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January 8, 2012
Crain's: gerrymandering of EB-5 districts "irrelevant to supporters because the projects are within commuting distance of these jobless areas"
Atlantic Yards Report
It's not usual that I'll chide the press for focusing on Atlantic Yards Report coverage while ignoring the New York Times, but Crain's New York Business deserves such treatment, in an article posted today headlined Green card program a boon for development funding: Foreigners eager to supply financing; will EB-5 be renewed?.
It provides the unsurprising round-up of projects funded under the federal government's EB-5 program--in which immigrant investors get green cards for themselves and their families in exchange for a $500,000 investment that purportedly creates ten jobs.
Dismissing the controversy
And it mentions--and dismisses--a recent controversy:
Proponents of the program, including President Barack Obama and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, hype its low-interest financing, lack of taxpayer subsidies and ability to create jobs. As it has become increasingly popular in New York, however, it has drawn critics who believe developers and state officials have massaged the rules and not hewed to the spirit of the program. With EB-5 set to expire in September, some potential participants have been given pause.
...But some believe its success in New York stems from developers and economic development officials gerrymandering zones so foreigners can readily invest in projects. Norman Oder, an Atlantic Yards critic and blogger, has shown how officials used census statistics to map districts that connect areas of high unemployment to projects in prosperous parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan. But the issue is irrelevant to supporters because the projects are within commuting distance of these jobless areas.
Well, there's no proof that people from those areas--remember the Bed-Stuy Boomerang?--are working at that site, nor that "commuting distance" meets the letter or spirit of the law.
More importantly, Crain's ignores that the New York Times put the issue on the front page and then published an editorial criticizing the program for such abuses.
Related content...
Crain's NY Business, Green card program a boon for development funding
“It was like a gift from the gods,” Mr. Kimball said of the program, recalling how American lenders had been reluctant to offer the Navy Yard financing after the recession. “We'd been exploring every option under the sun.”
Mr. Kimball returned from China with millions of dollars in commitments. Since then, a growing number of developers across the city have taken advantage of the federal program, known as EB-5. Once virtually unknown in New York, the 20-year-old program has become a lifeline for economic development in recent years, raising hundreds of millions of dollars for film studios, hotels and even Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards project.
NoLandGrab: "A gift from the gods?" Kinda like Bruce Ratner, almost.
Posted by steve at January 8, 2012 10:41 PM