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March 12, 2010
Team hype: pomp and (questionable) promises, bitter (and near-final?) protest mark ceremonial groundbreaking for Barclays Center arena
Atlantic Yards Report
As usual, Norman Oder has the definitive summary of Atlantic Yards events — this time, yesterday's groundbreaking ceremony.
With salutes from key elected officials, a Commencement Day-worthy oration by developer Bruce Ratner (beaming amid some less engaged public officials--Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Gov. David Paterson, and Borough President Marty Markowitz), and the closing speech by uber-marketer Brett Yormark, the ceremonial--and highly-staged--groundbreaking for the Barclays Center yesterday was a testimony to dubious promises, palpable political will, and an unusual coalition involving business, labor, sports, celebrities, and (selected) community representatives, all part of the ever-changing but (perhaps in retrospect) inevitable path of Brooklyn's biggest development.
As sounds from chanting, whistling protesters outside could be heard, clearly if not loudly, inside the packed tent positioned below Atlantic Avenue at Fifth Avenue, there was much talk about sports, and ritual invocations of the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was an example of the unusual grip that sports has on the country, and elected officials, where privately owned "sports entertainment corporations" can call on support from broader constituencies.
There was little talk about architecture, once a selling point for the project, given the absence of architect Frank Gehry and landscape architect Laurie Olin, featured at the opening press conference on 12/10/03.
There was indeed talk of jobs and housing and economic development--Governor David Paterson, in a moment of irrational exuberance, claimed the project "will have job creation the likes of which Brooklyn has never seen"--but there was no announced timeline, a crucial issue in a recent court case, given the contradiction between the development agreement (25 years) and the officially announced plan (ten years).
And, with a diverse audience reported at 1000 (and many more on television), the dominant images came from Barclays Capital, which bought naming rights to the Barclays Center, a nominally publicly owned arena.
...And, as noted yesterday, few elected officials from Brooklyn--and none from nearby--attended, a sign of the residual resentment and/or dismay at the bypass of local officials in the project approval and the sense that Forest City Ratner calls the shots in the public-private partnership.
Or, as Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn put it, a "complete failure of democracy"--along with a "corrupt land grab," a "taxpayer ripoff," and a "bait and switch of epic proportions."
Click through for much, much more, including several videos, more on the protesting, and coverage of the events inside Bruce Ratner's fortified "Green Zone."
Posted by eric at March 12, 2010 11:07 AM