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October 17, 2009
Five For A Saturday From The Atlantic Yards Report
Atlantic Yards Report
Another missed opportunity for Thompson: criticizing a sweetheart deal for Snapple but not FCR
From a Tom Robbins column in the Village Voice, headlined Mayor Bloomberg's School-Snack Bungle: Vending machine politics:
This was back in 2003, and it was the first big face-off between [City Comptroller Bill] Thompson and [Mayor Mike] Bloomberg. Thompson issued a scathing audit showing that Bloomberg's team had awarded the contract to Snapple without even sending a letter of invitation to other major firms who had to learn about this major opportunity through the business grapevine. Snapple, the audit showed, had been tapped for the job by a private marketing consultant named Octagon that had a bit of a conflict of interest since it already carried Snapple's parent company as a client. After other bids were received, Snapple alone was allowed to sweeten its offer.
Of course, Thompson, an Atlantic Yards supporter, never said anything about the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) decision to let Forest City Ratner alone sweeten its offer for the Vanderbilt Yard, nor the MTA's decision in June 2009 to further sweeten the Vanderbilt Yard deal.
As No Land Grab's Eric McClure suggests, "criticizing Bloomberg for being an underdeveloper, no matter the audience, is not a recipe for a November 3rd upset."
NoLandGrab: One might be jealous when a colleague is quoted in the well-respected AtlanticYards report. I am.
The Working Families Party has an official stance favoring responsible development that includes a democratic process. Despite the proposed Atlantic Yards development being the poster child for a development process gone wrong, Norman Oder finds the WFP to be officially neutral on the project.
With Atlantic Yards, however, the priority is the developer's vision, while neighborhood concerns--at least the neighborhoods represented by the three community boards touching on the project site--get downplayed.
The complication is that some community concerns, at least as represented by the Forest City Ratner-funded groups in the Community Benefits Agreement, are met, thanks in part to government funds funneled to the developer and then redistributed.
And where has the Working Families Party been on this? It's officially neutral on Atlantic Yards, and has criticized tax-free bonds for Yankee Stadium, but never mentioned the Nets arena.
As I wrote in June 2006, given that ACORN is a founder of the WFP, the party can't ignore ACORN's position supporting AY. But shouldn't the WFP care about a democratic planning process?
CNG Watch: Brooklyn Paper steps up on AY, Courier-Life steps back
The Brooklyn Paper has been working hard to cover the latest Atlantic Yards-related developments, the Courier Life -- not so much.
I've been critical of the Brooklyn Paper's retreat from thorough Atlantic Yards coverage, but this week credit the paper for doing its job.
This week's front page includes a reasonably thorough article (despite a lapse) on Wednesday's eminent domain argument, grouped with a separate article about the new lawsuit challenging the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's renegotiation of the Vanderbilt Yard deal with Forest City Ratner.
...
The sibling Courier-Life chain, which has a later deadline, compressed both stories into one, and placed that story on page 4.
The article, headlined online as Atlantic Yards lawsuits filed and heard and in print as "Latest Atlantic Yards suit looks to void June deal," gave eight paragraphs to the MTA suit, followed by six brief paragraphs about the oral arguments.
And whom does the notorious Stephen Witt choose to quote? An attorney? A judge? Nope.
Witt writes: Also in Albany for the court hearing were several local grassroots groups who have long favored the project.
“We were in Albany to voice our support in terms of wanting to see the project move forward,” said Marie Louis, chief operating officer of BUILD (Brooklyn United for Innovative Development), which received funding from the developer as per a community benefits agreement for local workforce development.
“We also believe these frivolous lawsuits need to be put to rest because all they want to do is delay the project and kill it. The need for jobs and affordable housing is even more intense given the economic climate,” she said.
Funny, but the state's Chief Judge and others on the court didn't seem to think it was frivolous. And a New York Times report suggested that the case has "major implications for economic development across the state."
Is Atlantic Yards "this generation's Penn Station"? The meme may be spreading
From Metropolis's P/O/V blog:
New York has made sport of bad planning, from the demolition of Penn Station decades ago to the psychic mess of Atlantic Yards.Now there's no evidence that the writer had actually heard Municipal Art Society (MAS) President Kent Barwick's late-2007 observation that Atlantic Yards might be "this generation's Penn Station" because of the "absurdity with which [it] proceeded."
So maybe the meme is getting around.
NoLandGrab: Maybe the meme can become "Atlantic Yards was almost this generation's Penn Station."
Norman Oder indulges in some Monday-morning quarterbacking in a revisit to his coverage of the legal battle this past Wednesday in Albany.
What I didn't point out is that I think Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) lawyer Philip Karmel might have hedged somewhat.
Perhaps he could have said that condemnation would only proceed via a “'carefully considered' development plan," to quote Justice John Paul Stevens' opinion of the court in Kelo, or within the "context of a comprehensive development plan," to quote Justice Anthony Kennedy's concurrence.
After all, eminent domain defenders, as quoted in this Governing magazine article, certainly think the policy is valuable. Surely it can be so. But even those who see its value think New York could use some reforms.
Posted by steve at October 17, 2009 7:36 AM