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June 7, 2009
Atlantic Yards Report Looks at "Brutally Weird" Criticism of Project Opponents
Atlantic Yards Report
Brutally weird: Post columnist blames "cunning, well-financed"... DDDB
A column by Steve Cuozzo was so wrong in so many ways that opponents of Atlantic Yards were likely just to dismiss it without a second thought. Norman Oder has the patience to go over each point.
New York Post columnist Steve Cuozzo is giving the Courier-Life's Stephen Witt a run for his money in brutally weird interpretations of Atlantic Yards.
In a column headlined 'NET' LOSS IS DEVASTATING: DREAM PROJECT DEAD WITHOUT GEHRY, Cuozzo laments Forest City Ratner's decision to trade architect Frank Gehry's magnificent design for the Nets arena" for a design he likens to a "Dumpster" in comparison to Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
[Here's DDDB's response: NY Post real estate columnist Steve Cuozzo writes an Orwellian column, where it is Develop Don't Destroy that has been the "Orwellian-titled," "well-financed," "bullying", "liars." Not Ratner with his billionaire Cleveland backers, his orchestrated bullying disruptions of public hearings by his surrogates and partners, and his—yes we'll use the word—lying (see: Gehry, Frank, still "our lead architect").]
Cuozzo offers a conclusory lament: Reconfiguring the arena and much else on the site will require a whole new set of state and city approvals for design and financing -- a return to square one when the credit markets are frozen and government has no appetite for subsidizing developers.
There's no way to sugar-coat the calamity. There's near-zero hope for Ratner's declared plan to proceed. With apologies to "King Lear," nothing more will come of nothing.
Can't the man read? His own newspaper reported today that there will be no need to re-approve the design, just the financing. And that's expected to be rubber-stamped on June 24, starting a 60-day process.
Nor does he bother to inquire why Gehry's arena, approved in 2006 at $637.2 million, ballooned by half, and is being replaced by a pedestrian arena with an $800 million price tag. Why did costs go up?
Missing the boom?
Cuozzo sounds like he hasn't gotten outside of Manhattan much, writing: Its tall towers weren't necessarily in the same league. But the multi-use arena, beautiful and humane, was possessed of the transformative power unique to the greatest architecture. At a stroke, it would have ennobled and energized a swath of Brooklyn that the boom mostly passed by.
He should have checked this October 2006 New York Times article on Prospect Heights.
Blaming DDDB
Cuozzo writes: Great enterprise requires great ambition and courage. Ratner had both, but he needed to start work immediately. The main reason he couldn't was the Orwellian-titled Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn -- a cunning, well-financed advocacy group that sued, lied and bullied for four years, all with the purpose of foiling development.
DDDB's raised about $1 million, which is about how much Forest City Ratner spends on lobbying each year. And it's certainly less than the amount Forest City Ratner has paid Community Benefits Agreement signatories, given the developer's $1.5 million bailout (including a $1 million loan) of ACORN, a piece of news that seems to have evaded Cuozzo.
The Orwell prize, actually, remains with former Forest City Ratner point man Jim Stuckey.
Missing the facts
You'd think a columnist might be curious about Forest City Ratner's continued attempts to renegotiate the deal, notably a much-lowered initial payment of $20 million--instead of $100 million--to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Or the developer's willingness to help orchestrate a hijacking of a state Senate oversight hearing.
Rather, facts are so distant from Cuozzo that he calls the project a "15-building kit and caboodle on the triangular site where Atlantic and Flatbush avenues diverge."
It's not even close to a triangular site. And it was approved at 17 buildings: an arena and 16 towers.
Brutally weird: Markowitz says legal challenges to AY are examples of misusing democracy
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and New York Post columnist Steve Cuozzo are apparently drinking the same Kool-Aid.
Markowitz, opining on democracy, might have taken the opportunity to criticize the pro-Atlantic Yards people who hijacked the May 29 state Senate oversight hearing on Atlantic Yards. He might have mused on whether unelected, quasi-public bodies like the Empire State Development Corporation are sufficiently transparent or whether eminent domain law in New York state needs a revision.
He might even, should he look in the mirror, wonder whether the overturning and extension of term limits, which gave incumbents like himself an enormous advantage, was really so healthy, given that all potential Democratic challengers for his post have withdrawn.
No. Instead he blamed Atlantic Yards opponents for seeking redress through the courts. And the Courier-Life, often friendly to Markowitz, didn't let him off the hook.
The article
The article, headlined "Just too much democracy for Marty," begins: Former President George W. Bush was always fond of saying how much easier governing the United States would be if only it were a dictatorship. Old Number 43 may be history, but that sentiment about our democracy has apparently not faded out with him.
Earlier this week, Borough President Marty Markowitz told the Manhattan Beach Neighborhood Association meeting at PS. 195 on Irwin Street, "I love democracy. It works. It's always worked for us. But you can use it for good, and you can use it sometimes where it may not be good."
The borough president-- currently running for a third term - was talking about legal challenges to the Atlantic Yards project and his ongoing efforts to transform the borough.
"Having the [New Jersey] Nets and having an arena in Brooklyn opens up unbelievable opportunities for economic growth," Markowitz declared.
As for economic growth, Markowitz is assigned to read the works of Brooklyn author Neil deMause.
Posted by steve at June 7, 2009 7:26 AM