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April 14, 2009
Projects Whose Names None Dare Speak
WNYC News Blog
by Matthew Schuerman
The chiefs of economic development for the city and the state spoke before construction industry executives this morning, trying to reassure them that all was well even in these hard times.
New York Times reporter Charles Bagli, one of the moderators, got impatient at one point, telling panelists, “I was struck by the fact that so many of the projects–the public private partnerships that dominated the headlines, that dominated the public approval process–were not mentioned or were barely mentioned this morning.”
The answer, whatever the project, was pretty much the same: these things were supposed to take a long time to build anyway.
Marisa Lago, of Empire State Development, said Atlantic Yards was “clearly a challenging project in this environment.” She said her agency was focusing on meeting a December 31st deadline to qualify for tax-exempt bonds.
NoLandGrab: If it's "clearly challenging," why doesn't ESDC pull the plug rather than throwing good money after bad? The December deadline ESDC is trying to meet pertains only to the financing of the arena; wasn't there supposed to be some affordable housing somewhere along the line?
Posted by eric at April 14, 2009 1:13 PM