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October 29, 2009
Atlantic Yards, Shadow Government, and Albany Frozen in Amber
Mondo QT
by Carola Von Hoffmannstahl-Solomonoff
October 14th. The big chill was early, even for Albany. A press conference was being held in the park across from the New York Court of Appeals. The highest court in the state was set to hear Goldstein et al v. New York State Urban Development Corporation. The press conference speakers and their supporters were primarily Brooklynites up from The City. Veterans of the Atlantic Yards wars. Folks who’ve attended numerous court proceedings, marched in myriad demonstrations, and organized countless fund-raisers in a six year effort to keep their homes, businesses, and neighborhoods from being crushed by Atlantic Yards, the dream baby of mega developer Forest City Ratner. Eminent domain abuse is the heart of the matter.
...Atlantic Yards has been pushed by three different governors (Pataki, Spitzer, and Paterson) U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, NYC Mayor-For-Life Michael Bloomberg (oops, he rescinded his support for term limits) and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. The result has been tax deals, overrides of local laws, massive public subsidies direct and indirect, and eminent domain. Earlier this year there was talk of using federal stimulus funds to keep Ratner afloat.
Much of what moves Atlantic Yards flows through the New York State Urban Development Corporation. Godzilla member of the state’s Shadow Government. Defined by the New York Times as “the 800 or so quasi-private authorities that run everything from the housing projects to the New York City subways.” Though the quasi-private authorities wield government power, they aren’t subject to the same public oversight or level of transparency as actual government agencies.
The Urban Development Corporation (UDC) does business as the Empire State Development Corporation (ESD or ESDC). The UDC/ESD dispenses billions in public money, overrides local land-use and zoning laws, saddles taxpayers with bonded debt sans legislative or voter approval, and has the power of eminent domain. Its mission is to help pols and players circumvent the messy tangles and wrangles of representative government that can block them from doing visionary things. If done through the ESD or any of its gazillion subsidiaries, those visionary things are protected from the public by layers of impenetrable poop.
...Note to collectors of funny UDC/ESD stuff: on the same day ESD lawyers were defending the interests of Bruce Ratner in court, the Albany Times Union ran a story about the ESD awarding $4 million to Chaim Ausch, a Brooklyn-based investor and diamond merchant doing business in Albany as C&Y Albany Hotel LLC. The ESD gave Ausch millions even though he owes $615, 000 in city taxes, school taxes, sewer and water bills, and assorted fees and penalties! How Ripleys’ is that?
Posted by eric at October 29, 2009 10:13 AM