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October 1, 2009
Obama silent on Atlantic Yards
President declines comment on Russian billionaire's purchase of the Nets
Courier-Life (via, NYPost.com)
By Steven Witt
As if Atlantic Yards isn't "brutally weird" enough, apparently the big sleeper issue is the real amount of public subsidy required to build the project President Obama's position on Atlantic Yards.
We think there's a logical thread in this article somewhere, but we are still looking:
President Obama may have weighed in on New York’s upcoming gubernatorial race, but he remains silent when it comes to commenting on Atlantic Yards.
That after the White House declined comment on Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov’s majority purchase of the NBA’s Nets and their planned move to Brooklyn.
Obama, a huge Chicago Bulls fan, recently decided to scrap former President George Bush’s missile defense plan in Eastern Europe in favor of a more mobile defense system, and relations between the United States and Russia appear to be thawing.
According to Prokhorov spokesperson Freeman Miller, the team’s new owner knows former Russian President and current Prime minister Vladamir Putin very well, and despite reports of some Russian Parliament members not being happy with the purchase, the sale appears to have the Kremlin’s approval.
Obama had talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at last week’s G20 summit in Pittsburgh, and the White House also declined comment on whether Atlantic Yards and the sale entered into their conversation.
Questions submitted via email to the Russian government were not answered at press time.
Posted by lumi at October 1, 2009 7:21 AM