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May 4, 2008
Yonkers Tax Dollars Payoff for Some; Dashes Hope for Others
Yonkers Tribune
Hezi Aris
NoLandGrab: Yonkers worries that it will get the Bruce Ratner treatment from the "New Main Street Land Development Corporation":
There was a time when developer Bruce Ratner was lauded for paying $100 million to buy out homeowners living within the footprint of his Atlantic Yards arena. Now we learn it was New York City who paid Bruce Ratner to do just that. Bruce Ratner was then touted as generous, even magnanimous, by some. According to the just-released funding agreement between New York City and Forest City Ratner, the $100 million for “land acquisition” that the city set aside in 2006 will reimburse the developer for the private land he bought to assemble the project perimeter.
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“It is unconscionable and indefensible that the city is giving $100 million of taxpayers’ money to pay for Ratner’s strong-arm real-estate deals,” said Daniel Goldstein, the spokesman for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (who was the one resident of 636 Pacific St. who did not take Ratner’s buyout). Are similar prospects in store for Yonkers?When the city announced its $100-million deal-sweetener in 2006, it was listed on budget documents as “land acquisition.”
“Land acquisition” is now the raison d'être for the New Main Street Development Corp.? Say it isn’t so Deputy Mayor Reagan. Tell us it’s simply to be used to daylight the Nepperhan River!
Posted by amy at May 4, 2008 10:40 AM