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January 22, 2010
Last Holdout of Atlantic Yards Speaks Out!
The Huffington Post
by Steve Ettlinger
Despite being delayed years beyond its original schedule and possibly on a 25 year build-out schedule, Forest City Ratner persists in pursuing its increasingly expensive dream of taking 22 acres of valuable real estate in Brooklyn with the use of eminent domain and close to a billion dollars in public subsidies. Why? Profit, mainly, of course--an estimated $1 billion (figured as 25% of the $4 billion project). But also chutzpah.
Due to my innate talent for recognizing when the pot is calling the kettle black, which is really the definition of chutzpah, I nearly laughed out loud in court on Tuesday 1/19, when Ratner's lawyer Jeffrey Braun accused his adversaries (Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and a large coalition of co-petitioners) of having chutzpah. It's the first time Forest City Ratner's folks have officially, on the record, stated both their immense sense of noblesse oblige and contempt for due process.
Posted by eric at January 22, 2010 10:53 AM