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December 8, 2010
Review> Ratner to Neighborhood: Drop Dead
The Architect's Newspaper
by David D'Arcy
The Civilians theater group performs In the Footprint: The Battle over Atlantic Yards in the Irondale Theater in the drafty, bare-boned auditorium of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene, an old Sunday school space in a building from the 1860’s. It’s a world away from what’s proposed for 22 acres nearby.
On this stage, the Atlantic Yards Project is a stadium gambit imposed by a developer and his powerful allies that’s already displaced hundreds of people and won’t create many local jobs or affordable homes if it’s ever built. Written and directed by Steve Cosson, In the Footprint also faults local ministers, elected officials, and organizers as enablers of the project dividing potential local support that could have stopped it or at least made it more community-friendly.
In 90 minutes, it’s a distillation of the opponents’ side of the Atlantic Yards furor of a few months ago. The project has since been stalled by a New York State Supreme Court judge who ruled that the developer, Forest City Ratner tried to fast-track the environmental review process. There’s also doubt whether capital is available to make the deal sweet enough for Mikhail Prokhorov, the oligarch described as “Russia’s richest man” who now owns the New Jersey Nets. In the play, eminent domain to make way for private development is a lose-lose situation for locals—displacement whether the project goes up or not.
In the Footprint doesn’t give you all the facts, but it does pile on the emotions, as residents of the neighborhood where developers said “no one lived” scramble to save their homes from the 22-acre stadium project.
NoLandGrab: Actually, the judge has not stayed construction of the arena, which is ongoing. A request for a stay is pending, and a hearing on the matter is scheduled for December 22nd.
Posted by eric at December 8, 2010 10:08 PM