Avi Schick, President and COO of ESDC. “Forrest’s background in government, transportation and community affairs makes him ideally suited to provide the public with direct information and direct access to the state and the developer.”
Most recently, Mr. Taylor served as manager of Prowess Initiatives and Analysis, a boutique firm advising corporate clients on government relations and corporate communications. He has also held a number of government posts, including chief of staff to the City Council president, deputy executive director for operations for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and chief of staff for the deputy mayor for finance and economic development.
“This ombudsman position provides an opportunity for me to draw on all of my experiences in and out of government and is an exciting next step forward in the State’s effort to increase the public’s connection to this important and transformative project. I look forward to working with all stakeholders to insure the community has access to current information and swift responses to questions and concerns,” Mr. Taylor said.
Mr. Taylor, who assumed his post on Monday, will be based in a to-be-established office in the Atlantic Yards project area, providing easy access for local officials and community members. As ombudsman Mr. Taylor will oversee the project schedule and activities and meet with elected officials and community groups to brief them on process, activities and timetables. Mr. Taylor will also be tasked with relaying and working through public concerns with the proper administrative agencies.
Empire State Development is New York’s chief economic development agency, encompassing business, workforce and community development. ESD also oversees the marketing of “I LOVE NY,” the State’s iconic tourism brand. For more information, visit www.nylovesbiz.com
Posted by lumi at 7:52 PM
Former Commissioner Fined for Atlantic Yards Connection
Gotham Gazette is reporting that Dolly Williams was fined $4,000 by the NYC Conflict of Interest Board on the same day that we find that Shirley McRae will succeed Ms. Williams on the City Planning Commission.
According to a deposition released by the Conflicts of Interest Board today, Dolly Williams, who has served as a commissioner since 2003 and announced she would leave the board last month, voted in favor of the project while she was simultaneously becoming an investor in the New Jersey Nets - who will move to Brooklyn as part of the major downtown development, Atlantic Yards.
In late April of 2004, Williams put $250,000 in escrow to guarantee her investment in the Nets. A little over two weeks later she voted in favor of the project that expanded the commercial use of a site within the Atlantic Yards plan.
NoLandGrab: It should be noted that it took over THREE YEARS after Atlantic Yards critics and Brooklyn Papers noted WIlliams's conflict for the Board to act.
Perhaps this closes one of the early bizarre chapters in the Atlantic Yards saga.
Posted by lumi at 7:46 PM
McRae to replace Williams on Planning board
The Brooklyn Paper
By Gersh Kuntzman
Borough President Markowitz has named Community Board 2 chair Shirley McRae to be the new Brooklyn representative to the city Planning Commission, The Brooklyn Paper has learned.
The official announcement will be at a press conference tomorrow.
McRae has been the longtime head of Community Board 2, which covers Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO.
McRae will be replacing Dolly Williams, whose part-ownership in the New Jersey Nets and business relationship with developer Bruce Ratner became a major embarrassment for Borough Hall when Williams — Brooklyn’s sole representative on the Planning Commission — was forced her to recuse herself from discussions about Atlantic Yards, the borough’s largest development project ever.
Posted by lumi at 7:37 PM
Piano Floods Gray Monolith for New York Times in Gorgeous Light
Bloomberg
The Times gave up its white terra-cotta chateau-style headquarters just west of Times Square to take 26 floors of the tower it built with developer Forest City Ratner Cos.
Bloomberg's reviewer, James S. Russell, can't find enough nice things to say about Bruce Ratner's latest building, for example:
The building is almost prim at street level, in contrast to the belching crudeness all around.
....
Light is Piano's favorite raw material, and he conjures the most beautiful light I have ever seen in an office building.
'Nuf said...
Posted by lumi at 6:53 PM
TONIGHT: PlaNYC Workshop On Neighborhood Parking In Prospect Heights/Park Slope
The New York City Department of Transportation invites you to Come and Share Your Ideas
[This announcement was distributed by Brooklyn Community Board 6.]
DOT wants to address community concerns about the possible impact of congestion pricing on neighborhood parking.
Participate in roundtable discussions about:
- Parking conditions in your neighborhood
- Parking management strategies
- Help develop a toolbox of potential parking solutions that can be applied to neighborhoods citywide
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
6:30-8:30pm
Come between 6:00-6:30pm
Congregation Beth Elohim
274 Garfield Place (at 8th Avenue)
RSVP Required by 11/26/07 to:
planycpark@hshassoc.com or call 917.339.0488.
Use "Brooklyn Workshop" as subject line of email.
To download the official agency announcement click here, or use the following link:
http://www.brooklyncb6.org/announcements/#10.
Posted by lumi at 12:36 PM
Eagle Twofer: Real Estate Round-Up, November 26, 2007
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
By Sarah Ryley
link
City Council hopes to expand oversight on massive NYC building boom:
The City Council is proposing a new task force that would examine the impact that large, private development projects have on surrounding infrastructure, included those sponsored by the city and state, reported The New York Sun. Headed by Council Members Daniel Garodnick and Letitia James, a chief opponent of the Atlantic Yards arena and high rise project, the task force would examine impacts on traffic, schools and energy.
So the glass-walled arena and high-rises are only 20 ft. from Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, what's the big deal?
The New York Times confirmed that the Atlantic Yards arena, renamed the Barclays Center, would be set back from Atlantic and Flatbush avenues only 20 feet in most places. The issue, brought up by opponents of the project as early as 2005 and the subject of a lawsuit, reemerged after Newark police decided two weeks before the grand opening of the Prudential Center arena to close adjacent streets during events because it was deemed too close at 25 feet.
Posted by lumi at 6:01 AM
FIGHTING AMONG THEMSELVES
The Village Voice, Letter to the Editor
Deb Goldstein sticks up for her bro:
Regarding Dan Ross's November 7–13 letter referring to Daniel Goldstein and Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn as an absolutist organization: Mr. Ross surely gives us more power than we were ever afforded.
Downplaying the work of a self-made grassroots organization in the way Mr. Ross does is taking on a sort of "blame the victim" mentality. There comes a point in organizing and social action when "sitting at the table" and negotiating are no longer strategic options. If Mr. Goldstein and the entire organization believed that negotiation with Forest City Ratner was an option, it would have been done years ago. Sure, we would have liked to remain idealistic and think that conversations could have occurred, but good faith went the way of the falling bricks a long time ago. However, Mr. Ross, perhaps you could try?
Deborah Goldstein
Brooklyn
Posted by lumi at 5:57 AM
At the "Priced Out" conference, some Atlantic Yards subtext
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder goes all out on the "Priced Out" conference, where, as usual, Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards plan makes a few cameo appearances:
At the “Priced Out” conference on “addressing the pressures of living in NYC,” sponsored by by the New York City Council Black, Latino and Asian Caucus over the first weekend in November at Pace University, Atlantic Yards popped up several times, sometimes not so flatteringly. And it also led to some public diplomacy from both opponents and proponents.
Oder also posted a longer article on the conference in general.
Posted by lumi at 5:43 AM
November 26, 2007
EMINENT DOMAINIA: City Planning Commission approves Columbia expansion plan
No surprises here, everything at yesterday's City Planning Commission meeting went according to the preordained script. City Planning voted to accept the Columbia University expansion plan, which would use eminent domain to displace residents and businesses in West Harlem.
Here are today's headlines:
Crain's NY Business, Columbia expansion wins key vote
10 of the Commission's 12 present members voted in favor of the expansion, with one against. One other abstained, citing a provision in the plan that would allow the university to use eminent domain to acquire land for the expansion.
NY Times: City Room, Planning Panel Approves Columbia Expansion
After a tumultuous and bitter meeting replete with persistent heckling, the New York City Planning Commission voted this afternoon to approve Columbia University’s much-debated plan for a 17-acre campus expansion in Harlem. The plan now goes to the City Council, which is expected to modify it before giving final approval.
The commission’s decision marks an important step — thought not the final one — in the often difficult process known as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or Ulurp.
...
Adding a wrinkle to the project, the planning commission voted unanimously to approve a similar redevelopment proposal — a community-initiated rezoning proposal known as a Section 197a document — that had been put forward by Community Board 9.
Someone smart enough to write for the Times shouldn't be buying into Columbia's nonsensical pr campaign:
Columbia has defended the plan as necessary and promised not to seek the use of eminent domain to make people leave their homes. (The university has left open the possibility of having the state use eminent domain to acquire nonresidential property.)
NY Newsday, Columbia gets approval for West Harlem expansion
The Newsday reporter didn't fall for the same absurd rhetoric that the Times did:
Although the university has acquired most of the properties in the project's footprint, it hasn't ruled out using eminent domain to acquire the rest.
...
"The record of this commission is that their allegiance is only to other wealthy people," said architectural historian Michael Henry Adams, who harangued the commissioners with chants of "rich, rich, rich" throughout much of the meeting. "I guess the rest of us can just go to hell and die."
Columbia Spectator, CPC Approves M’Ville Plan
The Spectator explains the "wrinkle" that the Times reporter had trouble grasping:
In addition to approving the 197-c plan, the commission approved Community Board 9’s 197-a plan for the area’s development. Yet while the 197-a as written by CB9 covers all of Manhattanville, the commission approved only the provisions dealing with the area outside the expansion zone.
Commissioner Karen Phillips cast the only vote against the 197-c plan, and commissioner Irwin Cantor abstained from voting on 197-c. The 197-a plan passed without any dissenting votes.
Gothamist, Manhattanville, Columbiaville: City Agency Approves Massive Columbia Plan
The old saw is that one can't fight City Hall, and we can apparently add the ivory tower to the bulwarks of imperviousness. Despite fierce community opposition, Columbia University will be expanding its upper-Manhattan campus to surrounding blocks.
NoLandGrab: Gothamist jumped the gun, the plan must pass a full City Council vote for approval before the "University will be expanding."
Metro NY, Columbia expansion heads to City Council
Ten of the 12 board members voted to send both plans to the City Council for a hearing next month and a final vote in January.
Officials said it would be up to the council to reconcile remaining differences in the Columbia proposal and the residents’ plan, which originally had sought to prevent what its sponsors called a dire threat to one of Manhattan’s oldest working-class, low-income neighborhoods.
Posted by lumi at 7:44 PM
DDDB PRESS RELEASE:
Major Security Flaw Revealed in Ratner's Atlantic Yards Plan
Arena Setback Only 20 Feet From Congested Brooklyn Avenues
Newark Arena Requires Street Closings - How is Brooklyn Different?
ESDC, NYPD, Mayor and Governor Not Saying
BROOKLYN, NY — Developer Forest City Ratner's planned basketball arena would be set back a mere 20 feet from Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, two of Brooklyn's main arteries, which intersect at what is already a heavily congested choke-point abutting the proposed arena site. Security experts agree that substantial setbacks for facilities like an arena are required to protect against vehicular bombs and other terror attacks. Twenty feet is not substantial.
This major security flaw in Ratner's Atlantic Yards development plan in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, was revealed by the developer, after weeks of stonewalling, over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in a New York Times article.
In mid-October, just two weeks before the grand opening of Newark's Prudential Center arena, that city's police department mandated that at least two streets adjacent to the new arena would be closed during events as a necessary precaution against terrorist attacks. Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy told the Newark Star-Ledger, "you can't construct an arena and put it right against a street in a post 9/11 world. So we're playing catch-up and taking measures to make sure it's safe."
The Newark arena is set back about 25 feet from its nearest abutting streets. Forest City Ratner's arena would be set back only 20 feet, in most places, from busy avenues. But unlike in Newark, the NYPD says that street closures will not be necessary in Brooklyn; according to the Times, the NYPD "found that the arena was safe and streets need not be closed on game days."
"It is a major security flaw to have a mere twenty foot distance between Ratner's planned arena and congested Brooklyn avenues. What makes the Brooklyn arena's proximity to streets different from the Newark arena that it will not require street closings? This is the key question that Governor Spitzer and his Homeland Security Deputy Michael Balboni, Mayor Bloomberg, ESDC President/CEO Avi Schick and NYPD Commissioner Kelly all need to answer," said Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) spokesman Daniel Goldstein. "One can assume that during the Newark arena planning process, Newark's police officials ‘found that the arena was safe and streets need not be closed'—just like the NYPD is saying now—only to decide at the last minute that streets did indeed need to be closed. There is every reason to think that scenario can occur in Brooklyn; the problem is that Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues cannot be closed for 230 events per year."
Twenty-six community groups, led by DDDB, filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court in April 2007 (that suit is still pending) in which they asserted, in part, that the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) violated state environmental review laws by failing to consider the potential security issues and impacts from a terrorist attack on the proposed Atlantic Yards project in its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). During the environmental review of the project, the three jurisdictional community boards, community groups, elected officials and individuals commented on the need for the ESDC to study security and terrorism. The ESDC—the state agency overseeing the project—responded that: "Emergency scenarios such as a large-scale terrorist attack similar to the World Trade Center attack, a biological or chemical attack, or a bomb are not considered a reasonable worst-case scenario and are therefore outside of the scope of the EIS." Tellingly, the 20-foot setback distance was never mentioned in the Atlantic Yards Final Environmental Impact Statement or General Project Plan which were both approved by the ESDC Board of Directors in December 2006.
"When ESDC denied that a terrorist bomb attack on the arena is a ‘reasonable worst-case scenario' worthy of study, we wonder if ESDC officials even knew that the proposed arena would only be 20 feet from the street. The attendant risks from that mere 20-foot setback present a very reasonable worst-case scenario," said DDDB Legal Director Candace Carponter. "If ESDC did know about the inadequate setback from the surrounding streets, then they have been grossly irresponsible by ignoring it. And if they did not know what the setback would be then they could not have logically determined what is or isn't a reasonable worst-case scenario worthy of study. Since the NYPD and ESDC have refused to answer anyone asking for the simple fact of setback distance, we wonder if they were even aware of the insufficient setback until it appeared in the newspaper."
For more than two years, elected officials and many community groups have been asking for a proper and comprehensive review of the Atlantic Yards project in the context of security and terrorism issues and impacts, but such a review has never been done. About one month ago, eight elected Brooklyn officials sent a letter to Governor Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg demanding an independent security review of Atlantic Yards. The officials have yet to receive a response.
"The revelation that the arena would be only 20 feet from Atlantic and Flatbush, a fact that has clearly been hidden by Ratner and the ESDC for more than three years, presents the final evidence that the Atlantic Yards plan requires an independent security review," Goldstein said.
Atlantic Yards would be a glass-walled arena surrounded by glass-walled skyscrapers, abutting the busiest (and frequently gridlocked) intersection in Brooklyn, on top of 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 United States, by far. Forest City Ratner projects about 230 events per year at the arena.
Renderings of the Atlantic Yards project illustrating the issues discussed above are here:
http://www.dddb.net/homeart/illustrations.pdf
More background can be found here:
What Would the Worst Case Be?
http://www.dddb.net/php/latestnews_Linked.php?id=371
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's July 2005 white paper, "Terrorism, Security and the Proposed Brooklyn Atlantic Yards High Rise and Arena Development Project" can be found here:
http://www.dddb.net/php/reading/security.php
Posted by lumi at 10:52 AM
A short history of Atlantic Yards "rowback" in the New York Times
Atlantic Yards Report
AYR gets back to its roots — pointing out flaws in coverage by The New York Times — with this item about The Times' surreptitious acknowledgment on Saturday that the New Jersey Nets won't be tipping off in Brooklyn in 2009:
On Saturday, when the New York Times reported that the Atlantic Yards arena "is scheduled to open after 2009," (emphases added), the Times didn't say it was correcting a previous report that the arena would open in 2009.
That was a variant of "rowback," which former Times Public Editor Daniel Okrent described in his 3/14/04 column as "a way that a newspaper can cover its butt without admitting it was ever exposed." In other words, a correction without formally acknowledging a correction--even though the Times publishes the most minute factual corrections daily.
The Times has done this periodically, publishing updated correct information but without (in most cases) publishing corrections.
Posted by lumi at 10:39 AM
Vacant lots, empty buildings = new opportunity for affordable housing
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder digs into a report by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and attends a Drum Major Institute panel on rehabbing vacant buildings to learn if there might be means of creating affordable housing that don't involve seizing private property and tossing big subsidies at mega-developers:
In the 1970s, New York City took over some 100,000 properties abandoned for nonpayment of taxes, and in subsequent decades helped community development groups fix them to create affordable housing. The numbers remaining are few, so the city now practices new tactics--tax incentives or increased development rights--to stimulate affordable housing.
But other solutions remain, notably the utilization of vacant or abandoned properties that are not in tax arrears. Unlike some other cities, notably Boston (as reported on the DMI blog), New York doesn't keep an inventory, nor has it changed any tax policies to incentivize owners.
(Regarding some seemingly stagnant properties in the Atlantic Yards footprint, the state got around the lack of incentives by declaring them blighted. A rezoning, however, might have done the trick.)
Posted by lumi at 10:28 AM
Behind the Curbline
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Business owners in Willets Point explain how their businesses have thrived for decades, despite the City's neglect and regular attempts to take their property, putting their businesses, livelihoods and those of their employees at risk. www.wpira.com |
Brit in Brooklyn posted the full press release along with photos from last summer's City Hall press conference and rally. The Willets Point gang is gearing up for a very important hearing this Thursday: Representatives from the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association (WPIRA), a group of the 10 largest land/business owners in Willets Point will testify before the New York City Council's Land Use and Economic Development Committees on November 29, 2007 at 1 p.m. in the Committee Room, City Hall. | |
Posted by lumi at 6:14 AM
Pass the praise, please
NY Daily News
Columnist Errol Louis is thankful for James Caldwell and got in a plug for the pro-Atlantic Yards group founded for the express purpose of representing "the community" on Ratner's Community Benefits Agreement.
Ten years ago, when a kid in my neighborhood was killed in gang violence - and it turned out he had no family to bury him or even say a word at his wake - one of the few people to step forward with a Bible verse and an offer to help pay for a burial was James Caldwell, who soon after was elected president of the 77th Precinct Community Council.
Caldwell continues to lead a long, difficult fight against street violence in Crown Heights - he recently co-sponsored an anti-violence rally - and works on the root causes of poverty and joblessness as co-founder and president of Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development, a group dedicated to making sure locals get a fair share of the jobs at the Atlantic Yards project, www.buildbrooklyn.org.
Posted by lumi at 6:04 AM
TODAY: NYC Planning Commission vote on Columbia University's plan to use eminent domain
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Monday, November 26, the New York City Planning Commission will hold a special public meeting to vote on Columbia University's proposal to expand onto 17 acres of Manhattanville. The plan would use eminent domain against thriving businesses, like Tuck-It-Away Storage and Hudson North American, which have invested in West Harlem for years and do not want to sell. We encourage you to attend the meeting and tell the Planning Commission that you oppose the use of eminent domain for private gain. Show your support for the West Harlem business owners! Special Public Meeting You can find out more at these two websites: |
Posted by lumi at 6:02 AM
New York’s Construction Boom Puts More Women in Hard Hats
The NY Times
By Annie Correal
In an article about the increasing presence of women on construction sites, Atlantic Yards is one of the poster-projects credited with projections of more to come:
The foothold that women have gained during the construction boom may expand in the coming years. Developers working on large projects at the World Trade Center site and the Atlantic Yards complex in Brooklyn are aiming to employ a work force that is at least 15 percent women.
Posted by lumi at 6:00 AM
Council's Role in Private Development To Expand
The NY Sun
By Benjamin Sarlin
NYC has been taking a build-it-now-fix-it-later approach to large-scale development projects, including Atlantic Yards, and their attendant impacts on the City's fragile infrastructure. The City Council is trying to get involved:
The City Council is seeking to expand its role in private development with a new task force to assess new projects' impacts on city infrastructure.
The infrastructure task force, headed by Council Members Daniel Garodnick and Letitia James, would report to the council on the projected effects, in areas such as traffic, telecommunications, and energy, of large-scale plans conducted by private developers, as well as the state and federal government. The task force could examine the redevelopment of ground zero, the Atlantic Yards project, the Second Avenue subway line, and the future development of the West Side rail yards. "There is no entity today that considers the impact on city infrastructure," Mr. Garodnick said in a phone interview. "We want to take a long view and see that our infrastructure keeps pace with our development plan."
Posted by lumi at 5:52 AM
Straight From The Bleachers: Pair of Champs
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by John Torenli
In case you were wondering who is the subject of this article about a local basketball tournament, it has no details about on-court action, but Brooklyn's head honcho Bruce Ratner has plenty to say:
The Brooklyn Patriots and St. Vincent Ferrer Bulldogs of Flatbush (pictured above) claimed victory on Sunday at Championship Day of the third semi-annual borough-wide basketball tournament, sponsored by Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) and the Nets.
Championship Day was held at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights and marked the culmination of two weeks of games played in neighborhoods throughout the borough. Hundreds of young athletes between the ages of 11 and 13 from all over Brooklyn played in the tournament.
“This was a terrific tournament and we salute all the young men who participated for their exceptional athletic talents, hard work and sportsmanship,” said Bruce Ratner, CEO and chairman of FCRC and chairman of the Nets.
“Competitive sports are some of the best ways for kids to learn about working with others, commitment to teamwork and the importance of exercise. We are proud to support these educational and athletic programs in Brooklyn and hope these positive experiences can help these young men continue to grown into the role models and leaders of the future.”
Posted by lumi at 5:42 AM
Forest City in the News
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, South Side shopping area rethinks its image
One of the oldest retailers at Forest City's Station Square closes its doors due to disappointing sales:
But recent times have not been so good, as Station Square owner Forest City Enterprises has shifted the emphasis away from retail in favor of entertainment and eating.
"There's no business here," said Shawn Gantz, the manager of the Station Square store.
...
S.W. Randall follows a number of other restaurants or businesses out the door of the Freight House Shops in recent years.Forest City still has not found a replacement for the Cheese Cellar, which closed in 2004. Neither the Crawford Grill nor the Palm Bar survived in