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March 6, 2008
In Alberta arena debate, the AY story gets mangled
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder stumbles over quotes from a professor who hasn't been keeping up with the ABCs of Atlantic Yards:
In a March 2 article headlined Stickhandling a hot debate, the Edmonton Journal described the efforts of phys ed professor Dan Mason of the University of Alberta to bring a new hockey arena in Edmonton. Atlantic Yards came up as a positive example, but the facts were mangled.
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The article almost suggests that Atlantic Yards would be a Jacobsian mixed-use project:It's important that all citizens benefit from the project, Mason says, and the city can ensure this by using its power to push for public spaces and parks to be included in the project, as well as other housing and commercial development.
For instance, in the new $4-billion Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn for the NBA Nets, half of the 6,000 condo rental units are earmarked for low- and middle-income residents, Mason says. The developer is building an elementary school and day-care centre out of his own pocket as part of the project. The state of New York is helping to subsidize the rental units as part of a broader low-income housing initiative.
Well, half of the 4500 rentals are subsidized; there would be some 1930 on-site condos, of which 200 would be subsidized; the developer says it will built a total of 600 to 1000 for-sale affordable units, but that's not memorialized in any government document.
Only 900 units would be low-income, so AY is not a low-income housing initiative.
And furthermore, Forest City Ratner has already assured the public that the day-care center and elementary school are NOT being paid for out of its own pocket.
Posted by lumi at March 6, 2008 5:19 AM