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November 29, 2009
Kelly: Nets, 1, residents of Atlantic Yards, 0
The Record
By Mike Kelly
You might expect that coverage of the Atlantic Yards fight from New Jersey would focus only on the possibility of the Nets leaving New Jersey. This piece shows understanding, largely lacking in New York media, that this subterfuge would have on Brooklyn.
The Nets saga is one of those stories that we all need to pay attention to. This is not just about a sports team looking for a place to settle down. This is what happens when political schemes are blended with pie-in-the-sky development deals.
Six years ago, the Nets were actually a winning basketball team. Then, New York developer Bruce Ratner slapped together a deal to buy the Nets. As part of his plan, he would move the team to Brooklyn – to a brand new arena, designed by a famous architect.
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But that was not all. This new arena would be the centerpiece of a 20-acre development of offices and homes – homes for firefighters, teachers and other middle class residents. And one more thing: a neighborhood, known as Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards, would be cleansed of decay. Urban renewal, by a private developer, for profit. How nice.
When people looked closer, they discovered a few things had to be moved in Brooklyn. The first was a railroad yard. The second: people’s homes.
Ratner liked to routinely refer to Atlantic Yards as “blighted.” But it turns out that people lived there – and they did not see their neighborhood the way
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In a 6-1 ruling, New York’s Court of Appeals essentially said that a government does not have to announce that it needs private property to widen a highway or to expand a school. A government can now give its blessing to a private developer like Ratner and his plans to throw people out of their homes so he can build something that will earn him a profit.
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Now the Nets play in the Meadowlands Izod Center with far too many empty seats. And outside the Izod Center sits that empty hulk of a failed project known as Xanadu, yet another blending of political dreams with developer schemes.
There is a lesson here, of course – to keep developers far from politics. But it will take a while for that lesson to sink in.
Meanwhile, the Nets are losing. And in Brooklyn, people may lose their homes. This is supposed to be progress.
Posted by steve at November 29, 2009 9:05 AM