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July 28, 2011
Atlantic Yards project's former supporters turn on developer over lack of local jobs
NY Daily News
by Erin Durkin
The Atlantic Yards project is falling short on the number of promised construction jobs - prompting protests from some of the project's biggest backers.
Advocates and would-be workers who loudly backed the project at years of public hearings turned their bullhorns yesterday on developer Bruce Ratner.
"We feel like idiots because we supported you, we listened to you, we thought your word was gold," said Martin Allen, president of People for Political and Economic Empowerment. "Now that you got the job moving, you turn into a rat."
Oh, no, Mr. Allen, Bruce Ratner was a rat long before he hatched his Atlantic Yards scheme.
Hector Diaz, 51, of Bushwick, who is unemployed, said he went through 18 months of training in flagging, painting and carpentry and hoped to get work on the project.
"I marched. We went to City Hall. ... We supported Ratner to get this project," Diaz said. "It was all a dream. It's up in smoke."
Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development is sticking to the script, however.
"At first, yes, we were frustrated," said BUILD President James Caldwell. "They had to make adjustments and we had to make adjustments, too. ... As long as it's a decent job, we're willing to take it."
Related coverage...
The Brooklyn Paper, Unions to Ratner: Hey, where are the jobs?
Um, it was mostly non-union workers who were protesting.
Local workers who once championed the Atlantic Yards project have turned their back on developer Forest City Ratner — vowing to protest every two weeks until they get what they were promised: thousands of jobs.
...Allen and other workers say they’ve heard enough empty guarantees.
“We’re going to start hitting them where it hurts and let them know what they’re doing is wrong to the people of Brooklyn,” Allen said. “If you’ve got offices in Brooklyn, we’re going to be there.”
The Epoch Times, Atlantic Yards Construction Jobs Not Delivered, Protesters Say
This article is riddled with errors, but it got this right:
All of the [Community Benefits Agreement] stipulations rest on the oversight of an Independent Compliance Monitor (ICM). The ICM is a committee composed of representatives of each benefit category, explained [Brooklyn Community Board 2 District Manager Robert] Perris in a phone interview. The ICM is responsible for assessing whether Forest City Ratner has sufficiently fulfilled its duties.
“The ICM has never been funded,” said Perris. “I'm not sure if they've ever met. We've not been apprised of any meeting or of how successful any commitments have been.”
State of the Re:Union, “Broken Promises” in Brooklyn
One of the promises made by the project’s developer, Forest City Ratner, was the creation of construction jobs for residents of Brooklyn. But at a recent meeting, Ratner said that of the 500 workers currently employed at Atlantic yards, 60 were from Brooklyn and only 38 from neighborhoods surrounding the project.
So today, dozens of Brooklyn residents gathered to protest at the worksite. Among them, community activists who were once supportive of the Atlantic Yards project, now say they feel like “suckers” because they put their support behind the development.
Posted by eric at July 28, 2011 10:26 AM