« ACORN's Lewis, interviewed unskeptically in journal focused on labor issues, maintains AY deal is a success | Main | Barclays buys rights to Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street station name »
July 7, 2009
It came from the Blogosphere...
Nets Daily, ESPN: New Owners Would Want the Nets to “Stay Put”
In a short item in ESPN the Magazine’s “3 Seconds” column, Ric Bucher reports that “financial issues” may force Bruce Ratner to sell the team. Quoting “multiple league sources”, Bucher also reports “prospective owners want the team to stay put”. SI’s Ian Thomsen reported last week that four groups are interested in buying the Nets but that any sale was predicated on the Nets moving to Brooklyn.
NoLandGrab: Atlantic Yards gets interestinger and interestinger.
ESPN the Magazine via Nets Daily, 3 Seconds
Multiple league sources say Nets owner Bruce Ratner’s dream of relocating to Brooklyn has grown even further from reality due to financial issues. He could be forced to sell the team before it happens, and prospective owners want the team to stay put.
–Ric Bucher
The Architect's Newspaper Blog, Everybody Wants a Bailout
With the news today, reported by the Observer, that Larry Silverstein has begun legal proceeds against the Port Authority to end the gridlock at Ground Zero, as well as the developments two weeks prior at Atlantic Yards, it seems obvious to us what’s going on here. Having witnessed the financial titans across town receive hundreds of billions of dollars in bailout money, these developers now want theirs. Granted, so did Larry Flint and the porn industry, but the comparison bears consideration.
To begin with, the market has failed for both finance and real estate–to say nothing of every other industy–leaving “free market” options closed. Where the bankers have turned to the Treasury and the federal government, Silverstein and Bruce Ratner, in one form or another, have turned to local pols.
Fifty Car Pileup, The progressive intent of (some) urban redevelopment schemes
At a birthday party a few weeks ago, after the latest incarnation of the new Atlantic Yards stadium design was discussed with no uncertain degree of derision, conversation shifted to the history of other large scale developments in the city.
...And aside from the project's escalating cost to taxpayers, there's also concerns about a project of such scale will affect the livability of the existing neighborhood. When I first moved to New York in 2005, I lived off of Flatbush Avenue, a few blocks from the apartments designated for demolition. Crossing Flatbush or Pacific to access the subway at the Atlantic Terminal was always a pedestrian nightmare, and I'm certain that building additional high density housing and the sports arena will only worsen the traffic as well as the risk to non-motorists at that intersection.
Sugar Palace, Barclay Bank Station? Puh-leese!
What shocked me the most was the cost. $200G over 10 years? I have a feeling if enough people in Brooklyn organized, we could come up with $30k/year to get the name switched back.
NLG: It's actually $200,000 per year over 20 years, but that doesn't change the sentiment.
Affordable Housing Institute: US, GREAT POSTS BY OTHER (GPBO) 01: INTRODUCING A NEW SERIES
Norman Oder gets props.
Because information wants to be free, blogs are all about sharing, so from time to time I’ll post these potpourri columns of Great Posts By Others, featuring thought-provoking posts and our reactions thereto.
1.1 Atlantic Yards Report
Ever since I first encountered the Atlantic Yard report blog, I’ve considered it essential reading for understanding Atlantic yards, an enormous and seemingly endless current eminent-domain-like redevelopment in Brooklyn.Single-handedly researched, written, and posted by the indefatigable and Pulitzer-prize-deserving Norman Oder, it is a sole-source reference, using the Web to publish documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests, chronicling public hearings, and mercilessly comparing what officials said once with what they say now.
I’ve been agog at two things:
- The extraordinary diligence that Mr. Oder has poured into his blog, even quoting people like me.
- The significance of Atlantic Yards on discussions (for or against) of eminent domain for economic development (ED4ED), which often bears on affordable housing.
Over and over, Mr. Oder had exploded public pronouncements with evidence, leaving the developer’s credibility (and that of many of its supporters, such as ACORN) in tatters.
Posted by eric at July 7, 2009 1:02 PM