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October 15, 2009
Forest City Ratner’s “Not In My Back Yard” Attitude
Noticing New York
NNY paints Forest City with the NIMBY brush.
“Lobbyist” made us think of Forest City Ratner, a company that owes its entire existence to being chummy with politicians. We have commented before that Forest City Ratner isn’t really a “developer,” that it is really just a “subsidy-collector.”
Applying the thought that lobbyists lobby for industries that want protection against change, it occurred to us that Forest City Ratner is engaged in a colossal form of NIMBYism (“Not In My Back Yard”-ism) when it comes to its proposed Atlantic Yards megadevelopment. Forest City Ratner has two big government-subsidized malls adjacent to each other next to the proposed Atlantic Yards site. In other words they are the top-government-subsidized-dog in the area. It’s more than a bit monopolistic. That supremacy was going to be challenged when other real developers started developing condominiums in their back yard. (The competitors weren’t even subsidized!) “No!” said Forest City Ratner. They didn’t want this competition in their backyard. They wanted the status quo of being the only developer in the vicinity (and of continuing to rely on government subsidy and relationships.) That’s when Forest City Ratner went to government agencies to have them use eminent domain to wipe out the competition.
Posted by eric at October 15, 2009 9:46 PM