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August 13, 2009
NETS ARE SCORCHING INTERVIEW - DEVELOP DON’T DESTROY BROOKLYN
NETSARESCORCHING
by Mark Ginocchio
The latest round of reports regarding the Atlantic Yards development and the Nets potential move to Brooklyn has Nets owner Bruce Ratner needing project financing and a groundbreaking by December 31 in order to qualify for tax-exempt bond status and to keep the $400 million naming-rights deal with Barclays Bank for the arena.
Meanwhile, the non-profit group, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, one of the primary opponents of the development, will challenge the state’s use of eminent domain for the project at an October 14 hearing before the NY State Court of Appeals in Albany.
DDDB spokesman Daniel Goldstein recently took the time out to answer a few questions for Nets Are Scorching about the plan.
...NAS: Is there a scenario where DDDB would support a new development in Brooklyn that would include a new home for the Nets?
Sure, but Atlantic Yards is not that scenario. And we would never support an arena somewhere else in Brooklyn unless Ratner sincerely worked with everyone in that community the way he never has in this one.
What Bruce Ratner has done to the Nets – turning an NBA Finals team into a lottery franchise – is what he’s done to the communities in and around the arena site. He’s trashed both. It’s better if Ratner sells the team to someone who gets basketball, and doesn’t just use the Nets as a bargaining chip for a luxury condominium development.
NAS: Newark Mayor Cory Booker has said on multiple occasions that he would like the Nets to stay in New Jersey and possibly move to the Prudential Center in Newark. Has your group or Mayor Booker ever reached out to each other to discuss this common ground you share?
No, but we are willing to talk to anyone. Talking never hurts. The Nets have this nomadic history – Teaneck, Commack, Uniondale, East Rutherford. They’ve never felt like they were “home.” Newark could be that home, finally.
Posted by eric at August 13, 2009 10:58 AM