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November 29, 2007
"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 November 29, 2007 6:08 AM