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March 12, 2010
We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore —Atlantic Yards groundbretaking edition
NoLandGrab Advisory: Some of the following material is rated PG-13.
Sand Through My Hourglass, GAG BAGS
So long, Brooklyn as we know it.
I know development is happening everywhere, but the scale of this is crazy and the plan itself is bogus, unfinished and heinously corrupt.
The Flatbush/Atlantic intersection absolutely cannot handle the kind of traffic this will birth. It will officially become a living nightmare.
Note to Bloomberg: BROOKLYN IS NOT MANHATTAN. It does not need a skyline to match.
Note to JayZ: Stop. This is making me hate you. Build the arena in your yard. I'm sure you have room.
And I have to do this because my insides are boiling.
A big giant FUCK YOU to the courts.
And another even more giant FUCK YOU to the MTA who took a HUGE loss on this property and are now millions of dollars in debt and dumping it all on the riders.
Bruce Ratner is a human bulldozer and his projects are proven failures. Have fun being a part of his latest.
Business Insider, Barclays Is Now The Most Hated Bank In Brooklyn
Stadium deals can be great PR for a bank -- see the Wachovia Center and Bank of America Stadium -- but they can be a disaster too -- see Citi Field.
...Barclays paid a reported $400 million for naming rights to the New Jersey Nets stadium in Brooklyn. The UK bank has been rumored to be making a move on retail banking in the U.S.
But not only did they put their name behind the worst team in NBA history, they also signed on to the most-hated development project of all time. At least in Brooklyn.
Beyond police escorts, the shovel party was surrounded by a crowd of angry protesters. Brooklynites don't want to pay for the new stadium, deal with traffic, or let local buildings be torn down, according to The Brooklyn Paper.
MotherGreen & H.K.M, They Broke Ground Yall... (Atlantic Yards)
Well, it's on now. They broke ground for the Atlantic Yards and Brooklyn wept. What can I say that hasn't already been said. We don't need it, we never did. Affordable housing for who exactly Mr. Ratner? Jay Z should be ashamed of his face being used for such a nefarious act.
...Brooklyn is my home. I was born in Brooklyn hospital which is not too far from the Atlantic Yards site. My father spent a significant part of his teenage years living in the Atlantic Terminal projects right up the block, so you see that area is special to me. The Nets can't even buy a win right now. They should focus on winning a game and not ruining the landscape of my beloved Brooklyn. To the politicians who stood by and endorsed this mess I say, shame on you.
Pardon Me For Asking, Protesting Ratner's Atlantic Yards Ground Breaking
After years of fighting the good fight, it had come to this: police corralling protesters behind barricades as politicians arrived for the groundbreaking ceremony in black Chevy Suburbans, safely hidden from the crowd behind tinted windows. It was a surreal scene and illustrated how disconnected our public officials and their cronies are from the citizens of Brooklyn.
Slowly, the crowd made its way towards Atlantic Avenue, along the construction site and towards the white tents which had been set up for the 'dignitaries.' In unison, protestors chanted: "Brooklyn is not for sale" and "Crooks, lock them up."
Up on rooftops, police observed the crowds' every move. Helicopters hovered overhead. (Was it really necessary to have members of the NYPD Counter Terrorism there? They must have been very, very afraid of us.)
Reason Hit & Run, Bruce Ratner: “Building the community from the ground-up” by Bulldozing Homes and Businesses
Serial eminent domain abuser and corporate welfare queen Bruce Ratner took out a full-page ad in today’s New York Times trumpeting his despicable Atlantic Yards stadium project in Brooklyn as a glorious opportunity for “building the community from the ground-up.” It’s an ugly yet revealing way to put it—though I suppose Ratner is feeling cocky about things.
......it's worth repeating that it’s the taxpayers, including those who could care less about basketball, who are paying Ratner to bulldoze homes and businesses, ruin lives, and build a money-making stadium for Ratner's Nets to call home. Those same taxpayers are also helping Ratner to take out offensive full-page ads in the New York Times, which typically charges in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for the privilege. As usual, it’s the victims of eminent domain abuse that pay the real price.
Bol's Saturday Night Workout [XXLMag.com], We did it again, Brooklyn
There were a shedload of people there protesting, but I heard they were all white. They at least had the sense to realize that the Atlantic Yards project is an epic fail for Brooklyn, but even they didn’t have the political clout to do much about it. They managed to tie it up in court for a couple of years before they could finally break ground on it, during which it became increasingly obvious that the tax revenue it would generate wouldn’t be anything like what they promised, and hence the public money used to build it (you get to pay for it, but only Jay-Z gets to own it), not to mention the eminent domain landgrab, was even less justifiable than initially thought, but the TIs still managed to ram it through. They seem to have a knack for ramming it through.
Queens Crap, Just remember: This we have money for
There's now talk of the City being "forced" to close 62 fire companies and fire 1,000 firefighters. You see, the City is broke, and has no money.
But we do have money for this:
Mayor Mike Bloomberg & Governor David Paterson:
Kings of fucked up priorities.
Posted by eric at March 12, 2010 7:08 PM