« Brooklyn Developer Ratner Feted as Protesters Jeer | Main | EXCLUSIVE: Gehry to Brooklyn Paper: Miss Brooklyn ain’t dead — in fact, she’s hotter than ever »
April 5, 2008
Atlantic Yards Fallout
The Brooklyn Rail
by Brian J. Carreira
This is an excellent read for anyone trying to catch up on the state of the proposed Atlantic Yards project. The heart of the article explains how the proposal is based on three false assumptions.
The first false assumption was that the land grab was going to be easy. In some cases, the condo conversions on Pacific Street had only opened 6 months before Ratner announced the project. It would be logical that these new residents, with a not-so-veiled threat of eminent domain, would have little attachment to the neighborhood and would likely be happy to take a premium on their new homes and get lost. The other buildings were rentals and underutilized industrial and commercial space. Properties like these rarely engender attachment from landlords who often live elsewhere. And for longtime owners, the return on their investment would be massive in that real estate climate.
For the most part, this assumption was accurate. Most of the owners took the money. But a few, like Daniel Goldstein from Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), stayed and invested unanticipated amounts of time and energy fighting the project.
The second assumption was that Brooklyn was still looking to be “saved.” When FCRC proposed MetroTech in the late-1980s, so the legend goes, only Bruce Ratner was brave enough to build in Brooklyn. A lot has changed in the interim. New and old residents were shaking off the borough’s inferiority complex. It was hip to be a Brooklynite, even in spite of that ugly office complex downtown. So, the idea that Frankenstein’s bride, “Miss Brooklyn,” and the rest of Frank Gehry’s monstrous high-rise and arena complex, would usher in a new era rang hollow.
It is interesting that this refrain of “salvation” cum Atlantic Yards was mostly sung by Manhattanites. Brooklyn politicians like City Councilwoman Letitia James and local residents weren’t going to simply fall prostrate in gratitude that developer Ratner chose their borough as the site of his hubristic endeavor. Markowitz did, but that seems a story for another time.
The third assumption was that no one would look into the developer’s claims all that deeply. If 10,000 jobs were promised, then that is what was going to be delivered. If a community benefits agreement was drafted, then it must have meant FCRC really labored to reach consensus with neighbors and stakeholders.
In many cases, this false assumption was also presented as truth. Papers dutifully reported the jobs number even when it seemed completely implausible and few bothered to dissect the community benefits agreement to see that it was largely unenforceable, selective in terms of whom it negotiated with, and demanded next to nothing that Ratner wasn’t already going to provide.
Posted by steve at April 5, 2008 8:16 AM