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December 29, 2009

New Leader Seeks Stronger Voice for Art Society

The "Paper of Record" [The NY Times] gets it wrong (again), this time in an article about the Municipal Art Society (emphasis added):

Committed preservationists in particular say that it hasn’t been aggressive enough lately, on issues like the redevelopment of Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn and of 2 Columbus Circle.

NLG, FOR THE RECORD: "Atlantic Yards" hasn't been developed, so it can't be developed again. The MTA's "Vanderbilt Railyard" comprises about a third of the property Bruce Ratner plans to develop and add to his real estate portfolio, which includes the Atlantic Center Mall and Atlantic Terminal Mall, both located across the street from the footprint of "Atlantic Yards."

Judging from The Times's refusal to correct past distinctions that muddy the debate on "Atlantic Yards," don't hold your breath waiting for a correction.

Atlantic Yards Report, The Times takes a look at the Municipal Art Society, but gets the Atlantic Yards angle wrong

Norman Oder's critique of the article goes into more detail:

Wait a second. The criticism of MAS's role on AY doesn't come so much from "committed preservationists" as Brooklyn activists like planner Ron Shiffman, who said the MAS critique "falls short because it avoids discussing the process issues and attempts to apply a design solution to a fundamentally flawed and ill-conceived plan."

And there's no such thing as "the redevelopment of Atlantic Yards," because AY was never developed in order to be redeveloped. Atlantic Yards is a project, not a place.
...
First, the MAS came significantly late to the Atlantic Yards debate, beginning in June 2006 as the project approached approval in the next six months.

Then again, MAS did take the initiative by offering a sophisticated critique of urban planning issues, such as the function of open space, thus helping fill a vacuum in the discussion.

However, additional streets were a feature of the UNITY plan alternative, announced more than 18 months earlier. And, while criticizing superblocks, MAS accepted a superblock for the arena.

[For MAS,] Atlantic Yards has never been an issue of development versus no development; the issue was whether pragmatism versus principle, whether better future process could redeem past bad process.

MAS, by forming BrooklynSpeaks, gave that a shot, but now many of the groups in BrooklynSpeaks have gone to court, in recognition that their "mend it don't end it" strategy got them nowhere with the state and the developer.

Posted by lumi at December 29, 2009 5:31 AM