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March 17, 2008
And Now: The Paterson Administration
Gotham Gazette
By Courtney Gross and Gail Robinson
Wonder how the city could fare under a Paterson administration and some New York City officials say they have high hopes.
So who is this Albany veteran, besides being the state's first black and legally blind governor and a so-called ally to the State Legislature?
...
A number of major development projects in the city remain at critical junctures: Moynihan Station, Hudson Yards, Atlantic Yards, Willets Point, the Javits Center Expansion and so on. The state plays a major role in many. Recently, for example, Spitzer proposed selling parcels of the land near the Javits Center, thereby scrapping plans for a substantially larger convention center. This brought sharp opposition from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, among others.It is unclear whether anyone knows Paterson's position on every individual mega project slated for the five boroughs - or even whether he has a position -- but as soon as Spitzer resigned, if not before, the real estate industry began fretting that Paterson might not be as friendly to them as Spitzer had been.
Paterson "is an unknown quantity in real estate circles," Crain's wrote on Wednesday. "That's in sharp contrast to Gov. Spitzer, who was considered pro-development and a friend of the industry, and whose father is a wealthy real estate developer."
Some of the unease about Paterson in the development industry springs from his stated opposition in 2005 to using eminent domain - the government seizing of private property - for economic development projects.
Posted by lumi at March 17, 2008 4:29 AM