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September 17, 2009
Testimony of Patti Hagan to the Board of the ESDC
Neighborhood activist Patti Hagan delivered the following testimony at today's board meeting of the ESDC, at which the boards eight members voted 3-0 — that's right, four seats are vacant and one member recused himself — to affirm the Modified General Project Plan for Atlantic Yards.
My name is Patti Hagan, a 30-year resident -- and therefore Expert -- on Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. I'm here today to demand that you -- ESDC --NOT RUBBER STAMP this rubber project so grandly titled: "Atlantic Yards Land Use and Civic Project."
In my Prospect Heights Expert capacity I will address the Agenda item euphemistically called "Authorization to Convey Real Property" -- in plain English, "Authorization to Commit Eminent Domain Abuse" -- under the AYMGPP -- Atlantic Yards Modified Ghost Project Plan.
The Modified Ghost Project Plan describes the ESDC's "principal goal" (all expansionist empires have the same one): "to transform an area that is blighted and underutilized into a vibrant, mixed-use, mixed-income community that capitalizes on the tremendous" backdoor wheelings and insider dealings of Subsidy-Dependent Overdeveloper Billionaire Bruce Ratner. Instead of operating as a Capitalist ought -- buying and selling real property on the open market -- lawyer Ratner (whose brother Michael heads the Center for Constitutional Law) opted for the Public Benefit Authoritarian route: have the ESDC, New York State's unelected, unaccountable, unresponsive, untouchable Dept. of Ghost Government seize Prospect Heights properties for him by Eminent Domain Abuse. This government land grab would not be for any discernible "public benefit" but for UberCitizen Ratner's private benefit -- despite the shocking unConstitutionality of the ESDC wielding the Eminent Domain bludgeon for friend Ratner. We see here the awesome power of New York's Dept. of Ghost Government gone amok -- again.
In my Expert Opinion -- and that of the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the National Register of Historic Places -- the Prospect Heights Historic District IS NOT a "blighted, underutilized" area, but in reality, a thriving, architecturally distinctive, organically developing neighborhood that has been steadily moving forward the traditional American way -- by residents' own hard work, without government intervention or strongarming.
ESDC -- your abusive Eminent Domain is not needed, not wanted, illegal, unConstitutional. Back off! Refuse to abuse Eminent Domain for Ratner's private gain. Put an end to New York Government By and For Developers. Scrap Ratner's Atlantic Yards Albatross NOW! Begin work immediately on a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) -- required by by this vastly changed AYMGPP.
ESDC-- it is not too late to renounce, repent and reform!
Patti Hagan
St. Marks Avenue/Prospect Heights Community Garden
Posted by eric at September 17, 2009 9:53 PM