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March 7, 2011
Brooklyn BP Markowitz's Atlantic Yards Falsehood (Video)
The Huffington Post
by Norman Oder
Even New Yorkers who've barely heard of Atlantic Yards, the Brooklyn mega-project with an under-construction arena for the basketball Nets plus 16 planned towers, know that it's been highly controversial since it was announced in December 2003.
(Why? Eminent domain based on dubious "blight," an arena encroaching on a residential neighborhood, significant government help and subsidies, and a process that bypassed local elected officials, just for a start.)
However, in lying blatantly to dismiss such division--"Brooklyn is 1000 percent behind Atlantic Yards"--Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz has taken a quantum leap beyond his usual quota of boosterism.
Markowitz, who's endured jeers over the years for his fervent Atlantic Yards support, didn't make that claim in Brooklyn, or even in front of any American audience. Rather, he made it on a video aimed to recruit Chinese investors to the project, an effort that would save developer Forest City Ratner big bucks, perhaps $191 million.
Posted by eric at March 7, 2011 11:38 AM