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February 18, 2009
Will the Times comment on Ratner's blatant bailout bid? Based on past performance, no
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder offers a reminder to the NY Times newsdesk that they don't have to march in lockstep with the paper's editorial board.
Will the New York Times editorialize against the private bailout Forest City Ratner apparently seeks, deploying federal stimulus funds to complete the new railyard the developer had committed to build?
It's doubtful, given the newspaper's steady path from criticizing AY subsidies to studious silence, even though a stimulus for Atlantic Yards is so contentious that it's drawn criticism from not only Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn but also BrooklynSpeaks and the New York Public Interest Research Group's Straphangers Campaign.
But maybe the news desk, if it truly believes in small-d democracy, will do some more reporting.
Check out the rest of the article, in which Oder offers a retrospective of the Grey Lady's criticism of "taxpayer money to be used to help fund a profit-making real estate venture like this one," before falling silent on the entire affair.
NoLandGrab: Does the Times support "taxpayer money to be used to help fund... a real estate venture like this one" if it is no longer "profit-making?"
Posted by lumi at February 18, 2009 5:23 AM