« Three years after complaint, Williams departs Planning Commission with a $4000 fine; McRae the replacement | Main | Happy Holidays from Bruce Ratner »
November 29, 2007
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 November 29, 2007 6:23 AM