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June 25, 2009
HEADLINES: MTA approves Ratner bailout
AP, via Google, Land deal reworked for NBA arena in Brooklyn
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted Wednesday to give Nets owner Bruce Ratner what amounts to a big price break on the development rights for a rail yard where the arena is to be built.
NY Daily News, MTA allows Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner to pay $20 million now and $80 million in 21 years
Documents released by the state Tuesday showed the project will cost $700 million more and take at least three years longer than planned - and could stretch on even longer than that.
Hemmerdinger defended the agreement - approved four days before subway and bus fares will jump 25 cents - saying it was "as good as possiblem given the circumstances."
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But some elected officials protested that they stuck their necks out to support a taxpayer bailout of the cash-strapped agency, only to see the MTA give a break to a private developer."I stood up for this agency to say ... they need the money to keep the bus and the subways running," said Councilman David Yassky (D-Downtown Brooklyn).
"If you turn around and say, 'Oh, forget it, we don't need the $100 million, we'll just take the 20,' it just undercuts everything ..that we've been saying."
The Brooklyn Paper, BAILOUT! State cuts new deal to save stalled ‘Atlantic Yards’
State officials threw Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner two lifelines this week in an effort to salvage the bare bones of his original 16-skyscraper office, residential and basketball arena complex.
NoLandGrab: Not one, but TWO lifelines. Don't think that's the end of it. Given Ratner's track record, the developer is going to seek even more subsidies.
Here's what the local pols that showed up to testify had to say:
“You are squandering your assets,” Assemblyman Jim Brennan (D–Park Slope) told MTA board members before the vote on Wednesday. He called the arena “a boondoggle.”
“This is a massive giveaway of our public assets,” added Councilwoman Letitia James (D–Prospect Heights).
She rattled off a litany of diminished public benefits.
“They’ve reduced the [amount of] affordable housing, the open space is off the table, and the capacity of the railyards is smaller. It’s literally a disappearing act,” she told The Brooklyn Paper.
Borough President Markowitz, a longtime advocate for Ratner around the borough, didn’t attend the board meeting, but his chief of staff, Carlo Scissura, read a statement:
“I am confident that when completed, [“Atlantic Yards”] will serve as a model for other cities,” Markowitz said. “This is a project that will benefit all Brooklynites — both now and for generations to come.”
Posted by lumi at June 25, 2009 6:45 AM