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April 10, 2009

It came from the Blogosphere...

Gothamist, Stalled Atlantic Yards Project Leaves Neighborhood Blighted

Gothamist picks up on Tuesday's Daily News story:

Government officials and developer Bruce Ratner have for years tried to seize private property in Prospect Heights to build an arena, office towers and apartments, arguing that the neighborhood was the epitome of urban blight. Opponents, meanwhile, countered that the developer was swooping in just as Prospect Heights was experiencing its first revitalization in decades.

Now, after years of demolition but no construction, the project has brought about the very blighted conditions officials ostensibly sought to remedy. Ironic, huh? Sadly, it's not the fashionable Napoleon Dynamite-type irony; more like the old fashioned irony that led Oedipus to gouge his eyes out after he realized what the hell happened. And with the development foundering, residents fear an increasingly desolate future.

Joshing Politics, Atlantic Yards Exacerbates Blight Problem It Claimed To Fix

And Joshing Politics follows up on Gothamist's follow-up:

Irony is a funny thing. At some level the situation it describes is both funny and tragic. In the case of the Atlantic Yards monstrosity development, it is hard to find humor when you have been forced to sell your house and/or see your neighborhood ripped up in front of you for a greedy developer. Bruce Ratner and his partners had claimed that it was necessary to clean the area up and make it Gehry-ified but now it turns out it was Ratner that blighted the area.

Runnin' Scared, Noobs Flood the City; We Propose a Screening Process

The Village Voice blog proposes a litmus test for people wishing to relocate to New York City.

We've got things backwards, people. Henceforth we should raise the barrier to entry: prospective members must have something going for them besides big savings accounts and stars in their eyes. They should have some moxie, pep, balls, whatever name you want to give to the quality that makes someone willing to stick with New York even when it's the home of Son of Sam instead of "Top Chef." A crime wave might do it, but we would prefer some kind of application process. Maybe prospects could come to City Hall to be confronted by a board of natives who will ask them what kind of music they listen to, what they think of Atlantic Yards and "Real World Brooklyn," etc., and reject the ones who look like they might be trouble. We nominate to such a board Reverend Billy, Randy Credico, and Charles Barron, for starters.

It isn't perfect, but what we've been doing so far isn't working.

Posted by eric at April 10, 2009 10:14 AM