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February 12, 2009
The Brooklyn Paper mailbag
The Brooklyn Paper, Letters
City Council candidate Josh Skaller gets in on the criticism of the BP's misguided pro-federal-arena-bailout editorial.
The argument you make is that New York now has a chance to build the arena at minimal cost and all other considerations have little merit. This position directly contradicts much of your own paper’s coverage during the past five years. Just because we could possibly build the arena with federal money doesn’t mean that all of the significant problems you’ve documented with this project would magically go away.
The arena is the piece of the project that poses the most significant environmental threat to Brooklyn, that has led to eminent domain abuse, and which has the least long-term economic value.
I could, however, understand the use of federal stimulus dollars to erect a significant, yet appropriate amount of, sensibly designed, affordable housing over the railyards — something that Brooklyn desperately needs.
In Brooklyn, we have an opportunity to support President Obama’s work by using our own common sense to reprioritize. How tragic if we allow struggling, middle-class New Yorkers to go without decent housing while we build this ill-advised arena.
Posted by eric at February 12, 2009 11:41 AM