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November 16, 2007
CBN's open letter to ESDC: What happened to AY promises?
Atlantic Yards Report
The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods has issued a public letter to the ESDC asking that the agency honor its promises.
Norman Oder summarizes the issues addressed in the letter:
1) An ombudsperson to provide the public with information and to enhance the cooperation of various government agencies involved in this project has not yet been appointed. (Last month, the New York Daily News reported on the delay.)
2) The ESDC has contracted with Henningson, Durham and Richardson Architecture and Engineering, to serve as the Environmental Mitigation Monitor for the project, CBN said, but the firm's "responsibilities and activities have not been reported to the public or to elected officials." Nor has there been a public report about the Owner’s Representative for Construction Activities announced by the ESDC.
3) While the ESDC promised the creation of an Interagency Working Group "to review approved and planned work on a monthly basis," CBN said that it assumed the group has not been formed, since it would "hold open meetings to ensure that community interests are served." (It's not clear that such a group was expected to hold open meetings.)
4) The promised Transportation Working Group has met only once, to CBN's knowledge, but neither CBN nor its traffic experts from Community Consulting Services were invited.
5) While the ESDC promised to hold regular meetings with elected officials about overall progress and key project milestones, the schedule is unclear, and City Council Member Letitia James, whose district includes the largest chunk of the project site, was not invited to a recent meeting cited by Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries regarding transportation issues.
Click here to view CBN's "Open Letter to the ESDC - Is Anybody Out There?"
Posted by steve at November 16, 2007 7:38 AM