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January 7, 2010
Brooklyn BackBroadside Double Dose
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by Dennis Holt
New Atlantic Avenue LIRR/Subway Entrance Fits the New Brooklyn
The decision by the MTA to finally bring the complex into the new century was not made in isolation. As has frequently happened in recent Brooklyn history, Bruce Ratner influenced matters. After the Atlantic Center was built, he made plans to build what we now call the Atlantic Terminal Mall. Then, after 9/11, he decided to build a new office building for a displaced company.
The patriotic Bruce also saw an opportunity to get his hands on a pile of federal subsidies.
And then came the master plan for Atlantic Yards across Atlantic Avenue, and independent of Ratner, the concept of a new cultural center, in and around BAM.
One did not have to have a degree in urban planning to realize that a lot more people would be coming that way, everything would be new, and it would make no sense for people to get off at a station that looked like a dump.
Moreover, Ratner, with the MTA’s hearty endorsement, planned to link the station underground with the new sports arena, and the MTA concluded it was time to get cracking. While they were at it, someone decided, why not build a whole new entrance to go along with all the other jazzy stuff coming to the neighborhood?
Only problem is, the ESDC says it won't be "feasible" for LIRR passengers to get from the train to the arena underground.
New Talent to Match Old In City Government Posts
These are [Bloomberg's] visions for the city in the decades to come — big goals supported by big development projects.
Atlantic Yards and the West Side Rail Yards will not be finished in four years, but should be far enough along to assure completion. And Bloomberg will not be content to coast along — he will want to see his Coney Island plan in movement.
Actually, it's very likely that only the arena, and maybe one of Atlantic Yards' planned 16 buildings, will be finished by the time Bloomberg leaves office (assuming he doesn't try to buy a fourth term). But Prospect Heights will have acres of surface parking lots as his monument.
Posted by eric at January 7, 2010 4:42 PM