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March 11, 2010
Developer must build a bridge at Atlantic Yards
NY Daily News
by Errol Louis
If we weren't deeply skeptical — watching the Atlantic Yards project get steamrolled through will do that to you — we'd almost believe that Errol Louis was extending an olive branch.
The seven-year slog leading up to today's ribbon-cutting on the Atlantic Yards project demonstrates why New York must rethink and restructure the way it handles big land deals.
Nearly no one on either side of the debate over the planned 18,000-seat arena and 6,400 units of housing - not even the winning developer, Forest City Ratner - thinks the process was fair, balanced and rational.
There were too many lawsuits, too many unanswered questions and too many heated arguments. Worst of all, the years of bickering and delay have left behind bitterness and civic exhaustion just when we need energy, enthusiasm and public scrutiny to make Atlantic Yards a success.
...State agencies and the Ratner company haven't been blameless. We still don't know who will pay to create an expensive deck over the Vanderbilt railyards, the section of the project area where thousands of units of housing are supposed to be built.
The expected cost - as much as $200 million to $300 million by some estimates - may get picked up by Ratner, or the bill may get handed to the city or state a decade from now, long after human and institutional memories of the original deal have faded.
It's also unclear what kinds of housing subsidies will be assembled to fulfill promises of affordable apartments.
I recently sat through a jarring press conference at which officials abruptly announced that the city has run out of Section 8 vouchers. Other tax incentive programs have reached limits that may or may not be curable in the near future. And locating and implementing subsidy programs will be harder now because of unresolved animosity between Ratner and anti-project leaders.
Much of it is petty. City Councilwoman Letitia James (D, WFP-Brooklyn), who represents the people who argued for killing the project long after its inevitability was clear, says she wasn't invited to today's groundbreaking. That is an unnecessary slap in the face. (James told me she will remain at City Hall working on budget issues during the ceremony.)
The best way to handle these unresolved issues - and, perhaps, start some sort of healing process - would be to create a special Atlantic Yards development district with appointees from the city, the state, community organizations and the developer.
Posted by eric at March 11, 2010 10:35 AM