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May 29, 2009
It came from the Blogosphere...
Streetsblog, Sotomayor’s Eminent Domain Stance: What Does it Mean For Cities?
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is dominating the conversation in Washington as analysts begin to dig into her past rulings. And while she has yet to weigh in on abortion, the judge has spoken loud and clear on an issue of interest to livable streets advocates: eminent domain.
As a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Sotomayor ruled against property owners in Didden v. Village of Port Chester, a case that centered on plans for a CVS drug store in Westchester County.
…In theory, eminent domain can and should be used for beneficial purposes, such as transit expansion. Yet a recent push along those lines was halted by the Colorado state legislature last year, and proposed curbs on eminent domain are also imperiling the future of light rail in the Houston area.
On the flip side, local governments often take private property for new development projects, claiming that commercial and office buildings justify a standard of "public use" -- as was the case in Kelo and in Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards case, which was turned away by the Supreme Court last year. Another eminent domain case heard by Sotomayor's court, Brody v. Village of Port Chester, involved condemnation to build a Stop-'n-Shop supermarket parking lot.
UrbanOmnibus, Times Square’s Lesson in Design Value
New York City’s plan to close Times Square to vehicles looks like a triumph. The chaise-lounges [or chaises-longues, depending on whom you ask - Ed.] the city dropped at the Crossroads of the World on May 24th have stayed popular throughout the week, like day-glo brigadiers in a battle against delivery trucks. (I saw two tourists taking pictures of their feet on the pavement on May 26.) At the same time, the luxuriant plans that Gehry Partners concocted for developer Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project are failing to keep the project financially credible - and the latest rumor is that a no-fuss plan from Ellerbe Becket for the project’s focal basketball arena may bump Gehry’s bundle of crumples.
So: plastic chaise-lounges win a wave of rear ends, while titanium arenas leave the court with a hobble and nary an ovation. What’s the takeaway for urban design? I say it’s an axiom: people want to be together. If they come together under a roof shaped like a hoopoe bird, fine. But in an era of lean government budgets, the plan that gets people together quickly and cheaply should guide policymaking.
Nets Daily, Ratner Asking MTA for Compromise on Railyards
In slamming critics for hobbling Bruce Ratner with “frivolous litigation”, Daily News columnist Errol Louis reveals that the MTA, owners of the Brooklyn railyards, may decide Friday whether to accept a $20 million “down payment” from Ratner…instead of the full $100 million he owes the agency. Meanwhile, El Diario becomes the first city daily to oppose any more Atlantic Yards funding…calling it “developer welfare”.
Curbed L.A., Is Gehry Out At Atlantic Yards?
While the developer's spokespeople keep insisting Gehry is still the master architect for Atlantic Yards, Gehry himself has been saying the project is dead. Ratner plans to re-evaluate Gehry's design in July, but the smart money is on a plan that would be cheaper to execute.
Transit Blogger, Ratner Looks To Pay MTA Less Upfront
One of the most controversial construction projects of any kind to come in the last decade is the Atlantic Yards. The $4B project is centered around building a new arena & at least 16 high-rise buildings in downtown Brooklyn. The project has featured a multitude of supporters on both sides of the aisle. The average citizen has mostly been against the project as it features the status quo setup, benefit the rich while displacing & screwing over the less fortunate.
The project & its supporters have seen better days as lawsuits have held up groundbreaking & more so of late the global financial crisis. Now Bruce Ratner, CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies is looking to use the crisis as an excuse to shortchange the MTA money his company was due to pay the agency.
Little China Girl, Attack of the killer zongzis
Brooklyn’s least-favorite megaproject makes a cameo in this entertaining blog post about Beijing, food poisoning, quarantine, and the threat of eminent domain.
It’s about the government using its power to uproot citizens from their homes and raze a historical ground. Kinda like Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. And it kinda makes me want to go to Kashgar.
UnBeige, Atlantic Yards Rumors Appear True as Ellerbe Becket Steps in to 'Reevaluate' Frank Gehry's Plans
Remember when it was rumored that developer Bruce Ratner was looking for another architect to replace Frank Gehry on the much-trimmed Atlantic Yards project, despite the press teams fighting off such ideas ("Frank Gehry has not been removed from the project")? And then Frank Gehry himself sort of stuck his foot in his mouth by saying he'd given up hope on being involved with the Yards going forward -- again much to the chagrin of the press handlers? Well, if you can believe it, apparently all of these crazy rumors seem to have maybe come true after all.
Posted by eric at May 29, 2009 7:53 PM