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August 29, 2009
Mike still strong for Yards
Courier-Life
By Thomas Tracy
Despite a recent statement condemning community benefits agreements and the revelation that there is no guarantee of affordable housing, Mayor Bloomberg continues in his support of the proposed Atlantic Yards project. This story says the project will cost $4.9 million, but probably means "billion" instead of "million." Whatever the cost, Bloomberg still yearns for long-off-the-project architect Frank Gehry and says the community is wrong to question the project, but that Simon and Garfunkel would love it.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg received a fair share of supporters and enemies Monday when he defended the much-ballyhooed Atlantic Yards project, which he believes should be completed.
As he vies for his third term in office, the mayor defended the $4.9 million development project during a special sit down with reporters from this paper and Community Newspaper Group.
At the same time, he took a sideways swipe at Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, which has taken the lead in the opposition to the project, as well as the many lawsuits that have pushed back its ground-breaking.
“One of the great sins here is that this small group of people stalled it for so long that the economy is different,” said Bloomberg, who not only bemoaned the delay of Atlantic Yards but the fact that Ratner is no longer using the original Frank Gehry design for the centerpiece of the project, Barclay Center.
“I would try to get Ratner to go ahead and do the Gehry design,” he said. “It would have been an icon. It would have been great.
“Simon and Garfunkel would have gone there in a second,” he added.
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The Mayor basically says that Prospect Heights is so hateful that, if Atlantic Yards is not built, nobody will want to build anything there -- ever. Clearly, the Mayor refuses to consider the alternative offered by the UNITY plan.
If the project doesn’t materialize, then nothing will happen there possibly forever, Bloomberg warned.
“The alternative is leaving it exactly the way it is and your grandchildren won’t see anything,” he said. “This is your chance.”
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Responding to Bloomberg’s swipe at Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, spokesman Daniel Goldstein said that there were “many great sins he’s overlooked” as preparation for the Atlantic Yards Project went forward, including “supporting a sham process for a phantom project,” “endorsing a sweetheart deal to a billionaire to build an arena that the city’s Independent Budget Office has declared to be a money loser for the city,” and “creating a false argument that the choice is Ratner or nothing.”
“Ratner may be a ‘decent guy,’ but that’s not our concern,” Goldstein said. “But the project he continues to foist on Brooklyn is indecent and corrupt, and his firm’s mismanagement is something the mayor needs to take up with him.
“The mayor can pretend that all is well with the Atlantic Yards plan, demonize the majority who reject this corrupt deal, and be left with a failed legacy for himself—or he can actually listen to the community and find out that there is a far better way to develop the rail yards,” he added.
Posted by steve at August 29, 2009 8:56 AM