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December 31, 2007
Ratlantic Yards 2007: The Year in Pics
In 2007, several local photographers captured events and documented the Atlantic Yards footprint, which sits on the brink of radical change.
We've asked photographers Jonathan Barkey, Tracy Collins, Amy Greer, Nathaniel Kensinger and Adrian Kinloch to submit their own highlights of this year in pictures.
As a resident of Prospect Heights, Tracy Collins has shared the changes he has witnessed in and around the footprint of Atlantic Yards, and published Atlantic Yards: [De]Construciton of the Neighobrhood.
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Collins's photo of 493 & 495 Dean Street appears in his book, and is a startling reminder that a house needn't be blighted in order to be declared "blighted." |
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Graffiti by "Booker" (aka "Read More Books") on 810-812 Pacific Street has become a recognizable landmark, especially recently, after the buildings on either side have been demolished. This building is also under the threat of eminent domain. |
In February, just two months after the NYS Public Authorities Control Board granted official approval for Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards project, work in the Vanderbilt Railyards was begun. Brit in Brooklyn photoblogger Adrian Kinloch was on the scene to document the first appearance of workmen on the site. [Kinloch posted his full selection of 2007 Atlantic Yards photos here.] |
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 | In February, upon hearing that Bruce Ratner would soon begin pre-demolition work on the Ward Bakery building, neighborhood activists demonstrated in hope of saving the historic structure, a former bakery distinguished by its white terra-cotta facade. |
Photographer Jonathan Barkey presented his dramatic photo-renderings of Atlantic Yards at the August, 2006 public hearing. Since then, he has been documenting many of the community's press conferences and public forums. In April, 26 community groups and civic organizations filed suit against the Empire State Development Corporation, Public Authorities Control Board, Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Forest City Ratner, contesting the Atlantic Yards Environmental Impact Statement. Barkey's photo from the press conference announcing the suit was featured on the cover of a textbook, "State and Local Politics: Government By the People." |
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NoLandGrabber Amy Greer has been documenting the fight against Atlantic Yards since the early days. This past April, Greer took this "class picture" of representatives of several local neighborhood, community and environmental organizations, who filed a suit against the Empire State Development Corporation contesting the Atlantic Yards environmental review. |
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In April, photographer Nathaniel Kensinger posted a series of photos on his blog from his trips into the Vanderbilt Railyards before developer Bruce Ratner started work in preparation of moving the tracks. These are photos from inside "The Electric Car Shop" underneath Atlantic Avenue. Kensinger explains: The Electric Car Shop and the LIRR tunnels next to it are among the most mysterious places I have seen in New York City. There was no graffiti anywhere, when usually graffiti artists are the first ones to find their way into underground spots. The tunnels and the car shop seemed to have been deserted but there were lights on everywhere and equipment left running. It took several years of walking around the area to find the right time to enter into these spaces. Now its looks like the entrance — on the east side of the Vanderbilt Yards — has been rendered inaccessible. |
Despite protests, concerted opposition by community groups and civic organizations, and a petition drive, Bruce Ratner proceded with pre-demolition of the Ward Bakery building. While workers were on the roof, a 200-foot section of the historic building's parapet crashed to the ground. Amazingly, no one was injured. Photographers Tracy Collins and Adrian Kinloch were on the scene that day after emergency crews arrived and residents of the adjacent homeless shelter were evacuated. |
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Jonathan Barkey made it to the June press conference and rally at City Hall held by groups fighting eminent domain battles in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, who joined together to illustrate that eminent domain is a key aspect of the Mayor's urban renewal policy. |
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Tracy Collins's work reflects his deep devotion to Prospect Heights. Aside from his book, he also started the Atlantic Yards Photo Pool on flickr, which is a repository of photos posted by flickr users documenting scenes in the Atlantic Yards footprint and its environs.
In August, Collins took the time to appreciate the persistence of nature, while work continued on the Vanderbilt Railyards.
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In late September, local community activists, fed up with the unsanitary conditions of the City- and MTA-owned sections of the Atlantic Yards footprint, held a neighborhood clean up. The billowing weeds hid a layer of street litter and household garbage. Amy Greer and Tracy Collins rolled up their sleeves and took photos documenting the event. | 
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Jonathan Barkey attended the September presentation of UNITY2007, an updated community-based development plan for the Vanderbilt Railyards, at the Soapbox Gallery on Dean Street.
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Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's third annual walkathon took place in October. Participants included a band of Miss Brooklyn Bridezillas and a very annoying rat. |
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| The Grammy-winning Klezmatics held their second fundraising concert for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn in November, at the Brooklyn Lyceum where Jonathan Barkey snapped this cool pic. |
Toward the end of 2007, security concerns about siting the arena close to Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues was enough to make even politicians who support Bruce Ratner's controversial project squeamish enough to stand with their colleagues who oppose the plan, and local community groups, to demand an independent security analysis. Once again, Barkey made it to the press conference to capture the event.
Posted by lumi at 8:00 AM
The tale of an ESDC non-correction
Atlantic Yards Report
Our Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) is hard at work making sure that Norman Oder's blog is correct. As for its own Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for Atlantic Yards -- not so much.
On November 5, shortly after I posted a document I attributed to the ESDC that indicated that the reconstruction of the Carlton Avenue Bridge would take two years rather than nine months, I got a flurry of phone calls and e-mails from ESDC spokesmen indicating that I should correct my article, given that it was not an official ESDC document.
I did so, though the information--a summary apparently prepared by a Community Board after an ESDC meeting--was not inaccurate.
What was inaccurate was my interpretation that the duration of the bridge's reconstruction had just been announced. However, my error was based on an error in an ESDC document, which has not been corrected
It's swell that the ESDC is looking to be so helpful in keeping the Atlantic Yards Report accurate. If only it would be so careful with its own FEIS, where the error originated.
Though I had read many chapters of the FEIS to track any changes from the Draft EIS, I had not read the revised Chapter 17, which contains text regarding the schedule.
In fact, as an ESDC spokesman reminded me later that day in another flurry of messages, the revised chapter indicated that the time to reconstruct the bridge would be two years rather than nine months.
A correction was in order, I was told.
I agreed, but I was a bit ticked off--after all, I wouldn't have made my error had I not been misled by the ESDC's failure to update the construction schedule attached to Chapter 17.
We can only guess why the ESDC won't correct its own document, but one of Oder's guesses points to the pending lawsuit challenging the FEIS.
A correction might further confirm that the board members who approved the project were approving a flawed document, and might render the ESDC legally vulnerable.
Posted by steve at 7:33 AM
The NYT on AY, 2007: fit to blog, fit to print?
Atlantic Yards Report
How's the "Paper of Record" and Forest City Ratner business partner doing in regard to its coverage of Atlantic Yards?
Some important news about Atlantic Yards this year has appeared only in the online version of the New York Times, not the print edition of the Paper of Record, and some has been ignored completely, some has been distorted, and some has been delayed. (And, yes, some important news appeared in the Times first.)
The other daily newspapers have been quite variable, too, in their coverage of AY; the dailies can't even keep up with the daily flow of news, much less advance the story with enterprise reporting and investigations.
While the advance of the Times's City Room blog holds some promise for more comprehensive local coverage, the dailies can't keep up with AY; readers have to keep consulting blogs, the Brooklyn media, and the New York Observer. The Times
In 2007, The New York Times had one story about security concerns at the proposed Nets arena, which started in its City Room blog and later made it to the print edition.
There were some stories that appeared online, but never made it to a print edition:
-The departure of disgraced City Planning Commissioner Dolly Williams.
-The much-delayed appointment of an Atlantic Yards ombudsman by the ESDC.
Some stories just never appeared on The Times's radar at all:
-The Ward Bakery violations.
-Arguments heard in the Atlantic Yards environmental lawsuit.
-Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff's misgivings on theAtlantic Yards approval process.
There were stories delayed or distorted:
-A delay in reporting the additional $105 million in the city's budget for Atlantic Yards.
-A distortion on a magistrate judge's recommendation that the federal eminent domain suit be dismissed.
-Repeating that the proposed Net arena would open in 2009.
The Times does earn good marks for one story:
The Times did have a scoop regarding documents unearthed in a lawsuit filed by Assemblyman Jim Brennan and State Senator Velmanette Montgomery. I found the report murky, but the documents did (and still could) provide fodder for more analysis, such as the projected rental rate of apartments.
This was the only example of enterprise reporting--driven by journalistic curiosity rather than a reaction to events or press releases--regarding AY that appeared in the Times. And it's fairly clear that the story was generated by Brennan's calculation that the best way to release the documents was via the Times.
Otherwise, the Times (and the dailies, in general) are having enough trouble just keeping up with the news.
Posted by steve at 7:25 AM
Best & Worst of 2007
Preservation Nation
Brooklyn Under Siege
Atlantic Yards is clearly in the "worst" category in this look back at U.S. building preservation issues in 2007.
Brooklyn is becoming too cool for its history. New York City’s largest development, the Atlantic Yards project, made headway this year, erasing the 1910 Ward Bakery building. Developer Forest City Ratner has put at least six more historic buildings on the chopping block to make way for its 22-acre project, whose main feature is a basketball arena designed by Frank Gehry. Neighbors say the new construction is inappropriate next to their quiet historic brownstones.
NoLandGrab: Forest City Ratner has done its "worst" to "erase" the Ward Bakery building, but so far, they've only managed to topple the parapet and perform some "pre-demolition" work.
Posted by steve at 6:33 AM
The Top New York City Stories of 2007
Gothamist
Atlantic Yards gets a mention near the end of this review of 2007:
One Word, Benjamin: Development
The real estate market may have cooled down in the rest of the country, but residential and commercial real estate in New York City - especially Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn - led to a flurry of proposals from developers and investors. The city also got involved at times, as it outlined ideas for the city's growth. Some properties include: The blocked-sale of Starrett City, the city's plans to revitalize Willets Point, approval of Columbia's Manhattanville expansion, the Domino Sugar Factory's landmarking, "condo-hotels" in Soho to skirt zoning, government incentives luring businesses to build downtown, a $225,000 parking space, and the West Side rail yard proposals.
The issues of landmarking and eminent domain also came into play in neighborhoods like Sunnyside Gardens and with projects like the Atlantic Yards Arena. Columbia students even took up a hunger strike to protest the school's development plans. But with the sub-prime mortgage crisis growing, some formerly up-and-coming neighborhoods on the downswing, and some hot neighborhoods losing their luster, will the bubble be bursting soon?
Posted by steve at 6:21 AM
December 30, 2007
Private investment, public costs: Fenway Park, Atlantic Yards, and more
Atlantic Yards Report
So how much would the public contribute to the Atlantic Yards arena? At a panel held at the Museum of the City of New York on 9/27/07, titled Take Me Out to the Brand-New Ballpark (here's a report from e-Oculus), well-respected sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, who nonetheless produced a rather skewed Atlantic Yards study for Forest City Ratner, lowballed the figure.Looking at Fenway
Janet Marie Smith, senior VP of planning and development for the Boston Red Sox and architect behind the redesign of Fenway Park, was the most notable speaker on the panel, sketching out the history of ballparks in the country. Fenway Park, dating from 1912, has managed to not just survive but thrive, even as most other facilities from that generation were demolished and supplanted by suburban or semi-suburuban stadiums. And parks like Fenway (and long-gone Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers) since inspired a new wave of retro urban facilities.
The earlier generation, Smith noted, "fit into neighborhood quite literally, were very civic buildings." New York City power broker Robert Moses, she noted, rejected the plans proposed by Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley for eminent domain and other government support, declaring that this was "in no way a public purpose."
By the 1950s, however, she said, America as a whole began to think of sports facilities as public purpose--the idea of a "civic project" is contested in the Atlantic Yards environmental lawsuit--and multipurpose stadiums, serving baseball and football, obliterated urban areas or were established in suburbia.
Posted by amy at 9:03 AM
The Atlantic Yards Saga: 2007's Biggest Stories
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn compiled an extensive list of the biggest stories of the year. Here are a few of their picks:
Biggest Beneficiary of PILOTS:
Bruce Ratner.Widest, Intentional, Indefensible Loophole:
421a "Ratner Clause"Pettiest Political Payback:
Borough Prez Markowitz Doesn't Reappoint Community Board 6 Members Who Voted Against Atlantic Yards
If you think you might have missed anything in the news this year, this list is for you. Then again, if you're reading this blog during a holiday weekend, you probably don't miss much, do you?
Posted by amy at 8:16 AM
Gehry és New York – szeretem, nem-szeretem
építészfórum
If anyone has Hungarian language skills, feel free to visit the blog directly. The best translation we could find (Babelfish does not include Hungarian!) goes something like this:
Regrettable , that Gehry eme quality not run into outcrop one other , afoot lev New York i his work során , the brooklyni Atlantic Yard in the event of. THE then kilenchektáros its territory stray felhkarcolócsoport Gehry yet biggest consignation , which through months trending disputations kereszttüzében she stood. ( last year the authority the concourse os reduction írták off , but the projection yet that way also gigantic ) The constructional negatived according to the lakótorony bite tow the Forte Greenwich and the Flyer Heights városrész amongst. Yet the development directional Bruce Ratnert substantiated , to that hintingly , that Gehry celebrities uses up the eleve he's bad planting presztízsének raising. THE Slate magazine posted Gehry nek solo candid epistolary Jonathan Lethem , the renowned penman this writes : " unable am was it worth , that such a passible man , than Your are , that it had been susceptible such censurable league kötni , whose definitely disastrous outgrowths they'll be "
This all makes sense when the title translates to the Borat-esque "do you like , not - do you like."
Posted by amy at 8:02 AM
MIT Sues Frank Gehry Over Buggy $300M CS Building
Slashdot
For anyone interested in what the smart kids have to say about working in a Gehry masterpiece, the MIT building was slashdotted. One former employee of the building had this to say after visiting:
The interior spaces are very architecturally interesting. But have so many bugs it is unbelievable. There is one meeting room where the walls are made with perforated plywood; this is a cool idea, but, regrettably, due to the mechanisms that human vision uses to fuse the images between the two eyes, the sea of holes makes people feel queasy in that room. The workspaces are part of a grand open-office design. The previous building where LCS/AI was housed was the antithesis of open design -- a series of small offices -- and it worked very well. With the new building, researchers and students spend more of their time at home, rather than in the building, because the lack of acoustic privacy in the open design makes it extremely difficult to get any research done. In another area, there are ledges high up in one two-story space that are visible only from the story above -- kind of interesting, but these ledges will never, ever be cleaned and are starting to accumulate a goodly layer of dust. This wouldn't be so bad, except that people entering that space from the elevator lobby are immediately faced with this grime.From what people intimately involved with the planning have told me, Geary approached the design of this building with astonishing hubris and disregard for any of the actual needs of the occupants. Interactions with him were often tense and acrimonious. Geary's willing ignorance of the real use of the building, rather than his imagined fantasy, shows. It's a cool looking structure that works very, very poorly as a research laboratory. Although few people who work there are willing to state it out loud, the rumblings are being felt that the decline of computer science research at MIT has in no small part been due to this negative influence of the building on daily worklife.
A current employee in the building was also not impressed:
There's a brief interview with Gehry in the film "My Architect" about Louis Kahn, and Gehry was interviewed in his architectural office, and it's as traditional as you could imagine: a big rectangular room with drafting tables. That settled it for me: it's not just hubris; he's an asshole. He sits in his comfortable space and designs expensive torture chambers; there's a Gehry-designed level of hell awaiting him.
Posted by amy at 7:49 AM
December 29, 2007
Getting Going (With One Loss)
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Henrik Kroguis predicts doom for opponents of Brooklyn Bridge Park and Atlantic Yards, and then surveys the latter's footprint while considering the project's potential and pitfalls:
As we enter 2008 two of Brooklyn’s biggest projects are set to move into the construction phase: Brooklyn Bridge Park and Atlantic Yards. Lawsuits against both projects have so far failed, and the likelihood is that further appeals will also fail.
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That Atlantic Yards is a big project, as is Brooklyn Bridge Park, is clear enough. Yet, as we see skyscrapers sprouting nearby, along with the developments in the BAM cultural district, it becomes clear that the scale of this general area of Brooklyn has already changed, and that Atlantic Yards is no longer the colossus it may at first have seemed to be. It is, rather, an entirely sane extension of Brooklyn’s growing downtown.
Posted by lumi at 9:45 PM
"Sane extension" of Downtown Brooklyn? AY in some more context
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder takes note of two articles that look back at Brooklyn development stories of 2007. First up is the "GL's 15 Top Brooklyn Stories of 2007" story in Gowanus Lounge.
Next is an editorial in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle by Henrik Krogius Getting Going (With One Loss).
The context argument is taken further in an essay headlined Getting Going (With One Loss) by Henrik Krogius of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. He makes some reasonable points, but they often deserve another dash of skepticism.
Oder adds dashes of skepticism to Krogius's approach to issues such as appropriate scale for Prospect Heights, open space in Atlantic Yards, and the desire by proponents of the UNITY plan to use development to knit together communities that would otherwise be divided by Atlantic Yards.
The issue of the privately negotiated affordable housing component of Atlantic Yards is used to point out the lack of democratic process in approving this publicly subsidized development.
Krogius points out that any new construction would raise questions about gentrification, and that AY would contain 2250 subsidized rentals, "a good percentage by today’s standards."
Yes, but the affordable housing was essentially a privately-negotiated zoning bonus, and that brings us back to the fundamental issue of process, the criticisms of which have led even Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff to reconsider the city's avoidance of ULURP.
Finally, Oder disputes the classification of Atlantic Yards as sane development.
Krogius concludes: Atlantic Yards is no longer the colossus it may at first have seemed to be. It is, rather, an entirely sane extension of Brooklyn’s growing downtown.
Yes, it is no longer as much of a colussus as at first, but that doesn't necessarily make it sane.
Posted by steve at 8:34 AM
GL's 15 Top Brooklyn Stories of 2007
The Gowanus Lounge
The Gowanus Lounge lists the most important Brooklyn stories of 2007, a collection dominated by tales of Brooklyn real estate development. Number 2 on the list — the ongoing saga of Atlantic Yards.
2) Atlantic Yards. If 2006 was the year that this mega-project created deep divisions in Brooklyn, 2007 was the year of delays, new questions and construction prep work. Will 2008 be the year that ground is officially broken on the project that will change Prospect Heights, Park Slope, Fort Greene and environs forever? Or will a court decision, credit crisis-related issues and a softening real estate market throw more curve balls at this development? Stay tuned.
Posted by steve at 8:13 AM
December 28, 2007
The state of his borough: Marty sits down for his annual chat with The Brooklyn Paper
This year, Marty Markowitz didn't blow a gasket when discussing Atlantic Yards during his year-end interview with Brooklyn Paper editor Gersh Kuntzman.
The only time Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards project was mentioned was in relation to development of Coney Island and Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff's recent admission that, if he had to do it again, he'd recommend that Atlantic Yards go through the City's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).
GK: Indeed, in this case, there will be a ULURP [a thorough public review, unlike at Atlantic Yards].
MM: That’s because [Coney Island] is city property. The Atlantic Yards … of course the statement by Dan Doctoroff [a reference to the deputy mayor’s comment that Atlantic Yards should have gone through the ULURP process]. All I can say is the state decided that this was their project. Dan Doctoroff went along with that. The mayor endorsed it wholeheartedly. [Doctoroff] has the right to reflect, of course. Here it is at the end of 2007, and there are no shovels in the ground yet. It’s very frustrating. Those who oppose it are delighted, but for those who think it’ll be good for New York City, it’s frustrating, but it has to go through the process.
NoLandGrab: Marty's City-vs.-State-property argument is totally bogus.
Here's some interesting precedent — the non-state-owned land in Bloomberg's first Hudson Yards plan was reviewed under ULURP, while the railyards portion was reviewed under the State process called SEQRA.
NYC is conveying several acres of city-owned streets and sidewalks to Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan, and most of the property is NOT in the railyards.
The real determining factor is REZONING:
- Coney Island is zoned as an AMUSEMENT DISTRICT. This is a unique designation and the City understands that any changes demand careful consideration.
- Atlantic Yards is a TOTAL ZONING OVERRIDE. If built according to Bruce Ratner's plan, Atlantic Yards will become the densest residential community in the nation. This is a fact that would NOT be lost in nearly every stage of the ULURP process, however, it was easily swept under the rug in the SEQRA process. It is not likely that density of historic proportions, as proposed by Ratner, would survive the ULURP process.
It's a little disturbing that a politician who claims to "have the intellect to be a great mayor" can't wrap his head around the dramatic contrast between the Coney Island and Atlantic Yards review processes.
Posted by lumi at 5:01 AM
Marty says he doesn't know why Doctoroff had second thoughts re AY
Atlantic Yards Report
The Brooklyn Paper's edited year-end interview with Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz includes most of what he says about Atlantic Yards, but a link to the full audio segment provides a tantalizing coda. In it, Markowitz tells editor-in-chief Gersh Kuntzman that he doesn't know why Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff acknowledged Atlantic Yards should have gone through the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) rather than the state review.
The answer, most likely, is that Doctoroff is having second thoughts about the procedure behind Atlantic Yards and Markowitz, at least publicly, won't allow such thoughts. Also, Doctoroff can afford to have some second thoughts; his departure comes as he has accomplished many of his goals, while Markowitz's highest-profile project, Atlantic Yards, remains slowed.
Check out Norman Oder's brief transcript of the Atlantic Yards portion of the interview here.
Posted by lumi at 4:41 AM
Balancing community input regarding the West Side yards
Atlantic Yards Report
They're discussing traffic and infrastructure and sustainability and open space before any developer is chosen for the West Side yards.
This goes well beyond the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement or housing advocate Bertha Lewis of ACORN candidly saying, "I can't do environment. I can’t do traffic."
And it's not a developer-funded poll, as with the New Domino development, that sets out a false choice between tall buildings with affordable housing and smaller buildings without it, without presenting the details of the project under discussion.
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This doesn't mean community input will have a definitive impact. But it shows the difference between a competition, as with the West Side yards, and a project, as with AY and the New Domino, presented in an effort to gain state approval or a zoning change.
Posted by lumi at 4:27 AM
December 27, 2007
Introducing the Ivanka
The NY Times
By Ruth La Ferla
OK, Bruce Ratner can't talk to the press about mundane stuff like security and the full cost of public funding for Atlantic Yards, but he's happy to discuss the daughter of the Donald:
Insistent on proving herself, Ms. Trump first took a job outside the Trump Organization. Bruce Ratner, the Brooklyn developer, put her to work with the project management team for Ridge Hill, his shopping center in Yonkers. “She did everything,” Mr. Ratner recalled, “from running the numbers of a deal to negotiating with tenants and coordinating where they would go in the center, to helping lay out the space.”
“She was down-to-earth,” he said. “She worked like everybody else. There was no special privilege about her.”
NoLandGrab: Luckily, not all real estate developers show as much cleavage as Ivanka.
Posted by lumi at 8:25 PM
The year in Marty
The Brooklyn Paper's Year of Living Marty-ly includes these three Atlantic Yards items:
MARCH
Marty loves Bruce, Part I: After weeks of silence on the controversy over Bruce Ratner’s naming-rights deal with slavery-linked Barclays Bank, Markowitz told a constituent that “many institutions with long histories … have had dealings that run counter to the values of all who hold human rights dear.”AUGUST
High anxiety: Markowitz objects to developer David Walentas’s plan for an apartment building that would be 10 feet taller the 50-foot height limit of the Cobble Hill Historic District. Markowitz, who had no problem with the 16 skyscrapers of Atlantic Yards, said the 60-foot building would set a “dangerous precedent.”NOVEMBER
Marty loves Bruce, Part II: Markowitz minimizes some activists’ concern that Bruce Ratner’s glass-walled Atlantic Yards arena would be a terror target. “I am confident that Forest City Ratner is taking the proper steps in working with the NYPD … in ensuring the project adheres to the highest standards of safety,” he said.
In "A year in our neighborhoods," the "Disgruntled Cow" scored a mention for railing against Atlantic Yards in blue painter's tape down the entire facade of his Steuben St. home, while Bruce Ratner tries to Trump the Donald.
Also, Bruce Ratner gets mentioned once in reporter Dana Rubenstein's year-end news wrap-up:
December
Napoleon complex: Apparently still miffed at the failure of his attempt to make Miss Brooklyn — the centerpiece of his Atlantic Yards project — Brooklyn’s tallest skyscraper, Bruce Ratner decided to give it another go, with reported plans to erect a 1,000-foot skyscraper at Jay and Tillary streets, a skyscraper that would dwarf the 512-foot Williamsburgh Savings Bank.
Posted by lumi at 7:58 PM
Real Estate Round-Up
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
By Sarah Ryley
Goldman Sachs analysts this month downgraded the stock of Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises, according to The Wall Street Journal, which identified the move as “an early sign of the pressure credit markets are putting on big projects.” According to the Journal, “The downgrade said increased borrowing and construction costs are making its development projects less profitable.” Forest City Ratner Companies, the New York subsidiary that developed MetroTech in Downtown Brooklyn, officially announced this month that opening of the arena portion of its Atlantic Yards project would be delayed to 2010, from 2009, noted the Journal.
A Ratner spokesman told the Journal the delay isn’t related to financial markets and that there is no connection between today’s credit market and the project’s potential for long-term profitability. From the view here in Brooklyn, the delay would be most obviously attributed to the myriad of organizing efforts and lawsuits — some still active — launched against the project, some of the efforts with the express intent of delaying its construction or restarting the entire approval process.
Posted by lumi at 7:54 PM
Last Days to Make End of Year Donation
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn is asking you to remember them when you make your year-end charitable contributions (link):
Atlantic Yards cannot move forward while these two suits are contested. The federal eminent domain suit argues that it is unconstitutional for New York State to seize private homes and businesses for Ratner's private benefit. The other pending suit, filed more than seven months ago in State Supreme Court, challenges the project's environmental review and approval.
A victory in either case would mean that we can move forward with appropriate development over the Vanderbilt rail yards, rather than Forest City Ratner's plan.
Regardless of the outcome in these two cases, the winner will face an appeal. If we must, we intend to take the eminent domain case all the way to the US Supreme Court. The legal struggle will continue for years, if the community is willing to fund it . These two suits -- organized by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn -- are wholly funded by your contributions.
Your generous support is what makes this all possible:
If you believe that "Atlantic Yards" is wrong and Brooklyn is worth fighting for... if you want the community to stay in court... PLEASE DONATE GENEROUSLY.
Posted by lumi at 7:24 PM
Clear enough? Misreading the Extell interview regarding Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman "the Mad Overkiller" oderizes Errol Louis's latest column in Our Time Press:
Errol Louis, columnist for the New York Daily News and the black-oriented Our Time Press, supports Atlantic Yards, which led him to a very selective reading of a recent interview with the head of the Extell Development Company, the only company besides Forest City Ratner to respond to the belated RFP issued by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for its Vanderbilt Yard.
As part of his "Commerce and Community" column (not online, but click below right to enlarge) in the 12/16/07 issue of Our Time Press, Louis included a segment headlined "The Non-Alternative to Atlantic Yards." He began:
Opponents of the Atlantic Yards project, when asked what alternative use they'd like to see at the site, often trot out the plan proposed by Extell Development, which put in a bid that was rejected by the MTA, which owns the rail yards that dominate the project site.
Louis is a tad late on this, given that opponents first proposed the mid-rise UNITY plan in 2004, then endorsed the high-rise Extell bid in 2005, and this September backed a modified UNITY plan with a high-rise configuration quite different from that proferred by Extell.
But wait, there's more.
Posted by lumi at 4:51 AM
The borough standings-2007 in review
Time Out NY
Picketing Saturday Night Live writer Bryan Tucker ranks the Boroughs and guess who is #1! OK, that's easy, but who would've guessed why (emphasis added):
- Brooklyn
Reason: Big renovations happened this year: hotels in Brooklyn Heights, luxury apartments in Fort Greene and a new stadium in Atlantic Yards. Even Coney Island agreed to a makeover, and promises 20 percent fewer lip piercings and carnival dudes who smell like Jack Daniel’s and Astroglide.
NoLandGrab: Oh no — there's gonna be a STADIUM too???
Posted by lumi at 4:39 AM
It came from the Blogosphere...
The Yarn Monkey, Meanwhile... Is There a Doctoroff in the House?
December has been surprisingly cold for this time of the year. I made Freddy's bar owner, Frank, a braided double-knit scarf. It's made from olive merino and trimmed with bronze silk braids. Of all the people who are being rolled in the Atlantic Yard fiasco, Frank Yost has taken the hardest hit. According to the arena's architectural model Freddy's bar is the future entrance to the parking lot.
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As we knit in the foot print of an evil real estate titan, the proposed arena is still being crammed down our throats.
Curbed.com, Curbed Awards '07: Architecture Part IV
From Curbed's end-of-year awards:
Thinking Big Award
Awarded to Renzo Piano, for not taking a break after basking in the glory of the glowing reviews that accompanied the completion of his Midtown New York Times skyscraper. Nope, instead the Italian starchitect went big again for the City Tech Tower in Downtown Brooklyn, brought to you by Bruce Ratner & Co. The rendering may not be finalized, but hopefully this ~1,000sf building will rain less deadly debris and ice than the Times Tower.
Nets Fan in NY, UNDER CONSTRUCTION: I’M MOVING BLOG SITES!
The reason Nets Fan in NY hasn't posted much lately is because he is busy moving the blog.
To all my loyal readers... I’m in the process of redesigning the website, which should be completed over the next week. Then, I’ll be kicking it back into full gear with an endless array of NBA news and quips.
[NoLandGrab: ...plus aimless musings on why Atlantic Yards opponents are a bunch of fearmongering whack jobs who should move to Pleasantville!]
Posted by lumi at 4:26 AM
December 26, 2007
FCR: Atlantic Yards Immune to Credit Crunch
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn "Norman Oderizes" this morning's Wall St. Journal article:
Note that while Forest City Ratner still claims their project costs $4 billion, the Journal calls it a "$10 billion project." If the mammoth project is ever built we'd expect the Journal's number, currently an error, to be closer to the final tally.
Posted by lumi at 5:27 PM
546 Vanderbilt demolition continues
Oh, boys and their toys, here's one that didn't fit under the Christmas tree.
Last week, local photographer Tracy Collins captured this remote-controlled jackhammer on the top floor of 546 Vanderbilt, currently under demolition by Bruce Ratner in the footprint of the controversial Atlantic Yards project.
Photo, via Atlantic Yards Photo Pool.
Posted by lumi at 5:01 PM
Proponents: Give Ratner a break - Say press coverage is too negative
Courier-Life Publications
By Stephen Witt
Here's the link to the article featured this morning on Atlantic Yards Report, in which two signatories of the Community Benefits Agreement agree that too many column inches are being devoted to opponents of Bruce Ratner's highly controversial, historically dense, publicly funded land-grabbing megaproject:
It's not enough that Bruce Ratner has to pay people to say nice things about him, but now they're worried that they're not getting enough press.
Charlene Nimmons (middle) says she held a successful job fair and all she got was a lousy article:
“We hear more about the opposition, but we don’t hear anything about the groups that are working to bring forth positive action in the community,” she added.
Nimmons said a case in point is the FCRC-sponsored Economic Resource Fair that her organization hosted last week at the Atlantic Terminal Community Center, 501 Carlton Avenue.
“Our event was successful. We know there’s a need for people to receive services. There’s a need for job training and employment. So we set up the event for the local public housing communities,” said Nimmons.
Rev. Herbert R. Daughtry says we can trust in Bruce, but don't ask him to be specific about where the money is going:
“We made it very clear that whatever amount of money is raised, a percentage will go to people in the community having the severest crises and a another percentage to people doing prison work,” said Daughtry.
“We have had no problems with them (FCRC) at this point and don’t anticipate we will have any,” said Daughtry.
NoLandGrab: With the official approval of the Atlantic Yards in hand for over a year, and every newspaper editorial board's blanket approval (with the exception of The Brooklyn Paper and El Diario/La Prenza), it's bizarre that Ratner supporters would cap off a relatively fruitful year by protesting in the media to the media. Seriously, except for some recent bad press, 2007 marked the year in which developer Bruce Ratner managed to secure another $105-million direct cash subsidy from NYC and a special clause in the State's affordable housing reform legislation (worth approx. $150 million).
Based on their comments, one might assume that supporters are worried that the project is in danger of failing and that their primary source of funding will dry up.
Posted by lumi at 4:15 PM
Happy Boxing Day Bruce
This year's gifts from political cronies and corporations to Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner include:
• Another $105 million from New York City!
• A $400 million naming-rights windfall for the allegedly "publicly owned" "Barclays Center."
• A 421-a "Ratner Clause" for Ratner Claus!
• An Ombudsman who thinks the Atlantic Yards project is "sexy!"
And let's not forget the in-kind gifts, like:
• More tough investigative reporting by The New York Times.
• and a Brooklyn Public Library programs-and-exhibitions director unwilling to offend "the biggest guy around."
Posted by lumi at 5:40 AM
The Mobil station on Flatbush and Dean has closed
Atlantic Yards Report
The "blighted" Mobil gas station at the northwest corner of Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street has closed, and the building, presumably, will be dismantled. I've been told that franchise owner John Tsao was to reopen on Myrtle Avenue.
More photos here.
Posted by lumi at 5:31 AM
Groups receiving FCR aid say more positive stories should be written about FCR's project
Atlantic Yards Report
You know supporters are getting squeamish when they can't stand criticism about their favorite project, especially when they're still ahead of the game:
The article, headlined "Yards proponents: Leave Bruce alone" (not online yet), began by casting Forest City Ratner and its partners as the underdog:
Local supporters of the Atlantic Yards project charged last week that the community is being choked out of any positive coverage occurring between developer Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) and the local community.
Well, "the community" isn't being choked, because it's hard to define what exactly "the community" is. Yes, most of the coverage lately has been critical, but that could be attributed to the understanding that, while many arguments have been made in favor of jobs and housing, elected officials have become more concerned about arena security and even Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff acknowledges that the process was inadequate.
NoLandGrab: Note to CBA supporters — send us the press releases, and we'll publish 'em!
Posted by lumi at 5:00 AM
Forest City in the News
The Wall St. Journal, A World Full of Grand Plans
Despite the Credit Crunch, Large Cities Across the Globe Have Large Projects on Tap
Some of the biggest cities in the world are proposing the most ambitious real-estate projects in a generation, a sign of growing confidence in urban living even as the current financial landscape grows bleaker.
...
The list is long and expensive, with more than 15 ventures, some of which are expected to cost as much as $30 billion: Four in New York City, at least three in Dubai, two in London, Chicago and Milan, and one in Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Paris and Mumbai.
...
In an early sign of the pressure credit markets are putting on big projects, Goldman Sachs analysts on Dec. 14 downgraded the stock of one of the largest builders of urban projects nationwide, Forest City Enterprises. The downgrade said increased borrowing and construction costs are making its development projects less profitable. One of Forest City's subsidiaries, Forest City Ratner Cos., a prolific New York City builder, delayed the expected completion of a basketball arena that is the centerpiece of its $10 billion project above a rail yard in Brooklyn. The Atlantic Yards project includes 16 residential and office skyscrapers along with large retail spaces. The first phase, which includes the arena, is now projected to open in 2010 instead of November 2009.A company spokesman says the delay isn't related to financial markets and that there is no connection between today's credit market and long-term profitability. Still, the delay lengthens the time before Forest City can derive revenue from its up-front investment at the site, which includes moving the rail yard.
The full article is available after the jump.
NOTICE ON FAIR USE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Material from diverse and sometimes temporary sources is being made available in a permanent unified manner, as part of an effort to advance understanding of the social justice issues associated with eminent domain. It is believed that this is a 'fair use' of the information as allowed under section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 USC Section 107, the site is maintained without profit for those who access it for research and educational purposes. For more information, see: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
NoLandGrab: When a project like Atlantic Yards benefits from billions of dollars in public money, the effect of free-market concerns (i.e. availability of credit) on the "long-term profitability" are dampened. This concept has been demonstrated by Bruce Ratner's MetroTech office campus and Atlantic Center Mall.
The Denver Post, I-MAXimum movie-going
Movie-goers at the Orchard Town Center will be able to watch films using IMAX technology when AMC Entertainment opens its 12-screen theater next year.
The AMC megaplex is among the anchors planned for the center, a 215-acre lifestyle shopping center being developed by Forest City Commercial Group at the northwest corner of Interstate 25 and 144th Avenue.
A World Full of Grand Plans
Despite the Credit Crunch, Large Cities Across the Globe Have Huge Projects on Tap
By Alex Frangos
The Wall Street Journal
December 26, 2007; Page B1
Some of the biggest cities in the world are proposing the most ambitious real-estate projects in a generation, a sign of growing confidence in urban living even as the current financial landscape grows bleaker.
The list is long and expensive, with more than 15 ventures, some of which are expected to cost as much as $30 billion: Four in New York City, at least three in Dubai, two in London, Chicago and Milan, and one in Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Paris and Mumbai.
Reasons for the projects vary. One of the most expensive -- South Korea's $30 billion Songdo City -- is positioning its 1,500 acres of offices, apartments, hotels, and parks near the Incheon International Airport as a hub for companies' burgeoning Asian operations. Some projects, like a new entrance to Milan around the city's Garibaldi train station, are designed to improve blighted areas and others are intended to correct earlier planning mistakes.
Most of them reflect the growing popularity of downtowns as places to live, shop and work. For example, developers say New York's Hudson Yards project, to be built over a rail yard on Manhattan's West Side, is needed because the city is running out of office space.
But these are inauspicious times for such plans. Banks are sharply cutting back on commercial real-estate loans. While some projects such as those in cash-rich countries like Dubai are somewhat insulated, developers are worried privately that many of these ambitious, city-changing endeavors -- difficult to complete in good times -- may be at risk.
"We think there will be a lot of projects that won't get started because they can't get financing," says Jeff Blau, president of Related Cos., a private developer involved in several colossal ventures. He is, of course, upbeat about his own company's projects. Related began construction earlier this month on the first phase of The Grand, a $3 billion project near the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles that will feature a 16-acre park and a Frank Gehry-designed tower that will include condos and a Mandarin Oriental hotel.
In an early sign of the pressure credit markets are putting on big projects, Goldman Sachs analysts on Dec. 14 downgraded the stock of one of the largest builders of urban projects nationwide, Forest City Enterprises. The downgrade said increased borrowing and construction costs are making its development projects less profitable. One of Forest City's subsidiaries, Forest City Ratner Cos., a prolific New York City builder, delayed the expected completion of a basketball arena that is the centerpiece of its $10 billion project above a rail yard in Brooklyn. The Atlantic Yards project includes 16 residential and office skyscrapers along with large retail spaces. The first phase, which includes the arena, is now projected to open in 2010 instead of November 2009.
A company spokesman says the delay isn't related to financial markets and that there is no connection between today's credit market and long-term profitability. Still, the delay lengthens the time before Forest City can derive revenue from its up-front investment at the site, which includes moving the rail yard.
Mega projects typically get considered after years of solid real-estate markets. Ironically, this means developers begin shoveling dirt about the time the economic cycle turns downward. A looming recession -- which many economists now see as a possibility, at least in the U.S. -- would wreak havoc with real-estate demand because new jobs are the key driver for offices, stores and homes.
"A lot of these projects involve a major retail component that relies on consumer spending and high-end residential. In this kind of environment, those are problematic," says Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies.
The last commercial real-estate crash in the early 1990s stifled numerous big projects and took down developers along the way. The most notorious was London's Canary Wharf. Though it eventually became a success, weak demand, overbuilding of office space, and the delay of a critical train extension to the area wiped out demand for several years. Canary's developer, Olympia & York, failed and was later carved into several successor companies.
Often it is the second or third owners that make money on these projects. The sprawling Playa Vista development on the west side of Los Angeles near Marina del Ray was the subject of a political battle a decade ago, and the stalled negotiations led to lenders foreclosing on the original developer, a venture led by property tycoon Robert Maguire III. That meant the end of plans for a complex of office and residential towers. A decade later, after negotiations that led to a donation of hundreds of acres of green space to the state, Playa Vista is nearly finished with the first of three phases of a scaled-down version.
Big projects can cause developers to stumble even in the best of times. Mills Corp., a once high-flying real-estate investment trust, was forced to liquidate in 2006 after it failed to manage several mammoth projects, including a retail-and-entertainment center in New Jersey called Meadowlands Xanadu. Colony Capital now owns the Xanadu development, whose cost has gone to $2.3 billion from $1.2 billion.
But developers find such immense projects alluring, despite their patchy track record. If they succeed they promise to be a steady source of profits and fees for years. Reputations can also be made. Rouse Co. became a global leader in developing festival marketplaces thanks to the success of its developments at South Street Seaport in New York and Harborplace in Baltimore. (Rouse was acquired by General Growth Properties Inc. in 2004.)
The sheer size of these ventures, which all include acres of offices, residential, retail and transportation links, means they will take a decade or more to build. And that presents inherent challenges. A ton of cash is put at risk. For example, in Manhattan's Hudson Yards project, close to $2 billion will be needed to build a deck over an active rail yard to support the buildings. That alone will take several years.
That extended time line creates significant risk. "What you can predict with certainty is over the 10 to 15 years it will take to build these, we will have at least one recession if not two," says Susan Fainstein, a Harvard University urban planner who has studied the economics of mega projects.
Delivering complex infrastructure is another hurdle. In that, Canary Wharf and Hudson Yards share a common thread. Both plans are or were predicated on the delivery of a new subway line to the remote neighborhoods. In the case of Canary Wharf, the Jubilee Line came late and over budget.
New York City has financed the $2 billion expansion of the No. 7 subway line to the area. Though a groundbreaking occurred this month, cost overruns and lack of bidders has already forced the project to scuttle one of two planned stations.
Of course, real estate is a local business that relies on the health of regional economies, not national or international ones. But real-estate finance is not local. For large projects where developers are required to inject billions of dollars up front without receiving payback for years, institutional financing and municipal subsidies are key.
The slowing economy puts that in jeopardy. Mr. Retsinas of Harvard predicts developers for big projects will approach local governments seeking more subsidies. But they may meet political resistance. "As the economy struggles, it makes it more difficult to take on the added subsidy because tax revenues are falling," he says.
That's already showing up in the municipal bond market, where localities are having trouble raising funds. In November, Chicago delayed a $961 million offering to fund construction at O'Hare International Airport. Miami-Dade County delayed $539 million offering for its airport. Louisville, Ky., has had trouble raising funds to build a new arena.
Posted by lumi at 4:39 AM
December 25, 2007
358 days since Spitzer Claus came to town!
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Posted by lumi at 10:52 AM
"Ratner the Overdeveloper, you'll go down in history!"
Bruce Ratner is too busy lapping up public subsidies to answer any of your questions or concerns about Atlantic Yards security, traffic, the total amount of subsidy, or anything else that doesn't concern "Jobs, Housing or Hoops," for that matter.
Please check back next year, when we predict that Bruce Ratner will have "no comment" on these topics and more.
[Ok, clearly someone here at NoLandGrab didn't get enough of Christmas cute this year, because there are scores of other photos where this one came from.]
Posted by lumi at 9:40 AM
Streetsblog: drivers at Fourth, Flatbush, and Atlantic resigned to Merry Gridlock
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder checks out the Streetsfilm report from 4th Avenue in Brooklyn on a Gridlock Alert day.
[Aaron Naparstek] doesn't even mention the elephant at the edge of the intersection, the planned Atlantic Yards project, which would certainly exacerbate gridlock. The only hint: one frame capture some anti-Atlantic Yards art painted by Patti and Schellie Hagan of the Prospect Heights Action Council.
NoLandGrab: One thing is for sure, Congestion Pricing hasn't caught on with the public, even with Mayor Bloomberg's support.
Posted by lumi at 9:12 AM
Forest City Ratner: King of the PILOTs
Atlantic Yards Report
It's a Christmas story, sort of. Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez, writing last Thursday in a column headlined, "Deals that lead to lost property taxes," highlighted the city's annual loss of $107 million "in property taxes last year because of privately negotiated deals with some of the world's richest companies." The abatements average "a whopping 60% per company." (Graphic from Daily News)
The report Gonzalez obtained presented Brooklyn's biggest developer as the city's savviest dealmaker. He wrote: The undisputed king of PILOTs is real estate developer Bruce Ratner. His Forest City/Ratner firm paid the city $9.7 million last year for half a dozen commercial buildings the company owns in downtown Brooklyn. That sounds like a lot of money - until you realize it's only one-third of the company's actual $26.3 million property tax bill.
...
Gonzalez's column also included this tantalizing line:That doesn't even count PILOTs that have yet to kick in for Forest City's Atlantic Yards mega-project.
The numbers rgarding AY remain murky, but the September 2005 Atlantic Yards Fiscal Brief issued by the Independent Budget Office provides some clue. Low-cost financing for construction of the arena and its parking garage will come from tax-exempt private activity bonds issued by a not-for-profit local development corporation (LDC). But they wouldn't be repaid the way most bonds are repaid...
Not only is Bruce Ratner's development company, far and away, the City's largest beneficiary of PILOTS, read the rest of the Norman Oder's article to learn about yet another way the Atlantic Yards deal is structured differently than the ordinary megaproject.
Posted by lumi at 8:38 AM
Merry Christmas to Bruce!
What's wrong with Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs)?
As this photo illustrates, when a rat eats candy that is supposed to be shared with everyone, then everyone gets nothing and he gets fatter (i.e. when tax revenue is diverted to paying for the tax-exempt bonds on the arena for Bruce Ratner, then these revenues are not going to the general fund where they supposedly benefit everyone).
PILOTs are a sneaky way to get taxpayers to pay for stuff they don't really need.
Back in the day, sports team owners paid their own way. Then they figured out that they could threaten to move their teams if taxpayers didn't sweeten the deal by paying for new arenas or stadiums. After taxpayers realized that these deals were only a net gain for the team owners, several municipalities and states voted down ballot resolutions intended to issue bonds for sports venues.
Now politicians and team owners are exploiting some of the murkier ways to get around that problem. PILOTs, like their predecessors, Tax Increment Financing, are one of their favorites, because team owners and their political backers get to claim that they are not using taxpayer money to pay for the venue, which is an overly simple way of saying that they are using future tax revenue from the project to pay for the financing of the venue. Technically, it's not the same thing and most people are too busy to notice how the scheme works.
Posted by lumi at 8:34 AM
EMINENT DOMAINIA: The Big Apple Bites!
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Here's a sampling of non-Atlantic Yards eminent domain news from this week, including a short article about an Upstate couple who explain how it feels to live under the threat of eminent domain (and you thought your holidays were stressful). Though NYC's policy of using eminent domain as a tool for handing land over to developers has been apparent to us for a while, 2007 appears to be the year that others are acknowledging that the City's abuse of eminent domain has reached epidemic proportions. |
amNY, City threatens eminent domain on planned museum
Four years after an oil company donated land to a Brooklyn couple for a museum to honor the nation's first commissioned ironclad warship, the property, wedged between industrial warehouses and the East River, still sits vacant.
It's not what Janice Lauletta-Weinmann and her husband, George Weinmann, who have lived their entire lives in Greenpoint, envisioned on Dec. 23, 2003, when Motiva Enterprises gave them an acre of land in their neighborhood where the USS Monitor, the focus of their planned museum, was built and launched in 1862.
Five months after being awarded the land, the couple received a letter saying the city planned to seize the property through eminent domain to clear the way for a 28-acre waterfront park along the East River stretching from North Williamsburg to Greenpoint.
amNY, via Duffield St. Underground, AM New York: Rescue Us
Number Four on the AM New York's [preservation] list is Duffield Street:
Development pressures in downtown Brooklyn threaten the existence of several houses possibly linked to the Underground Railroad. Preservationists say the city ignored documents detailing the historical significance of the houses on Duffield Street.
Crain's NY Business, Columbia expansion forges ahead, despite opposition
The plan has been the fulcrum of an extended battle between Columbia and Manhattanville—a battle containing racial and class overtones. The community fears that the university's expansion will overwhelm it and spark a wave of gentrification that will force out artists and manufacturers, and make rents unaffordable. Looming over the project is the possibility that Columbia will seek to have the state exercise its right of eminent domain for the remaining commercial properties needed to realize the school's vision. Opponents argue that for the state to do so would constitute a misuse of eminent domain.
NY Post, Letter to the Editor, COLUMBIA CALAMITY
Christina Walsh from the Institute for Justice criticizes the NY Post's editorial position in support of the Columbia University Expansion plan:
Worldwide, New York City is regarded as a beacon of hope and endless opportunity. Yet it routinely uses eminent domain for private gain.
This sends a message, loud and clear, that in the Big Apple, the American dream is subject to the whims of a tax-hungry government and land-hungry developers.
The Evening Sun, NYRI has dampened holiday for one family
Despite what you think about the NY Regional Interconnect proposal, here's a good look at what it feels like to endure the fear and stress of life under the threat of eminent domain (Yeah, Happy Holidays.):
“It’s a cloud over the holiday,” said Betsy. “You wonder where you’ll be next year. It’s a sick, sad feeling we have in our hearts.”
If the line is eventually built – it would run along the New York Susquehanna & Western railroad tracks behind the Mahannah’s house – Rick and Betsy say they’d be left without any choices.
“We couldn’t live here anymore,” she said. “Even if they didn’t force us out using eminent domain, the house would be as good as condemned. Medically it would be unsafe and the property value would be worth nothing with that power line in our backyard. We couldn’t live there and no one would buy it. It feels like we’re being pushed out the door of our own house and we may not get a blessed penny.”
Posted by lumi at 7:12 AM
December 24, 2007
PlaNYC 1950: why parking shouldn't be required at apartment projects like Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards Report
Mayor Mike Bloomberg's much-praised PlaNYC 2030 contains a glaring omission, a failure to address the antiquated anti-urban policy that mandates parking attached to new residential developments outside Manhattan, even when such developments, like Atlantic Yards, are justified precisely because they're located near transit hubs.
Last year, several commentators on the Atlantic Yards Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) questioned the provision of parking--not just interim surface lots, but also the 2570 underground spaces intended for the project's residential component and an additional 1100 underground spaces for the arena.
(Map from Atlantic Yards web site.)
The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) dismissed the questions, but the issue won't go away.
Posted by lumi at 5:12 AM
546 Vandy, Demo Porn (really)
Local photographer Tracy Collins captured some amazing shots of the demolition at 546 Vanderbilt Avenue for the Atlantic Yards Photo Pool, including one that is screaming for a caption and one showing the job site.
View the entire 546 Vanderbilt flickr photoset.
Posted by lumi at 4:55 AM
Vanderbilt Ave
From the Plaza to the Yards
Park Slope Reader
Nathaniel Altman includes "the massive (and soon-to-be-built) Atlantic Yards project" in his profile of Prospect Heights for the local culture magazine:
As in other nearby neighborhoods, residents and business owners on Vanderbilt Avenue are concerned at how the massive Atlantic Yards development—with high-rise apartments, stores and a stadium—will affect the area.
Local supporters of Atlantic Yards believe that the project will bring new life to a bleak and unused area. Nick Haven, owner of the Old Brooklyn Parlor and Clinton Hill Design Build (www.clintonhilldesignbuild.com), said: “The abandoned warehouses and empty railroad yards have left that end of Vanderbilt Avenue unanchored as opposed to the other end that has Prospect Park. Now both ends will be vibrant.”
A number of community groups oppose the project because it will change the character of the neighborhood by introducing out-of-scale architecture to the “foot” of Vanderbilt Avenue. It would also bring about increased traffic to an already congested street.
NoLandGrab: The author and the architect builder he quoted neglected their own neighbors when they failed to mention the part of the neighborhood NEXT TO the railyards, which is also being taken for the project and whose fate will be determined by the court's ruling on the appeal of the federal eminent domain case. No biggie, it's just people that live there.
Posted by lumi at 4:43 AM
2008 Predictions
Gotham Gazette mentions "Atlantic Yards" in its predictions for next year, though only in relation to a highly unpredictable real estate market, which might affect some of NYC's megaprojects, but City Councilwoman Letitia James goes out on a limb and predicts that "The Atlantic Yards project will go down in flames."
Posted by lumi at 4:34 AM
Agreed: We Need to "Stop Force-feeding Huge Ideas"
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn responds to Errol Louis's Sunday column, in which the Atlantic Yards supporter makes the case against the lack of "explanation" on "wildly expensive solutions to thorny matters" like the "physical development of our city." [Finally, something on which we all can agree!]"
Newspaper editorialists and columnists can only expect their readers to take them seriously when there is consistency in and a principled foundation to their opinions. Without those necessities their opinions really do not mean much. We raise this because today NY Daily News columnist and editorial board member Errol Louis writes a column with which we have no argument. We applaud it.
...
The shame is that Louis, an unconditional Atlantic Yards supporter, has failed in this column and in his years of writing about Atlantic Yards to critique the big idea known as Atlantic Yards, and its democratic failings; though he has managed to criticize those many who have opposed Atlantic Yards starting from the rotten core of the process.
Posted by lumi at 4:26 AM
December 23, 2007
Still waiting for Madden; decision on AY environmental challenge lingers
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder reminds us (for those who need reminding) that there are decisions still pending on the legal challenges to Atlantic Yards in the state and federal courts. We've been looking fo a decision from State Supreme Court Justice Joan A. Madden since September.
The case has lingered for three months more, undoubtedly causing nervousness on both sides. I don't think we can read anything into the delay other than that it's a complicated case and the judge is trying to rule carefully.
On the one hand, such challenges to environmental review rarely succeed. On the other, Madden did express skepticism regarding the state's assertions of "blight" and whether the project is actually a "civic project."
A successful suit might block the project entirely--even as Forest City Ratner has sunk significant sums into pre-construction demolition and railyard work--or require a revision of the environmental review, which could delay and change the project.
Also pending is a decision from a federal appeals court, after a hearing in October, regarding an appeal of the dismissal of the Atlantic Yards eminent domain challenge.
What will be the result of these pending decisions? Stay tuned!
Posted by steve at 9:10 AM
Late Holiday Shopping Suggestion - DDDB Holiday Gift Guide
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
Posted by steve at 8:21 AM
December 22, 2007
Penn’s Jacobsian experience, and the difficulty of planning
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder uses lessons learned by the University of Pennsylvania to illustrate the pitfalls of trying to drive redevelopment with a monolithic plan.
A quote from Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation and former president of the University of Pennsylvania:
In his 1990 book Inquiry and Change: The Troubled Attempt to Understand and Shape Society, Lindblom points out the impossibility of being truly comprehensive in urban planning from the start, because there are inevitable biases that frame the work in the abstract and there is an inexhaustible number of forces that enter into the life of cities over time that cannot be anticipated in advance.
Oder applies this issue of uncertainty to Atlantic Yards:
This raises many questions about the environmental review process regarding major projects like Atlantic Yards. Among them: Can a ten-year effect on traffic and transit really be estimated? Is ten years a legitimate endpoint, or an arbitrary one? And what if the buildout would take much longer?
Posted by steve at 8:12 AM
Eminent Domain: Just face it Bruce Ratner is more important than you are
Serf City
And the City’s politicians and bureaucrats just like him better. And why shouldn’t they - he’s providing tax revenue that helps pay for their salaries and their pensions. Of course so does your tax money - but you have no choice and Bruce Ratner does. Don’t like it? Who cares? You are just an ordinary citizen. Bruce has friend’s in the government.
Posted by steve at 5:29 AM
DDDB/NY Daily News on Pilots
The Knickerblogger
The Daily News's Juan Gonzalez takes a much needed look at the City's use of PILOTS (Payments in Lieu of Taxes). These PILOTS enable large corporations to avoid paying their property taxes. Of course PILOTS are a huge part of Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. These payments they'll make in lieu of property taxes, instead of going into city coffers for the common treasury, will go to paying off the construction bond debt for their Barclays Center arena and to the State of New York. One year to the day since the poiltical approval of Atlantic Yards by the Public Authorities Control Board and still nobody has any idea what the amount of Atlantic Yards PILOTs will be. Nobody.
Posted by steve at 5:00 AM
Will Dwindling Columbia Holdouts Sell or Fight?
Curbed
The list of potential holdouts in the area where Columbia University plans its massive Manhattanville expansion is down to three, but will a nasty and possibly long Atlantic Yards-style battle over eminent domain develop? It's still possible. Two days after the City Council cleared the Columbia plan by a wide margin, opponents are still saying the university shouldn't seize property. Meanwhile, more than three dozen businesses have sold to Columbia, leaving two moving and storage businesses and the owner of two gas stations as the only holdouts. The University won't say if it's negotiating and hasn't ruled out having the state seize commercial property. It owns about 90 percent of the land and intends to leave three buildings standing on about 17 acres between 133rd Street in the north, 125th Street in the south and Riverside Drive on the west. Will a multi-year Ratner vs. DDDB-style standoff develop? Stay tuned.
Posted by steve at 4:59 AM
Jim Cramer's 'Stop Trading!': Buy Forest City
TheStreet.com
Forest City (FCEA - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) is "one of the savviest" real estate companies around, Jim Cramer said on CNBC's "Stop Trading!" segment Friday.
Long-term value investor Marty Whitman recommended the stock when he made an appearance on CNBC earlier in the day.
"I think he's right. ... I remember when I was at Goldman Sachs (GS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) ... we were in awe of these guys," he said of the Brooklyn-based builder. "All they have gotten is better and better," he added.
No Land Grab: What's so hard with making a profit, when taxpayers are footing the bill and, if needed, the bailout? Savvy indeed.
Posted by steve at 4:36 AM
December 21, 2007
Despite Earlier Defiance, Holdouts in Columbia’s Expansion Zone Are Down to 3
The NY Times
By Timothy Williams
An article about the holdouts property-rights superheroes in West Harlem.
When Columbia University began buying property north of its Morningside Heights campus for its planned expansion a few years ago, a group of longtime business owners formed an alliance and pledged never to sell.
Now, three years later, all but two of the six family-owned firms in the alliance, the West Harlem Business Group, have sold their property to the university, leaving the two owners increasingly edgy about what might happen next, as Columbia prepares to start the largest expansion in its history.
Those two businesses — both moving and storage concerns — along with the owner of two service stations who was not in the alliance, are the only remaining holdouts in the Manhattanville neighborhood. More than three dozen others — meat wholesale companies, auto body shops, restaurants, construction supply stores, tire repair shops, warehouses and a window manufacturer among them — have sold their property to Columbia and have agreed to leave once construction begins.
NoLandGrab: It's very typical in a contentious eminent domain battle that most property owners who vow not to sell, eventually do. What's amazing is that a full third remain.
During the past couple years the Times earned a reputation of being "allergic" to writing about eminent domain in NYC ("Achoo!"). Can we finally expect a story on the Brooklyn eminent domain superheroes, or is putting their business partner Bruce Ratner on the spot taboo?
Posted by lumi at 7:18 PM
Columbia vote (35-5-6) vs. AY vote (4-0), newspaper coverage, and the value left in ULURP
Atlantic Yards Report
What a difference the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) makes, at least in terms of public awareness. The City Council's contentious approval of Columbia University's West Harlem development plan merited front-page, above-the-fold coverage in the New York Times yesterday (albeit attached to graphics regarding Governor's Island plans; click to enlarge), as the vote was 35-5, with 6 abstentions. (Gotham Gazette called it divisive, and highlighted those not toeing the line.)
Consider what might have occurred had the Atlantic Yards project gone through ULURP. It likely would have passed the City Council, thanks to the city's and Forest City Ratner's political muscle, but the criticism voiced by the three affected community boards would have gotten much more airing. And, at the City Council vote, critics like Council Members Letitia James and Charles Barron would have had a platform for their views.
Posted by lumi at 5:32 AM
Where were you? Brooklyn AIA offers belated, underinformed AY solutions
Atlantic Yards Report
Some of the most sober and trenchant criticism of Atlantic Yards has come from architects, notably Jonathan Cohn in his now on-hiatus Brooklyn Views blog. Now, four years after the project was announced, a letter to the editor published in this week's Brooklyn Paper is the first evidence, as far as I can tell, that the Brooklyn chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA)--or any other AIA chapter--has taken a stance on Atlantic Yards.
Despite attempts to be constructive, the message is underinformed and in some ways misguided.
Norman Oder examines I. Donald Weston's bizarre assertion that the "stadium" — oops, it's an "arena" — could be "relocated further away from the street," brings up the temporary surface parking lot, which runs counter to Weston's four-point traffic plan, and explains that had the American Institute of Architects submitted these comments to the Empire State Development Corporation during the environmental review in 2006, they might have received some sort of response.
Posted by lumi at 5:30 AM
Politicians fear Columbia may use eminent domain to expand campus
NY Daily News
By Frank Lombardi
The battle over Columbia University's expansion plan has ended in the City Council
But the bigger war over eminent domain may be just getting started.
"From Queens to Brooklyn, from the proposed Atlantic Yards to Coney Island and West Harlem, today is just yet another example of the threat - and I would argue the abuse - of eminent domain," Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Brooklyn) fumed as she voted against Columbia's zoning application at Wednesday's Council session.
Posted by lumi at 5:28 AM
Expert: There is a way to fix Atlantic Yards traffic
The Brooklyn Paper, Letters
The Brooklyn Chapter of the American Institute of Architects supports bringing basketball to Brooklyn but does not "feel that enough thought has been given to the traffic impact of the overall development."
Here is the Chapter's four-point solution:
The city should prohibit the Nets arena from providing any off-street parking at the arena site. Instead, the city should provide municipal parking for approximately 1,000 cars at one or several locations in an industrial area in the Brownsville/East New York area, within walking distance of public transportation. This parking would be used on a daily basis for business people driving to work as well as for patrons attending basketball games.
However, on game nights, either the Nets or the Atlantic Yards developer should be required to provide shuttle buses from the remote parking areas to the arena.Eliminate parking on all major thoroughfares going to, or coming from, Manhattan during rush hours, and meter all side streets in the area. Enforce existing “Don’t Block the Box” rules at all major intersections.
Eliminate parking permits for city employees’ private vehicles to encourage them to take public transportation.
Discount bus and subway fares during off hours.
NoLandGrab: Eliminating "parking permits for city employees’ private vehicles" and discounting "bus and subway fares during off hours" sound like good ideas. Seriously, WTF does it have to do with Atlantic Yards?
Posted by lumi at 5:23 AM
Real Estate Round-up
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
By Sarah Ryley
Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner is “the undisputed king of [Payments in Lieu of Taxes],” or privately negotiated deals between the city and companies, according to the Daily News.
Of the $100 million in property taxes the city lost last year due to PILOT agreements, Forest City saved $16.6 million from its actual $26.3 million property tax bill on the commercial property the company owns in Downtown Brooklyn. Ratner spokesman Loren Riegelhaupt responded: “A lot of those buildings in MetroTech were constructed when downtown Brooklyn was not what it was today… Many businesses were fleeing to New Jersey in the 1990s, and we were willing to invest in that area when others wouldn’t.”
NoLandGrab: Loren Rigelhaupt's comment conceals the fact that MetroTech, though originally conceived as a high-rise office park to stem the tide of corporations leaving for New Jersey, has not lived up to its promise.
After high vacancy rates required a municipal bailout, the City of NY became MetroTech's largest tenant. So taxpayers lose revenue through PILOTs, and then get to pay MetroTech's landlord Bruce Ratner for the privilege.
Posted by lumi at 5:21 AM
December 20, 2007
Bus Stop Temporarily Relocated
Photo by Tracy Collins, from the Atlantic Yards Photo Pool.
In case bus riders aren't diligently reading NoLandGrab or didn't get the Atlantic Yards Construction Update, a sign has finally been posted, alerting riders that the B65 bus stop has been temporarily relocated.
Earlier this week, local photographer Tracy Collins tried to explain to a group of riders that the stop had been moved. They didn't believe him until the bus drove by.
Thanks Tracy, your good deed helped to keep spirits bright during this holiday season.
Posted by lumi at 9:27 PM
Ratner’s ‘Mr Brooklyn’ deal gets sweeter
The Brooklyn Paper
City University is offering to sweeten its deal with developer Bruce Ratner, The Brooklyn Paper has learned.
Last month, CUNY’s Board of Trustees voted to pay Ratner $307 million to build a new 11- to 14-story laboratory and classroom building for City Tech in Downtown Brooklyn — a whopping $221 million more than the $86 million the university system originally offered the developer in 2004.
The request for additional cash will be taken up by the state legislature next month.
In addition to the fee for constructing the new college building, Ratner would also get control of a lucrative site on the southeast corner of Jay and Tillary streets — a Downtown plot where he is reportedly planning the city’s tallest residential tower, the so-called “Mr. Brooklyn.”
Posted by lumi at 8:43 PM
Beijing’s Olympics: A Marriage Of Corporate And State Abuse
CounterCurrents.org
Bruce Ratner is now officially a "robber baron:"
New York of the 21st century also has its share of robber barons. Bruce Ratner is currently hoping to use eminent domain in the heart of Brooklyn to build a basketball arena and surrounding luxury trimmings at the expense of private homes and business owners. For certain eminent domain has almost always been a weapon against the poor. A study released earlier this year by Dick M. Carpenter II and John K. Ross titled Victimizing the Vulnerable: The Demographics of Eminent Domain Abuse reveals that the areas targeted nation-wide for eminent domain in recent years follow a predictable pattern: 58% of the targeted areas include minority residents, compared with 45% in surrounding communities, 25% live at or below poverty, compared to 16% in surrounding communities.
Posted by lumi at 8:29 PM
Williamsburg Bank View
This photo from Brit in Brooklyn reminds us just how big Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards project would be. It basically would obliterate over half of the view.
So what — it's not like Brooklyn is known for low rise nighborhoods, light-filled side streets and the Williamsburg Savings Bank tower.
Posted by lumi at 8:13 PM
Deals that lead to lost property taxes
NY Daily News
By Juan Gonzales
New York City lost more than $100 million in property taxes last year because of privately negotiated deals with some of the world's richest companies.
The companies - including behemoths like JPMorgan Chase, Pfizer and NBC - have paid a fraction of their normal property tax bill for years through these little-known deals, commonly called PILOTs (Payments in Lieu of Taxes).
In case you don't already know, Bruce is #1!
The undisputed king of PILOTs is real estate developer Bruce Ratner. His Forest City/Ratner firm paid the city $9.7 million last year for half a dozen commercial buildings the company owns in downtown Brooklyn. That sounds like a lot of money - until you realize it's only one-third of the company's actual $26.3 million property tax bill.
That doesn't even count PILOTs that have yet to kick in for Forest City's Atlantic Yards mega-project.
Forest City spokesman Loren Riegelhaupt defended the company's success at landing PILOT subsidies.
"A lot of those buildings in MetroTech were constructed when downtown Brooklyn was not what it was today," Riegelhaupt said. "Many businesses were fleeing to New Jersey in the 1990s, and we were willing to invest in that area when others wouldn't."
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn notes Ratner's excuse for receiving PILOTS for MetroTech and wonders if the developer can come up with another excuse for Atlantic Yards:
Yes, Ratner's folks should be proud of how great they are at feeding at the public trough. Forest City Ratner's defense of their use of PILOTs for Metrotech is that in the 1990s "downtown Brooklyn was not what it was today." Then what, exactly, is their defense for receiving PILOTS for their Atlantic Yards project near that Downtown Brooklyn which is what it is today -- a booming real estate market where many are willing to invest.
NoLandGrab: Obtaining any form of public subsidy is Ratner's modus operandi projects and is one of the keys to the company's profitability. As Cooper Union professor Fred Siegel told the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Bruce Ratner is "the master of subsidy. No one does it better. That's not a flat-out criticism of him. It's just that he never builds without someone else taking the risk." That special someone would be the taxpayers.
Posted by lumi at 7:40 PM
Happy Anni Adversary?
Today marks the first anniversary of the Public Authority Control Board's vote to approve Atlantic Yards
It's been a whole year since representatives of Governor George Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Majority Leader Joseph Bruno took all of five minutes to approve Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project.
Here's a sampling of what was being said on December 20, 2006. From the FCRC press release, and the lips of the Brucester himself:
“Three years ago we joined the Mayor and Borough President, and officials from throughout Brooklyn, to unveil a work in progress. Today, we’re excited to have completed the public review process and thrilled at the prospect of breaking ground and making Atlantic Yards a reality."
...
Finally, Mr. Ratner commented on the Nets pending move to Brooklyn and their current home at the Continental Arena in New Jersey. The Nets are expected to move to Brooklyn in time for the start of the 2009-10 NBA season.
NoLandGrab: Or maybe not in 2009.
Here's what Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz had to say:
"Brooklyn’s bright future is indeed here today. I am thrilled with the PACB approval of the Atlantic Yards plan. This means our borough will soon be benefiting from thousands of union jobs, affordable housing, an enhanced and vibrant downtown, and our much-anticipated return to sports' major leagues.
...
Add to all of this the project’s world-class architecture, on-site school, street-level shopping, and accessible public open space, and you can see why Atlantic Yards is the right project, in the right place, at the right time for Brooklyn.”
NLG: "Soon" is apprently a relative term.
And the Mayor?
"Today’s approval of Atlantic Yards is the final step towards starting work on this enormously important project."
NLG: "Enormous?" Yes. "Starting work?" Not so much.
DDDB appears to have been a bit more accurate in its forecast:
The viability of the largest sole-sourced project in New York’s history will ultimately be determined by federal and state courts.
Those courts have yet to issue definitive rulings.
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn explains that Bruce Ratner is busy doing stuff on the railyards, but he's not getting very far:
As we think back to that swift, uninformed vote by representatives of the three men in a room, we see a stalled project: infrastructure activity is occurring in the Ratner-selected footprint, and demolition has taken place on some of the buildings the developer owns, but there appears to be a lot of soil pushing and dirt shifting on the rail yards. As of today, the construction of the project hasn't moved forward, and cannot move forward.
One year after political approval, and the project seems to be failing. The project is stale. And the markets don't look promising for the overly-dense behemoth.
Posted by lumi at 4:33 PM
Sports of The Times: Hitting the Bottom, the Bottom Hits Back
The New York Times
by George Vecsey
In a column exploring the woeful goings-on on the Madison Square Garden hardwood, columnist George Vecsey displays a level of skepticism about the progress of Atlantic Yards rarely seen in the pages of his newspaper:
James’s occasional forays into the Garden even have a New York angle in that he is committed to his home region Cavaliers through the spring of 2011, but after that he will be a free agent.
His pal, the rapper Jay-Z, has a tiny share of the Nets, and there has been fanciful thinking that James could someday move on to Brooklyn with the Nets, based on the assumption that the Nets will actually put shovels in the ground and be open for business by then. By then, this nasty business with the Knicks will surely have played itself out.
Posted by lumi at 11:51 AM
A Gehry Funny for Thursday
SFGate.com
Posted by steve at 11:45 AM
The AY omission in the Jane Jacobs exhibit, some contentions, and the lesson of skepticism
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder concludes his two-part, two-day examination of the Municipal Art Society's Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York exhibit by taking issue with the absence of Atlantic Yards from the physical exhibit (it does pop up rather frequently in the companion book, Block by Block), and offering his own Jacobsian critique of the controversial project:
Beyond that, I’d observe that it’s a stretch to consider Atlantic Yards a downtown anyone would want to visit. It’s basically an arena (plus Urban Room) attached to a modern-day (and improved) Stuyvesant Town, with retail at its base. Sure, some people might visit the Urban Room and the open space when there’s programming, but a tiny spot of law