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April 5, 2009

Two From Atlantic Yards Report

Atlantic Yards Report

Had the Times corrected the "same site" error, it might not have migrated into new book on the Dodgers

This is an illustration of what can happen when the New York Times doesn't correct its Atlantic Yards reporting:

As I reported March 23, Michael D’Antonio, author of Forever Blue: The True Story of Walter O'Malley, Baseball's Most Controversial Owner, and the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles, in interviews showed that he knows that O'Malley sought a site for a new stadium north of Atlantic Avenue, then the Fort Greene Meat Market and later the home of the Atlantic Center mall.

In the book, however, D'Antonio gets it wrong, writing in a Postscript: The borough started to bounce back in the 1980s, and in 2004 a developer proposed an indoor sports arena for the site O'Malley had been denied. The Atlantic Yards project didn't progress any faster than O'Malley's domed stadium. As of 2009 it was still alive, but the place where O'Malley would have built remained untouched.

No, it wasn't the same site, and "the place O'Malley would have built" contains a mall.

...

So, where did D'Antonio get his misinformation? His source notes point to a 1/16/04 New York Times article headlined Yo, Dodgers? No Way! Brooklyn Is Betting on the Nets for Revival.

...

The problem, as I pointed out, was that the failure to print a correction or attach it to a public database would mean that "other researchers and reporters drawing on those pieces may be misled."

Which is exactly what happened. D'Antonio apparently trusted the Paper of Record.

Lupica: Nets to Willets Point?

From today's column by New York Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica:
If the Nets really want to come to New York and Brooklyn comes off the table, how come they don't do something with the Islanders on all that land on Willets Point? This would involve the next Nets owner, of course, after Ratner inevitably sells the team.

Until Brooklyn comes off the table, the response, of course, would be that Brooklyn is a more central location--which it is. But a baseball stadium out there still does pretty well.

Posted by steve at April 5, 2009 8:15 AM