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November 17, 2007
Eminent Domain Abuse: The Fight Goes On
The Huffington Post
Steve Ettlinger
New York City, which seems to rival Texas for superlatives of size, is home to a lot of real estate developers who have done well in the private sector. One of the richest, Bruce Ratner, has done better with government money. He's not only built government buildings, such as a Federal courthouse in Brooklyn, he's managed to get generous public subsidies as well as government tenants to keep his buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn profitable, to the tunes of millions of dollars.A close pal and former law school classmate of the former Governor of NY, George Pataki and a neighbor of Mayor Mike Bloomberg, with their help he's also managed to create, with his proposed Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn, what has to be one of the biggest boondoggles in history (it would be the densest residential area in the States). Total subsidies will approach or possibly surpass $2 BILLION, but it is a privately owned, profit-making project. And now that Bloomberg seems about to throw his hat into the presidential ring, the significance of this project -- what Ratner's Forest City Ratner Company calls "Atlantic Yards" -- goes way beyond the NYC budget.
Posted by amy at November 17, 2007 9:30 AM