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September 20, 2012
Morning round-up: NY1 on Battle for Brooklyn; Daily News' cramped view of protests; columnist Hamill plays reliable tune (and gets front page!); Post takes odd swipe at arena's lack of Barclays ATMs
Atlantic Yards Report
New York Daily News columnist Denis Hamill, professional Brooklyn nostalgist and Queens resident, reliably pens Brooklyn's Barclays Center is a rallying cry for borough that has been absent of a major sports team since Dodgers left town in 1957:
This rising tide will float all boats.
Which is why the NYC Independent Budget Office concluded that the arena would be a net loss for city taxpayers.
He writes:
But mostly, I think how lucky the kids of Brooklyn will be not to have to catch an F train to Times Square and then change to a 7 to go root for the Mets of Flushing, Queens. Or take the train all the way uptown into the distant Bronx on the mainland of the United States to cheer for the pinstriped Yankees.
How lucky they’ll be not to have to travel to Manhattan to see the Knicks or the Rangers or the Golden Gloves finals at Madison Square Garden.
What fantasy world does he live in? For most events, there will be few tickets available that are affordable to most "kids of Brooklyn."
Check out the cover. Hamill's description is:
It was an under-developed section of prime Brooklyn in the shadow of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building, then the borough’s tallest, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Flatbush and Atlantic, once a place where hookers strolled, will now become the Hollywood and Vine of Brooklyn as borough native Jay-Z opens the arena with eight sold-out shows that begin Sept. 28.
A place where hookers strolled. Yeah, a while back. Also a "great piece of real estate," as Forest City Enterprises Chuck Ratner once said--and they got it with no competition for the full site and only one bidder responding to the belated RFP for the Vanderbilt Yard.
...The New York Post, in Banking airball: Barclays has no game despite its $400M arena deal, suggests it's a problem that there will be no Barclays ATMs at the Barclays Center arena.
I think that's the least of their problems; there's that LIBOR scandal they'll be trying to live down for a while. And it's not a $400 million naming-rights deal; the sum was cut to $200 million plus unspecified additional payments.
NoLandGrab: But mostly, we think how lucky people who never read Denis Hamill's columns are.
Posted by eric at September 20, 2012 12:43 PM