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March 7, 2011
Willets Pointman
The Neighborhood Retail Alliance
Lip$ky: "My Atlantic Yards shilling is for the kid$$$$!"
Lisberg also points out what he implies might be a conflict owing to our work on Atlantic Yards: "The city wants to create jobs in a forlorn section of Queens by shutting down the businesses that have been there for decades. Sound weird? How’s this: The chief lobbyist against using eminent domain on those businesses in Queens also works for a developer using eminent domain on homes in Brooklyn."
Now, we dealt with this issue six years ago-emphasizing the importance of the Nets coming to Brooklyn:
"From the Alliance's perspective the most salient reason to join hands with FCRC, Build and Acorn is the bringing of the Nets to Brooklyn with a brand new arena. When the Alliance's Richard Lipsky was an up and comer plying his basketball wares all over the city, Brooklyn was a mecca for all BBall pilgrims. It still is, and the love for the game is beyond what even we would have imagined when we first began to evaluate the AY proposal.
The Brooklyn Nets are going to galvanize the entire borough and the team and its ownership is going to play a major role in working along with the youth leaders of Brooklyn in their tireless and unacknowledged efforts on behalf of the kids. That is why the support has been so unequivocal from these community folks."
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Daily News pokes at Lipsky contradiction on eminent domain; also, FCR may have hired him for youth sports, but he's been a zealous advocate
Daily News columnist Adam Lisberg yesterday took a swipe at lobbyist Richard Lipsky for some seeming inconsistency: vigorous advocacy against projects involving eminent domain like Willets Point and Columbia University, while working for Bruce Ratner on Atlantic Yards.
Lisberg writes:
At the same time, though, developer Bruce Ratner's companies are paying Lipsky $3,500 a month for "information and advice" on Atlantic Yards, the controversial project to bring apartments and the Nets basketball team to Brooklyn.
The first phase of Atlantic Yards alone required the state to condemn 15 privately owned properties.
Eminent domain allows government to seize a private owner's property to serve the greater public good — if you consider a basketball stadium or a shopping center to be a public good.
Lipsky said he's usually against it, but the Nets arena and its benefits for neighborhood kids make it worthwhile in Brooklyn.
...If Lipsky was hired strictly for youth sports programs, he sure hasn't let that stop him from extolling Atlantic Yards for multiple reasons.
NoLandGrab: And let's not forget that Lip$ky, the dogged advocate for neighborhood retail, has also been a paid lobbyist for Bruce Ratner's East River Plaza big-box mall, home to such mom-and-pop operations as Target, Costco, Best Buy, Old Navy and Marshall's. Must be because the "Brooklyn Nets are going to galvanize" East Harlem. It's for the kid$$$$!
Posted by eric at March 7, 2011 9:52 AM