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May 16, 2009
B'klyn Arena Victor Ratner: We're Ready To Dig
New York Post
By Rich Calder
This article likes to take all of Bruce Ratner's claims at face value. The Nets playing in Brooklyn by 2011-12? Don't hold your breath. Also repeated are promises for affordable housing and jobs which would appear in the distant future, if ever.
After scoring a huge court victory yesterday, developer Bruce Ratner says he'll break ground on Brooklyn's embattled Atlantic Yards project this September -- and may even have the Nets playing there by the 2011-12 season.
An appellate panel in Manhattan unanimously ruled to give the state the green light to seize private property on Ratner's behalf, so construction can begin on a $4 billion project in Prospect Heights that's been heavily delayed by mounting litigation since getting state approval in Dec. 2006.
The four-member panel determined the project has enough "public benefits" -- such as the creation of 2,250 affordable housing units and thousands of jobs -- to warrant condemning land. Opponents, however, say the 22-acre project footprint isn't "blighted" as Ratner and the state contend, so using eminent domain would be unconstitutional.
Posted by steve at May 16, 2009 8:14 AM