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December 29, 2009
Brooklyn Broadside
Atlantic Yards Closing: A Long Time Coming
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by Dennis Holt
We can't help but thinking that someone went overboard when it came to spiking Dennis Holt's eggnog.
It was with mixed emotions that I read last week, right before Christmas, that all the legal papers for the Atlantic Yards project had been signed and executed. By one account, there were 640 documents.
I thought about how anti-climatic and dusty the signing of all those papers must have been. Among all the parties present, however, one must have been able to hear sighs of relief.
Such a setting could not have been imagined more than six years ago when the Frank Gehry models were first revealed to a packed room at Borough Hall.
...Few people there could have foreseen the bitterness and anger that lay in the future for this project. Fewer still could have foreseen the shouting matches that were to take place in the many upcoming required public hearings — more taking place on this proposal than in any proposal in Brooklyn’s history.
NoLandGrab: Actually, we think it was probably quite easy to foresee the rancor the Atlantic Yards project would engender, especially once the audacity and magnitude of the land- and subsidy-grab became clear. And please, can we put to rest once and for all the nonsensical idea that this project received an inordinate amount of public scrutiny? Quick, Dennis, explain for us the structure of the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation.
Posted by eric at December 29, 2009 11:13 PM