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February 24, 2010
Deadly silence? Officials have had one e-mail exchange over Yards security
The Brooklyn Paper
by Stephen Brown
We're feeling safer already.
Is it possible that state officials have had just a single e-mail exchange regarding securing the outside of the Barclays Center arena in the heart of Brooklyn?
It seems unlikely — given 9-11, given the seven years since the project’s unveiling, given the so-called War on Terror, and given that this year, the Long Island Rail Road admitted that it ringed its new terminal across the street with an oversized anti-terror perimeter because they are necessary “in this day and age.”
Yet the Empire State Development Corporation claims that its officials have exchanged just one e-mail over security outside the 18,000-seat arena.
The Brooklyn Paper received the e-mail — with all nine lines of text fully redacted, by the way — in response to a “Freedom of Information Law” request seeking “any and all internal documents pertaining to exterior security designs at the Barclays Center.”
...ESDC spokesman Warner Johnston confirmed that the lone e-mail exchange was indeed all the internal communications regarding security measures at the Barclays Center.
The request for information stemmed from the controversy over the bollards at the new Long Island Rail Road terminal at Flatbush Avenue and Hanson Place, which would serve the sports fans attending Brooklyn Nets games at the Barclays Center, should it ever be built.
The tomb-like bollards — which not only exceeded NYPD counter-terrorism standards, but have been decried as ugly by urban planners — raised the question of whether similar measures would be taken at the Barclays Center.
Apparently, the ESDC wants residents to believe that it has given that question almost no consideration.
Posted by eric at February 24, 2010 10:03 AM