February 1, 2012
Deconstructing the latest softball Ratner interview: plans for affordable housing are even shakier than before, and Ratner's tense even with a friendly publication
Atlantic Yards Report
This New York Observer article, Waiting for Bruce: The Commercial Observer Tours Atlantic Yards Arena, is such a nada-burger that it deserves some off the cuff annotation.
The article is in italics, my commentary not. I'm not sure why it was published other than a generalized desire by the Commercial Observer, which is owned by a real estate mogul, to play nice with Bruce. (Well, here's the justification, I guess: slideshow.)
A chauffered Lexus LS sedan pulled up to the corner of Dean Street and Flatbush Avenue and out slid Bruce Ratner from the back seat. He was 15 minutes late.
In a navy suit with a merino v-neck sweater over a dress shirt with no tie and an open collar, he was also underdresed for the sunny but windy chill swirling across the $1 billion Barclays Center that his firm Forest City Ratner is well into building at the Atlantic Yards site in Brooklyn.
“I thought it was going to be 50 degrees,” Mr. Ratner said, immediately noticing the cold.
This is what's called "setting the scene."
Related coverage...
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Bruce Ratner Loses Tempter in Softball Barclays Center Interview
Such petulance just because a friendly publication's reporter was attempting to dig a wee tiny bit and perhaps broke the restrictions of Mr. Ratner's narrow interview ground rules? Of course Mr. Ratner wouldn't want to talk about anything besides the arena...because there is nothing to say about any of the rest of the phantom project.
Posted by eric at 11:40 PM
January 29, 2012
NetsDaily editor says Prokhorov's feelings toward US have been shaped by reception by Nets fans, ignores his own role as chief cheerleader
Atlantic Yards Report
.>A 1/26/12 post on Nets Daily, Did Fans' Reaction Help Prokhorov's View of U.S., West?, contains a glaringly obvious omission:
Those close to Mikhail Prokhorov say his feelings toward the United States have evolved, shaped, in part, by his experience as the Nets owner. When he purchased the team he didn't know what to expect. Would there be suspicions? a Cold War hangover?
But they say he was pleasantly surprised by reaction he got from NBA owners and particularly Nets fans. As one said, he found it all quite endearing. Now are we starting to see the product of that in his foreign policy pronouncements as he runs for Russian president? Seems so. On Tuesday he told an English language television outlet that it's time for Russia to embrace the West.(Emphasis added)
Particularly Nets fans? The Nets fan who's led the embrace of Prokhorov is the author of that post, site editor "Net Income," aka Bob Windrem.
A 4/26/10 Times Sports Section article, headlined Russian Billionaire Is White Knight for the Nets, stated:
The NetsDaily blog has dubbed him “the Most Interesting Man in the World,” after the suave fellow in the beer commercials.
That dubbing came from "Net Income" in a 6/26/09 post.
Windrem earlier even wrote a profile for MSNBC quoting the words and work of "Net Income," but didn't acknowledge on MSNBC that he's the lead contributor to NetsDaily.
A 10/31/10 New York Times Magazine cover story on Prokhorov, headlined The Playboy and His Power Games, reported:
Prokhorov had invited anyone who couldn’t manage the rasp in the middle of “Mikhail” to call him Mike, but on NetsDaily, the premier Nets fan Web site, he quickly emerged as “Proky.” Proky was the sweet sound of salvation. The Web site editor (a 65-year-old New York-based television producer anxious to keep his old- and new-media identities separate) coined a phrase for the euphoria coursing through reader comments: the Prokhorov Effect.
Why does he want to keep his identities separate? Because he shoots from the hip and makes claims--and gets nasty--that he wouldn't do as "Bob Windrem."
Posted by steve at 10:11 PM
January 23, 2012
Times Public Editor Brisbane gingerly moves to embrace more fact-checking, offers warnings; I suggest Atlantic Yards as a subject, offer examples of misleading coverage
Atlantic Yards Report
"He said, she said?" They'd both prefer truth to "news."
New York Times Public Editor Arthur Brisbane, fresh off his "Truth Vigilante" exploration, yesterday gingerly surveyed the new media world of dedicated fact-checking outlets/efforts. He pronounced himself somewhat chastened:
Newspaper journalism’s traditional way of dealing with spurious claims, meanwhile, isn’t satisfying readers. Often derided as the “he said, she said” approach, this method entails finding and quoting someone to counter a claim, thereby offering a form of balance but no resolution. This sufficed in the past, for many at least, but now many readers are asking for more aggressive rebuttals.
I heard this loud and clear last week when I asked readers on my blog whether they wanted more fact-checking in straight news articles and they said, resoundingly, yes.
James Fallows, author of “Breaking the News” and a national correspondent for The Atlantic, told me it is incumbent on reporters to correct falsehood, not just balance it.
...I posted a comment:
If the Times is going to do some non-political fact-checking, why not start with the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, where so many facts promulgated by elected officials and the developer are supremely questionable, and the newspaper too often acts as a stenographer?
Posted by eric at 1:24 PM
January 18, 2012
NPR and PR Blitz
Rumur
by Michael Galinsky
This morning on NPR I heard two stories within moments of each other that have a direct connection to “Battle for Brooklyn”. The first was a story about the St. Louis Rams, and the fact that they will likely leave St. Louis for a city with deeper pockets. The second was about how the majority of millionaires in China are looking for a way out, and that many are doing so via the EB-5 program.
...It seems every story seems to point back to an abuse of the government/business relationship cycle. Yet the vast majority of these pieces don’t acknowledge this reality, and bury the lede by following the script. This is what Occupy is about. Perhaps the tide is turning, though the PR blitz is in full effect, so it remains to be seen whether or not people can take back the power.
Related content...
NY Daily News Sports ITeam Blog, Occupy Wall Street has been a boon for 'Battle for Brooklyn'
We wrote a few months back how "Battle for Brooklyn," the critically praised documentary about the fight over Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards, reflected the anger and frustration that prompted Occupy Wall Street. Now, Press Action, a D.C.-area website dedicated to news analysis, reports that OWS has been a boon for "Battle for Brooklyn."
Posted by eric at 10:37 AM
January 16, 2012
Some "Truth Vigilantism" toward a 2005 New York Times account of AY arena costs
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder, the Charles Bronson of truth vigilantes, injects a little sodium pentathol into a 2005 New York Times story.
I didn't start writing about Atlantic Yards until late 2005, so I'll apply some retrospective "Truth Vigilante" treatment to Stadium Games: Give and Take And Speculation; What the Teams Want And What the City Gets, a 1/16/05 New York Times articles about the proposals then in play:
Nonetheless, the mayor and Gov. George E. Pataki are on the verge of approving three new sports sites -- a football stadium for the Jets, a baseball stadium for the Yankees and a basketball arena for the Nets -- that will require a combined public investment of at least $1.1 billion.
It is not easy to assess precisely what the taxpayers will get out of their investment, which is equivalent in cost to a major Manhattan skyscraper or 25 schools with 600 seats each. In part, that is because the economic benefits are based on studies commissioned by the teams themselves, and promoted by the government sponsors of the projects.
What about AY?
So, what did it say about Atlantic Yards?
The Nets arena in Brooklyn will require a public investment of about $200 million and the condemnation of several blocks of housing and stores. New York will get a basketball team back from New Jersey and an arena with a public garden on top that is intended to serve as an anchor for a residential and commercial development. The arena could also be used for high school or college games.
Well, the public direct investment is nearly 50% higher now, while there are numerous other subsidies and opportunity costs, leading the New York City Independent Budget Office, in 2009, to pronounce the arena a net loss for the city.
The public garden? Long gone.
Arena as anchor for residential and commercial development? Not so much. Maybe leverage for subsidies.
Posted by eric at 12:31 PM
January 15, 2012
Looking beyond the Brooklyn Brand(s)
Atlantic Yards Report
In Time for Brooklyn (and its Fans) to Go Beyond the Brand, in City Limits' new Brooklyn Bureau, Marilyn Gelber of the Brooklyn Community Foundation wrote 1/5/12:
But justifiable pride of place should not make us reluctant to look deeper and examine serious challenges to Brooklyn's well being.
...Right now in the media there are two Brooklyns: the Brooklyn of artisanal cheese shops and the Brooklyn of murder and mayhem.
While we love that there's no shortage of ink on how “cool” Brooklyn is, there's an egregious lack of reporting dedicated to civic and social issues in what would be the nation's fourth largest city. We're not comfortable with the idea of Brooklyn being split apart by income disparity and selective investment, and the general media paying attention to just a sliver of what's happening here.
So the Brooklyn Bureau will not only offer new reportage across Brooklyn put also publish a series of Neighborhood Profiles for each of Brooklyn's 18 Community Districts, produced by the Center for the Study of Brooklyn at Brooklyn College.
In the spring, that will lead to "the first ever Borough-wide Brooklyn Trends Report, examining the strength of our collective local economy, housing stock, health and healthcare, public safety, education system, environment, and the arts."
Posted by steve at 7:27 PM
'Battle for Brooklyn' Debuts At Artisphere
Clarendon-Courthouse-Rosslyn Patch
Here is a glowing review for the Atlantic Yards fight documentary "Battle for "Brooklyn" as it plays just across the Potomac from Washington, D.C.
Ratner and his company Forest City's $2.5 billion Atlantic Yards project is set to bring the New Jersey Nets to the borrough of Brooklyn, along with several massive residential towers and a mess of mixed-use buildings.
To accomplish this, Ratner wages an impeccable but ethically questionable PR campaign and -- thanks to political favoritism and an array of dubious tactics -- is able to comdemn an entire neighborhood, execute a hefty landgrab by way of eminent domain, and receive a sweetheart deal from the Mass Transit Authority as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer kickbacks and subsidies.
...
Michael Galinsky, who directed the documentary with Suki Hawley, adds further perspective.
But "Battle for Brooklyn" is not only about eminent domain abuse and crony capitalism but also the failure of mainstream media. Throughout the film, it's clear that Forest City/Ratner press releases routinely win out to any fair journalistic depiction of the struggle.
"It's as much about media as it is about anything else," Galinsky said. "Many New Yorkers who've seen the film told us they felt like they slept through this whole ordeal." That's because very few outlets were willing to tell this story in real time.
Posted by steve at 7:15 PM
January 14, 2012
Another columnist enraptured by the Jay-Z & Beyonce baby: "it’s a nice diversion to think about a child born with a silver spoon"
Atlantic Yards Report
The notorious Stephen Witt, opening in his Our Time Press column on Blue Ivy Carter, writes:
Although I don’t shoot at the same baskets or pay the same taxes, I’m as bubbling over with joy as the average schmo over Jay-Z and Beyonce finally having a little bundle of joy.
Did the average schmo (beyond faux schmo Denis Hamill) really care? Or just the schmo who hugged Bruce Ratner?
Posted by steve at 10:26 PM
The Times? An advocate for readers, or a stenographer for politicians (and others in power)
Atlantic Yards Report
Clay Shirky, in the Guardian, has a wise follow-up to the "Truth Vigilante" question:
The immediate fallout from [Public Editor Arthur] Brisbane's question will be minor – no paper in the United States, not even the Times (as its editor partially concedes), has enough staff to express continuous skepticism about political speech – but there may yet be a lasting effect to be reckoned with. Having asked, in a completely innocent way, whether the Times should behave like an advocate for the readers, rather than a stenographer to politicians, the question cannot now be unasked. Every day in which the Times (and indeed, most US papers) fail at what has clearly surfaced as their readers' preference on the matter will be a day in which that gap remains uncomfortably visible.
And that includes when politicians are talking about Atlantic Yards--and when developers do so, as well.
Posted by steve at 10:18 PM
Things to do Jan. 11 - Jan. 18
The Washington Post
By Jillian S. Sowah
“Battle for Brooklyn,” the acclaimed documentary tells the story of the Atlantic Yards project—Bruce Ratner’s billion-dollar plan for a massive Brooklyn development including 8 million square feet of new apartments, offices and stores, centered on a basketball arena for the New York Nets. 8 p.m. Friday, 5 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 6 p.m. Sunday, Artisphere, 1101 Wilson Blvd., Arlington. $7. 703-875-1100.
Posted by steve at 10:16 PM
January 13, 2012
Should The Times Be a Truth Vigilante?
The New York Times
by Arthur S. Brisbane
God, these guys just don't get it, do they?
I’m looking for reader input on whether and when New York Times news reporters should challenge “facts” that are asserted by newsmakers they write about.
NoLandGrab: No, Times, you should just keep your heads firmly up your arses, regurgitate the b.s. spewed by your "development partner," devote a single graf to an "opponent" or "critic," and call it a day. Jeezus.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, The Times, the "Truth Vigilante" uproar, and the journalism of verification
Should The Times Be a Truth Vigilante? wrote New York Times ombudsman Arthur Brisbane, occasioning nearly universal shouts of "yes," including from his colleagues, all dissected interestingly by Jay Rosen on his Press Think blog.
No one mentioned, as far as I can tell, former executive editor Bill Keller's useful formulation of "the journalism of verification," which is the newspaper's job. And while most of the discussion today concerned political coverage, we should remember that the Times has fallen short so many times regarding Atlantic Yards, such as:
Atlantic Yards Report, Rethinking the role of news ombudsman: "aggregate, curate, debate" (which would mean linking to sites like AYR)
Journalist and author Dan Gillmor, in What a 21st Century News Ombudsman Should Do: Aggregate, Curate, Debate, responds to the Times's "Truth Vigilante" dust-up and a Washington Post column by commenting:
These pieces highlighted how strange the ombudsman’s job has become, and why I think it needs to be updated in this networked age. Here’s how I’d change it, and I hope both of these men will consider at least adding some of these ideas to their portfolio. There would be two main approaches: aggregation and conversation.
Posted by eric at 12:24 AM
January 11, 2012
Prokhorov on NetsDaily? Sure, but not that MSNBC profile by Robert Windrem, aka "Net Income"
Atlantic Yards Report
Citing news articles and even coverage in Russian (via Google Translate), NetsDaily, via chief editor "Net Income," does not typically hold back in its coverage of Nets principal owner Mikhail Prokhorov.
Except, curiously enough, there's been no mention of Monday's MSNBC profile by Robert (Bob) Windrem, aka Net Income. Maybe that's because Windrem was quoting himself. Or because Windrem was described merely as a "senior investigative producer for NBC News and a Nets season ticket holder."
He's a lot more than that. Windrem knows he has to stay professional.
His pseudonymous alter ego--not so much. His lust for a new arena for his favorite team--"NI is the biggest Brooklyn fan on this website," one commenter observed--means that, too often, the end justifies the means.
Posted by eric at 12:10 PM
Daily News columnis Hamill, always happy to buff the Brooklyn Nets, salutes Jay-Z, ignores "ethical pickle"
Atlantic Yards Report
Daily News columnist Denis Hamill, who thinks the Brooklyn Nets can give Brooklyn a soul, swallowed Forest City Ratner promotional spin, and saluted those building the arena, deserves notice for his celebratory column yesterday.
You see, Hamill back in December 2002 met Jay-Z when the "shy and humble" rapper was reading to fifth-graders--JAY-Z GIVES KIDS GIFT OF EXAMPLE--and remains quite impressed.
The "ethical pickle'
Jay-Z's a reader, and that fueled his writing skills and helped get him out of the projects, Hamill related back in 2002 and again yesterday. Yes, a dedication to reading is an admirable thing, and it allowed Jay-Z to build on his skills and gifts.
But Jay-Z, in case Hamill needs a reminder, also exited the projects because he was a drug dealer, and that, as writer Sam Anderson once put it, "the ethical pickle at the core of the Jay-Z myth."
Posted by eric at 11:42 AM
January 10, 2012
A shout-out for AYR from NY Times columnist Powell
Atlantic Yards Report
Yes, New York Times columnist Michael Powell, who wrote this morning on the curious role of Forest City Ratner in corruption cases--beneficiary, but unscathed--has read some pieces in this blog.
Hence this tweet:
If only more people at the Times were reading.
Posted by eric at 9:54 PM
January 9, 2012
A profile of Prokhorov on MSNBC by Robert Windrem, who does not acknowledge he's also "Net Income," chief editor of Nets Daily
Atlantic Yards Report
Who knew? We never had "Net Income" pegged for being a real journalist!
So who wrote the stylish, reasonably thorough, and only slightly skewed profile on MSNBC's Open Channel, dedicated to "investigative reporting by NBC News," headlined Meet the NBA tycoon and rapper's friend who could be president of Russia.
One Robert Windrem, described as a senior investigative producer for NBC News and a Nets season ticket holder.
 |
Simply describing him as a "Nets season ticket holder" is just a tad inadequate. He's also Net Income, the ubiquitous, prolific pseudonymous main editor of the NetsDaily web site.
NoLandGrab: Windrem also triples as "Bobbo," the insulting, factually deficient sometime-commenter to Atlantic Yards Report posts.
Related coverage...
MSNBC.com, Meet the NBA tycoon and rapper's friend who could be president of Russia
"The most interesting man in the world?" Windrem needs to get out more.
Posted by eric at 11:19 AM
January 8, 2012
Horse-race coverage of sports, politics, and business--and an egregious AY example
Atlantic Yards Report
From a 1/3/12 column by Reuters media columnist Jack Shafer, Presidential campaigns, sports writing, and the fine art of pretending:
The jobs of political reporters and sports writers are almost identical: Determine who is ahead and who is behind; get inside the heads of the participants; decode the relevant strategies and tactics; and find a way to convert reader interest into sustainable enthusiasm.
And that extends also to business:
[Washington Post reporter Paul] Farhi, who has reported on business, sports, politics, and the media, says business coverage also obsesses on winners and numbers. “Maybe all journalism is about success and failure, and we see it more clearly in sports,” he said.
And, I'd argue, that misses meaning.
The Times on AY
Remember the New York Times's horse-race analysis in the 6/9/05 article headlined Unlike Stadium on West Side, an Arena in Brooklyn Is Still a Go?
While the Brooklyn plan still has hurdles, its progress so far is providing an object lesson in how to navigate big projects through the often treacherous and choppy waters of New York state and city politics. In the Brooklyn project, backers have aggressively courted the local community since the project's inception, trying to placate those who could be its most aggressive foes. Perhaps most important, they have reached out to Mr. [Assembly Speaker Sheldon] Silver.
(Emphasis added)
Object lesson? Not anymore. Nor for a long while.
Posted by steve at 10:37 PM
January 6, 2012
FCR's Gilmartin tells Crain's that shutdown of facade fabricator will not cause delays. How will the other steel plates be delivered? They're not saying.
Atlantic Yards Report
The ever-penetrating Crain's New York Business gets Forest City Ratner on the phone to say that, never mind, nothing's wrong. In Barclays Center developer says show will go on, Crain's reports:
The developer of the Barclays Center arena in downtown Brooklyn says that the year-end demise of the company that is fabricating the weathered steel for the arena's distinctive façade will not result in any construction delays. ...“We are concerned when any of our partners has problems, but we don't believe it will affect our construction schedule,” said MaryAnne Gilmartin, executive vice president of Forest City Ratner, referring to steel fabricator ASI Limited having gone out of business. “We can still continue with construction.”
Of course they can still continue with construction. The question is where they get the specially fabricated, pre-weathered steel. It's not an off-the-shelf product. Crain's continues:
Ms. Gilmartin said that a large portion of the weathered steel had already been erected. She couldn't immediately say how much still needed to go up. She added that Forest City is working to insure the steel will continue to be made and to be delivered to the site in a timely fashion, but declined to offer details.
That's plenty vague; they won't say how much work is left, and they won't say how they'll get the steel. Of course it's possible that ASI Limited will reopen, which is likely the best-case scenario, and all will work out. But it's also possible that the construction schedule, which has already slipped, as I reported this morning, could slip more.
Posted by eric at 12:16 PM
December 31, 2011
AY down the memory hole: Times says arena will "undoubtedly transform Downtown Brooklyn"
Atlantic Yards Report
In a year-ahead front-page article in tomorrow's Metropolitan section, the New York Times offers a three-paragraph summary for Brooklyn, mostly about Atlantic Yards:
When the sports arena that anchors the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project finally opens in September, after more than eight years of lawsuits and construction delays, it will undoubtedly transform Downtown Brooklyn.
Downtown Brooklyn? Didn't the Times more than five years ago acknowledge in a mega-correction that Downtown Brooklyn was an inaccurate designation for the project?
In a 4/17/11 article about living in Prospect Heights, the Times included Atlantic Yards and the arena site within the bounds of the neighborhood. See graphic at right.
(Arguably, the northern and western edges of the arena site, which border wide avenues, might extend Downtown Brooklyn. But walk down Dean Street from the surface parking lot on the southeast block of the site, and enter from Dean Street? That's not Downtown.)
Also, was it merely "more than eight years of lawsuits and construction delays"? What about Forest City Ratner's desperate search for new capital, from a Russian oligarch seeking to burnish his image to Chinese investors seeking green cards?
...
The initial paragraph continues:
But will the 19,000-seat Barclays Center, soon to be home to the Nets and host to Jay-Z, the circus and 200 other events a year, help its neighborhood become an epicenter of entertainment and commerce, as most officials predict? Or will it be a vortex of traffic, trash and other civic headaches, as some residents fear?
So it's "most officials" vs. "some residents"? What if it's both?
After all, what "most officials" predict is not exactly a stretch, since an arena, by definition, attracts certain kind of entertainment and commerce.
And won't it create a vortex of traffic, as the Times itself has warned, as well as other untoward local effects, as Atlantic Yards Watch regularly documents?
Related content...
The New York Times, What to Expect in New York in 2012
Posted by steve at 6:05 PM
The Atlantic Yards meme gets a boost in 2011, with more coming from a journalist's novel
Atlantic Yards Report
I wrote in March how a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority used the term Atlantic Yards--a marketing term for a 22-acre project, some of which is still in private hands--for the agency's 8.5 acre Vanderbilt Yard.
In April, one of the MTA's watchdogs similarly used the term Atlantic Yards to describe the property the agency marketed.
And in a manuscript
You'd think that a journalist writing about Atlantic Yards would know better, but not the notorious Stephen Witt, who's written an AY novel called The Street Singer. The Daily News gave it unaccountable publicity earlier this month, but not until AY opponent Patti Hagan gave me the hard copy of the article did I see an excerpt from the manuscript, which included this:
"Thaddeus Hoover," I said, suddenly recognizing the name. You're the guy who wants to bring the Nets to Brooklyn and build an arena at the Atlantic Yards."
"No, I'm the man who will build the arena and bring Brooklyn its first major professional sports team since the Dodgers left for California."
As Tad spoke, I though about Goody Brats saying Hoover was sucking up the neighborhood. It was kind of funny. Here I was having a drink with the land grabber himself.
Put aside the not-so-naturalistic dialogue and the Zelig-like wish fulfillment--Witt did once enthusiastically hug Ratner--and remember, Atlantic Yards was not a place.
Posted by steve at 5:54 PM
December 29, 2011
AY down the memory hole: Capital declares Kuntzman's Brooklyn Paper "got massive mileage out of the Atlantic Yards saga"
Atlantic Yards Report
From Hey Honeys! 'King of Brooklyn' Gersh Kuntzman heads off to academe, to instruct young gumshoes, in Capital (tagline: This is How New York Works), about the Gershification of the Brooklyn Paper:
It also meant transforming what was already a well-respected community publication, with its informative re-caps of local board meetings and dutiful coverage of provincial affairs, into the type of scrappy news product that could command the interest and respect not only of its neighborhood constituents, but of those media elites across the river.
“What I did,” said Kuntzman, more modestly, “was, I took a very, very strong paper, I cut the story length in half, and I added a kind of tabloid brashness."
And nothing was lost?
What about AY?
Writes Joe Pompeo:
Apart from the bottled water wars, some other classics from Kuntzman’s Brooklyn Paper canon, outside its signature beats like bike lanes and local development (it got massive mileage out of the Atlantic Yards saga), include the horrific geese-slaughtering of July 2010, the infamous 6-year-old sidewalk chalk vandal of Park Slope, and the editor’s rather racy real estate porn spoof...
Here's the comment I tried to post:
The Brooklyn Paper "got massive mileage out of the Atlantic Yards saga"?
Here's what the BP hasn't covered:
-Forest City Ratner's effort to raise $249 million from immigrant (mostly Chinese) investors seeking green cards via the EB-5 program.
--Borough President Marty Markowitz's willingness to shill for that effort by making a video claiming that "Brooklyn is 1000 percent behind Atlantic Yards."
--Forest City Ratner's unwillingness to hire the Independent Compliance Monitor required by the much-promoted Community Benefits Agreement.
Related content...
Capital, Hey Honeys! 'King of Brooklyn' Gersh Kuntzman heads off to academe, to instruct young gumshoes
Posted by eric at 9:27 AM
December 20, 2011
Times gives lavish space to puff piece on new Nets announcer, ignores "sordid history" (by the way, he says cigars are healthier than cigarettes)
Atlantic Yards Report
Sure, Kim Jong-Il is dead, the Eurozone economies are in shambles, and it's an all-out race to the bottom among Republican presidential hopefuls, but whoa — get a load of that new Nets PA announcer's hair!
Number of paragraphs about Atlantic Yards in front-page New York Times article yesterday about EB-5 projects that stretch the rules: 1.
Number of paragraphs in Sports section article today about new Nets announcer David Diamante: 21.
A bit of a puff piece
The Times article, headlined New Nets Announcer Shows Flair and Hair, lets him describe his various jobs and hobbies--motorcyclist, DJ, surfer, boxing announcer. He's got long dreadlocks...
Related content...
The New York Times, Nets Announcer Shows Flair and Hair
Diamante was not among the original 400 prospective announcers who auditioned for the Nets in September. After learning of the tryouts, he contacted Nets representatives and was included in the final round of 20 announcers in October. He got the job, signed a multiyear contract and last week announced his first game with the team, at its current home in Newark.
NoLandGrab: Yet one more example of the flawed process surrounding Atlantic Yards.
The Brooklyn Paper, Brooklyn man to be the voice of the Barclays Center
The team will get a side benefit from hiring Diamante, who is active in charities in his spare time, most recently including holding an auction that raised more than $18,000 for Treasure Island Pre-school in Bay Ridge.
“I try to live my life like that,” Diamante said. “You have to be a good neighbor.”
The Nets have been struggling to be just that as the controversial Barclays Center nears completion. But Diamante thinks that any lingering hard feelings will disappear once the team hits the hard wood.
Posted by eric at 1:07 PM
December 18, 2011
Battle for Brooklyn
John Likes Movies
Some would argue that activist documentaries don't have a place in today's world, what with the 24-hour news cycle souring any notion of a smart but slanted discourse. Battle for Brooklyn, however, is a fine example of how to sell someone on a point of view without hammering them over the head with it. The film's points are cogent, and they're presented in a very compelling manner. Yes, it takes sides, but after seeing the film, you'll understand why. The issues shown involve a great deal of passion, and though it might be too late to stop the Atlantic Yards project, one can only hope people take notice and don't let something like this happen again.
Posted by steve at 5:40 PM
December 6, 2011
Brooklyn writer pens 'The Street Singer,' a novel based on the Atlantic Yards arena project
Author Stephen Witt's fictional take includes characters based on developer Bruce Ratner and rapper Jay-Z
NY Daily News
by Erin Durkin
Reality-based reporter Erin Durkin reports on a new book by an Atlantic Yards beat reporter not so grounded in reality.
 |
The Atlantic Yards project has inspired a musical, a movie - and now a madcap book by a reporter turned novelist.
Stephen Witt, who covered the project for local papers for years, penned “The Street Singer” - a self-described roman a clef combining his own early years in New York with a gonzo take on the $4.9 billion Prospect Heights project.
“I got into journalism originally because I loved creative writing,” said Witt, who is looking for a publisher for the manuscript but plans to put it out by next spring through his own publishing company if he doesn’t find one.
The book follows a flat-broke subway musician who stumbles into contact with a high-powered developer named Thaddeus Hoover - a thinly veiled take on developer Bruce Ratner.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, The notorious Stephen Witt writes a novel based on Atlantic Yards
The notorious Stephen Witt, known for his tendentious articles in the Courier-Life chain and now Our Time Press, is writing a book based on Atlantic Yards--a novel--and the Daily News thinks it's newsworthy.
Here are a couple of lines from the Daily News article:
“I got into journalism originally because I loved creative writing,”
....Witt said he found the project’s twists and turns better suited to an off the wall fictional take than a scholarly account. The story unfolds over six months leading up to the groundbreaking for the new Nets arena, but takes some artistic liberties. “It’s definitely a gonzo telling of it,” Witt said.Um, he's been taking some artistic liberties all along.
Posted by eric at 12:10 PM
November 27, 2011
What Oscar Snub of “Page One: Inside the New York Times” Might Tell Us About A Misplaced Losing-the-Battle (and War) NY Times Bet
Noticing New York
Just like much of its Atlantic Yards fight coverage, the New York Times has given short-shrift to the Oscar-nominated film concerning this fight, "Battle for Brooklyn". This blog post concludes by noting what the bad result is when the Times fails to do good reporting on local issues.
In that regard we are only talking the documentary film world reporting on the real world. But the Oscar race is a clue to a bigger real world story. That bigger story is about how the New York Times could become a significantly greater paper by setting aside its misplaced bet that it can get away with sidestepping proper coverage of important local news stories like Atlantic Yards or Columbia University’s the similarly problematic use of eminent domain to take over West Harlem or. . . the list of stories goes on. It is a long one because everything is connected.
Posted by steve at 3:23 PM
Have You Looked in "Our Time Press" and Found the Fine AY Reporting? Not a Witt
Atlantic Yards Report, A response to Stephen Witt, and a letter of support
The latest issue of Our Time Press contains a letter from me in response to a column by the notorious Stephen Witt. It begins:
In his column about Atlantic Yards in the Nov. 17 issue, Stephen Witt writes that that “For doing this”--consistently seeking out the views of project supporters--"opponents of the project and their media mouthpieces, including Atlantic Yards Report blogger Norman Oder, continually blasted me.”
The issue isn’t whether Witt seeks out other views, it’s that he’s an irresponsible and unreliable writer.
But there's another letter, from the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, one of those who's views Witt embraces:
I just read your column in the Our Time Press. I appreciate your consistency. I know that is has not always been easy for some individuals to be supporters of the Atlantic Yards Project. Thank God that there are individuals who believe in the benefits for the community that this project will accrue.
Well, there's belief, and then there's proof.
Atlantic Yards Report, Scoop? Forest City considering Navy Yard as modular site
The notorious Stephen Witt has a purported scoop in the latest issue of Our Time Press, as the 11/25/11 article Ratner eyes Brooklyn Navy Yard for Atlantic Yards Construction is labeled "Exclusive."
It begins:
Developer Forest City Ratner is looking at the Brooklyn Navy Yard as one of three possible sites to manufacture modular units of the Atlantic Yards project, according to a source with knowledge of the project.
“The Brooklyn Navy Yard is close to the site and it would be kind of cool given its history of ship building,” said the source, adding that the other site is also in Brooklyn and the third site is in Queens.
When finalized the manufacturing site will construct prefabricated units for the world’s largest modular constructed building at 32 floors on the Atlantic Yards site. It will also be utilized for the other 14 other residential buildings proposed on the $4.5 bill project.
The source said that surprisingly there are still quite a few manufacturing sites around the city, and modular construction will bring manufacturing union and trade-union jobs.
The site will also serve the construction needs around the city, the country and perhaps globally,” the source said.Is this news? A week earlier, Forest City told the Wall Street Journal it was looking at three sites, in Brooklyn and in Queens.
So the only "news" is that the Navy Yard is a potential Brooklyn site. That's hardly a surprise, as the New York Times, in its initial report on Forest City's modular plans last March, mentioned Capsys, a modular builder at the Navy Yard.
And who's the "source with knowledge of the project"? I'd bet that the "source," who provided other self-serving quotes, was Forest City spokesman Joe DePlasco.
Posted by steve at 3:06 PM
November 25, 2011
Former Courier reporter hits the big time!
Brooklyn Daily
by Joanna DelBuono
Former Courier Life reporter extraordinaire [NLG: ?!] Stephen Witt has finished his second novel — and this one is going to be a blockbuster. No, that’s not a dig at Witt’s first novel, “American Moses,” but his new one, “Street Singer,” is set in the tumultuous saga of the Atlantic Yards mega-project, which Witt covered from its inception. “Street Singer” is Hemmingway-esque — no, not because it’s the greatest book of all time or features lots of drinking in Paris, but because its such a thinly veiled look at the intrigue surrounding the deal that brought the Nets across the river from that other state. Spoiler alert — “Street Singer” follows subway musician Jason Spirit (he’s based on Witt, by the way) through the seamy backroom deals, on the hustings with the anti-project rabble, and into the offices of Russian oligarchs. Yikes!
NoLandGrab: "Yikes!" has been our precise reaction to most of Witt's writing about Atlantic Yards.
Posted by eric at 12:05 PM
November 20, 2011
From GQ: Jay-Z's path from the streets to high society (and what about fronting?)
Atlantic Yards Report
As one of the 2011 GQ Men of the Year, Jay-Z is designated King. Alex Pappademas observes:
Take Watch the Throne, on which two grandiose motherfuckers explore the theme of grandiose-motherfuckerdom from vastly different perspectives, stacking dubstep on top of opera on top of Otis Redding, triumphalism on top of sorrow on top of more triumphalism, striving for a sound as vast and strange as the world they've come to inhabit. It's glorious and obnoxious and pointedly self-aware, and it was more fun to argue about than any hip-hop record since, I don't know, Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak or Jay-Z's widely jeered Kingdom Come.
The gist of a lot of those arguments: In an economic moment as bleak as this, is it not sort of a dick move to drop an album—even a great one—about what it feels like to be richer than a fifteenth-century pope? On what turned out to be the day of a stock market crash? Even the Watch the Throne T-shirts were limited-edition Givenchy and sold for $300.
...Watch the Throne is an honest record about trying to find your moral compass when insane wealth and success have knocked down every boundary that once gave shape to your world. Write what you know, y'know?
He credits Jay for making it from the 'hood:
Nearly every rapper tells a version of that story. But nobody tells it better or to a wider cross section of the population—children, rap nerds, corporate America—than Jay-Z. No hip-hop artist who owes his credibility to the street has moved farther beyond it and into the rarefied air of twenty-first-century high society than Jay has. But at 42, he remains, precedent-defyingly, a rapper people still care about, because he's managed to frame all his achievements—his front-office stint at Def Jam, his ownership stake in the NBA franchise soon to be known as the Brooklyn Nets, the $150 million deal with LiveNation that's said to rival Madonna's, even the pop star he put a ring on—as we-shouldn't-be-here victories for a kid from public housing, and for hip-hop, too.
Fair enough. It's just that he's running interference for some of the people making false promises (it is alleged) to Brooklynites from the neighborhoods he left.
Posted by steve at 10:37 PM
In Our Time Press, questionable coverage of the latest lawsuit
Atlantic Yards Report
The notorious Stephen Witt, now writing for Bed-Stuy-based Our Time Press, has produced his coverage of the lawsuit filed earlier this week: Another Atlantic Yards lawsuit: Allegations that training program does not bring union jobs as promised.
There's no mention of the issue of unpaid wages, but a "he said, she said" focus on whether jobs and union cards were promised to 36 trainees in a highly selective program. Witt writes:
But both FCR and BUILD officials said union cards were never promised, and charged James, state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery and longtime foes of Atlantic Yards are behind the lawsuit. They also said their opposition is a major contributing force behind the lack of jobs as promised by the CBA.
...[BUILD's James] Caldwell said his organization has placed close to 400 people from the community with jobs, many on other FCR developments, and that the downturn in the economy has caused the build-out of the Atlantic Yards project to be much slower.
...[Forest City spokesman Joe] DePlasco said there are about 800 people currently working on the Atlantic Yards project...
Of these workers, 410 are city residents including 174 from Brooklyn, of which 67 are from Central Brooklyn...
DePlasco said of the 36 people that went through the BUILD pre-apprenticeship training program, 19 were working in property management, retail or construction-related positions as of September this year.
All that is irrelevant to the question of whether the 36 people, who began the program in August 2010, were promised jobs and union cards. After all, some of those 19 people have jobs at McDonald's
Posted by steve at 10:35 PM
How Could The Times Get Yet Another Story (In Addition to Atlantic Yards) So Wrong: OWS Evicting Bloomberg as Defender of Free Speech
Noticing New York
Noticing New York has frequently covered and criticized the grossly inadequate, misleading and biased coverage that the New York Times has provided with respect to the Forest City Ratner Atlantic Yards megadevelopment and associated issues such as the abuse of eminent domain that is also occurring elsewhere, like Columbia University’s takeover of West Harlem.
...
Heretofore the Noticing New York thesis about such atrocious coverage by the Times was that it was all the more insidious and dangerous because the paper of record is, in otherwise confidence-inspiring ways, head and shoulders over other newspapers in New York City, even all the rest of country. The Times dereliction with respect to the Atlantic Yards family of issues seemed to be a willful and conscious choice related to a deal the Times knowingly made with the devil when it attempted to buttress itself financially (while garnering some attention-grabbing cultural surface glitz) by partnering with real estate developer and subsidy-collector-specialist Forest City Ratner to use (abuse?) eminent domain to build a New Times Square headquarters building.
The problem is, as pointed out in prior Noticing New York articles, you cannot selectively cast a blind eye to the misconduct associated with the city’s biggest boondoggle because everything is connected. You cannot expect to elide the evils of Atlantic Yards in your pages because it leaves holes in your paper-of-record stories about everything else. Do you want to report about the Brooklyn Borough President's shady capitalization on conflicts of interest involving charities created for that purpose? There’s a gaping hole in this tale you tell unless Atlantic Yards gets featured front and center.
Posted by steve at 9:44 PM
November 19, 2011
15 Documentary Features Advance in 2011 Oscar Race
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The documentary about the Atlantic Yards fight, "Battle for Brooklyn" has deservedly been short-listed in the competition for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature.
Beverly Hills, CA (November 18, 2011) – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 84th Academy Awards. One hundred twenty-four pictures had originally qualified in the category.
The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company:
- "Battle for Brooklyn" (RUMUR Inc.)
- "Bill Cunningham New York" (First Thought Films)
- "Buck" (Cedar Creek Productions)
- "Hell and Back Again" (Roast Beef Productions Limited)
- "If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front" (Marshall Curry Productions, LLC)
- "Jane's Journey" (NEOS Film GmbH & Co. KG)
- "The Loving Story" (Augusta Films)
- "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" (@radical.media)
- "Pina" (Neue Road Movies GmbH)
- "Project Nim" (Red Box Films)
- "Semper Fi: Always Faithful" (Tied to the Tracks Films, Inc.)
- "Sing Your Song" (S2BN Belafonte Productions, LLC)
- "Undefeated" (Spitfire Pictures)
- "Under Fire: Journalists in Combat" (JUF Pictures, Inc.)
- "We Were Here" (Weissman Projects, LLC)
The Documentary Branch Screening Committee viewed all the eligible documentaries for the preliminary round of voting. Documentary Branch members will now select the five nominees from among the 15 titles on the shortlist.
Posted by steve at 10:22 PM
November 18, 2011
Ratner's modular tower release and the mostly compliant press: an FAQ on timing, misdirection, jobs, the lack of larger apartments, and Ratner's astounding admission
Atlantic Yards Report
There are plenty of news outlets simply repeating Bruce Ratner's news releases on plans for housing units for the Atlantic Yards project, but only Norman Oder digs deeper to reveal the continuing story of the project as a series of deceptions and promises not kept.
Well, Forest City Ratner yesterday announced plans for Building 2, a 32-story, 350-unit tower with half subsidized apartments--the world's tallest modular tower--and the press piled on.
They just didn't answer all the questions.
Why were the renderings released yesterday?
No report explained that. There's no financing for the first building. The modular plan isn't final.
I'd bet that the release was strategized to deflect any lingering attention from the lawsuit filed two days earlier by construction workers charging they didn't get promised jobs and union cards after going through a selective training program mandated by the Atlantic Yards Community Benefit Agreement.
And to put pressure on construction unions. Remember, Ratner stopped building the Beekman Tower (aka 8 Spruce Street) midway to renegotiate with the unions.
What kind of pressure?
Well, Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building Building and Construction Trades Council, said, in a statement, "We are in the process of attempting to reach an agreement on modular construction that will work for the building trades and Forest City in an effort to create permanent employment opportunities for our members,"
Is Ratner definitely building modular?
Not at all. "We intend to do it modular," he told the Wall Street Journal, but said the decision isn't final. Indeed, you have to watch his language. In November 2009, after the state eminent domain decision, Ratner said they had the "intent" to move the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn for the 2011-12 season.
Didn't the permit application describe a non-modular process?
Yup.
Did any press outlet mention that?
Not yet.
...
Does this announcement represent an about-face by Ratner? The Daily News said "project opponents saw another about-face by the developer." The Times quoted Council Member James, "who denounced what she described as the growing distance between the promise and the reality of Atlantic Yards."
It's another example of journalists pitting Ratner against "opponents" and maintaining what Jay Rosen calls the "View from Nowhere," the false middle, the inability to do any analysis. Actually, Bruce Ratner said it himself, that "existing incentives" don't work for high-rise, union-built affordable housing.
He said that?
Yup. Of course, he proposed--and the state approved--high-rise, union-built affordable housing.
Does that mean all the promises about Atlantic Yards residential rental towers, and the approval of those promises, were bogus?
Uh, yeah.
Related converage...
The L Magazine, Yup, It's a Prefab High-Rise for Atlantic Yards
Fort Greene - Clinton Hill Patch, Design Revealed for Atlantic Yards' Pre-Fab Tower
International Business Times, Forest City Ratner, SHoP Unveil Atlantic Yards Tower [PHOTOS]
Gothamist, Sorry, Brooklyn: This Is What Atlantic Yards Is Supposed To Look LIke
WNYC, Atlantic Yards Tower Design Revealed
The Wall Street Journal, Ratner Goes 'Modular' in Brooklyn
Daily News, Apartment tower at Atlantic Yards will be built in a factory
The Brooklyn Paper, Unions, aesthetes dunked as Ratner plans pre-fab building at Yards
New York Post. Atlantic Yards building with ‘Legos’
Curbed, Here's a Glimpse at the World's Tallest Prefab Condo Tower
Smart Planet, NYC SHoP Architects take modular construction to new heights
Crain's New York, Bruce Ratner’s breakthrough
NY1, Plans For Atlantic Yards Modular Tower Unveiled
Media Bistro, Details Released for ShoP’s Atlantic Yards Residential Buildings, Will Include World’s Tallest Modular Tower
Posted by steve at 6:52 PM
November 17, 2011
The "Modern Blueprint" and the Triumph of Marketing over Memory
In an alternate universe, a Brooklyn newspaper columnist could have filed this dispatch yesterday.
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder imagines a world in which news outlets actually out a little effort into their reporting.
The "Modern Blueprint" and the Triumph of Marketing over Memory
The walk is little more than a mile, but on Tuesday it connected two very different worlds. At lunch hour outside Brooklyn's Borough Hall, there stood a snazzy new trailer, complete with blinking video screens, that was dubbed, in overweening form, "The Experience." A vehicle in service to commerce.
The goal: to sell tickets and suites to the opening season, beginning next year, for the Brooklyn Nets in the new Barclays Center.
Fans and downtown office workers/visitors lined up to shoot baskets, egged on by an animated announcer and DJ, hoping to win a free t-shirt. The Nets Dancers, well-toned lasses in bodysuits, clapped appreciatively. Brisk young men, trim and energetic, hawked season tickets.
One inquiring Brooklynite, hearing the tab was some $4500, shook her head in disbelief, only to be reassured that less expensive seats would someday be available. Others, the ones chosen for quotes by the Nets' fake news service, were more enthusiastic.
At 2 pm, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, the wind-up doll of Atlantic Yards support, emerged from his office. He joked about being too short to play basketball among the celebrated hoopsters at Wingate High School.
“Everything we’ve seen about the team has shown it’s a ‘Net positive’ for Brooklyn,” Markowitz said, in words dutifully captured by the Nets' scribe. “It’s something you have to experience for yourself, and – thanks to the EXPERIENCE – now we can.”
...About a mile away, there was a less scripted, less corporate event, one that did not lure the reporters from the city's three dailies who were watching Markowitz.
Posted by eric at 1:12 PM
November 15, 2011
Brutally weird: Times covers lawsuit against BUILD/FCR amid longer article about promotional event for the Nets
Atlantic Yards Report
So, former supporters and construction trainees of Atlantic Yards Community Development Agreement signatory BUILD (Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development) held a press conference today to say, basically, we were robbed (because promised union memberships and project jobs didn't pan out, leading to a lawsuit), and how does the New York Times cover it?
In the 11th paragraph of a 19-paragraph CityRoom post headlined Nets Hold a Rally Amid a Lockout and an Uncertain Season.
...My comment (not yet posted):
The framing of the lawsuit--as a subordinate item amid coverage of a far less meaningful promotional event involving the Nets--disserves readers. It deserves its own article, and the juxtaposition is awkward.
Though Caldwell said trainees had signed a waiver of payment, at the press conference--not attended by the Times--a lawyer for the plaintiffs said that such a waiver was unenforceable, and that the workers had to be paid.
As for DePlasco's numbers--that "19 of the trainees found jobs in property management, retail or construction related positions"--the issue is: how many got the union jobs that the plaintiffs said were explicitly promised? (Some are working at McDonald's and Planet Fitness. Only one is working at Atlantic Yards.)
One of the reasons we didn't learn these statistics earlier relates to another issue raised in the lawsuit: Forest City Ratner's failure to hire the Independent Compliance Monitor required by the Community Benefits Agreement.
Posted by eric at 11:14 PM
November 13, 2011
Journalism or advertising? Daily News promotes next Nets promotional event for new mobile marketing tool, claims "luxury suites are already half-gone"
Atlantic Yards Report
There's another piece of journalism-as-advertising in today's New York Daily News, headlined NBA lockout aside, Nets working hard to sell New York on next season's team, Barclays Center & Brooklyn.
What's the mark of success? "About 50% of their 100 suites — average price $250,000 — are already sold," declares the Daily News. The headline deck states "luxury suites are already half-gone."
Except that was the approximate number in July, too.
More puffery
The other piece of news? A preview of a media event:
On Tuesday, the Nets roll out their latest fan-friendly attraction: “The Experience,” a state-of-the-art, interactive, souped-up and hooped-up mobile marketing tool.
The 40-foot-long trailer, with hardwood floors inside and a rooftop deejay booth, offers fans everything from a touch of Nets history to a chance to buy gear to an opportunity to fire jumpers at a regulation-height hoop.
Music pumps from speakers up high, while the trailer’s back end is set up to serve food and drinks to fans — just around the corner from an electronic scoreboard.
...Nets General Manager Billy King and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz will unveil “The Experience” on the plaza outside Borough Hall.
How often has the Daily News covered, say, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz's dishonest shilling for Forest City Ratner's effort to recruit Chinese immigrant investors seeking green cards? Never.
Posted by steve at 10:49 PM
November 7, 2011
Journalism or advertising? Inaccurate NY1 piece posits that "Barclays Suite Showroom Has Robust Sales"
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder follows up on a ridiculously hollow bit of "news."
Let's take a closer look at the 11/3/11 NY 1 item headlined Barclays Suite Showroom Has Robust Sales.
Despite the headlined, there's no evidence in the piece that the sales are robust. We learn that "The Nets sales group says it has sold half of the available suites since they went on the market in March."
That's not true. Actually, suites went on sale three years earlier, in 2008. They had sold some 26 suites--about one quarter of the current total--by May 2008.
By July of this year, they had sold "close to half" of the 100 suites, according to Crain's. So in three years they went from one-quarter to about one-half. That's not so robust.
Journalism or advertising?
The rest of the piece is an advertisement, letting us know the strategy of those promoting the arena....
NoLandGrab: Honestly, Barclays Center suite sales have so far been more bust than robust.
Related content...
NY1, Barclays Suite Showroom Has Robust Sales
Posted by eric at 11:25 AM
November 6, 2011
The Civilians turned ULURP into a song. Now ProPublica tunes up redistricting and hyrdrofracking.
Atlantic Yards Report
So, remember when The Civilians, for their musical play In the Footprint: The Battle over Atlantic Yards, produced a song about ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure) to help explain the difference between city and state oversight?
They were ahead of their time. (So much for the Brooklyn Paper's scorn.)
Turns out that Pro Publica, the nonprofit public interest journalism organization, has begun to produce catchy song videos to help audiences ease into complicated topics like redistricting and hydrofracking. Examples below.
Click through and give a listen.
Posted by steve at 5:14 PM
November 3, 2011
Paper of Record?
Battle for Brooklyn
We're sure the business relationship between The New York Times and Forest City Ratner Companies has nothing to do with this. Right? Surely, it's just a coincidence. Right?
About a month ago we screened our film “Battle for Brooklyn” in Bellingham Washington. After the film I mentioned to people that they could support the film by writing reviews on the NY Times readers review section. At that point we had 12 powerfully positive reviews and a five star rating (based on 84 votes). A couple of days later I checked to see if anyone had written a review. There was a new review, but the site now said that the film had 29 ratings and a 1 star. Obviously something was wrong.
I contacted a friend at the NY Times to see if he could help. He got the run around for a few days, but was finally told that it was a data issue. Apparently, when they ported the data from one place to another it went cockeyed. At this point I wrote to the film editor, who had been contacted by my friend about the problem. I asked, if they couldn’t fix the data right away, that they make a note on the page to let people know that the data was inaccurate. I was told it was “out of their hands.” Apparently its a “product development” issue.
I understand that data problems happen. However, once the data is published, it becomes an editorial problem. In the age of crowd sourced information, where does responsibility for erroneous information lie?
...After three weeks of waiting for the problem to be fixed, I finally contacted the public editor. I was told that they would look into it. That was one week ago.
NoLandGrab: As Atlantic Yard Report's Norman Oder has often pointed out, given the business relationship between FCRC and The Times (the former developed the latter's headquarters building a few years ago), the paper should be exacting in its coverage. Yet today, nearly eight years after the Atlantic Yards project was announced, they were still erroneously locating it in Downtown Brooklyn. More like the Paper of Wreckord.
Posted by eric at 11:43 PM
Easton, Postrel Win Bastiat Prize
Future of Capitali$m
by Ira Stoll
Atlantic Yards is winning awards! Sort of.
Tom Easton of the Economist and Virginia Postrel of Bloomberg split the $50,000 award for the Bastiat Prize for Journalism, which was awarded Wednesday night at a dinner in New York.
...Damon Root, an editor at Reason magazine, won the $10,000 Hoiles Prize, in part for a piece on the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn headlined The Great Basketball Swindle.
Posted by eric at 11:17 AM
November 2, 2011
Compressing the story, and getting it wrong: the Real Deal on Ratner's Atlantic Yards comeback (and was FCR spokesman accurate in saying first building will start this year?)
Atlantic Yards Report
From an 11/1/11 article in the Real Deal headlined Climbing back to the top: A look at some of real estate's most impressive comebacks:
Indeed, just when Atlantic Yards -- the 22-acre combination housing development/basketball stadium -- seemed dead, developer Bruce Ratner got the project back on track, partly by dropping starchitect Frank Gehry's pricey design for a more prosaic one from SHoP Architects. Ratner, who runs Forest City Ratner Enterprises, also eliminated much of the previously planned housing from the site, won some key lawsuits and even paid his chief antagonist, Daniel Goldstein, founder of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, $3 million to relocate.
Much of the opposition was directed at plans to use eminent domain to remove homes and businesses that stood in the way of the project.
Critics might not be mollified by the changes at the project, which broke ground last year. To wit: The arena, promised as a model of urban integration, will be flanked by several parking lots, and might not look that much different from any suburban basketball arena. Still, it will have at least three apartment buildings, according to Forest City spokesman Joe DePlasco. He said construction on one of those building will begin this year. And, he said, the arena is on track to open in time for the 2012 NBA season.
Probably the most interesting statement here is DePlasco's claim that construction on one of the buildings will begin this year, especially since Empire State Development CEO Kenneth Adams said September 26 that groundbreaking will be in the first quarter of 2012.
Compressing the story, and getting it wrong
But it's also interesting to see how the story gets compressed.
Related content...
The Real Deal, Climbing back to the top: A look at some of real estate's most impressive comebacks
It was on, then it was off, and now the new Nets basketball arena is on again -- albeit in a severely truncated form. Brooklyn residents have been buzzing about the fact that, after years of protracted legal battles, the arena is now quickly taking form at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues.
Posted by eric at 10:46 AM
October 30, 2011
What's the press for? "To hold those in power accountable." But a lack of attention or sustained coverage diminishes accountability.
Atlantic Yards Report
At the Brooklyn Book Festival Sunday, September 18, I attended a panel featuring three journalists, all Pulitzer Prize winners.
One, Jesse Eisinger of ProPublica ("an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest"), observed, "The primary function of the press is to hold those in power accountable."
That's a justification for First Amendment protections, but that doesn't mean the press consistently recognizes that watchdog role.
That issues arises in the book Bad News: How America's Business Press Missed the Story of the Century, about the failure to anticipate the financial crisis, despite significant evidence that it was looming.
And yes, there are some observations that apply to Atlantic Yards.
The impact of under-coverage
In an essay titled "Missing the Moment," Ryan Chittum, who writes about the business press for Columbia Journalism Review, observed:
It's easy to find perfectly fine stories than demonstrably wrong ones, especially in the top tier of the financial press. But the hardest part of journalism is the picking of priorities. A news organization can only cover so much. What was left out or under-covered is as much a part of the story of how the press performed as what made the papers.
What about Atlantic Yards: Did the New York Times cover the oversight hearing led by state Senator Bill Perkins? The failure to conduct a market study regarding blight? The delays in the release of the Development Agreement? Even Forest City Ratner's role in Marty Markowitz's fundraising?
Posted by steve at 11:16 PM
October 25, 2011
New New York Times architecture critic expresses concerns for urbanism, not just in "buildings as sculptures" (and what will he say about the arena?)
Atlantic Yards Report
After Herbert Muschamp and Nicolai Ouroussoff, known for their admiration of starchitects and especially Frank Gehry, the New York Times named Michael Kimmelman as architecture critic. And, though some questioned his background as an art and culture critic, Kimmelman has delivered, at least in his initial reviews, far more context than his predecessors.
...So, will Kimmelman visit the Barclays Center next year and only assess the sightlines from upper bowl seats, the view of the scoreboard from Flatbush Avenue, the weathered steel panels, the plethora of branding, and the curious oculus?
...Or will he see the impact of a parking lot one long block on a residential neighborhood, the effect on pedestrians of narrowed sidewalks, and the impact of a zoning override allowing an arena to face residential neighbors across narrow Dean Street?
Will he point out that the oculus exists because the much-touted Urban Room does not, and the Urban Room was supposed to be part of a tower that remains unbuilt? And that that tower was vital to the state and city's optimistic-to-the-point-of-irresponsible economic projections?
Posted by eric at 12:11 PM
October 23, 2011
Oddly, New York Times Movies page now has Battle for Brooklyn at 1.5 stars. But all the written reviews are positive.
Atlantic Yards Report
How could it be that the Atlantic Yards documentary Battle for Brooklyn, which got 14 unanimously positive written reader reviews on the New York Times movies page, end up with a 1.5 rating (up to 5) from with 35 votes, as indicated in the document posted at bottom?
It doesn't make sense to me, nor to the filmmakers, who tweeted about it on October 11, generating an acknowledgement of a yet-uncorrected computer glitch.
...
Something's wrong with the Times's system. Of the 14 written reviews, all (including mine) of which originally had four- and five-star ratings, only two now have star ratings associated with them.
In other words, the system stripped out those positive votes. That allows the aggregate weight of votes not associated with written reviews to take precedence. And votes not associated with written reviews don't deserve more weight, as they require less thought.
According to the film's Facebook page, the Times acknowledged an error with the data, but has not yet fixed the problem.
As with news coverage of Atlantic Yards, I'll repeat my formulation: because of the parent company's business relationship with project developer Forest City Ratner, the Times has an obligation to be exacting in its coverage of Atlantic Yards, and it has not met that obligation. Battle for Brooklyn - Reader Reviews - NYTimes
Posted by steve at 11:02 PM
October 22, 2011
Another book imagines that Walter O'Malley sought a spot "in the Atlantic Yards"
Atlantic Yards Report
As shown at right, in A Moment in Time: An American Story of Baseball, Heartbreak, and Grace, baseball great Ralph Branca (with his co-author) imagines that there was a place, in the 1950s, called "Atlantic Yards."
There wasn't. And it wasn't where Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley wanted to build, either.
Nor will the Barclays Center cost $4 billion. That was once the tab for the entire Atlantic Yards project.
Posted by steve at 3:36 PM
October 12, 2011
Atlantic Yards Media Actors
Urban Media Archeology
Before I get into the project proposal, if you know anyone who has participated in the Atlantic Yards dialogue (attended community meetings, made art about it, whatever) please get in touch! The more possible map points the better. coopd033@newschool
TOPIC:
I propose to map the media actors who cover and have covered the development of Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. My research will span from 2003, when the Newark Star-Ledger first reported Bruce Ranter’s plan to purchase the New Jersey Nets and move them to a new development in Brooklyn, to present, about one year from the completion of Atlantic Yards’ symbolic focus, Barclays Center. Relevant map points would include, where applicable to individual actors: the actor’s home residence, work site, places of convergence with other actors (meeting sites, sites of press conferences, locations of land being constructed/demolished/affected, etc.) interpreted within the context of media and communication.
As a start, some actors I’d include would be: bloggers like Norman Oder (Atlantic Yards Report), Steve and Lumi (No Land Grab), contributors to Atlantic Yards Watch (which is backed by civic organization BrooklynSpeaks), Aaron Naparstek (The Naparstek Post), Jonathan (Brooklyn Views, now dormant) and The Footprint Gazette (now dormant); the 52 members of the Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn advisory board; photographers Tracy Collins, Adrian Kinloch, Jonathan Barkey and artist Peter Krashes; filmmakers Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky (Battle for Brooklyn) and Isabel Hill (Brooklyn Matters); the owner/curator of Flickr’s Atlantic Yards Webcam; The Civilians’ theater performance of “In The Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards.” Moving out from individual actors, I’ll map the meeting places of relevant institutions and committees, such as the Empire State Development, Forest City Ratner, the Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and sites of community hearings, protests and other discussion forums. Certainly the Manhattan home of The New York Times tells a story, a property partially owned (42%), managed and developed by Atlantic Yards’ developer Forest City Ratner. The Atlantic Yards project was parodied in an episode of The Simpsons (S20E08)—does that have a ‘place’?
...For the URT project, I’ll map important sites of Atlantic Yards media actors, with supporting materials they’ve put forth into the Atlantic Yards media network. The photographer Tracy Collins lives here, for example, just three blocks from the construction site (hypothetically), and her studio is over here, and here’s a few of her photos, placed in the locations they were shot.
NoLandGrab: Steve and Lumi? Map THIS, blog boy.
Seriously, we'd be happy to help, and we'll start by pointing out that Tracy Collins is a dude.
Posted by eric at 5:09 PM
October 7, 2011
NetsDaily: happy to have anonymous readers sling nastiness at Goldstein, but no opportunity to weigh in on Yormark's controversy (updated with change)
Atlantic Yards Report
NutsDaily is at it again.
The website NetsDaily, popular with team fans, team brass, and some sportswriters, earlier this year was questioned by a reader for including the seemingly tangential news that Nets Board of Directors Chairman Christophe Charlier was sending singer (and prep school classmate) John Forte on a Russian tour, helping him rebuild his life after prison.
"read the banner…most comprehensive," wrote the main contributor to the site, who goes by the name Net Income, pointing the commenter to the banner: "The most comprehensive source for news about the New Jersey Nets."
NetIncome was eager to link earlier this week to an unflattering and thinly-reported article in the Daily News about Atlantic Yards foe Daniel Goldstein, but not, of course, to any of the follow-ups that cast doubt on the original story.
...NetIncome has claimed "I have won Four Edward R. Murrow awards in my professional life so I have some credibility." Thing is, he's done so while using his name. The blog pseudonym lets him avoid responsibility.
NoLandGrab: Only four? He's more deserving of a bunch of these.
Related content...
Bergen Record, Lawsuit against Nets exec thrown out
Looks like Yormarketing Genius has raised his game to a new level.
A judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought against Nets CEO Brett Yormark by an ex-girlfriend who alleged that he fraudulently induced her to have an abortion.
Reyna Purcell of Upper Saddle River said in a lawsuit filed earlier this year that she became pregnant shortly after she started dating Yormark in October 2010.
Purcell said that she wanted to have a child, but that Yormark told her he would end the relationship if she gave birth. She also alleged that Yormark promised to stay in a relationship if she got an abortion.
Purcell, 34, got an abortion in February, but “shortly thereafter [Yormark] immediately terminated the relationship with the plaintiff and has never spoken to her again,” the lawsuit alleged.
NoLandGrab: We feel awful for Ms. Purcell, but really, she's probably the only person surprised at the way her relationship with Yormark played out.
Posted by eric at 11:55 AM
Brooklyn Paper Blocks Links Re City Rules NOT Requiring That Hi-Decibel Late Night Construction On The Ratner/Prokhorov Arena Be Done At Night
Noticing New York
In an Atlantic Yards Report story we read that the Brooklyn Paper today published an article headlined "Noises on! Barclays Center construction now 24-7-365" that contains the following language, “City rules require that the work be done at night, when traffic is lightest,” leading the reader to infer that city rules are requiring that ALL of the work now being done at night during the now 24/7 schedule must be done at night. That’s not so.
What was more startling however, was reading in the Atlantic Yards Report story that when Atlantic Yards Report’s Norman Oder twice tried to provide corrective comments to the article via the Brooklyn Paper’s “Reader Feedback” feature, his corrections were blocked. (See: Thursday, October 06, 2011, Brooklyn Paper covers after-hours construction but suggests that all of it is required to be done at night. Not so.)
Into the breach we went with a Noticing New York test of the Brooklyn Paper’s correction- censoring block. Here is our comment and our diagnostic of the situation.
Posted by eric at 11:49 AM
October 2, 2011
Daily News claims Goldstein "disses neighbors" by pursuing as-of-right renovation/addition
Atlantic Yards Report
The Daily News article today hyped as an "exclusive," Daniel Goldstein fought the Atlantic Yards project, but disses neighbors with his own construction, reminds me of the tabloid reporter described in The Submission, Amy Waldman's new 9/11 novel:
A tabby all the way--that's what she was. She had no ideology, believed only in information, which she obtained, traded, peddled, packaged, and published, and she opposed any effort to doctor her product.
So Goldstein, a co-founder of Develop Don't Dstroy Brooklyn, bought a new house in Park Slope and planned a renovation and addition. His neighbors don't like it, according to the Daily News:
Next-door neighbor Kathryn Roake, 59, says Goldstein's 18-foot, three-story addition to the back of his building will block the light to her beloved fruit and vegetable garden.
She and another neighbor also think that construction will damage their houses.
What's missing
Here's what's missing from the article: whether Goldstein's plans violate zoning in some way, or whether he's requested a variance from the Department of Buildings.
No, and no.
Nor was any evidence offered showing that the addition would, in fact, block the sun, despite the Daily News's conclusory caption:
...
So the Daily News elevated a garden-variety dispute into a tabloid story.
Related coverage...
Daily News, Neighbors fuming as anti-Atlantic Yards activist Daniel Goldstein plans large addition to new home
By Erin Durkin
The Brooklyn activist who led the resistance to the Atlantic Yards project has angered his new neighbors with a construction project of his own.
Daniel Goldstein, whose Prospect Heights condo was seized by eminent domain to make way for the new Nets arena and 16-tower project, bought a new home in Park Slope earlier this year - and neighbors are seething over his plans to build an addition.
Posted by steve at 10:42 PM
Auditions for Nets' announce spot generates coverage in four news outlets; ESD chief's performance ignored
Atlantic Yards Report
The New York Post assigned two reporters for a 10/1/11 article headlined Nets’ loudmouths: Wacky tryouts for PA gig. Two Daily News reporters were responsible for Talking their way in: Hundreds seek job as new voice of the Brooklyn Nets.
Radio station WNYC offered a slideshow and NY1 produced a report.
It's a lot easier to report a cute feature like this than to try to keep tabs on the government agency responsible for Atlantic Yards. None of the outlets covered the meeting in Brooklyn last Monday in which Kenneth Adams, CEO of Empire State Development, defended the project and deflected questions.
Posted by steve at 10:39 PM
September 30, 2011
"Jay-Z Rocks the House"? Brooklyn Paper stays sunny side up
Atlantic Yards Report
The Brooklyn Paper, ever eager to boost Atlantic Yards, this week informs us that "JAY-Z ROCKS THE HOUSE."
Well, maybe he will when he plays the Barlcays Center next year, but his promotional presentation on 9/26/11 lasted less than two minutes, and was, in the words of a Times hoops writer, "brief and anticlimactic."
I called it "an anticlimax for news," too.
Of course the Brooklyn Paper didn't bother to report on the curious statements made by developer Bruce Ratner or Borough President Marty Markowitz.
...Or the meeting Empire State Development CEO Kenneth Adams had that same night with Brooklyn elected officials.
Or the glaring discrepancy between the rules that trucks at the Atlantic Yards site are supposed to follow and their actual performance.
Posted by eric at 11:48 AM
September 26, 2011
Bread and Circuses
Battle for Brooklyn
Filmmaker Michael Galinsky has a must-read post on the Battle for Brooklyn web site that juxtaposes the manufactured media nonsense of today's "Brooklyn Nets" announcement with the relative lack of coverage of the provocative, aggressive and violent tactics being used by the NYPD against protesters on Wall Street. It's powerful stuff, and we can't really do justice to it with an excerpt, so we'll just bring you the comic-diversion portion.
Click thru to read it all.
Today I went down to a tent on the plaza of the Atlantic Center mall to see Jay Z make a “surprise” announcement that he will do 8 shows at the arena and that the team will be called the Brooklyn Nets. It was a total bread and circus moment. While there are hundreds of people protesting on Wall Street there were hundreds of press people at this press event dutifully reporting the dominant narrative that they were led to. When I pointed this out to press people they didn’t see the irony.
When I first arrived (at the wrong location) I saw Marty Markowitz talking to an ABC news reporter.
 |
I offered Marty a copy of the film. He refused to take it and told me that it was propaganda. I explained that I made the film and asked if he had seen it. “No, but I have had plenty of people tell me that it’s propaganda.” I told him that I took offense at that notion as I had taken great pains to make it even handed. I asked him again if he was sure that he didn’t want a copy. He did not. I didn’t film this exchange because I had no ill intent. I sincerely wanted him to have a chance to view the film. I offered one to the reporter as I had filmed him at the ground breaking. He didn’t want one either. Then Marty yelled at me that they didn’t have to take one.
Posted by eric at 3:11 PM
September 22, 2011
Adding context to coverage of the MSG renovation; will that come with Barclays coverage too?
Atlantic Yards Report
A New York Times Dining section article yesterday on the upgrade in food offerings at Madison Square Garden, headlined At Madison Square Garden, it’s Hey, Getcher Lobster Roll, contained this piece of welcome context:
The Garden is being renovated without state or city subsidies, although it will continue to benefit from its longtime property tax exemption. To pay for the work, the Garden has said that the cost of Knicks season tickets will jump an average 49 percent, and Rangers seats will go up by 23 percent. Twenty new courtside-access suites (fitted with bathrooms and fireplaces) have a yearly rental fee of about $1 million each; all are spoken for. Their food spectrum will be drawn from Mr. Vongerichten’s suite menu and the other upscale concessionaires.
Will the future coverage of the Barclays Center, describing all the ways the Nets are trying to play to the public, mention the subsidies, tax breaks, naming rights and luxury suites behind the new building?
NoLandGrab: Yes! All Dining Section coverage of the Barclays Center is sure to add that context.
Posted by eric at 11:15 AM
In China, the Times points out, a state agency has a built-in conflict; in Brooklyn, a not dissimilar conflict gets a pass
Atlantic Yards Report
A New York Times article yesterday headlined Anger and Suspicion as Survivors Await Chinese Crash Report, about a rail crash involving a high-speed train that killed 40 people and injured 191, described the delay in releasing an official investigation.
The China Railways Ministry, the Times pointed out, has two million workers and has significant power:
It owns the railways it regulates, a built-in conflict that critics say encourages corruption, endangers safety in the name of profit and hinders accountability. Its safety data are not publicly released. It runs its own court system and, until recently, its own police force.
A built-in conflict? What about the conflict involving a state agency that partners with developer Forest City Ratner on the Atlantic Yards project and also oversees that project?
NoLandGrab: Easy answer — the China Railways Ministry is not the development partner of The New York Times.
Posted by eric at 11:03 AM
September 20, 2011
"Nets bring new playground to Canarsie school"? Actually, they paid 1/8 of the cost, but neither NY Post nor NY1 notice
Atlantic Yards Report
It's not enough that Bruce Ratner is "quietly" helping a blind teenage Sudanese ex-slave. Now he's leveraging taxpayer funds 7-to-1 to "bring" us playgrounds, too!
What if more reporters receiving press releases had taken "antimanipulation" in school?
We wouldn't get headlines like this, from the New York Post's Brooklyn blog yesterday.
Or like this, from NY1:
What did the Nets bring?
Though the Nets played a part, they didn't "bring" the playground. They paid only 1/8 of the cost.
Of course, those reading the vague Nets press release would have had to ask about the role of the Barclays Nets Community Alliance in the "refurbished playground it has funded at P.S. 276 in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn."
(Emphasis added)
Click through to read the God's honest truth press release.
Related nonsense...
The Brooklyn Blog [NYPost.com], Nets bring new playground to Canarsie school
NY1, Nets Score Big With New School Playgrounds
Posted by eric at 11:55 AM
September 17, 2011
A Ratner obituary (reprinted from 50 years ago) in the Times
Atlantic Yards Report
Yesterday's New York Times featured the advertisement below. It appeared on the page opposite the page containing obituaries. That also meant it was on the page of the Sports section that included the section's sole article about pro basketball.
"Well-Known Cleveland Philanthropist" Harry Ratner, of course, was the father of Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner.
Posted by steve at 7:02 PM
What Would Jane Jacobs Say?
WNET
This week, Modern Library is publishing a silver anniversary re-issue of “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” complete with a new introduction of Jason Epstein, the book’s original editor. To honor the occasion, MetroFocus looked at some of the contemporary local players in the world of urban planning through the lens of the late Jane Jacobs:
...
Daniel Goldstein, resident and activist in Brooklyn
Goldstein fought to stop the construction of the Atlantic Yards project, the largest redevelopment plan in recent New York history. The project was a perfect storm of private sector might and political will. In 2003, developer Forest City Ratner announced his plan to buy the Nets, move the team to Brooklyn and build a $2.5 billion development in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn.
On the Jane Jacobs’ scale: The similarities between Jacobs and Goldstein are easy to spot, though he does not share her taste in large black spectacles and bangs. Goldstein rallied his neighbors against a powerful developer that used eminent domain to seize private property, staged protests and kept a detailed blog about the Atlantic Yards Project. Similarly, Jacobs led a grassroots campaign in the early ’60s to nix Robert Moses’ plan to build a highway that cut through Lower Manhattan. However, in her case, the battle was won. Goldstein’s story is chronicled in “The Battle for Brooklyn,” a new documentary by Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky.
Posted by steve at 6:50 PM
September 11, 2011
Do sports heal? Fans split on "a lot" vs. "a little" (so what do civilians say?)
Atlantic Yards Report
As part of a package of 9/11 coverage, in Do sports heal?, ESPN the Magazine polled readers--by definition, fairly intense sports fans--and found, as the graphic below indicates, a plurality said sports helped a lot, another significant chunk said sports helped a bit, and nearly one-fifth said it made no difference.
I suspect that civilians less interested in sports expect lesser healing. I'd also bet that respondents to ESPN skew male and younger rather than female and older.
This blog entry goes on to quote several comments made for the online version of ESPN the Magazine Online and then points out a summary of the different opinions.
On reading the above, it strikes me that the two camps aren't that far apart. There are those who believe that sports serve as distraction to help with healing. And there are those who believe that sports serve as distraction to simply provide a time out in the healing process.
Daily News columnist Mike Lupica, in today's The sports world offered a needed break in the days after 9/11 tragedy, encapsulated those two camps:
We talked a lot in those first days 10 years ago about what sports could do and what it couldn't and how it might help us feel just a little bit better about things. We would see during the World Series how true that was, when we would try to escape the horror of downtown Manhattan with uptown baseball in the Bronx that will never be forgotten.
Tino's home run. Brosius' home run. Derek Jeter becoming Mr. November one night after midnight. It is impossible to believe that the old place was ever louder than it was on those nights and in those moments, when sports wasn't an escape so much as it was a way for us to trick ourselves into believing that the world was the way it had been on Sept. 10. And Sept. 9. And Sept. 8.
...Sports mattered as much as it ever had in those days and not one bit more than it should have.
Posted by steve at 9:46 PM
The New York Times Takes an Editorial Position on the Subject of Encouraging Competition and It’s Inconsistent With Its Position on Atlantic Yards
Noticing New York
Here's an item from the past week.
Last week the New York Times ran an editorial premised on the widely held assumption that a competitive market is good and should therefore be fostered by government. The editorial endorsed the Justice Department’s opposition, with a antitrust lawsuit it just filed to block “AT&T’s $39 billion attempt to buy the nation’s fourth-largest carrier, T-Mobile.” See: Protecting Innovation and Competition, September 1, 2011.
The Times provided a bromidic analysis of why the government action supporting competition is desirable:
The merger poses a clear anticompetitive threat. Not only would it give AT&T more than 40 percent of the market, it would take out a scrappy and innovative rival that competed profitably by offering cheaper service plans and took risks others would not.
But providing lip service to bromides is not the same as intellectual analysis or the deeper thinking necessary to achieve a consistent or intellectually honest world view. At the same time that the Times is spouting off about the presumed benefit of economic competition it has supported the quashing of competition for Forest City Ratner, the real estate developer and governmental subsidy collector with which it partnered to create its new Times headquarters.
Posted by steve at 9:42 PM
September 10, 2011
Before deciding to move (with subsidies) to One World Trade Center, Condé Nast apparently considered Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards Report
In One World Trade Center: Making the Freedom Tower safe for Condé Nast., part of New York Magazine's special 9/11 Encyclopedia issue, there's a curious mention of... Atlantic Yards:
Around the time the Port Authority gained control of the building in 2006, Condé Nast executives began to discuss the future of their magazine empire. Condé’s lease at 4 Times Square was set to expire in 2019, and its broker, Mary Ann Tighe of CB Richard Ellis, worked with [Chairman Si] Newhouse to develop options...
For its role in remaking Times Square, Condé Nast had been rewarded with tax breaks, giving it an annual rent of about $40 per square foot. In looking for a similar deal, Newhouse’s team even pushed into outer boroughs, touring Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, addresses in Long Island City, and locations along the Jersey City waterfront. One morning in the fall of 2009, [Port Authority Executive Director Christopher] Ward got the call he’d been waiting for: Si Newhouse told him he wanted to tour ground zero. Months later, outlines of a deal emerged.
It's hard to imagine that Condé Nast would have left Manhattan--after all, don't some of their biggest magazines rely on close relationships with the fashion industry?
Note that broker Tighe has a longtime relationship with Forest City Ratner and bought a piece of the Nets (though I'm not sure she still has it). So either she was just doing Bruce Ratner a courtesy or someone thought the AY office space--with extra subsidies?--could have been spectacularly affordable.
Posted by steve at 7:41 PM
August 25, 2011
A tale of two Brooklyn Paper front pages
Atlantic Yards Report
What was once known as TimesRatnerReport might now be better known as BrooklynPaperReport. Norman Oder highlights some of the latter's recent fumbles in its Atlantic Yards coverage.
Posted by eric at 11:38 AM
August 22, 2011
Heritage of "Journalistic Enterprise and Courage" Duly Noted: The Modern Day New York Times Meets and Likes Its Boss Tweeds
Noticing New York
Michael D.D. White with a spot-on essay about The Times — boy, have they a-changed.
(Above, an 1872 Harper’s Weekly drawing by Thomas Nast of Tammany Hall Boss Tweed and Horace Greeley influential publisher of the New York Tribune, modified somewhat with the modern faces of Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. and real estate partner and developer Bruce Ratner.)
A few days ago the New York Times complimented itself on its editorial page for the paper’s historic “journalistic enterprise and courage” in covering and eventually bringing to an end the corruption of Tammany Boss William M. Tweed. (Editorial: The Man Who Helped Stop Boss Tweed, August 17, 2011.)
...The Times concludes in good parable style by teasing out the following moral:
Today’s media landscape is obviously very different. But some things are unchanged. Scoops are still exciting; even more rewarding is helping to ensure civic honesty.
One might infer from all of this that the Times is promoting itself as still interested in scoops and the rewards of ensuring “civic honesty.”
Only one problem: Yes, no doubts some things are “obviously very different” (while human nature being what it is “some things are unchanged”) but the closest analogue to the Tweed Court House scandal of the 1870s in present day New York City is clearly the Atlantic Yards scandal, and when it comes to Atlantic Yards the Times is interested in neither scoops nor the rewards of ensuring “civic honesty.”
In fact, it is far worse. The Times editorial about its exemplary handling of the Tweed scandal makes the point that “Tweed forces” tried to buy off the paper, offering “$5 million — equivalent to $100 million today” to “George Jones, this newspaper’s founding publisher” to back off and refrain from publishing its scoop. In 1871 the Times didn’t accept the offer, but in this century the Times was offered an integrity-compromising deal it did accept: The Times got to benefit financially from the questionable use of eminent domain (many would shout "abuse") and from partnering with Forest City Ratner, the developer of Atlantic Yards, when the Times built its new headquarters building. Since that time the Times has not been critical of, or informative about, the abuse of eminent domain or about Forest City Ratner misconduct. They have also not been informative or critical about the bad urban planning that the Forest City Ratner Atlantic Yards mega-project and the Ratner/Prokhorov "Barclays" basketball arena represent.
Posted by eric at 10:44 AM
August 21, 2011
Battle For Brooklyn Movie Review
Shockya
By Brent Simon
This reviewer recommends that his readers see the documentary "Battle For Brooklyn" because, even though the film exposes some unpleasantness, "it can sometimes be bracing, in a good way, to be confronted by the ugliness of reality on its own terms, in broad daylight."
A powerful movie about an important and little-reflected-upon topic, “Battle For Brooklyn” is a telling snapshot of (offscreen) political maneuvering, and the tossed-around wrecking-ball weight of corporate might as it relates to individual rights. Americans would be wise to heed movies like this one, because when politicians talk about corporations being people or citizens, they’re certainly not referring to equal-footing status. More money, after all, just equals more “free speech,” and more “rights.”
Posted by steve at 3:20 PM
August 20, 2011
Interviews with "Battle for Brooklyn" Documentarians
Here are further insights in the documentary "Battle for Brooklyn" from the team that made it.
LA Weekly, Film
Battle For Brooklyn: Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley's Documentary Has Echoes in L.A.'s Football Stadium Controversy
By Sarah LaBrie
Galinsky says his focus on the human aspects of the project was a calculated attempt to "retake the narrative for the community." He hopes to present information to the public in a way that newspapers, hampered by the economy, no longer can. "No publications have the resources to deal with complex issues. The developer sends out a press release. The opposition -- when it finally forms sends out a press release -- and they treat them as equals."
Ultimately, he says, he wants to force people to think more deeply about what they read. He hopes Battle for Brooklyn will raise awareness of the downsides of development and the danger of eminent domain abuse, which allowed Ratner to build in Prospect Heights without community input. Although the L.A. stadium project doesn't involve eminent domain, he says, it does stand to pose environmental and economic risks to residents of downtown Los Angeles. By publicizing the project as a source of revenue for the city and for tax payers, Phil Anschutz and his company are being purposely disingenuous.
indieWIRE, INTERVIEW | Michael Galinsky Takes the “Battle for Brooklyn” Across the Country"
by Bryce J. Renninger
When crafting this film, how did you know what story you wanted to tell?
We were concerned with not making a film that felt like an activist film, but we were following activist in a verite way. We decided this film was about [Dan Goldstein] when we realized he was the one guy who was not gonna sell out. Dan was gonna lose his home and his whole way of living in the world. This is a large community fight, but we decided to tell it through one character. Earlier, we loaded the film up with other subjects and it got really boring.
How has the response been with all those involved?
We took pains not to involve ourselves in the fight. In a way, the film is about eminent domain, about kleptocracy in government and special interests working together to do things that benefit themselves. Errol Louis, who wrote about the Atlantic Yards project glowingly in the Daily News, thought the film was fair, which we were worried about. The people who know the situation well think we went easy on the government and the developers. We had a lot more about the corruption, but it became so overwhelming to people. It depressed them too much. The film, as it stands, really paints the government and the developer in a negative light. They colluded together. We were a little nervous. It didn’t represent everyone in the fight against Atlantic Yards, and it wasn’t a pedantic strident story of their fight, but they’ve really gotten behind it.
Posted by steve at 3:43 PM
More Los Angeles Notices for "Battle for Brooklyn"
In L.A., they're learning from the totally tubular documentary "Battle for Brooklyn" that eminent domain abuse and Bruce Ratner are grody to the max.
LA Weekly, Battle for Brooklyn
By Ben Mercer
The documentary opens with a title-card definition of eminent domain," and a scene of last holdout Goldstein standing up to the goons patrolling his condo building's rooftop. Instances of project-proponent doublespeak follow: Podium-banging Nets owner/AY developer Bruce Ratner invokes "the royal 'I'"; Sen. Chuck Schumer says job creation "enervates." [sic] him; a Forest City Ratner VIP appears to spin displacement as a grand American tradition. Goldstein and friends propose less invasive alternative footprints, and then contest the legality of the state seizing their "blighted" property, at seven years' worth of rallies and hearings.
Thompson On Hollywood, Indie Doc Double-Header: Battle for Brooklyn, Darwin Show Two Sides of America
They say you can’t fight City Hall, but you wouldn’t know it watching Battle for Brooklyn... There’s so much sparring in Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky’s new documentary about New York’s Atlantic Yards project that you’ll think you’ve stumbled into a screening of The Fighter . The opposing sides — the project developer, Forest City Ratner, and a grassroots organization that wants to sink said project, Develop Don’t Destroy — canvas, rally, plot, meet, speak, and, yes, battle over what city councilwoman Letitia James calls “the soul of Brooklyn.” It’s a credit to the filmmakers that Battle for Brooklyn convinces you they’re fighting for even more than that.
Eminent Domain Report, Eminent Domain Documentary "Battle for Brooklyn" Makes its Way to Los Angel
By Brad Kuhn
Do public agencies make low-ball offers? Are areas that are designated as "blighted" really so? Is eminent domain for redevelopment "Un-American"? Is there any point to fighting City Hall? No matter how you feel, this movie may evoke some strong emotions. If you can't make it to see the documentary, but want to know more, I'd suggest checking out Robert Thomas' inversecondemnation.com blog post covering the case in detail.
Posted by steve at 2:41 PM
August 16, 2011
New Jersey county reverses stance on lone-bidder jail deal on which the Times (and then a Senator) focused
Atlantic Yards Report
From today's New York Times, Reversing Course, Officials in New Jersey Cancel One-Bid Immigrant Jail Deal:
NEWARK — In a sharp turnaround, officials in Essex County, N.J., announced Monday that they would not accept the sole bid on a contract to run a 450-bed immigrant detention center after questions were raised about the transparency and fairness of the bidding process.
The lone bidder was an affiliate of Community Education Centers, a private detention company whose executives have close political ties to Gov. Chris Christie and the top elected official in Essex County, Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr.
The county appeared to give special treatment to Community Education, though its record in housing immigrant detainees is checkered. After The New York Times reported on the contracting process last month, Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey wrote to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to ask senior officials to review the deal.
In a telephone call Monday afternoon, James R. Paganelli, Essex County’s counsel, said the county would put out another request for bids in the fall to attract more bidders and better terms. He called it “a business decision” and said the allegations of improprieties played no role. “We want to foster competition, because that makes everybody sharpen their pencils and we hope to get better rates from people,” he said.
...Reporters pressed Mr. DiVincenzo and his staff on possible shortcomings of the bidding process: The county did not actively seek out other bidders, a common practice in government contracts, and its 23-day deadline on the multimillion-dollar bid was unusually short.
On 7/28/11, I pointed to the similarities between this situation and that of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Vanderbilt Yard, which was seemingly assigned to Forest City Ratner early on, 18 months before an RFP.
One difference? This time, the Times paid attention.
Posted by eric at 9:59 AM
August 14, 2011
Today's correction: Times identifies Civilians' play about AY as concerning "the Navy Yards development in Downtown Brooklyn"
Atlantic Yards Report
From the Arts section of today's New York Times, in the column headlined The Week Ahead: Aug. 14 — 20:
Theater
Charles Isherwood
The New York theater troupe THE CIVILIANS is summering in the Berkshires. The company, which specializes in documentary theater pieces drawn from extensive interviews, is creating its new show on the Nikos Stage at the Williamstown Theater Festival. Although it is also based on real experience, “YOU BETTER SIT DOWN: TALES FROM MY PARENTS’ DIVORCE” nevertheless represents a departure for the company.
Instead of foraging for material in the public sphere, as it has in previous shows like “Gone Missing,” a cabaret musical about all the things that people can manage to lose, and “In the Footprint,” which chronicled the conflict over the Navy Yards development in Downtown Brooklyn, the company is using the life stories of its own members as the raw material.Actually, "In the Footprint" is about Atlantic Yards, which is in Prospect Heights--and, at the western tip, arguably would extend Downtown Brooklyn.
Posted by steve at 10:28 PM
August 13, 2011
Whither the Times's architecture chair? New occupant, art critic Kimmelman, coming, as "conventional wisdom" about Ouroussoff concerns detachment from NYC, notably disembodied AY critiques
Atlantic Yards Report
In the New York Observer, Jonathan Liu's essay, Times Art Critic Michael Kimmelman to Take Over as Paper’s Architecture Critic, does a good job of sketching the importance of the post, occupied by just four critics since 1963:
The late Herbert Muschamp (he passed away in 2007) took over in the early 1990s... Muschamp celebrated favorites like the Bilbao Guggenheim with the florid prose and omnivorous interests that might best be called fin de siècle.
Nicolai Ouroussoff, a Muschamp protégé, has held the post since 2004. He announced his resignation June 6. A month later, The Times named his replacement, Michael Kimmelman, the paper’s chief art critic, who will be returning to New York from four years in Europe. Unlike his predecessors, Mr. Kimmelman, who takes the reins at the end of this month, doesn’t have formal training in architecture, or much of a track record as an architectural critic. He will continue to cover art...
“[Kimmelman’s] profiles of architects have been very good, but they aren’t criticism." [said the critic and historian Alexandra Lange] "But his hiring is insulting for the sense one has that The Times doesn’t think it is worth spending a whole salary on an architecture critic...”
Why it matters, and why AY matters
Liu writes:
For Ms. Lange, “the power of the Times critic job is in the fact that their reviews may be the only architecture criticism many people read. This is still true.” Yet when future generations consider the Ouroussoff Era, the defining text—assuming they still use Google—may be Alexandra Lange’s.
He refers to her "devastating takedown," headlined “Why Nicolai Ouroussoff Is Not Good Enough,” in the February 2010 Design Observer, a dissent that "has become more like conventional wisdom."
And what was the centerpiece of Lange's critique? As she wrote (and I excerpted):
Exhibits A and B in this critique are Ouroussoff’s reviews of the massive Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. It was unclear from his first review whether Ouroussoff had ever been to Brooklyn, so grateful did he think we should be for the services of (Los Angeles) architect Frank Gehry.
Posted by steve at 11:14 PM
Update #83: LA- Brooklyn- DVDs
Kickstarter
Here's an update from the producers of the documentary "Battle of Brooklyn."
Hello All
Lots of exciting news to report:
DVD's went out this week to those of you who responded to our request for addresses.
Battle will have it's last screening at BK Heights this MONDAY (not Wed. this week ) as we need the print for Los Angeles- though it should run again soon- we will update you about that- it's been doing well enough to keep running for a long time. We will be there for q and a and we will have posters for sale!!! Those just came in.
We are geaing up for our visit to LA to launch Battle. The film runs at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills.
Daniel, Shabnam, Suki and I will be at the Friday and Saturday 720 screenings- we will also likely be at the 5:00 ones as well.
Fri: 5:00, 7:20 & 9:45
Sat: 12:20, 2:40, 5:00, 7:20 & 9:45
Sun: 12:20, 2:40, 5:00 & 7:20
...Mon-Thu: 5:00 & 7:20Please help us spread the word. LA is a tough town we know- but this film is more relevant than ever with the City Council's recent approval of a Stadium Deal based on ridiculous financial and job projections.
Out of 750 articles about the deal- only 1 I found was anything but a press release restatement.
Posted by steve at 11:05 PM
August 12, 2011
Atlantic Yards "flying up"? On Brian Lehrer, a weak update
Atlantic Yards Report
The arena's rising, sure, but the development is not flying up in the slightest.
Guest host Jami Floyd, who displayed the unfortunate tendency to laugh at things not so funny, like the rat problem around the Atlantic Yards site. Guest Brown suggested, erroneously, that Chinese investors seeking green cards for purportedly job-creating investments were investing "in the arena."
As I commented, they're investing in something called the "Brooklyn Arena and Infrastructure Project," which is replacing a land loan and will go to infrastructure (and possibly other things).
Of course potential investors were told they were investing in the arena, but that was deceptive.
Posted by eric at 9:50 AM
Taking the Times to task for its EB-5 coverage, again
Atlantic Yards Report.
The Times opened up comments on its curious article today on Chinese investment in New York. Almost nobody commented on the EB-5 angle, which seemed shoehorned into the story. My comment again took the Times to task...
Posted by eric at 7:11 AM
August 11, 2011
Times article on Chinese investment in New York whiffs on Forest City Ratner's EB-5 venture
Atlantic Yards Report
A front-page article in today's New York Times, headlined As Investors, Chinese Turn to New York, stunningly maintains the newspaper's see-no-evil posture toward Forest City Ratner's questionable recruitment of investors seeking green cards.
...The Chinese putting money into Atlantic Yards--'scuse me, the "Brooklyn Arena and Infrastructure Project"--aren't making real investments. They're buying green cards for themselves and their families, allowing their children to be educated in America.
...They're supposed to create jobs. No jobs would be created.
Would the Chinese money support residential and office towers? Forest City's partner in China told the investors they were putting money into a basketball arena. That's why Forest City sent Darryl (Chocolate Thunder) Dawkins to China.
More recently, Forest City executives have said the money would be used to refinance a land loan, as well as pay for infrastructure. Or that they haven't decided.
Posted by eric at 9:32 AM
August 10, 2011
Coming from City Limits: Brooklyn News Bureau
Atlantic Yards Report
An announcement of a new Brooklyn news source, as noted below, that "will spotlight media-deprived communities like Central Brooklyn, as well as immigrant groups and areas undergoing change."
It's a welcome addition to the media ecosystem, but $50,000 a year over two years can only go so far. Perhaps the initial funding will generate additional support.
Click thru for the full announcement.
Posted by eric at 6:45 PM
August 8, 2011
From The L Magazine's Best of Brooklyn: "Best Local Blog" is... this one
Atlantic Yards Report
From The L Magazine's The Best of Brooklyn, the cover package in the issue dated August 3:
Best Local Blog
Atlantic Yards Report
Many might have given up on fighting the Atlantic Yards development, seeing it as a lost cause, an inevitability. But Norman Oder's watchdog blog, now in its sixth year, is still attacking the project—its false promises and environmental costs, as well as its credulous media coverage—several times a day.By the way, no one told me about this, beforehand or after publication. I learned of it when I picked up a copy of the print magazine two days ago.
NoLandGrab: Let us be the first to congratulate Atlantic Yards Report for unseating NoLandGrab as best local blog, a title we held for six years running.
OK, actually, we've never been named Best Local Blog. Maybe we oughta launch "The Grabbies."
Posted by eric at 10:51 AM
August 6, 2011
Sycophantic Daily News real estate correspondent, calling Ratner "charming" and "admirable," deems Beekman Tower something the developer has "given" to New York
Atlantic Yards Report
The percentage of New York Daily News readers who can afford an apartment in Forest City Ratner's Beekman Tower (aka 8 Spruce Street aka New York by Gehry) is rather low--only 13.7% have six-figure incomes, and you need more than $100,000 to afford monthly rents of $3040 for a studio--and a lot more for bigger apartments.
But that didn't stop real estate correspondent Jason Sheftell, in yesterday's Inside Gotham's newest skyscraper, New York by Gehry, from planting Herbert Daughtry-like encomia on developer Bruce Ratner:
Ratner, the building’s developer, dressed in a simple, short-sleeved, pinstriped button down and black pants, is not like other developers who give cities $800 million projects like this one. He’s charming because he’s smart. He’s admirable because he gets things done. He’s controversial because he thinks big. Best of all, he’s human.
“I was riding the elevator the other day, and the person riding up with me kept thanking me,” says Ratner, who developed MetroTech pushing Brooklyn as America’s top downtown destination 25 years ago. “He wasn’t thanking me because he loved living there or loved the building; he was thanking me for the job. A job is the beginning and end of how a person feels about themself. I am thankful we can give jobs, and I’m thankful what this building means to lower Manhattan.”
(Emphases added)
Um, Ratner didn't "give" the project to New York. Rather, Ratner took advantage of Liberty Bonds, allowing tax-free financing without the attendant requirement of affordable housing.
As for the jobs Ratner "gives," well, some Brooklynites are not convinced.
By the way, the article contains no mention of architect Frank Gehry's role in--and removal from--Atlantic Yards.
Posted by steve at 11:01 PM
August 4, 2011
The inconsistency of the New York Times editorial page: Islanders owner should build new arena on his own, but request that Ratner "pay his own way" forgotten
Atlantic Yards Report
Is the New York Times editorial page consistent when it comes to public subsidies for sports facilities? Of course not.
An editorial in yesterday's New York Times was headlined Voters Nix $400 Million Hockey Tix:
Voters in Nassau County, showing far better sense and grasp of arithmetic than their elected leaders, have rejected a scheme to raise their taxes so their county could borrow $400 million to build a new hockey arena.
The Times, sounding like it's channeled the collected works Neil deMause, observes:
1. The deal stunk. That’s usually so when governments throw money at sports teams. Mr. Mangano was asking for a 4 percent tax increase, an estimated $14 to $58 more a year per household, in return for gauzy promises of new jobs and tax revenue...
...3. If [Islanders owner] Mr. [Charles] Wang needs a new arena, let him build it. Last we checked, professional sports was still a private (and highly lucrative) business, not a public utility.
What happened to "Mr. Ratner should pay his own way"?
All well and good, but the Times is not exactly consistent. Remember the newspaper's stance in a 3/27/05 editorial headlined A Triple Play for New York Teams:
But the city and state are each supposed to contribute $100 million to build streets and sidewalks and prepare the site for development. That's unnecessary: Mr. Ratner should pay his own way.
(Emphasis added)
That position was forgotten in all subsequent editorials.
Related content...
The New York Times, Voters Nix $400 Million Hockey Tix
Posted by eric at 10:30 PM
August 3, 2011
Journalism of verification? Times Public Editor concurs that confirmation by Nets/Ratner (without document or Barclays) sufficient to report naming rights deal still worth "nearly $400 million"
Atlantic Yards Report
The Times, they're not a-changin'.
Is the Barclays Center naming rights deal really worth "nearly $400 million," as the New York Times reported 7/19/11? There are many reasons for doubt.
However, as in the past, the office of the New York Times Public Editor, the independent, newspaper-paid readers' representative, has given its blessing to the Times's inadequate reporting.
In this case, the Public Editor accepted as sufficient evidence assertions by the New Jersey Nets and Forest City Ratner, despite much circumstantial and documentary evidence that the deal was worth less, including a report by an FCR-commissioned consultant valuing the deal at $200 million, the loss of architect Frank Gehry, and two renegotiations.
Worse, the Public Editor's office, failing to understand the basic nature of deal, told me that the Times had "checked with both parties involved in the transaction," the Nets and Ratner.
Actually, I responded, those two are one side of the deal; the counter-party is Barclays Capital.
Was that taken seriously? No. I was blown off.
So much for the "journalism of verification," the distinguishing factor, according to Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, between his newspaper's work and bloggers' journalism of "assertion."
NoLandGrab: In which case, we can surely expect a Times front-page story any day now about the 15,000 construction workers building the Barclays Center — as verified by Bruce Ratner and Brett Yormark.
Posted by eric at 9:07 AM
August 1, 2011
When it comes to Nassau Coliseum coverage, Times reporters express skepticism for sports facility projections, give prominence to critic saying emphasis on sports distracts from real estate deal
Atlantic Yards Report
Today's Times article, $400 Million Plan on Nassau Coliseum Goes to Vote, contained a couple of astonishing paragraphs.
First, a declaration, sans caveat, that projections are generally overblown:
As cities like Cincinnati, Houston and Seattle have learned, the construction of stadiums and arenas almost always costs more than expected, rarely produces the economic benefits initially promised and can saddle local governments with tens of millions of dollars in debts, driving holes through budgets.
Ok, so why did that Times, at the arena groundbreaking last year, uncritically quote outlandish statements about Atlantic Yards benefits?
The article closes with a gimlet-eyed view of what's at stake:
“[Islanders owner Charles] Wang wants to make money and [County Executive Ed] Mangano wants to save the Islanders,” said Clifford B. Sondock, the president of the Land Use Institute, which opposes the project. “Ed and Charles have made this an issue of the Islanders when it is really a real estate deal.”.
And what about "Jobs, Housing, and Hoops"?
Posted by eric at 10:09 PM
July 30, 2011
Cliche alert: AP hoops writer suggests Bruce Ratner "remembers" the days of the Dodgers in Brooklyn. Nah.
Atlantic Yards Report
Brian Mahoney, NBA writer for The Associated Press, reports, in Nets hard at work building toward Brooklyn move:
"Brooklyn certainly deserves the best of entertainment there is to offer,'' [Bruce Ratner] said.
Ratner remembers when Brooklyn had it, when the beloved Dodgers played at Ebbets Field and top musicians performed at the Paramount. He believes the Barclays Center will bring back what's been missing.
"Sports and entertainment are such a part of our lives in this country. People who say, 'Well, it's just an arena,' they're really not right,'' Ratner said. "It's a physical structure. More than that, it's a part of ourselves, it's part of what entertainment is and everyone loves entertainment.''
(Emphasis added)
Which is, why, of course, that the project was sold as "Jobs, Housing, and Hoops," with the added layer of starchitect Frank Gehry.
Does Ratner really remember the "beloved Dodgers" in Brooklyn? He was a 12-year-old Clevelander in 1957, when the team left for Los Angeles.
Posted by steve at 3:59 PM
In an alternate universe, Nets GM Billy King, suburban Philly resident, compares AY arena setting to Chicago's United Center; sports stenography ensues
Atlantic Yards Report
Nets General Manager Billy King, along with paid pitchman Albert King, a Brooklyn native and former Net, hosted basketball writers Wednesday at the under-construction Barclays Center.
King, who lives in suburban Philadelphia and spent a good chunk of his professional career in that city, made a stunningly uninformed comment, equating the Atlantic Yards setting to the setting for the United Center in Chicago, suggesting that the impact of the arena would be similar.
Chicago vs. Brooklyn
The United Center is located on a 46-acre parcel. The Atlantic Yards arena is located on a, what, six-acre parcel?
The United Center is located in a non-residential area west of the Chicago Loop. The Barclays Center will abut neighborhoods that have predominantly low-rise and mid-rise residential buildings.
The arena, yes, will bring changes to Brooklyn, notably event-related retail and entertainment. But there's no comparison to Chicago. (Nor, really, to L.A., but that's a different story.)
Still, the press lapped it up, as dutifully chronicled by NetsDaily, whose chief blogger, NetIncome, perhaps aiming to avoid the "Leni Riefenstahl of the New Jersey Nets" tag, did cite one of the numerous press reports of a protest by disaffected former project supporters.
Posted by steve at 3:57 PM
July 29, 2011
A paean to the New York Times in a New York Magazine cover story; missing is any recognition how the Times fails to cover Brooklyn (and AY)
Atlantic Yards Report
A New York Magazine cover story praising The New York Times provokes a little cold water from Norman Oder.
The article could have gone further to analyze how coverage of New York has been diminished.
Now the Times gives tougher scrutiny to Baghdad than to Brooklyn.
I'm not saying the Times doesn't publish Brooklyn feature, trend, and real estate stories. I'm saying their Brooklyn bureau is far smaller than their Baghdad bureau. And there's no priority on continuity and institutional memory.
And that leads to Atlantic Yards coverage (by a newbie to AY coverage) like the article I dissected 7/19/11, featuring lousy reasoning (why is it Atlantic Yards "opponents" are the only ones asked about the public interest?), basic factual errors (no, Sen. Chuck Schumer's promised 10,000 jobs had nothing to do with construction), and perfunctory wave at a complex controversy (Forest City Ratner's questionable use of the EB-5 program for immigrant investors).
Shouldn't the Times do a better job?
And isn't there another reason: Shouldn't the Times, given the parent company's business relationship with Forest City Ratner, in building the Times Tower, be exacting in its scrutiny of the developer?
Posted by eric at 12:50 PM
What if Rupert cared? A few Atlantic Yards story ideas (!) for the New York Post (or other tabloid)
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder must have eaten some crazy mushrooms last night.
What if... in some kind of alternate universe, media mogul Rupert Murdoch made Atlantic Yards a special priority?
After all, as Azi Paybarah reports in this week's New York Observer, Rupert’s Post Game: His Royal Pie-ness Story on Page SShhh, the New York Post responds to its owners whims and directives. And the Post, not surprisingly, played down a great tabloid moment: the pie in the face Murdoch received when testifying before the U.K. Parliament.
...Herewith, a few Atlantic Yards story ideas that could fit in the limited space and short attention span of the Post (or other tabloid):
- Baldfaced lying! Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, on tape, claims that "Brooklyn is 1000 percent behind Atlantic Yards."
- Scandal shift! Darryl Greene, whose role in the Aqueduct "racino" was so toxic it helped scotch the bid he was part of, continues as minority contracting consultant for Atlantic Yards.
- Convenient amnesia! Despite obligations to fund an Independent Compliance Monitor to evaluate the Community Benefits Agreement, Forest City Ratner has not done so.
- Delusionary behavior! Forest City Ratner, as if in some time warp, continues to maintain that tax revenues, as well as jobs, will be delivered as promised.
- Stunt! What might it be like for a few thousand arena-goers to walk down residential Dean Street, with its narrow sidewalks, from the surface parking lot to the arena? (Send a few hundred flash mobbers down the block!)
Posted by eric at 12:20 PM
July 28, 2011
Where were you in 2005? Times's skeptical coverage of jail bid in New Jersey contrasts markedly with willingness to downplay parallel issues in Vanderbilt Yard bid
Atlantic Yards Report
A front-page (in the New York edition) article in today's New York Times Metro section is headlined Political Links and a Jail Bid in North Jersey.
That skeptical piece contrasts notably with the Times's coverage of the process by which the Metropolitan Transportation Authority sold rights to develop its Vanderbilt Yard.
Consider, for example, the Times's perfunctory news brief, headlined Metro Briefing | New York: Brooklyn: Atlantic Yards Proposals Sought and published 5/26/05, in its entirety:
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is seeking competitors for the development of its Atlantic Yards site, and has set a deadline of July 6 for proposals. A proposal by Bruce C. Ratner to build 6,000 housing units and a stadium for the Nets basketball team on the site has already won endorsements by the city and the state, which have each offered to pay $100 million for site improvements. But Tom Kelly, a spokesman for the authority, said yesterday that the agency had decided to consider other proposals in part because of its experience with its West Side railyards, which became the focus of a bidding war before an agreement was reached to sell the property to the New York Jets. Mr. Kelly said he knew of no other bids that were being prepared for the Atlantic Yards site. Thomas J. Lueck (NYT)
(Emphases added)
The MTA never had an Atlantic Yards site, nor could other bids have been prepared for "the Atlantic Yards site," which is 22 acres, while the Vanderbilt Yard is about 8.5 acres.
Posted by eric at 10:19 AM
July 25, 2011
An open letter to the New York Times's Public Editor: a false equivalence between Atlantic Yards promoters and "opponents," and the dubious claim of a $400 million arena naming rights deal
Atlantic Yards Report
Dear Mr. Arthur Brisbane,
I'm sure you're aware that some of us who read the Times closely take issue with the newspaper's coverage of the controversial Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. Indeed, last August, I posted a comment regarding Atlantic Yards in response to your debut column.
I don't say that the Times, by virtue of the parent company's partnership with Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner on the Times Tower, is in the developer's pocket. But I do think that business relationship obligates the Times to be exacting in its coverage, and the newspaper regularly falls short.
I write regarding the July 19 article headlined online as Atlantic Yards Arena Takes Shape, but Protests Carry On and in print as "An Arena Rises at Last, But Protests Carry On."
My critiques are collected here, but I want to make one general point, about a false equivalence between Atlantic Yards promoters and "opponents," and one specific one, regarding the Times's credulous acceptance of the claim that Barclays paid a record $400 million for naming rights, despite significant evidence to the contrary.
Posted by eric at 12:47 PM
July 21, 2011
Maybe Murdoch has a light touch with the Brooklyn weeklies he bought, but the change in Atlantic Yards coverage has been profound
Atlantic Yards Report
Reports WNYC, Fearing a Heavy Hand, Outer-Borough Papers Find Murdoch Has Light Touch:
When News Corp – which owns the New York Post and Wall Street Journal - bought community newspapers in Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn in 2006, 2007 and 2009, respectively, media watchers were worried they'd be reshaped as conservative Murdoch mouthpieces.
But several former staffers at The Brooklyn Paper and TimesLedger newspapers say the marching orders never came — and the neighborhood papers that now make up the Community Newspapers Group at News Corp continued to make their own decisions about editorials, endorsements and reporting, according to former employees.
About Atlantic Yards
The piece concludes:
The Brooklyn Paper, formerly a fierce watchdog on the Atlantic Yards project has become less aggressive since the 2009 sale, [Norman] Oder alleges, but he isn't sure whether or not that is attributable to News Corp.
"“I do see less of a focus on hard news," he said. "There is a lot of softer news. It's hard to say if that is Murdoch or just a sign or our times. When weekly newspapers like Brooklyn Paper were stronger they did more aggressive reporting."
I don't think my comment is so much an allegation as a (well-founded) argument.
Posted by eric at 12:09 PM
July 19, 2011
Times article on arena rising finally mentions Friedman decision, acknowledges reasons for opponents to "complain" (but doesn't analyze the public interest); essential narrative is Ratner's triumph
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder conducts an excellent step-by-step vivisection of yesterday's New York Times story on Atlantic Yards.
The New York Times today finally does mention the important judicial ruling last week, only to give it short shrift in a wide-ranging article focusing on the under-construction arena.
It was initially headlined online as After Years of Delays, Atlantic Yards Arena Begins Taking Shape, later amended to Atlantic Yards Arena Takes Shape, but Protests Carry On, and in print as "An Arena Rises at Last, But Protests Carry On."
The article, despite rounding-up criticisms and mention of the documentary Battle for Brooklyn, maintains an overall narrative of triumph: the fact that an arena's coming. After all, the photos all illustrate construction, not community impact.
My criticisms include:
- the suggestion that only "opponents" should care about the public interest
- the downplaying of the significance of last week's court decision
- the Times's acceptance of undocumented claims regarding naming rights
- the Times's portrayal of Forest City Ratner's response to the rat problem
- the Times's unquestioning description of the developer's use of the EB-5 program
- the calculation of construction jobs
- the downplaying of the value of the documentary Battle for Brooklyn
- the shorthand description of Daniel Goldstein's settlement
Posted by eric at 9:21 AM
July 18, 2011
Another reason why the Daily News and Times should have covered the lawsuit: it (again) demolishes Ratner's claims of continuous legal victories
Atlantic Yards Report
Perhaps the simplest reason, among many, for the New York Daily News and New York Times to cover the latest Atlantic Yards legal decision, is that the reportage serves to rebut Forest City Ratner's recurring, but long incorrect, claim that the project has continuously prevailed in court.
(A more complex reason would be that, however the decision fails to slow ongoing construction, it represents a rare case in which a New York State judge overrules a decision by a government agency, declaring that it does not pass the minimal "rational" basis test.)
A spoon-fed reporter
As more reporters new to the Atlantic Yards controversy write about it, they are vulnerable--especially if lazy and/or pressed for time--to simply regurgitating the developer's spin.
"[Bruce] Ratner was a perfect 35-for-35 in judicial decisions throughout the eight-year process," wrote New York Daily News Sports Writer Stefan Bondy in his 6/11/11 article headlined Bruce Ratner finds vindication as Nets' new digs take shape in Brooklyn, but residents still angry.
Except he wasn't a "perfect 35-for-35." It's doubtful there were 35 decisions and Ratner had already lost a few, including a decision last November in which state Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman slammed the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) for "yet another failure of transparency."
A record of reliance on Ratner
Press outlets and even government officials have regularly reported the Ratner claims and on 5/21/08, Lumi Rolley of No Land Grab complied a scorecard that came out 11-3 in favor of Ratner, not 18-0, as was claimed by Bruce Ratner, repeated by the ESDC's Avi Schick, and cited by the New York Times (18 rulings "in Mr. Ratner's favor").
On 2/26/09, the Times quoted an "elated" Ratner as saying, “Once again the courts have decided in favor of Atlantic Yards." On 11/25/09, the New York Post reported that Forest City Ratner bragged that the court record was 24-0.
The Times's DealBook blog on 12/17/09 reported that "Atlantic Yards has won a string of court victories." On 3/1/10, the Times cited "a long line of legal victories."
The truth is a little more complex.
Posted by eric at 10:42 AM
An unsigned defense of Yormark (and criticism of me) in Arena Digest
Atlantic Yards Report
An unsigned 7/17/11 article in Arena Digest, Debate continues over new Nets arena, is surely written (or influenced) by the pseudonymous NetIncome (aka Bobbo), the dyspeptic and prolific main contributor to NetsDaily.
The article purports to be a summary but bears a project-affectionate slant, with a few digs at me.
A "matter of process"
It begins:
The new Brooklyn arena for the relocating New Jersey Nets (NBA) continues to generate controversy; community activists opposing Atlantic Yards won a court decision but failed to persuade a judge to stop construction on Barclays Center.
...However, she did not halt construction on the first phase of the project, nor did she halt progress on the second phase, which will include surface parking and more.
...really the win in court last week was more a matter of process being reviewed than any decision on the merits of the project.
Winning the court decision is pretty significant without having to stop arena construction, which was unlikely. Surface parking is part of Phase 1.
And the case was never about the merits of the project, it was about whether the environmental review was sufficient. The judge said it wasn't--a highly unusual intervention.
Related coverage...
Arena Digest, Debate continues over new Nets arena
NoLandGrab: "Net Bobbo's" lack of transparency is a perfect metaphor for the lack of transparency in the Atlantic Yards backroom boondoggle.
Posted by eric at 10:16 AM
Looking at the Crain's coverage of Atlantic Yards economic benefits: another bad example of "he said, she said" journalism
Atlantic Yards Report
As with The Real Deal's remarkable puff piece on Bruce Ratner, published last May, yesterday's article in Crain New York Business, Barclays Center takes shape at Atlantic Yards: Eight years after it was proposed, the arena is selling tickets. presents a dismaying example of what press scholar Jay Rosen criticizes as
“He said, she said” journalism, in which "No real attempt is made to assess clashing truth claims in the story" and "The means for assessment do exist, so it’s possible to exert a factual check on some of the claims, but for whatever reason the report declines to make use of them."'
The Crain's article, which I addressed in full yesterday, is a particularly bad example of that, since it positions the "he said, she said" claims about economic benefits in a rather illogical manner.
Posted by eric at 10:11 AM
Another reason to distrust the New York Daily News's editorial today: a dishonest photo
Atlantic Yards Report
Today's Daily News editorial, which I dissected here, was accompanied by a photo of two thirds of the railyard--in other words, perhaps a quarter of the overall Atlantic Yards site.
The other part of the arena--not stadium, as Borough President Marty Markowitz would remind people, is being built on pieces of residential/commercial Pacific and Dean Streets.
In other words, the photo is as dishonest as the editorial.
Posted by eric at 9:49 AM
News Flash: Daily News Editorialists are Willfully Ignorant and Create Own Atlantic Yards Reality
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
What a surprise: after the news side of the paper ignored last week's big legal victory for the community against Atlantic Yards the Daily "News" editorialists continue to ignore reality and facts in their effort to carry water for Mort Zuckerman's cohorts in the real estate lobby—Forest City Ratner.
Norman Oder takes a look at their self-delusional drivel...
Posted by eric at 9:30 AM
July 17, 2011
Crain's article on arena calls documentary "latest insult," relies on ever-spinning Yormark as main source
Atlantic Yards Report
In Crain's New York Business today, Barclays Center takes shape at Atlantic Yards: Eight years after it was proposed, the arena is selling tickets. is full of holes, but at least makes a token effort to admit a contrary view.
"Latest insult"
The article begins:
Rising at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, the new home of the New Jersey Nets has survived lawsuits, neighborhood protests and a severe recession. The latest insult is called The Battle for Brooklyn, a documentary critical of the project that opened recently to favorable reviews.
Why exactly is the film, called Battle for Brooklyn (no "The") an "insult"? Couldn't it be a complicating factor in the heroic narrative preferred by Crain's and the New York Daily News?
Meeting preliminary goals
The article continues:
But eight years after developer Bruce Ratner proposed bringing the Nets to the borough as the anchor of the vast Atlantic Yards redevelopment, executives at the $1 billion Barclays Center have turned their attention to the next stage: making sure it turns a profit.
Despite competition from Madison Square Garden, which is being overhauled, and other arenas like the new Prudential Center in Newark, the Barclays Center is having no trouble meeting its preliminary goals, according to Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark.
Images of the recently completed designs for corporate suites and public areas have just gone on display in the center's midtown showroom as sales efforts ramp up in advance of a September 2012 opening. The 18,000-seat arena has sold close to half of its 100 corporate suites.
If they've sold close to half of the suites, let's say the number is 47.
That's 12 more than one year ago, when the total was 35--not bad, but hardly out of the woods.
But we don't know what those goals were, and how they've changed. After all, as of three years ago, there were supposed to be 130 suites, not 100.
Some people get tired of the Yormark half-truths, but if you click on the link below, you'll see that Norman Oder is is on the case to dissect each and every distortion.
Posted by steve at 4:53 PM
Flagrantly ignorant, Daily News calls arena rising "huge plus for an underused neighborhood," ignores latest legal decision
Atlantic Yards
It's no surprise that the New York Daily News, which has cheerleaded at every step for the Atlantic Yards project, would run yet another supportive editorial, today headlined The new Nets' arena rising in Brooklyn is shaping up as a huge plus for an underused neighborhood.
And it's no surprise that that the editorial would be flagrantly ignorant. Indeed, while it would be more defensible to argue that the arena might be, overall, good for Brooklyn--though that would require analysis of costs and benefits--it's "brutally weird" to call it a plus for a neighborhood that, according to the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), will experience "significant adverse impacts."
Click on the link to get the complete picture of how truly stupid today's Daily News edtiorial is.
Posted by steve at 4:35 PM
July 16, 2011
No coverage of Atlantic Yards ruling in the Times; on AY, have they done "just enough to avoid being accused of looking the other way"?
Atlantic Yards Report
I'm still surprised that the New York Times, which last November belatedly covered (Judge Rebukes State Agency Over Atlantic Yards Timetable, online only) the precursor decision in the ongoing lawsuit, hasn't covered the more dramatic next step, in which Justice Marcy Friedman further rebuked the agency and ordered a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.
Meanwhile, the Metro pages of today's print Times contain an article about performing the cancan on Bastille Day, another about a missing historic street sign in Jackson Heights, and a four-reporter investigation into Dominique Strauss-Kahn's weekend concert-going in the Berkshires.
Commenting on the Wall Street Journal's coverage of its parent company's scandal in the U.K., Times columnist Joe Nocera today observes that "The Journal did just enough to avoid being accused of looking the other way."
Couldn't that observation be applied to the Times's coverage of Atlantic Yards, being developed by Forest City Ratner, which partnered with the New York Times Company on the Times Tower?
Posted by steve at 5:13 PM
Ratner gets sports magazine to agree that latest version of arena may be country's best
Atlantic Yards Report
The arena promotion continues. SportsPro Magazine, in its July 2011 The Next special report on stadiums & venues, declares the Barclays Center one of the top ten over the next decade.
“I honestly believe,” says New Jersey Nets minority owner Bruce Ratner, “that in America we do sometimes build an arena with some semblance of architectural taste, and architecturally it’s great.”
Few would disagree with such an appraisal of the forthcoming Barclays Center, future home of the Brooklyn Nets. Its designers at the award-winning SHoP architecture firm have presented what might be the most ambitious and aesthetically pleasing indoor arena ever constructed in the United States. Their assured touch, says Ratner, is apparent “in and out” of the venue.
Except that's what Ratner would have said about the original design by Frank Gehry, whom he once said "is for me an idol."
As noted, the arena itself is by Ellerbe Becket, and thus a cousin to that firm's many NBA arenas, such as the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The "facade" is by SHoP.
Posted by steve at 4:57 PM
AY down the memory hole: two reports that SHoP is the designer of the Barclays Center
Atlantic Yards Report
From the New York Daily News, 7/15/11, East River Waterfront Esplanade opens in style:
[City Planning Commission Chairperson Amanda] Burden selected a plan from SHoP Architects, the New York-based studio known as the architects of the Barclays arena in Brooklyn.
From SportsPro Magazine, The Next Generation, July 2011:
Few would disagree with such an appraisal of the forthcoming Barclays Center, future home of the Brooklyn Nets. Its designers at the award-winning SHoP architecture firm have presented what might be the most ambitious and aesthetically pleasing indoor arena ever constructed in the United States.
As No Land Grab's Eric McClure pointed out, "Uh, didn't Ellerbe Becket design the inside of the arena?"
Posted by steve at 4:55 PM
July 14, 2011
Looking at Friedman's ruling: no coverage in the Times or Daily News, no press mentions of delay in consideration of the Development Agreement
Atlantic Yards Report
So how big news was a judge's decision yesterday ordering a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Phase II of the Atlantic Yards project and criticizing the state agency for "arbitrary and capricious" reliance on a not-believable ten-year buildout?
Judging by the coverage, only moderate. The Wall Street Journal and New York Post, among others, covered the story.
The New York Times and New York Daily News, pouring resources into the horrible killing of an eight-year-old Brooklyn boy, passed on the story.
Will they get to it today? The Times's commercial real estate reporter, Charles Bagli, is on leave, and the Brooklyn bureau is tiny. The Daily News's main reporter on Atlantic Yards, Erin Durkin, had three bylines in today's paper, all worthy stories: on Broadway Triangle in Williamsburg, Marty Markowitz's concert series, and St. Ann's Warehouse's bid for the Tobacco Warehouse in Brooklyn Bridge Park.
The New York Observer, its main Atlantic Yards reporter on vacation, missed the story. The Brooklyn Paper hasn't covered the story yet, either.
The missing history
And almost nobody, it seems, remembers the withheld Development Agreement--crucial, as I wrote yesterday, to the case.
Posted by eric at 10:59 AM
July 12, 2011
The Serious and Not So
Toronto Standard
by Bert Archer
An appraisal of the New York Times documentary Page One includes this bit of understatement.
[Norman] Oder’s reporting on the Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn, and on the Times’ coverage of it, seems also quite serious, though you’d be forgiven for thinking the guy’s an utter wonk (which he almost certainly is).
Posted by eric at 10:16 AM
July 10, 2011
The BAM-arena alliance, illegal parking, and construction progress: the role of p.r. in controlling the narrative
Atlantic Yards Report
Much of the coverage of Atlantic Yards by New York media could be charitably characterized as "lackluster." This post ponders the lack of media coverage and the influence of the Ratner publicity machine.
The establishment of the web site/project Atlantic Yards Watch, the presence of web sites chronicling Atlantic Yards like No Land Grab and AYR, and the opportunity to present photos and web videos means that the mainstream press should notice what's going on.
They don't always do that, but, after the Daily News published an article yesterday, two television reporters were quick to follow up. It was a fairly digestible story, with lots of visuals.
What's missing?
There's lots more not yet covered regarding Atlantic Yards.
For example, what about Forest City Ratner's failure to hire an Independent Compliance Monitor?
Or Borough President Marty Markowitz's lies in the effort to help Forest City Ratner raise cheap capital from immigrant investors interested in green cards?
Reporters overmatched?
Sure, it's hard out there for a reporter. “We’re all wire service reporters now," Theresa Agovino of Crain’s New York Business said in December 2009, according to the September/October 2010 issue of Columbia Journalism Review, a reference to the push for quantity over quality.
They too often don't have time to think, and that makes them vulnerable not just to p.r. pitches--that's part of the journalistic menu--but also the full packaging of the pitch. (Quick, did anyone actually analyze Forest City Enterprises' self-serving press release about saving on its debts? No.)
Shaping the debate
John Sullivan, in his ProPublica investigation and co-published in the May/June 2011 issue of Columbia Journalism Review, PR Industry Fills Vacuum Left by Shrinking Newsrooms, pointed toi the growing number of p.r. people and shrinking number of reporters, writing:
The dangers are clear. As PR becomes ascendant, private and government interests become more able to generate, filter, distort, and dominate the public debate, and to do so without the public knowing it. "What we are seeing now is the demise of journalism at the same time we have an increasing level of public relations and propaganda," [Robert] McChesney said. "We are entering a zone that has never been seen before in this country."
That said, with Atlantic Yards, there are numerous leads to follow that are not hatched with the cooperation of "dark genius" Joe DePlasco. It's time for journalists to do their job. Or no
Posted by steve at 5:31 PM
Fox News, WPIX follow up, find illegal parking at site; Atlantic Yards Watch shows Atlantic Avenue "lot" and "funeral director"; will AY District Service Cabinet address parking issue?
Atlantic Yards Report
Following up on the Daily News's coverage of illegal parking around the Atlantic Yards construction site, MyFox New York took a look, and their report, below, is pretty damning.
Beyond that report, Atlantic Yards Watch followed up, pointing out that construction workers have "expanded the locations they park illegally onto Atlantic Avenue, apparently closing off part of a travel lane to create their own free parking lot," as shown in the photo taken yesterday.
Another set of photos shows the wide array of strategies used by illegal parkers, including the daily deployment of a funeral director's card. That was captured in video shot by WPIX, at bottom.
Enforcement issues
There are a couple of problems here. First, as I wrote this morning, someone has to enforce parking regulations when the police flout them.
Off-street parking?
Second, as Atlantic Yards Watch points out, Forest City Ratner and Empire State Development Corporation said at a 6/28/11 meeting that the number of construction workers had not risen to the point where the developer was supposed to create off-street parking.
But construction workers seem to be creating their own illegal on-street parking spaces--and, as the video below shows, they're glad that parking rules aren't being enforced.
District Service Cabinet meeting July 14
Perhaps these issues will be discussed--and resolved--at the fourth meeting of the Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet, to be held July 14 at Borough Hall at 9:30 a.m. (I'm aiming to reconfirm this.)
The District Service Cabinet brings together affected agencies, community board representatives, the Borough President's Office and the developer. Questions from the public cannot be posed at the meeting but can be funneled through the community boards, City Council Member Letitia James's office, and the Borough President's Office.
Posted by steve at 5:24 PM
July 4, 2011
Times assigns eight staffers to story about Brearley School head's departure; what about covering EB-5?
Atlantic Yards Report
I read with incredulity a 7/2/01 New York Times article headlined Quick Exit of Private School’s Leader Puzzles Parents.
Sure, Times readers are interested in the fate of the city's most prestigious private school for girls. But the Times article, attributed to two authors, also cited five other reporters and a researcher as contributors.
Eight staffers, one story.
It makes me wonder: what if the Times had assigned eight reporters to the EB-5 story--Forest City Ratner's dubious effort to raise $249 million from immigrants interested in green cards--rather than dismiss it in two paragraphs, as was done in March?
NoLandGrab: The New York Times — fair and balanced?
Posted by eric at 10:35 AM
July 3, 2011
Another correction request sent to the New York Times: is the arena in "downtown Brooklyn" or near it?
Atlantic Yards Report
As far as The Times is concerned, Bruce Ratner appears to be building the world's first fully portable arena.
In the 6/30/11 article headlined (online) In Alliance, Nets Arena to Offer Arts, the Times reported: Now Atlantic Yards, the development that will bring the New Jersey Nets to downtown Brooklyn, will also be a cultural center.
However, the Times has previously identified the location of Atlantic Yards as being in Prospect Heights. As noted in a 4/27/06 correction:
Because of an editing error, an article in The Arts on Tuesday about Frank Gehry's design for the first phase of the Grand Avenue development project in Los Angeles misstated the location of the proposed Atlantic Yards project that Mr. Gehry is designing in Brooklyn. (The error also appeared in sports articles on Feb. 9 and April 11, in the City section on Jan. 15 and in several articles in 2003, 2004 and 2005.) It is on rail yards and other land in Prospect Heights and on a block in Park Slope; it is not in Downtown Brooklyn, although it is near that neighborhood.This "downtown Brooklyn" error has occurred several times since then, though most references in the Times have been accurate.
Here is my quick survey of articles requiring corrections.
Posted by eric at 10:04 AM
July 2, 2011
More on the BAM-arena plans: "you have to be suspicious of anything Ratner might be telling you"
Atlantic Yards Report
We're still waiting for some more coverage on the BAM-arena plans revealed in a spoon-fed New York Times exclusive--the New York Daily News and Brooklyn Paper have yet to weigh in, though the New York Post and many others ran an anodyne AP story.
But "[t]he bottom line is that you have to be suspicious of anything Ratner might be telling you," writes Noticing New York's Michael D. D. White in Cultural Circus? Mr. Ratner’s Attempt to Rechristen His Arena A “Cultural Center.”
He takes off from some previous reporting, including how I pointed out that incredible claim that the Barclays Center and the Brooklyn Academy of Music would together create a new cultural district.
He points out that, while "Ratner describes circuses as part of the commonplace perception people generally have of arenas from which he wants to move away," BAM's Karen Brooks Hopkins contradicts Ratner by suggesting performances can be "large nouvelle cirque kind of work."
The role of the Times
White writes:
Is it a problem that the New York Times fills its pages as the passive conduit for Ratner hype? In reviewing the documentary “Page One: Inside the New York Times” Noticing New York noted the film’s reporting of “The New York Times Effect,” which is to say that which the New York Times deigns to include in its pages “sets the agenda” virtually defining reality to a large extent for the rest of the press and that what gets reported in the Times thereafter almost invariably passes down the media food chain.
...By the time the story was boiled down to the short squibs broadcast by WNYC virtually any detectable warning of the PR bogusness of the whole affair had been eliminated.
Rather, he suggests, the Times should have analyzed the "press manipulation," including possible “good news” timed to counter a potential construction workers' strike, or the arena operators' efforts to fill seats at the arena that hasn't come close to the 225 annual events once promised or the 200-plus currently promised.
One correction, one missing one
The online article states:
Correction: July 1, 2011
An article on Thursday about an alliance between the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Barclays Center, the arena being built in downtown Brooklyn, misstated the title for Joseph V. Melillo of the academy. He is its executive producer, not executive director.
Of course, the entire article needs a conceptual correction, but do note that the Times has agreed that the arena is being built in "downtown Brooklyn," not, as the Times once agreed in a mega-correction, as part of a project being built in Prospect Heights.
Posted by steve at 5:09 PM
July 1, 2011
Opinion: Don’t Let Atlantic Yards Developers Control the Narrative
The Local [Fort Greene/Clinton Hill]
by Michael Galinsky
Speaking of circuses — Battle for Brooklyn filmmaker and regular contributor to The Local Michael Galinsky weighs in on the Atlantic Yards media circus.
Yesterday I was quoted in a The New York Times article about a new benefit that the Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner is touting. Bruce Ratner and the Brooklyn Academy of Music plan to partner on big-spectacle art events at the Barclays Center. I was asked how I thought the community would react.
What struck me, however, was the fact that once again the developer was putting out a story that would show them in a good light, and that any questions about their position were relegated to the end of the article. I was pleased that I was given the chance to discuss the issue, but saddened to imagine that the concerns of the community would be buried below the fold, and that the pattern of the developer controlling the narrative would go on.
...When something was happening that the developers couldn’t control, such as the 2006 environmental impact hearing, they trotted out some Nets basketball players and held a press conference in a government building (that they built) across the street from the impact hearing. I was prevented from shooting that conference, as you can see in the clip above.
This press conference seemed to be more about distracting the media from the real discussion that was taking place across the street. By trotting out several basketball stars, the publicity company was able to get the “credentialed media” to pay less attention to the discussion about the environmental impacts of the project. Because they didn’t feel that they could trust what I would do with the footage — I was not credentialed or working for a mainstream news organization — I was shut out. I think their concern was that I might not stay on message.
Posted by eric at 10:12 PM
June 30, 2011
NY Times Tries to Buff Ratner Image With "News" of Arena Alliance With Tone Deaf BAM
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
So this, apparently, is what The Times deems to be front page arts newsworthy: Bruce Ratner, Brooklyn Academy of Music board member, former BAM board director, minority owner of the Nets, majority owner of a basketball arena and roughly 18 acres of a demolition zone/interim surface patking lot is, maybe, going to allow the Brooklyn Academy of Music to hold "three or four shows a year" in the taxpayer subsidized billion dollar arena named after Barclays.
Newsflash for The Times: just because your business partner comes to you with an exclusive story doesn't mean it is anything more than a press release. And pretty much the only time Bruce Ratner himself will talk with The Times or any reporters is when his company feeds you the news.
Speaking of irony, as Bruce Ratner does below, isn't it just a wee bit ironic that the Brooklyn Academy of Music is so tone deaf about the Atlantic Yards project?
Posted by eric at 8:08 AM
June 28, 2011
Atlantic Yards ‘Rat Tsunami’ Plagues BroBos
NY Observer
by Matt Chaban
What the hell is a Brobo?
As if the traffic and sports bars weren’t bad enough, the construction of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project has triggered an all-too-apt infestation of Rattus norvegicus in neighboring Prospect Heights and Fort Greene.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Observer makes fun of rat complaints, claims "hysteria has reached such epic proportions"
So, Matt Chaban of the New York Observer, who can be a decent reporter, didn't attend the meeting last Thursday about rat problems in the area around Atlantic Yards.
But he had to write about it, so today he applied a little 'tude, headlined Atlantic Yards ‘Rat Tsunami’ Plagues BroBos [Brooklyn Bourgeois Bohemians or Brownstone Brooklyn], providing a list of the complaints, ending with:
- Two stolen Bugaboos, with babies attached.
O.K., so we made that last one up, but the hysteria has reached such epic proportions, it seems possible. After all, The Brooklyn Paper is worried about the hantavirus infecting BroBos this summer if things don’t get better. Given their weak constitutions, it is bound to be a deadly epidemic.
My comment
As I commented:
Matt, this is really beneath you.
If you'd attended the meeting, or read the coverage (including mine) more carefully, you'd know that many of the people affected have been there more than 40 years, and that they represent a spectrum of ethnicity and class.
So the Bugaboo reference is not just a cheap laugh, it's way, way off.
As is making fun of people who are plagued by rats.
Posted by eric at 10:17 PM
"Battle for Brooklyn" and "Page One: Inside the New York Times" Make Powerful Companion Pieces
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
If you've seen the new documentary film "Page One: Inside the New York Times" and have yet to see "Battle For Brooklyn" (or vice versa) there is a compelling argument that you should see both as the movies make powerful companion pieces.
Both films address the question of what can happen when the New York Times is not around to do its job.
"Battle for Brooklyn" is screening at Cinema Village in Manhattan (showtimes and tickets are available here.)
Michael D.D. White has published an extensive discussion of the two films on his Noticing New York blog, and though it is a long read, we deem it a must-read—especially as it hones in on some very questionable reporting and editorializing during the weeks when the Vanderbilt railyards were put out for bid in a phoney request for proposal by the MTA.
Posted by eric at 10:53 AM
Another press valentine for Amanda Burden: Wall Street Journal profile of City Planning Commission Chair ignores Atlantic Yards example
Atlantic Yards Report
In a 6/23/11 article headlined Champion of Cities: With New York's High Line park expansion, Amanda Burden's urban revitalization efforts set a model for the world, the Wall Street Journal reports:
This elegant blonde with a mellifluous voice is steelier than one might expect, a useful trait for someone who is spearheading Mayor Michael Bloomberg's far-reaching effort to rezone nearly a quarter of New York City and reclaim the city's waterfront. Her populist achievements span all five boroughs and include zoning for new affordable housing in East Harlem, Brookyln and the South Bronx, as well as the massively popular High Line, an abandoned railroad track that has been transformed into a popular tourist destination in the once-gritty meatpacking neighborhood, which has seen commerce move in and property values soar in the past decade.
Chairing the City Planning Commission since 2002, Burden, age 67, has revolutionized its role in the city, transforming a once-sleepy bureaucratic agency into an activist department championing good design by using zoning as a weapon to enforce her vision.
...My comment:
This valentine to Amanda Burden neglects some of more complicated aspects of her legacy, such as the city's willingness--presumably not embraced by the City Planning Commission, but with no opportunity to publicly protest--to let the Empire State Development Corporation oversee the Atlantic Yards project, with no role for the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).
Meanwhile, Burden has been a loyal foot soldier for Atlantic Yards, even though it does not represent the Jacobsian mantle she embraces.
See:
10/12/06: Planning Chair Burden claims Jacobsian mantle, discards it for AY
1/15/07: Times profile of planning chair Burden maintains AY myth, suffers curious cut
10/19/09: Two profiles of Amanda Burden make and miss the same points about City Planning (and Atlantic Yards)
Posted by eric at 10:46 AM
June 27, 2011
“Page One: Inside the New York Times” Reviewed; Plus The “New York Times Effect” on New York’s Biggest Real Estate Development Swindle
Noticing New York
Michael D.D. White takes an epic look at Page One, the new documentary about The New York Times, framed by the paper's failings in covering its development partner's massive Brooklyn boondoggle and viewed in parallel with Atlantic Yards documentary Battle for Brooklyn. It's none to easy to summarize, so click through and have a read.
Especially fascinating: White's recounting of The Times's Atlantic Yards coverage during two crucial months in 2005.
When it comes to “The Times Effect” on local reporting and Atlantic Yards, the biggest real estate project proposed in New York City, some of the most important events occurred in a 60 day window of time May 24, 2005 to July 27, 2005 shown about a third of the way through the film “Battle For Brooklyn.”
On May 24, 2005 New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (the “MTA”) put out a perfunctory RFP soliciting bids for the railyards it was planning to transfer to developer Forest City Ratner. The 42 page RFP was a palpably insincere gesture. It allowed only an absurdly short 42 days for response. It was 42 pages whereas the MTA’s comparable later RFP for its Hudson Yards railyards site ran 1,369 pages. Doubtless, all the city’s big developers correctly perceived that, as a political matter, they were NOT supposed to bid against Forest City Ratner because even though the public property of the railyards had never been bid, this was viewed as a done deal.
...The Times briefly reported (May 26, 2005) the issuance of the MTA’s RFP but printed nothing picking up on its bogus character. The bogus character of that bid deserved to be major story. The brief report of the RFP came several days after the Times ran a story under a press release-style headline touting that the Ratner project would theoretically provide lots of affordable housing: Brooklyn Arena Plan Calls for Many Subsidized Units, by Michael Brick, May 20, 2005.
Goldstein’s concern about how the Times was promoting the Ratner project virtually as if its was an extension of the Times existing real estate partnership with Ratner was well founded and prescient. On July 5, 2005, the day before the MTA board planned to approve the project, not expecting the pending Extell proposal in response to its solicitation, the Times published a front-page article about the Atlantic Yards project (Instant Skyline Added to Brooklyn Arena Plan, By Diane Cardwell), when Frank Gehry's new design sketches were released exclusively to the Times. In an accompanying "appraisal" the Times architectural critic effused over the fantasy design (An Appraisal: Seeking First to Reinvent the Sports Arena, and Then Brooklyn, by Nicolai Ourousoff).
The very next day, July 6, the day of the intended MTA approval, the Times followed with another largely complimentary story about Ratner’s plans: Brooklynites Take In a Big Development Plan, and Speak Up, by Robert F. Worth, July 6, 2005. The day after that the Times had to run a story about Extell’s competing bid, “tailored to address some of the major criticisms of the Ratner proposal.” Its headline?: Brooklyn Plan Draws a Rival, and It's Smaller (by Diane Cardwell, July 7, 2005.)
Does it look like the Times stories were being selectively tailored by the Times to help the Ratner project? Certainly, Ratner knew the schedule for various events related to the bid during this window, not that it would have been appropriate for public officials to have been feeding him all these details. Ratner was therefore in a position to, in turn, feed appropriate stories to the Times.
Posted by eric at 11:59 AM
The demise of the New York Times's once-routine Forest City Ratner disclosure (as mandated by the Public Editor), and another reason why it's meaningful
Atlantic Yards Report
The New York Times has much less frequently been appending a once routine disclosure to its articles about Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. And that's meaningful for a reason I haven't previously stressed.
Consider, for example, the 6/24/11 blog post headlined In Brooklyn, the Rats Move Out Before the Nets Move In. No disclosure appeared, though an 11/25/09 article, Ruling Lets Atlantic Yards Seize Land, contains such a disclosure:
The company, which was the development partner for the Midtown headquarters for The New York Times Company...
Disclosure dropped
No did such disclosure appear in the 6/16/11 review of the new documentary Battle for Brooklyn, the 3/17/11 article headlined Prefabricated Tower May Rise at Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards, and, more crucially, a 3/18/11 article headlined With Federal Case and Modular Building Plan, New Attention for Atlantic Yards Project.
Why was that more crucial? Because, as the headline suggests, the Times itself is responsible for part of the new attention and, as I wrote, the Times soft-pedaled a key issue: Forest City Ratner's apparent exploitation of the federal government's EB-5 investment immigration program.
Importance of disclosure
There are at least two significant reasons why disclosure is important, and one of them I haven't previously stressed.
The more obvious reason is that disclosure puts readers on alert, as well as reporters and editors, that Times coverage should be exacting--and sometimes it isn't.
The other is simply that it should put readers, reporters, and editors on notice that Times coverage should appear in the print paper, not, as with the article on rats, relegated to the City Room blog.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Atlantic Yards down the memory hole: Times web site erases attribution to Public Editor Byron Calame's call for the paper's full disclosure of ties to Ratner
Posted by eric at 11:34 AM
June 26, 2011
CNG issues "Brooklyn 200," including Forest City Ratner, Nets Basketball, and the Barclays Center
Atlantic Yards Report
The Community Newspaper Group, publisher of the Brooklyn Paper and Courier-Life, has issued a new promotional supplement, Brooklyn 200, "celebrating the places and things that make Brooklyn special," with capsule descriptions.
It's not surprise, given that newspapers are in tough shape, that they produce such questionable products. (Quick, is there any correlation between full-page feature articles on a selected few of the 200 and advertisements bought by those subjects of feature articles?)
Among the 200, as detailed below, are Forest City Ratner, Freddy's Bar, Nets Basketball, and the Barclays Center.
And Marty Markowitz is the only person on the list, getting special mention in the category of "force of nature.
Questionable choices
There are other opportunities for raised eyebrows.
Why a mini-profile of the Brooklyner building but not the Brooklyn Flea (or Brownstoner)? Brooklyn Kickball but not the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory? Downtown law firms like Cullen and Dykman and Goldberg and Cohn, but not South Brooklyn Legal Services or Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation? Nine auto dealers but no one retailer selling bicycles or organization working on transportation policy?
Forest City and Freddy's
The treatment of Forest City Ratner is fairly straightforward, and refers to Atlantic yards as "controversial," locating the arena--unlike in the official promotional material--in Prospect Heights.
The Freddy's listing cites "its impassioned fight against the Atlantic Yards project."
(Click on all graphics to expand.)
The Barclays Center
The under-construction arena gets described as "already changing the face of the borough."
Nets Basketball
Would you believe that "there's no doubt that wen the Brooklyn Nets first hit the hardwood at the Barclays Center, they'll take the floor with the support of an entire borough"?'
You might start subtracting people afflicted by rats.
Marty Markowitz
Would you believe that even Marty Markowitz's "biggest opponents will admit that [he] is"unceasingly dedicated to trying to make Brooklyn a better place to live"?
Maybe except when he's lying about support for Atlantic Yards.
Posted by steve at 7:23 PM
CounterSpin radio show: Battle for Brooklyn filmmakers talk about the media (including me)
Atlantic Yards Report
Susan Saladoff on Hot Coffee, Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky on Battle for Brooklyn
CounterSpin (6/24/11-6/30/11)
This week on CounterSpin we're talking about two new films which, while journalism is not their central subject, directly engage news media's influence and real world impact as a critical part of the stories they tell....
Also on the show: Battle for Brooklyn tracks the takeover of a New York neighborhood by a real estate developer and the efforts to resist it by community members, one man in particular who becomes the last person in his building not to take a buyout. The same events and players appeared in the corporate press too, and viewers can see the difference when voices that usually appear in the last paragraph are given central place. We spoke with Battle for Brooklyn filmmakers Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky.
I'll note that the radio show (the interview starts at 12:48; also see links to audio at DDDB and NLG) begins with the host noting that "a man" at the end of the film comments that, had the media done their job, this would have been a fair fight.
That "man" is me. Later in the interview, Galinsky names me and points to my role, and the lingering, under-covered EB-5 story.
The entire interview is worth a listen. And the film is still playing.
Posted by steve at 7:08 PM
June 25, 2011
Behind the Brooklyn Paper's "world's best Cyclones coverage"
Atlantic Yards Report
How does the Brooklyn Paper manage "the world's best Cyclones coverage"?
Well, the page in print (which contains an article that starts on the front page) is "brought to you by Municipal Credit Union," which bought what looks to be a one-sixth page advertisement on the page, and perhaps also pays for the banner at top. MCU bought naming rights to the baseball park, so there's some syntergy there.
And the half-page advertisement on the bottom of the page, while hawking air conditioners, does contain a promotion for Cyclones tickets.
You can't blame a local newspaper, in a struggling environment, for seeking creative ways to bring in revenue.
But you can't help thinking that, without the advertising, the level of coverage might be lower. And maybe there'd be space for more Atlantic Yards coverage.
All of which leads to the question: what happens when the Barclays Center opens?
Posted by steve at 8:59 PM
June 19, 2011
Help Battle for Brooklyn Go National -- See the Movie Today, Sunday the 19th at Cinema Village
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
We know there is a lot of competition for your time, but WE URGE you to see Battle for Brooklyn today, Sunday the 19th, at Cinema Village in Manhattan. (Purchase Tickets Now)
While the Friday turnout was amazing, Saturday's was not as good as expected. It is crucial that there are large audiences on Sunday.
So, it is urgently important that you see this riveting film today, and that you call your friends and urge them to see it today as well.
If the screenings are packed today then the film will continue to play in New York and expand throughout the country. If the film does not do well today, it won't get far outside of New York.
It is vitally important that this remarkable film about our community's fight is seen by a wide national audience. By telling the story of our fight against Atlantic Yards, it tells a dramatic and universal tale of resistance to corrupt, top-down development and collusion between government and corporations against the interests of the community. It takes direct aim at kleptocracy and it shows that the most important things in life are worth fighting for. It is a film that deserves a wide audience.
Posted by steve at 3:31 PM
"Battle for Brooklyn": In breaking news, Goliath beats David
Salon
By Andrew O'Hehir
In the movies, when David fights Goliath, we generally know who's going to win. In real life, of course, it tends to be the other way around, as the compact and fascinating documentary "Battle for Brooklyn" demonstrates. Compressing a seven-year civic struggle over a massive redevelopment project in the center of Brooklyn, N.Y., into 93 minutes, Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley's film spins a compelling tale about the value of individual and collective resistance, even as it makes clear where power in our society really resides. Along the way, "Battle for Brooklyn" tells the story of a love affair and a new family, and reminds us that even billionaires are not omnipotent.
Posted by steve at 3:30 PM
June 18, 2011
"Battle For Brooklyn" -- Go See It
The documentary "Battle For Brooklyn" is now playing at Cinema Village in Manhattan. All of these people liked the film and you probably will, too.
New York Magazine, Chris Smith on the Atlantic Yards Documentary Battle for Brooklyn
The film isn’t objective, which is fine, and appropriate: Atlantic Yards was never a fair fight. Launched during the boom years, with aggressively pro-business politicians running the city and the state, Atlantic Yards has used strategic heaps of money and a crafty marketing strategy (Brooklyn pride! Frank Gehry! Affordable housing! Jobs, jobs, jobs!) to churn relentlessly forward, even surviving the one serious threat to its existence, the great recession. What Battle for Brooklyn can only hint at, however, are the crucial political alliances that have kept Atlantic Yards alive; Mayor Bloomberg, Ratner, and the other key establishment players apparently didn’t deign to sit for interviews. That’s fitting, too, given the façade of a “public” process used to approve the massive project.
Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist, Battle for Brooklyn
Daniel Goldstein lives in a remodeled building on Pacific Street that is similar to many in New York City’s five boroughs. Priced out of the Manhattan market (I am only making a guess that this was the case for Goldstein, a graphic artist), they settle in working-class neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Long Island City and elsewhere to enjoy a roomy apartment or loft with the latest amenities. When Ratner offers the occupants of Goldstein’s building a million dollars each to move out, they take the money and run. Goldstein, a 30ish young man with a rebellious streak as pronounced as I have ever seen, decides to remain and fight. After joining Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), he begins to spend more time organizing people than on his career. His passion for the cause (and perhaps other incompatibilities) leads to the break-up his engagement. But all is not lost. He finally hooks up with and marries Shabnam Merchant, an Indo-American woman who is as dedicated to the cause as he is.
Arrayed against them and their neighbors are an enormously powerful and ruthless bloc consisting of Ratner, his top executives, and a rogue’s gallery of politicians, including the buffoonish Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz. They portray the project’s benefit in such glowing terms that you would think that they were on some kind of social uplift mission rather than a typical real estate boondoggle. Ratner is a truly despicable figure, who naturally enough became a member of Bard College’s Board of Trustees. Leon Botstein has a particular flair for recruiting limousine liberals such as Ratner, who will be sitting alongside Stuart Resnick at board meetings. Resnick is the owner of a number of “enlightened” New Agey type products like POM juice and Fiji water that put profits over sustainable development.
orgtheory.net, battle for brooklyn: social movements, countermovements, and the urban growth machine
A couple of weeks ago I saw Battle for Brooklyn, a new documentary by Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley,* at the Chicago Underground Film Festival. The documentary tells the story of Brooklyn activists who fought against a real estate development planned in the the old Atlantic Yards site that ceased hundreds of homes through eminent domain in order to build a business complex and a new arena for the New Jersey Nets. Told from the perspective Daniel Goldstein, one of the community organizers leading the protests, the film provides a rare and in-depth look at the internal workings of a social movement, chronicling the emotional highs and lows as well as the process of tactical decision-making. It’s a fascinating film for a number of reasons, and I can’t recommend it enough.
mybrooklyn, Battle for Brooklyn
Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley’s new documentary Battle for Brooklyn unfolds right down the street from where we’ve been shooting My Brooklyn for the past four years. I had a chance to see the film last night at Cinema Village and highly recommend it to anybody interested in urban planning, land use, and the increasing use of eminent domain for private profit. By following Daniel Goldstein’s fight to stay in his apartment, and Develop Don’t Destroy‘s efforts to bring some sanity to the planning process, Battle for Brooklyn exposes the corrupt decision-making process behind the Atlantic Yards Project as well as some great public relations strategies (my favorite being a theater piece that takes place in front of Freddy’s bar before it is demolished). City Council member Tish James comes off really well against a cast of city politicians and developers the film skewers pretty squarely. Go see it while you can!
Posted by steve at 1:59 PM
June 17, 2011
What happened to the Brooklyn Paper on Atlantic Yards? Three meetings this week result in no coverage (so far)
Atlantic Yards Report
There were three important Atlantic Yards-related public events in the past week, with my coverage linked:
--a meeting June 11 on governance reform sponsored by BrooklynSpeaks, local elected officials, and others
--a forum June 14 on traffic changes sponsored by Forest City Ratner and the Empire State Development Corporation
--a session June 15 on reviving the alternative UNITY development plan, sponsored by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, local elected officials, and others.The events drew healthy crowds, more than 100 people for the latter two.
The hyperlocal web site Patch (owned by AOL, operating in several Brooklyn neighborhoods) covered all three events (governance, traffic, UNITY), while reporters for the Brooklyn Downtown Star, the New York Times's The Local, and others also attended some events.
Where was the Brooklyn Paper?
Maybe this explains it:
Why is Atlantic Yards no longer an important story for the Brooklyn Paper?
It's impossible to say for sure, but perhaps the newspaper's marketing alliance with the Nets (click on graphic below, from the paper's daily update last month, to enlarge) has an impact.
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Posted by eric at 10:01 AM
June 13, 2011
Some back story on the Daily News's friendly Ratner interview today: no questions about Goldstein
Atlantic Yards Report
Daily News sports reporter Stefan Bondy produced a suck-up interview with Bruce Ratner today, and while he did quote Ratner opponent Patti Hagan, he nonetheless declared the arena "Bruce Ratner's triumph" and otherwise skated over any countervailing evidence.
And Hagan, at the Brooklyn Film Festival June 3, offered a little back story about Bondy's interview, as shown in the video below.
"You might be interested to know I got called by a Daily News sports reporter a couple of days ago," she recounted, "who said that he had been able to have an interview with Bruce Ratner, and the one thing that Bruce Ratner said, on agreeing to be interviewed, was that no questions could be asked--the name Daniel Goldstein could not be mentioned."
Actually, Goldstein is mentioned in the story, but it doesn't look like Bondy asked Ratner about Goldstein.
Video: brokeland11217 via YouTube
Posted by eric at 10:13 AM
June 11, 2011
Brooklyn Paper suggests Battle for Brooklyn is "exhaustive new docu-ganda"
Atlantic Yards Report
Is Battle for Brooklyn an "exhaustive new docu-ganda," as per the Brooklyn Paper's summary (which is more positive than not)?
Nah.
It's not exhaustive--that's impossible--and, while there are legitimate bones to pick with some of the directors' choices, that doesn't make it propaganda.
And shouldn't a newspaper that can produce headlines and stories like "Bruce breaks ground at Atlantic Yards site" (right) be a wee bit careful throwing around "ganda" terms?
Posted by steve at 9:50 PM
Watch List Highlights, Friday, June 10, 2011
The Municipal Art Society of New York
A new film opens June 17 chronicling another large redevelopment of importance to New Yorkers: the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn. The eight-year-in-the-making film Battle for Brooklyn is an intimate and behind the scenes look at the seven year struggle over the Atlantic Yards project. It makes its theatrical debut starting June 17th at Cinema Village in Manhattan. Get your ticket.
Posted by steve at 9:47 PM
New videos from Tracy Collins; One Minute Voices from Dean Street
Atlantic Yards Report
Photographer and videographer Tracy Collins, a Dean Street resident, has begun "One Minute Voices,"a series of one-minute, casual, interviews with people who live and work in the neighborhood of the Dean Street Block Association (DSBA), 6th to Vanderbilt Avenues, in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, New York. (He invites further interviews; contact him at tc[at]3c[dot]com.)
A retailer
Abdul operates the Dubai Mini Mart at 6th Avenue and Dean Street, directly catercorner from the Dean Street entrance to the arena.
"The neighborhood is changing for the good," he says, "but sometimes you see these rats running around here." Construction slows his business 20-30%, he says, so he's thankful to neighborhood residents who still patronize his store.
The store was recently renovated, and a new sign is coming. They've had the store for five years, and the neighborhood has improved, Abdul says, citing new arrivals. (In other words, I'd bet, gentrification.)
Unexplored: how long the store's lease is and whether and how it would be converted to an establishment more directly keyed to arena crowds.
A resident
Doug Stone, a 17-year resident of Dean Street near Carlton Avenue, says people are happy in the general, the Dean Street playground has improved, Vanderbilt Ave "is rocking... and it feels really good."
However, he says there's "a lot of uncertainty and anxiety" re the arena. "I think that plopping down a big arena like a giant flying saucer... is definitely going to change things. I am persuaded that the arena was a bad process and a bad decision... It might contribute to the coffers of various entrepreneurs... but as far as this neighborhood, I'm pessimistic that it's going to be a net positive."
Stone says he hopes that, in five years, "we can all say that he was wrong," but he's not optimistic. "The arena will have impacts that we literally cannot predict."
I'd add that the path from the 1100-space parking lot on the block bounded by Dean and Pacific streets and Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues will go along residential Dean Street, where the sidewalk narrows to less than six feet in places.
Click on the link to take a look at the video interviews.
Posted by steve at 9:42 PM
June 10, 2011
New FCC report: "independent watchdog function" of press "at risk at the local level;" Brooklyn hyperlocal journalism gets barely a mention
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder reports on a new FCC study on the withering of local media outlets.
There's barely a mention of what was once called the country's bloggiest place:
The most frequent criticism of the teaching hospital model is that student journalists are a source of cheap labor and actually end up displacing their professional counterparts. The students are willing to work for “free,” earning course credit at a time when professional newsrooms are eliminating staff to cut costs. One former editor, Peter Scheer, wrote, “Does it make sense for [J-schools] to be subsidizing the accelerated dislocation of one generation of their graduates to make room for a younger generation of their graduates? In the investment world this is called a Ponzi scheme.” But Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, responded that students are doing journalism that newspapers no longer can. “With the typical metro news editor looking at a half-empty newsroom, the question isn’t whether to cover local issues with journalism students or veteran reporters, it’s whether to cover local issues with journalism students or not at all,” Lemann says. CUNY’s dean, Steve Shepard, admits that his students are “very cost effective,” but adds that without them the hyperlocal journalism in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene and Cobble Hill neighborhoods “wouldn’t get done.”
Um, that's Clinton Hill, not Cobble Hill.
And I wouldn't say that The Local, while doing some useful work, is exactly leading the pack. Nor is its hyperlocal work particularly oriented to accountability journalism, though that does crop up.
Posted by eric at 9:54 AM
June 9, 2011
Old Yankee Stadium and 4 Ballparks That Should Never Have Been Torn Down
Bleacher Report
by Rick Weiner
A column about lost ballparks makes the old Atlantic Yards/Vanderbilt Yard/Ebbets Field replacement error.
As the team's success increased so did the demand for tickets. With a small seating capacity and little-to-no available parking, then-Dodgers' owner Walter O'Malley was prepared to build a new ballpark at the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, one that would be able to accommodate the growing fanbase.
Noted developer and then-Commissioner of Buildings in New York City Robert Moses was opposed to O'Malley's plan and instead wanted the new stadium to be built on land in Flushing, Queens.
We all know how this story ends.
NoLandGrab: Yeah, it ends with us pointing out that "Atlantic Yards" is an arena and some 18 acres of vaportecture brought to us by Bruce Ratner, while the "Vanderbilt Yard" is an MTA rail-storage facility. O'Malley actually wanted to build his new ballpark on the site occupied by Bruce Ratner's infamous malls.
Posted by eric at 9:30 AM
June 7, 2011
NO MORE NICOLAI: CRITIC LEAVING NY TIMES
A|N Blog
by Julie V. Iovine
According to an in-house memo, New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff is “moving on” at the end of this month.
The sweet but short memo about the critic—who this year submitted his own Pulitzer nomination package—was sent around this morning from culture editor Jonathan Landman. Ouroussoff’s plan, the memo said, is:
to write a book about the architectural and cultural history of the last 100 years, “from Adolf Loos’s Vienna and the utopian social experiments of post-revolutionary Russia to postwar Los Angeles and the closing years of the 20th century,” as Nicolai describes it.
...The question is will the readers [miss him], too? The sporadic critic was known more for chasing down exotic locations and predictably championing all things Californian than analyzing local conditions and his even-handed voice sometimes had us all missing the impassioned harangues of his predecessor, Herbert Muschamp.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Architecture critic Ouroussoff leaving New York Times to write book about architecture, aiming for "social and political context"
According to the Architect's Newspaper, citing an in-house New York Times memo, Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff will leave at the end of this month to write a book that, in the words of his boss, "aspires to put a century of architecture into the kind of social and political context he always aimed for within the more limited constraints of newspaper writing."
...I posted a comment, noting that both Ouroussoff and Muschamp, alas, did a terrible job writing about Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. (In other words, he missed a lot of social and political context.)
Given that the project is being developed by a firm that partnered with the New York Times Company on the Times Tower, you’d think Times critics might be careful in covering the Brooklyn project exactingly. That was not to be.
Posted by eric at 1:15 PM
June 5, 2011
Up Close With Diana Williams
ABC 7
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Daniel Goldstein and Michael Galinsky are interviewed about the Atlantic Yards Fight on the release of the documentary "The Battle For Brooklyn."
Posted by steve at 11:47 PM
ArtBridge holds competition for art to be displayed on Atlantic Yards site sidewalk shed; here are some examples they won't pick
Atlantic Yards Report
As noted in the Brooklyn Eagle and NoLandGrab, ArtBridge is holding a contest for artists to have their work displayed on a 400-foot long sidewalk shed along one side of the Atlantic Yards site.
(As NLG points out, the location is not "the heart of Downtown Brooklyn.")
Here are a couple of AY-related art exhibits that I'm sure won't get picked:
Posted by steve at 11:18 PM
News and Reviews of "Battle for Brooklyn" Continue
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The Brooklyn Rail, Brooklyn's Ongoing Battle
By Williams Cole
This is an interview with Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky on the release of their documentary "Battle For Brooklyn."
Rail: So how is the Atlantic Yards Project pivotal—realistically and symbolically—to the changes in Brooklyn over the last decade or so?
Galinsky: Incredibly pivotal. As George Will points out in the movie, all the city officials were saying this area is blighted and we have to redevelop it. But, really, they wanted the land because it wasn’t blighted. It was probably the most valuable piece of property in Brooklyn! And yet they’re getting to lease it for a dollar for one hundred years. A dollar for one hundred years! I mean, it’s absurd, and then they’re not paying any taxes.
Countdown to Main Street, Main Street Fete
Friday night. Main Street, Brooklyn. DUMBO seems too cool to have a Main Street, but there it is. I'm going to 37, Powerhouse Arena, a bookstore/event space, for a party celebrating the New York premier of "Battle for Brooklyn," at the Brooklyn Film Festival. I had seen cuts of the film, but the final version, with diagrams and music and storyline, starts off very hard and never lets up. It tells the story of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and its 7 year fight to stop Bruce Ratner's ill-conceived Atlantic yards project. "It's like David and Goliath," says attorney Norman Siegel, "but you know, sometimes David wins." At the end of the film, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is chortling, "No one will remember how long it took." But we are watching the film, and we remember. I finger the leaflet in my pocket inviting me to a meeting June 15th to see the Unity Plan for the area. I plan to go. I want to see what Marshall Brown, Ron Shiffman and the other collaborating urban planners are proposing. The film's wonderful hero, Dan Goldstein, and brilliant heroine, Shabnam Merchant, are tenacious, ethical and beautiful. I learned a lot and look forward to seeing it over and over. In the meantime, at 37 Main Street, the activists and the film crowd rub shoulders in one of the moments of festivity in which we catch our breath and refuel for the next round in the fight.
inversecondemnation.com, Movie Review: Battle For Brooklyn
There have been other films about eminent domain. For a fictional comedic take on the subject you can't do better than Australia's The Castle, which tells the story of a Melbourne family's challenge to a Kelo-like taking of their home. Welcome to Asbury Park is a documentary about New Jersey property owners resisting the taking of their homes. It also looks like the Kelo story will be coming to the small screen in a Little Pink House movie.
But until Battle For Brooklyn, there's never been an attempt to chronicle the massive scope of an eminent domain story -- the film takes place over seven years, itself an accomplishment -- and with such intimacy. For although the film is framed by the opposition to the Atlantic Yards project, its heart is a character study of Daniel Goldstein, the property owner who became the opposition leader, and who by the film's end remains the sole "holdout" among his 130 neighbors.
And that's where Battle For Brooklyn excels. It allows us to witness Mr. Goldstein's evolution from a bewildered property owner to sophisticated spokesman and property rights activist. In the era of reality television we have become accustomed to often-too-revealing and all-too-polished looks into the personal lives of others. Yet, Battle For Brooklyn feels different.
Posted by steve at 10:47 PM
June 4, 2011
More Coverage for the opening of "Battle for Brooklyn"
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Dissent, The Epic Battle Over Atlantic Yards
By Norman Oder
The sprawling saga could merit a miniseries; Battle for Brooklyn, the propulsive ninety-three-minute documentary from Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley—Brooklynites known for the 2002 doc Horns and Halos, about an ill-fated George W. Bush biographer—chooses a narrower lens. With reality show-like intimacy, the film focuses on Daniel Goldstein, a graphic designer turned DDDB spokesman, the sole owner in his condo building to refuse a buyout. We see Goldstein find himself over six years as an activist, alternately invigorated and unnerved. The David-and-Goliath portrait can be compelling, but it avoids some gray areas, and sometimes Goldstein’s personal story displaces needed context. The directors explain that they’ve crafted a film that’s more character driven than information driven. Still, the title suggests some sweep, and the film scants Brooklyn’s gentrification, the reason FCR’s repeated, if questionable, promises of affordable housing have had such heft.
“If I had to do it all over again, I would do the same exact thing,” Goldstein declares in the film’s opening lines, as a camera-from-the-sky captures the denuded project footprint, with ominous music in the background. “If I wasn’t going to fight this project, which was hitting my home and my neighborhood, what would I ever fight for?”
j.b. spins, BFF ’11: The Battle for Brooklyn
At each juncture, the fix is obviously in for the so-called “Atlantic Yards” project. State commissioners vote on the proposal despite having no familiarity with the actual details, while members of the city council cannot be bothered to hear out its critics during committee hearings. Indeed, besides Brooklyn city council member Letitia James, New York City’s politicians do not come out looking well in Battle. The arrogant standoffishness of Mayor Bloomberg is hardly surprising, but those who see Battle at national festivals will be dismayed by the clownishness of Brooklyn Borough President Marty “Party” Markowitz. (Unfortunately, New Yorkers can attest, what you see is typical of the three term incumbent.)
Over the course of Battle, viewers will pick up a heck of an education in New York state land use law, but not at the expense of the film’s central drama. At its core, this is a film about a man fighting for his home and a community struggling to stay intact. However, the policy implications of the Atlantic Yards boondoggle are obvious. Forget about property rights. Evidently, if New York’s state and local governments decide your home or business could be better utilized by someone else, they can flat-out take it. If they have to game the system with bogus declarations of “blight,” then so much the better. After all, it depresses the property values, which in turn means they can offer drastically less compensation.
Posted by steve at 10:56 PM
ArtBridge: Works in Progress
Artbridge
Artbridge, which describes itself as "the Chelsea-based nonprofit that transforms underutilized city spaces into canvas for the work of emerging artists ," is trying to find something to fill its third installation by holding a contest for artists. The winner will have her artwork displayed on a 400-foot long sidewalk shed along one side of the Atlantic Yards site.
Art-making is a transformative act. Pigment mixed with medium becomes paint, that paint, when applied to canvas becomes “art,” that art, when we see it on gallery walls or in the public realm, alters the world around us.
The construction process can in many ways be seen as a mirror of the artistic one; breaking ground, reconfiguring it, reinterpreting space to make it new.
With this in mind we invite Brooklyn-based artists to submit visual works that riff on, reference, or reveal something about the artistic process for consideration for our latest public installation, ArtBridge: Works in Progress,” to be installed in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn in early Fall of 2011.
NoLandGrab: Although Prospect Heights is not "in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn," ArtBridge seems to unconsciously understand the Atlantic Yards Project. With a 20 year build out period, "work in progress' describes AY all too well. Also, mirroring the way project supporters hoped that nobody would oppose Atlantic Yards, the page announcing the contest proudly proclaims: "All Brooklyn Artists -- Submit Today!"
Related coverage...
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Artbridge Announces Call for Entries For Atlantic Yards Installation
Posted by steve at 10:28 PM
May 29, 2011
Court fight: Story of the battle over a basketball arena opens Brooklyn Film Festival
Daily News
By Joe Neumaier
It would be hard to find a better movie to open this year's Brooklyn Film Festival than "Battle for Brooklyn."
The rousing, engrossing documentary will screen at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema on Friday. It chronicles the conflict that began in December 2003 when real estate developer Bruce Ratner announced plans to build Atlantic Yards, a shopping and arena complex where the relocated New Jersey Nets will play, smack in the middle of Prospect Heights.
The troubled project — scheduled to open in 2012 — split city residents. Presented as simply a renovation of unused rail yards, it would eventually displace almost 1,000 residents and businesses, some of whom had been there a half century or longer.
Related coverage... Nets Daily, Battle Over, But Not Divided Opinion
Posted by steve at 9:48 PM
May 28, 2011
New documentary 'Battle for Brooklyn' details the fight over the Atlantic Yards project
Daily News
By Michael O'Keeffe
The Atlantic Yards documentary "Battle for Brooklyn" makes its U.S. debut this Friday at the Brooklyn Film Festival. This rundown of the film mentions unseemly behavior by some of the project supporters.
Forest City Ratner vice president Bruce Bender, pointing to a map as he tells the filmmakers which blocks will be seized for the project and which blocks will remain intact, comes across as dishonest and arrogant as the Bush administration officials who brought us the Iraq War. He's a man without empathy, completely unable to comprehend why residents and businessmen would be reluctant to step out of the way so his company could reap big profits.
Marie Louis of BUILD, a purportedly independent Brooklyn group that supported the project, continues to insist on camera that BUILD is a volunteer, grass-roots organization even after being confronted with tax records that show it received millions of dollars from Ratner.
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz reduces himself to a cartoon character as he invokes Junior's cheesecake and the long-gone Brooklyn Dodgers to explain why Ratner needs to take homes and businesses to build an NBA team. "He shed so many tears for the Dodgers going to La-La Land," AY foe Patti Hagan says in the film. "He's shed no tears for the one thousand people he wants put out of their homes."
Posted by steve at 10:39 PM
May 23, 2011
Forget traffic changes and rats at AY District Service Cabinet, free fare incentive generated news for Post and Brooklyn Paper
Atlantic Yards Report
It's kind of bizarre that, to two newspapers, the main news emanating from last week's Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meeting concerned not the meat of the discussion--such as traffic changes and rats--but an issue mentioned as an aside and expected to be discussed at a future meeting.
The Post on May 20 published 'Net'roCard on track for Brooklyn hoops fans and today the Brooklyn Paper published Take the train to the game — and then inside.
It's hardly news that arena sponsors aimed to connect game tickets to MetroCards--after all, Chapter 19, Mitigation, of the November 2006 Final Environmental Impact Statement describes a free fare incentive.
Posted by eric at 10:23 AM
Show me the monkey! Upcoming film treats include Brooklyn doc, return of Woody Allen, and apes
Daily News
Joe Neumaier
Atlantic Yards is nothing to look forward to, but it looks like the documentary of the fight against it is.
Early next month will see the perfect combination of movie and event, and not just because of a title. The opening-night selection of "Battle for Brooklyn" at the Brooklyn Film Festival — screening June 3 at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema (and opening at Cinema Village on June 17) — will be a form-and-function moment in which directors Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley's absorbing, important documentary will unspool in the borough it captures in transition.
The movie, about the fight by Prospect Heights resident Daniel Goldstein and community advocates to halt the Forest City Ratner firm from using Eminent Domain to relocate residents in order to build the Atlantic Yards development has heart, soul and chutzpah. (Insert your own punchline there about the Yards' future tenant, the New Jersey Nets.)
Feisty but fairly reported, "Battle" chronicles not only the resistance to the change but also the origins of an advocacy group − Brooklynite Goldstein's evolution from apartment owner to activist, and the life changes that arrived along with it − and the way New Yorkers rally when it's time to fight.
Like last year's doc "The Vanishing City," about the de facto purchasing of Manhattan blocks by corporate landlords, the movie will resonate with those who worry for the city's soul.
The time line that drives "Battle for Brooklyn" makes it as urgent as any Hollywood thriller. The fact that its real-life ending sits not far from the Brooklyn Film Festival's backyard makes it even more gripping, and gut-wrenching.
Posted by steve at 5:00 AM
May 15, 2011
Brooklyn Paper offers packaged-by-Nets story: Brook Lopez excited by arena! (plus: an intern discloses snark effect at paper)
Atlantic Yards Report
Well, the Brooklyn Paper still hasn't written about Forest City Ratner's dubious efforts to raise money from immigrant investors via the EB-5 program, but the paper did muster the energy to cover a handed-to-them, pictures'n'all, media event: the visit of Nets center Brook Lopez to the arena site and a couple of Bergen Street businesses.
The article, headlined Nets Lopez was the ‘center’ of attention on Bergen Street began:
The New Jersey Nets don’t move to Brooklyn until next October, but one of the team’s stars couldn’t wait that long to take a look at his future home.
Um, that's what Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, Richard Jefferson, and Devin Harris were also prompted to say by their bosses, who later disappeared them.
Note that the article, at least in the initial version posted this morning, quotes a "Baum" with no first name; that would be Nets spokesman Barry Baum. The photos come courtesy of the Nets. While the article doesn't mention when the visit happened, it was Wednesday, three days ago.
A happy businessman
The final quote comes from the owner of hot dog emporium Bark, Josh Sharkey:
“The arena is definitely positive for us,” Sharkey said. “It’s going to be a big improvement for the area.”
Shouldn't food and beverage purveyors commenting on the arena get an asterisk? Of course they--at least most of them--will think the influx of thousands of people would help their business.
Whether Sharkey has the wisdom to comment on the arena's impact on "the area" is a whole 'nother story.
Excited locals?
Note that, according to the Nets' web site, "Brook couldn't go five steps between Bark and the arena site without someone shouting encouragement or asking him to sign."
The photo accompanying that caption shows the featured "someone" to be a construction worker.
Click on the link to get some background on the author of this Brooklyn Paper story.
Posted by steve at 2:17 AM
In the video of Brooklyn photobloggers, still some Atlantic Yards echoes
Atlantic Yards Report
I missed the sixth annual Brooklyn Blogfest Thursday night, but the few reports I've seen suggest it was a congenial and less fraught scene than last year's Absolut kerfuffle. The keynote speaker was blog maven Jeff Jarvis. (Here's a report from the Brooklyn Eagle.)
Brit in Brooklyn photoblogger Adrian Kinloch has posted his video tribute to Brooklyn photobloggers, shown at the event.
A few AY mentions
Though Atlantic Yards, a focus of the relatively limited Brooklyn blogging in the early years of the Blogfest, has receded in relative prominence, I feel compelled to point to two Atlantic Yards photos that made the montage, from which I took screenshots.
At :08, the very first photo in the video, Jonathan Barkey shot State Sen. Marty Golden, developer Bruce Ratner, Borough President Marty Markowitz, at the MetroTech tree lighting last December:
At :54, Tracy Collins captured Markowitz last October looking skeptically at some information proffered by yours truly regarding his putative trip to China to pitch Atlantic Yards to green card-seeking investors:
Posted by steve at 2:04 AM
May 11, 2011
Truth in the Age of Snark
Rumur.com
by Michael Galinsky
Battle for Brooklyn filmmaker Michael Galinsky posts an interesting and well-worth-reading essay on separating fact from fiction.
In the age of the internet snark is much more important than fact to a disturbing degree. “Reputable” news gathering organizations seem to be devoid of fact checkers and editors are loathe to issue corrections even when the stated facts are clearly wrong. Snark is employed to tell the story the “reporter” sets out to tell, rather than having to do the work of finding out the story. While it is obviously more fun to be snarky than it is to be right, the end result is an extremely fluid relationship to the truth.
When powerful PR people push forth inaccuracies, like projected job numbers and fiscal benefits, it’s nearly impossible to get corrections. With very straightforward facts it should be simple to get a correction, but it never is. With our recent documentary about the Atlantic Yards situation, “Battle for Brooklyn” we have chosen not to focus on the nitty-gritty details of the story, but we have taken great pains to make sure that our facts, when put forth, are correct. We consulted with Atlantic Yards Report blogger, Norman Oder, as we finalized the cut. Norman has been the Don Quixote of fact checking over the past six years. He drives the editors (and us) a little crazy, but if all media (and particularly news media which presents itself as dealing in facts) takes a pass on paying attention to the literal truth, we start to get into very murky water.
...Recently we showed a rough cut of the film at a legal conference focusing on condemnation issues. We were surprised to find that the condemning judge and the Empire State Development Corporation’s (ESDC) attorney that led the condemnation legalities were in the front row (this is a fact). After the movie the judge had kind words for the film. The condemning attorney did not. In fact he demanded a special session the next day to clear up issues with the film. The following day at his special session it seemed that he only wanted to attack Daniel’s character. He discussed confidential negotiations that he had held with Daniel’s lawyer in order to paint Daniel as a greedy holdout. The following day Daniel’s lawyer emailed me the non-disclosure form that this lawyer had signed previous to his discussion.
Posted by eric at 11:23 AM
May 10, 2011
Xanadu- Governor Christie’s Ode-ious “Yes We Khan” Moment
Noticing New York
(Above: “Xanadu” from “Citizen Kane” - “cost: no man can say”- and “Xanadu” the mega-project in New Jersey, - more costs now being assumed by the New Jersey taxpayers- both from wikipedia.)
Suppose the New York Times proposed a contest for readers to write a poetic ode about a huge, over scale, garishly designed and questionably subsidized mixed-use project critically integrated with a sports complex: Do you think the readers might respond with lacerating lyricism questioning the judgement, priorities and profligacy of public officials?
Well, the New York Times did, and its readers did, only the contest was not held with respect to the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards mega-monopoly handed out to Bruce Ratner (the Times business partner in building the new Times building). The contest was held with respect to New Jersey’s stalled Xanadu project recently rescued from financial insolvency by Governor Chris Christie.
...May 3, 2011, the Times declared a winner: Prevailing Poet Is Decreed in Meadowlands Ode Contest.
Here for reference is the opening stanza of the original Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem:
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.The declared winner was Steve Schoenwiesner of Montclair, N.J., for his two-stanza entry, one stanza of which is reproduced below:
For Xanadu did Christie-Khan
A stately subsidy decree.
While tracks below a river, planned,
Were scuttled, fundless, by this man
A blight revives tax-free.
Posted by eric at 11:51 AM
May 8, 2011
hotdocs 2011 part i
Steve Munro
Battle for Brooklyn ****
Directed by Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley, USA
Living in a city whose government was recently taken over by politicians whose recipe for success is to sell everything in sight, I just had to see Battle for Brooklyn. This film follows a 7-year battle by residents and businesses against redevelopment to make way for a new basketball stadium and many, many condos.
...
The pattern here is distressingly familiar: a sports complex, a team of dubious value, a developer who needs government help to achieve his goals, governments that are more interested in money and good news than in preserving neighbourhoods. The legal and political issue at the heart of the story is the abuse of powers of “eminent domain”, or as they are known in Canada, “expropriation”. If the state uses its power to force the sale of land for any purpose, then no neighbourhood is safe from intervention on behalf of a developer whose project is deemed “a public good”, and the opportunities for corruption are obvious.
...
Battle for Brooklyn is a cautionary tale about the results of government and private interests conspiring together against the public. This film, at a neighbourhood scale, is a fitting complement to Hot Coffee (on the systematic limitation of corporate liability) which I saw later in the festival.
Posted by steve at 1:21 AM
Brooklyn Film Festival, Rooftop Films Announce Premiere of Battle for Brooklyn
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle
by Phoebe Neidl
Brooklyn Film Festival (BFF) and Rooftop Films are proud to announce the US Premiere of Battle for Brooklyn, a controversial look at the Atlantic Yards project.
The film will open the 2011 Brooklyn Film Festival on June 3 at Brooklyn Heights Cinemas at 8 p.m. The film will be also shown as a part of the Rooftop Films Summer Series on June 9 in Fort Greene Park. Prior to both Brooklyn screenings, the documentary had its world premiere at the Toronto HotDocs festival on April 30.
“We are extremely excited to be working with such strong Brooklyn institutions that have supported us for over a decade,” said Directors Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky.
“Directors Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky, BFF alumni, have been working on this project since 2003 and we are proud to give voice to a Brooklyn community that has been fighting with limited resources and without much external support an enormous battle to save their own homes,” said festival director Marco Ursino. “We are also excited about the collaboration with Rooftop Films. Battle for Brooklyn is an important documentary that belongs to the community and we feel that this partnership will ensure a truly broad outreach.”
Posted by steve at 1:18 AM
May 2, 2011
A List of Reasons Lovers of New York Should See “Bill Cunningham New York,” A Documentary About Photographing New York Fashion
Noticing New York
Never mind six degrees — The New York Times is never separated from Forest City Ratner by more than a couple degrees.
You can still catch the documentary “Bill Cunningham New York” in New York area theaters. The sweetly charming Cunningham, a man of extraordinary magnanimity of spirit, is a beautiful nerd, a man who, by giving himself over entirely to his obsession with fashion, achieves a singular greatness few of us can ever hope to achieve. With his two contrasting photographic features appearing weekly in the New York Times, Cunningham meticulously and with relentless energy chronicles the upper echelon fashion at New York’s exclusive charitable soirees and, also, more important, street fashion.
Among the several reasons Michael D.D. White urges us to see the film are these:
• The way that charity event life meshes with money and power (and therefore, the astute will extrapolate, politics and political agenda.)
• Whither the New York Times? The future of the city, at least for the time being, is probably inextricably linked with the New York Times. As Cunningham’s work now and over the years has mostly been for the Times the film provides a valuable window into the culture of the paper, including a scene with Times publisher Pinch Sulzberger (called "Pinch" because his father was nicknamed "Punch"). A lot of the film is shot inside or just outside of the New Times building that the Times, employing eminent domain, built in a business partnership with Bruce Ratner, the notorious politically-connected subsidy collector reviled for Atlantic Yards, (a mega-project the Times refrains from criticizing or scrutinizing).
Posted by eric at 9:12 PM
May 1, 2011
On NetsDaily, time travel regarding AY documentaries
Atlantic Yards Report
From yesterday's NetsDaily:
Meanwhile Back in Brooklyn...
Amidst news that yet a third sports bar is planned opposite Barclays Center, a long-awaited documentary about the struggle of local landowners and tenants to stop the arena and Atlantic Yards has debuted at the Brooklyn Film Festival. "Brooklyn Matters", which at times had trouble getting funding, describes itself as "an insightful documentary that reveals the fuller truth about the Atlantic Yards proposal and highlights how a few powerful men are circumventing community participation and planning principles to try to push their own interests forward."
The Brooklyn Paper which was first an opponent and then a proponent of the project, gave it a mixed review saying on one hand ""Brooklyn Matters" is a clever invective that will preach to the converted — the Atlantic Yards opponents who are its likely audience — a sermon they already believe: Atlantic Yards is bad" but on the other casting it as "an engaging head-butt to developer Bruce Ratner, the Empire State Development Corporation, Mayor Bloomberg and former Gov. Pataki." So there.
That mixed review was published 1/27/07.
The new film is Battle for Brooklyn, which debuted in Toronto last night and will debut in Brooklyn in June.
Updated
NetsDaily posts an update, apparently in response to my earlier post:
Meanwhile Back in Brooklyn...
Amidst news that yet a third sports bar is planned opposite Barclays Center, a long-awaited documentary about the struggle of local landowners and tenants to stop the arena and Atlantic Yards has debuted at the Brooklyn Film Festival. "The Battle for Brooklyn", which as the New York Observer notes had as much trouble getting funding as the project itself. An earlier version of this item confused "The Battle for Brooklyn" with an earlier documentary, "Brooklyn Matters".
What's the difference between the two? The Observer: "unlike Brooklyn Matters, this doc appears to be less of a polemic meant to sway the public against Ratner and the Nets than a swan song for a battle lost. Maybe they could screen it on the Barclays Centre Plaza when it opens next year."
The Observer reported:
It took almost as long for Bruce Ratner to get his Atlantic Yards project through the huge community fight as a movie about that fight to get made.
That's a reference to time, not funding. And it's Battle for Brooklyn, not The Battle for Brooklyn.
Posted by steve at 10:16 PM
Hot Docs: Battle for Brooklyn
Spacing Toronto
Here's a review of "Battle for Brooklyn" as the film is shown in Toronto's Hot Docs international documentary film festival.
Battle for Brooklyn follows the seven-year fight of Brooklyn resident Daniel Goldstein and a group of community activists coalesced under the banner “Develop, Don’t Destroy Brooklyn” against the massive Atlantic Yards mega-project. In 2003 billionaire developer Bruce Ratner and his firm, Forest City Ratner, announced a plan to buy the New Jersey Nets basketball team and relocate it to Brooklyn. With starchitect Frank Gehry on board and millions in public subsidies, Ratner unveiled the goliath Atlantic Yards development - comprising not only a basketball arena but also sixteen high-rise buildings, housing luxury condominiums, office and retail space – to be built over the disused Brooklyn rail yards as well as parts of a long-existing and densely-populated local neighborhood. So began seven years of community protests, legal actions, and political bargaining, culminating with the State Supreme Court’s enactment of eminent domain, the subject of this compelling and important documentary about corporate power and the production of urban space.
Posted by steve at 10:04 PM
April 5, 2011
As media pile on to Post's questionable scoop, Bloomberg defends Ratner; get ready for request for additional subsidies
Atlantic Yards Report
The New York Post's questionable, conclusory article yesterday, based on SEC worst-case warnings, drew unskeptical follow-up in Gothamist, New York, Business Insider, Huffington Post, and others.
Even the Star-Ledger, in Nets' Brooklyn project reportedly could be scaled back, chose to trust the Post's framing of the story rather than the facts its reporters noted.
...Bloomberg professes optimism
In Mike believes Atl. Yards hoopla, the Post followed up:
A confident Mayor Bloomberg insisted yesterday that the housing and commercial component of the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards complex won't be scrapped, saying he was certain that developer Bruce Ratner is proceeding as planned.
"I talked to Bruce Ratner as late as 30 minutes ago, and let me tell you, he thinks his business is going very well out there and he's very optimistic about Atlantic Yards," Bloomberg said.
Except Ratner's business isn't going very well; that's why he sold 49% of 15 retail properties.
Nor is the project proceeding as planned; after all, Bloomberg's own administration--at least under the recently-departed HPD head--denied additional subsidies for the first tower.
Posted by eric at 4:32 PM
March 26, 2011
In Our Time Press, the notorious Stephen Witt hails Ratner's modular plan, cites support from Caldwell of BUILD
Atlantic Yards Report
The notorious Stephen Witt is now writing for the Bedford-Stuyvesant-based Our Time Press, but his m.o. remains the same.
In Build Atlantic Yards in Bedford-Stuyvesant (from this issue), Witt writes:
If developer Forest City Ratner (FCR) wants to prefabricate all planned 16 high-rise buildings in his $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project that’s fine with me as long as most of the factory work stays in Brooklyn.
And a good place to start looking for a site to build modules components of the skyscrapers that will be trucked and bolted together on the 22-acre site starting at the Flatbush/Atlantic avenues intersection is in Bedford- Stuyvesant.
This is a version of an argument made by Crown Heights residents (and then-Daily News columnist) Errol Louis, as expressed at a forum in September 21006: "If they’re going to get a billion-dollar TIF [tax-increment financing] deal in Rensselaer County, I think where I live, in Kings County, if somebody wants to bring a billion-dollar deal there, with way too much paid per job, in my neighborhood, where there’s a lot of unemployment, personally, I would say, ‘You know what? I’ll take that.’”
...
The article closes:
The announcement came as the mostly wealthier and white opponents of the project continue to decry it. Interestingly, some of these people have made opposing the plan a cottage industry and have already benefited from the project.
Caldwell said he finds it interesting that opponent bloggers never even try to tell both sides of the story, and continue to demonize anyone that tries to see both sides of the coin.
“I was just at Cataldo’s Restaurant and Pizzeria on Dean Street and Vanderbilt Avenue and the owner told me how he is doing a great business from arena construction workers,” said Caldwell.
“The bloggers and people against the project don’t talk or write about the positive economic impact the arena has already had in the area,” he added.
As McClure comments:
Ouch. But we thought it was the wealthier and white proponents of the project who were benefiting from the project — that is, until the Feds swooped in.
The other night, as it happens, I was talking to someone who lives on the Prospect Heights/Crown Heights boundary. Nobody in her building--mostly poorer and black (to use the converse of Witt's term)--supports Atlantic Yards.
Maybe that's a limited sample, but Witt's sample is just as limited. And everyone he cites is making money from Atlantic Yards. Maybe he should consider the other side of that coin.
Posted by steve at 10:02 PM
March 24, 2011
Whither the New York Times? Noticing New York Comment Respecting a Manhattan Institute Sponsored Debate
Noticing New York
The Times is having a harder and harder time not covering Atlantic Yards. That’s partly because Atlantic Yards is a bigger story than the paper has heretofore rightfully acknowledged. Basically, I think there was a decision at the Times made, albeit in the necessarily amorphous and unstated way that decisions would have to be made in such a news organization, to relegate Atlantic Yards, and more specifically the governmental misconduct and impermissible cronyism associated with Atlantic Yards, to the status of an official non-story within its pages. But the story won’t go away.
With new revelations like the Forest City Ratner pattern of being involved in the bribery of government officials, the recently unveiled ambition to make Atlantic Yards the densest forest of modular units in North America and EB5 program abuses in selling green cards to the Chinese solely for developer benefit the Atlantic Yards saga is a constant poster child for malefaction. But what the Times most misestimates is the extent to which the Times story interrelates with the coverage of the national and local stories it editorially believes it should be covering vigilantly.
I believe that the Times made a miscalculation that Ratner, as a financial buddy, could be off-limits for critical pieces- but not puff pieces- (Its own little behind-the-scenes deal with the devil), but that indulgences would come (in the good old religious sense of buying indulgences to recover from sin) via its moralistic vigor on national issues. But there is no such line to be drawn. Everything is connected. (This is one of the points of an epically idiosyncratic Noticing New York piece currently in the works: Adding A few More Off Topic Notes (Or Are They Really?).)
(* You encounter a similar Jekyll and Hyde split with Michael Ratner: On the one hand he is a defender of intentional human rights coordinating with the likes of Naomi Wolf and on the other he is feathering his nest with political contributions to now-indicted state senator Carl Kruger, no doubt with the intention of keeping the money flow from his brother Bruce Ratner off the radar screens)
The Times can’t write about race relations without observing the context in which white men like Ratner have attempted manipulate those concerns for their own financial advantage. The Times can’t cover Bloomberg and his potential run for president without observing how he favors awarding the development of big swaths of the city to a small in-crowd of connected developers. The Wall Street shenanigans covered by the Times very popular op-ed columnist Paul Krugman echo in the goings on with respect to Atlantic Yards as do all the Times stories about the accelerating redistributions of wealth from the middle class to the upper echelons.
The list of what the Times is missing by failing to make connections goes on ad infinitum. It also all relates to the question asked by the title given to the St. Francis evening debate: “Is the New York Times Good for Democracy?” The Times seriously hamstrings itself with respect to covering the big story on American Democracy by failing to adequately cover Atlantic Yards.
Posted by eric at 11:29 AM
March 21, 2011
"Gray Lady Down," a debate on the Times, and an AY mention
Atlantic Yards Report
Having read William McGowan's book Gray Lady Down: What the Decline and Fall of The New York Times Means for America, I knew it does not address such relatively local issues at Atlantic Yards (built by the Times Company's business partner on the Times Tower, Forest City Ratner), but instead more ideological issues such as gay marriage, immigration, the Duke "rape" case, and the war on terror.
So McGowan didn't bring up Atlantic Yards during a debate last month with Michael Tomasky, American editor-at-large for the Guardian, at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights. (Tomasky's main point was that the allegedly halcyon days of the past featured flawed coverage, especially in scope, of a different stripe.)
...I think the issue is somewhat murky. I have no doubt that the editorial page is committed, by virtue of the "spirit of the Times" (aka Sulzberger), to supporting Atlantic Yards, or, at least, keeping its mouth shut about dismaying details.
Is the Metro desk in the tank? I don't think so--and I can't let myself think so. But the Times has done, on the whole, a lousy job covering Atlantic Yards.
Editors make choices, and the Times has chosen to put far less energy into looking carefully at Atlantic Yards than at a number of other issues. Meanwhile, the Sports section laps up Nets publicity.
Posted by eric at 11:19 AM
March 20, 2011
Times devotes seven reporters to Kruger-Turano investigation; what if they applied same resources to Forest City Ratner's EB-5 venture?
Atlantic Yards Report
In A Senator’s Shadow Family, the New York Times today assigns seven reports to look at the complicated relationship between accused (of corruption) state Senator Carl Kruger and the Turano family, who live in an over-the-top house in Mill Basin:
In the days since the criminal complaint was filed on March 10, the four central characters in this drama have declined to talk extensively to reporters. But interviews with two dozen people who know them, along with previously undisclosed court and city records, reveal a strange symbiosis. Mr. Kruger vaulted the Turanos into his spheres of power and influence, prosecutors say, landing Dorothy a plum job and, later, funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars into her sons’ bank accounts to finance a $200,000 Bentley and pay down a $1.2 million mortgage.
The Turanos, in turn, provided the senator companionship, and prosecutors say the brothers helped conceal his growing payoffs from lobbyists and corporations.
Imagine what seven reporters could find if they looked into Forest City Ratner's EB-5 venture, to which the newspaper finally devoted space--all of two paragraphs--this week.
Posted by steve at 10:13 PM
Seven years ago, Brooklyn Paper house ad touted "the most complete and honest coverage" of Atlantic Yards and "changing face of Brooklyn"
Atlantic Yards Report
From a house ad in the 3/20/04 Brooklyn Papers (now the Brooklyn Paper):
2 massive Urban Renewal projects would change the face of Downtown Brooklyn forever — turning both quaint and gritty neighborhoods into high-trafficked walled communities, and massively impacting life in the surrounding residential neighborhoods.
The proposed Nets arena is just a small part of the master plan, the most expensive Urban Renewal and property condemnation in Brooklyn’s history.
Only The Brooklyn Papers has asked: Is this the Manhattanization of Brooklyn ... or the “depeopling” suburbanization of our streets?
Are these projects good for Brooklyn?
YOU'LL FIND THE MOST COMPLETE AND HONEST COVERAGE OF THE CHANGING FACE OF BROOKLYN ONLY IN THE BrooklynPapers.
Looking back
In retrospect, I'm not sure the question was Manhattanization vs. suburbanization, though it's more the former.
Rather, it's whether the public sector would prove to be a tenacious defender of the public interest, or whether the project would be steered by the developer, with cheerleaders like Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz bending over backwards to help.
The Brooklyn Paper did an aggressive job covering Atlantic Yards, though that's diminished since the newspaper was bought by Rupert Murdoch in 2009.
Posted by steve at 9:45 PM
March 19, 2011
Look at the graphics: Times devotes less space to EB-5 controversy than to puff pieces about Nets promotions
Atlantic Yards Report
Size does matter.
Yesterday, the New York Times briefly mentioned Forest City Ratner's effort to raise $249 million from immigrant investors, as if no questions or controversy were connected.
I've scanned the print article, to contrast the amount of coverage with the significant space the Sports section has devoted to covering Nets promotions of dubious value...
Yes, Metro is different from Sports, but people read the Times as a whole.
(And, I should add, today's Times has a Metro section feature on the move of Freddy's from Prospect Heights, displaced from the arena block, to an address that's either the South South Slope, Greenwood Heights, or northern Sunset Park: The Transmigration of a Brooklyn Saloon. It's not uninteresting, but it's also soft news, not hard news that requires some analysis.)
The two paragraphs the Times devoted to EB-5 are also dwarfed by a Sports section photo of Nets dancers and a puff piece about a promotion for tax time.
Posted by steve at 11:44 PM
Two Times headline tweaks, softening the political impact of the modular tower plan
Atlantic Yards Report
It's not uncommon that newspapers publish articles with web headlines that differ from headlines that appear in print, given the constraints of the latter.
And it's not uncommon, given the fluid world of web-first publishing, the web headlines change as well.
Still, it's worth pointing out the apparent softening of provisional New York Times headlines over the past two days.
Union concerns not played up
As I wrote March 17, the article headlined in print as "Atlantic Yards Plans to Build Tallest Prefab," and online as Prefabricated Tower May Rise at Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards, at point had a different web headline, with a tougher slant: "In Brooklyn, a Prefabricated Tower May Anger Unions."
In other words, the story tilted from an emphasis on the political context of the decision to a more gee-whiz approach to technology.
The article yesterday, headlined online as With Federal Case and Modular Building Plan, New Attention for Atlantic Yards Project, and with a similar headline in print, at one point was headlined online as "Atlantic Yards Developer Draws Criticism from Unions," as the screenshot indicates.
As it happens, the union angle wasn't the main thrust of the piece, which was a (somewhat wimpy) round-up. But was there more criticism from unions that ultimately didn't appear?
Posted by steve at 11:41 PM
Ratner Gets Press, More To Come?
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
In the aftermath of the major New York Times piece revealing Forest City Ratner's plans to minimize union labor by using modular construction for the first residential tower, the media have started to take a second look at the deception and corruption that are the hallmarks of Atlantic Yards.
Patch takes a look at the outraged union reaction in Brooklyn who sound all but ready to break out the inflatable rat for the corner of Dean and Flatbush. And then the Times itself followed up with a broader look at the Atlantic Yards bait-and-switch.
But as Norman Oder points out, there's still another really big story here that the major media has yet to nail: FCR's borderline-fraudulent sales of green cards to Asian investors in return for investment dollars. The EB-5 program is meant to create new jobs in the U.S., but as the Times reports:
MaryAnne Gilmartin, executive vice president of Forest City Ratner, said that when it received final approval from the federal government, the $249 million would be used to pay down a land loan for the project and additional work on the railyard.
How many new jobs does paying off a loan create? And wasn't the railyard work already required under the master plan? Oder, ever generous to his colleagues, actually sets out a complete roadmap for coverage of this scandal-in-the-making, in the comments section of the Times' follow-up article. It's a story about a well-intentioned Federal program that Ratner has turned into yet another form of corporate welfare, based on hawking U.S. green cards like memberships in a time-share resort. Journalists, please start your engines.
Posted by steve at 10:25 PM
From Columbia Journalism Review: A Sports Myth Grows in Brooklyn: New basketball arena won’t occupy the site the Dodgers sought
Atlantic Yards Report
I've been writing about the "same site" myth for years and, in a 2/17/08 post suggested that the New York Times's failure to correct a persistent error would have consequences. Indeed, it has.
Columbia Journalism Review today publishes my online article, A Sports Myth Grows in Brooklyn: New basketball arena won’t occupy the site the Dodgers sought:
Journalists who write about the new basketball arena rising in Brooklyn, scheduled to house the basketball Nets in 2012, frequently invoke the borough’s last major league team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, who left in 1957 for Los Angeles. They sometimes cite a seeming spiritual link: the Barclays Center arena is said to be located exactly where a successor to Ebbets Field could have emerged.”
A half-century earlier, Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley had hoped to build a new home for his team on the same site,” writes Zack O’Malley Greenburg in Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner to Corner Office, officially published March 17. (Jay-Z’s an investor in the Nets, hence a chapter on the Atlantic Yards project.) The Ebbets Field connection has been brought up by Mayor Mike Bloomberg, cited by a journalism professor and author on a book on the Dodgers, and even entered an ongoing exhibit at the Brooklyn Historical Society.
The problem? It’s a myth. The stadium would have been located across a wide avenue. While the myth has appeared in multiple media outlets, I believe that The New York Times, which many researchers treat as a reliable source, bears significant responsibility.
The error has appeared at least five times in the Times
Posted by steve at 10:00 PM
March 13, 2011
The cognitive dissonance of the Daily News: cheering Atlantic Yards, slamming Albany corruption, giving slack to Kruger's partner Forest City Ratner
Atlantic Yards Report
It wasn't so long ago that the New York Daily News, on 12/17/09, was cheering the Atlantic Yards arena:
Even more important, the Atlantic Yards plan calls for building 6,400 housing units, a third of them affordable, on a tract that has been fallow for half a century. Those will take time. Right now, it's enough that we end the dark half-century that began with the defection of the borough's Dodgers and enjoy all the jobs that building the arena will create.
That contained a big lie ("fallow" tract), a medium lie ("all the jobs"), and a ridiculous claim (that the half-century had been "dark").
A corrupt capital
Today, the Daily News is shocked, shocked at the political shenanigans behind the project, in an editorial headlined Crooked Carl Kruger wallowed in Albany's corrupt pork-barrel slush-fund ways:
The million-dollar corruption case lodged against Brooklyn state Sen. Carl Kruger did more than depict him as the personification of sleaze. It also shed invaluable light on the Legislature's cavalier slush-fund culture.
An FBI listening device showed just how much money an individual lawmaker can control - and just how routinely a legislator can dole it out, without accountability or sound judgment, to special friends.
This particular transaction unfolded in December, when Kruger fielded a call from Forest City Ratner honcho Bruce Bender - a client of lobbyist Richard Lipsky, who had allegedly bribed Kruger for help on other matters.
Bender was seeking an amazing $15 million: $9 million for a bridge related to his company's Atlantic Yards project, $2 million for a retail center in Mill Basin and $4 million to renovate a skating rink in Prospect Park.
As it happens, Bender's wife sits on the board of the Prospect Park Alliance.
Kruger laments that he has but $4 million to offer and asks, "What do you want done?" adding, "I guess the park. F--- the bridge."
...
But it takes two (or three) to tango--aren't Kruger's partners deserving of criticism? Wasn't it Bender who said "I don't mind fucking the bridge"?
Blame the legislature?
The editorial concludes:
But this is slimy business as usual in Albany, where pork accounts are so numerous that Senate officials couldn't be quite sure on Friday which account the $4 million came from or where it ended up.
Prosecutors have warned for years that this secretive, unaccountable spending is guaranteed to breed corruption. They were right. Individual lawmakers have no business grabbing and doling out slices of pork. So, from now on, for as long as the Legislature insists on gorging, these grants will be known as Kruger Money.
Shouldn't the Daily News stress that part of the "slimy business" is Forest City Ratner's effort to evade a $14 million obligation it assumed to rebuild the Carlton Avenue Bridge?
Posted by steve at 10:47 PM
March 4, 2011
Media meme #2: about that "indie rock" petition for Prime 6; the author can't be found and the whole thing may be fake
Atlantic Yards Report
We've been played, folks.
Neighbors' concerns about Prime 6, the "sports bar," club, or simply nightlife spot with an entrance on Flatbush Avenue and a backyard extending into a residential block, has turned into a huge donnybrook about 1) bars capitalizing on the arena and 2) places attracting a "hip-hop" crowd.
The first seems at least partly true. Evidence for the second relies mostly on an online petition urging that the bar switch to "indie" rock, a petition so precious that it generated numerous parody signatures, and a petition in response urging "Jennifer McMillen" to move to the Hamptons. And lots of pile-on coverage.
Except no one, save the Wall Street Journal, tried to find McMillen, who's not listed in the phone book or in any database. And the Journal couldn't find her, and suggests the kerfuffle is based on a falsehood:
It was provocative stuff, especially for a famously liberal and oft-mocked Brooklyn enclave. Except it might not be true.
At a recent meeting, most locals who turned out in force to air gripes about the establishment—tentatively called Prime 6 and tentatively set to open in May—didn't know a Ms. McMillen. Efforts by The Wall Street Journal to find a person with that name in New York City were unsuccessful.
Related coverage...
The Wall Street Journal, Brooklyn Venue Sparks Debate
Residents insisted none of their concerns had to do with any playlist at the spot, planned for Flatbush and Sixth avenues, just a few blocks from the Atlantic Yards development, which includes a new basketball arena for the Nets.
"I care about the 4 a.m. closing hour," said Michael Rooney, an attorney.
"No one—even among the most concerned neighbors—said anything about hip-hop music. That's a complete invention with racist overtones," said Steve Ettlinger, a writer and Park Slope resident of 26 years. He thinks the petition must be a hoax.
NoLandGrab: So the question is this — is "Jennifer McMillen" just a prankster having some fun, or is there something more sinister and calculated going on here? Like an effort to tarnish people opposed to the overriding of zoning rules that typically prevent an enormous sports arena from being built immediately adjacent to residential neighborhoods?
Posted by eric at 10:44 AM
Media meme #1: why is the Barclays Center naming rights deal reported as "nearly $400 million"?
Atlantic Yards Report
How exactly are sports reporters still reporting that the Barclays Center naming rights deal resembles the $400 million deal announced in January 2007?
Consider the cliche-ridden USA Today article headlined New Jersey Nets go global to help domestic image. (No, it's not about EB-5.)
The article begins:
New Jersey Nets CEO Brett Yormark looked at Brooklyn and saw the world, a melting pot of humanity.
He also saw a world of opportunity for the Nets as the franchise planned its move to Brooklyn starting with the 2012-13 season.
Yormark began an aggressive pursuit of international brands the Nets could partner with, scoring a lucrative 20-year naming-rights deal worth nearly $400 million for the Brooklyn arena with Barclays, the London-based banking and financial services giant.
How does the reporter know the value of the naming rights deal?
Because the $400 million figure was promoted relentlessly by the Nets and Forest City Ratner, and repeated dutifully by journalistic outlets like the New York Times.
What about the cut?
The cut in the agreement, to $200 million and unspecified "certain fees," got covered in a few media outlets. The Times barely covered the story; it referred to "an additional sum" and later reported the Nets claimed "that the bank’s total annual payments, including fees for other rights, remain unchanged."
No evidence was cited. The available evidence, as noted at bottom, suggests otherwise.
Posted by eric at 10:32 AM
February 27, 2011
A profile of the guy whose firm produced Ratner's brochures: "Josh is highly motivated by making profit"
Atlantic Yards Report
The 2/22/11 profile in Capital NY, How former liberal operative Josh Isay became the default paid-media guy to the New York establishment, concerns SKDKnickerbocker, once known as Knickerbocker SKD.
It's an interesting piece of inside baseball, but without an attempt to evaluate the content of the firm's work. The press does such evaluation with certain political ads, but not (despite my argument) with the firm's misleading brochures for Forest City Ratner.
The article notes:
Both the corporate and the political clients ostensibly benefit from the same essential asset: Isay’s knowledge of how reporters, politicians and regulators process information.
And that's why the press should take the message seriously.
Clients
The article lists several clients, but not FCR:
In addition to NYSE, the firm has been hired by a host of corporate and union clients, including Thor Equities, the firm that sparred with the city over the redevelopment of Coney Island; the Rudin family, which controls some 14 million square feet of real estate in New York City; Genting New York, a subsidiary of the Malaysian gambling giant that won state approval to install slot machines at the Queens Aqueduct; and Education Reform Now, the Joel Klein creation that’s battling teacher unions in New York. (Anita Dunn, Isay’s partner in D.C., is advising a group with a similar agenda: Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst.)
Meanwhile, Isay seems to have worked at one time or another with all of the best-known politicians in New York City...
The bottom line
Here's the bottom line regarding Isay's choice of political clients, which likely applies to corporate clients, as well:
Certainly, he will not feel constrained by any sense of partisan duty.
(As one of Isay's consultant friends put it, "Josh is highly motivated by making profit, which is fine.")
Posted by steve at 7:03 PM
February 19, 2011
New York Times devotes investigative resources to Park Slope Food Co-op "scandal," ignores EB-5 story
Atlantic Yards Report
This is pretty rich or, rather, brutally weird. Yesterday, the New York Times devoted two reporters and some 1100 words to an article headlined At a Food Co-op, a Discordant Thought: Nannies Covering Shifts:
So the allegation by a Park Slope blog last week that some members were sending their nannies to fulfill their work shifts has raised eyebrows and debate among the granola-and-strollers set of greater Park Slope, and smug satisfaction among those who would rather go to Key Food.
The allegation, by a blog "which goes by a name that cannot be printed in this newspaper" (Fucked in Park Slope), was worth a follow-up, a perfect story for, say, the old and departed City section.
But the coverage seems disproportionate to the Times's willingness to ignore Atlantic Yards. Meanwhile, there's a blog that kinda did some reporting about Forest City Ratner's attempt to raise $249 million from immigrant investors under the federal government's EB-5 program.
Posted by steve at 4:18 PM
February 17, 2011
Credulous Daily News columnist Denis Hamill asserts "Atlantic Yards" dream real for Ratner, buys into Ratner spin, fails to check facts
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder takes apart Denis Hamill's love letter to Bruce Ratner.
Denis Hamill, the Daily News's most prominent Atlantic Yards apologist, today pens a fabulist valentine to Bruce Ratner, headlined Atlantic Yards and the Nets Barclays Arena dream real for Bruce Ratner - after 7-yr. nightmare.
First, let's check the headline. The arena might be happening, but Atlantic Yards isn't very real at all. Hamill couldn't be bothered to check, but the much-ballyhooed affordable housing is yet again delayed.
And instead of taking ten years, as Ratner repeatedly promised, the project more likely would take 25.
But that's not why--I suspect--Forest City Ratner reached out to the convenient Hamill. They need to sell some suites, and some sponsorships.
Read on for Oder's line-by-line takedown.
Posted by eric at 11:11 AM
February 14, 2011
Good Bye!
Found in Brooklyn
Lisanne McTernan is hanging up her blog, Found in Brooklyn. Godspeed, Lisanne!
I do believe that this will be F.I.B's last post. I would like to thank you all for stopping by because you people out there are the only reason I have kept it up for the past year or so. There were times when I was really into the blog but now unfortunately it has become more of an obligation and that's no fun at all. I think I prefer to be a blog reader rather than a blog writer. I started F.I.B in retaliation to a blog (which shall remain nameless) that I thought was godawful and these days I think F.I.B has been going in that direction as well. This blog started as a photography blog and I also wrote more about music and personal stuff. It took a different turn when I learned that they wanted to build condos in my neighborhood of Gowanus and it became more politically active in a local sense. While I am still interested in local political action, I just can't keep it up via the blog anymore. Between the Gowanus and the Atlantic Yards, I think I'm tired. The Gowanus has gotten it's Superfunding (yay!), Bruce Ratner has gotten his stadium (boo!) and life goes on. Now the big issue is Coney Island and I don't think I have the heart to cover that anymore although I will continue to be active in that fight. Besides there are people who do a way better job than I ever could, just check out the list to the right. I have met many cool people through the blog and have connected with my community in a way that probably wouldn't have happened without it. Thanks to all the other blogs for giving me mucho blog love through the years via linkage and all that, I have always appreciated it. Anyway I am babbling..I'm not accepting an Oscar here! When I started this blog I would of never thought it would go for four years, it's been pretty much the only consistent thing in my life-thanks for reading!
*This photo is the first photo I ever posted and variations of the same area of the block have been on F.I.B countless times. (Four years later those metal things next the fire hydrant are still bent)
NoLandGrab: Click here for links to some of the Found in Brooklyn stories we've posted over the years.
Posted by eric at 10:48 AM
February 12, 2011
Battle of Brooklyn eminent domain documentary preview at ALI-ABA 2011
We have just heard that a documentary concerning the Atlantic Yards Project (we have discussed AY numerous times on this blog, including here and here) will be previewing at the ALI-ABA Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation course next week in Coral Gables, FL. If you have not registered, there is still time and here's another reason why this course is so unique.
...
Battle of Brooklyn chronicles the seven year fight to stop the use of eminent domain in the single densest development proposed in U.S. history, the infamous Atlantic Yards Project.
Screening times:
Wednesday Feb 16th: 5:30pm - Hyatt Regency, Coral Gables
Friday Feb 18th: 5:30pm - Hyatt Regency, Coral Gables
Running time is 90 minutes.
*The filmmakers will be present to discuss the film Thursday during the 5:30 Participant Reception and Friday following the screening. Note: the film also features ALI-ABA faculty presenter and NYC attorney Norman Siegel.
Attorney for the property owners, Michael Rikon says: "The Battle of Brooklyn is a very important film because it graphically shows how disenfranchised property owners are when confronted with condemnation...This is the best narrative of eminent domain abuse ever made. It is a must for any one seriously interest in Urban Planning."
Posted by steve at 4:52 PM
Jay-Z's Atlantic Yards Cash-In
The L Magazine
Jay-Z is already an investor in the Atlantic Yards boondoggle, a co-owner of the basketball team coming to play there, but he just figured out a way to make a little more money by exploiting the residents of his home borough. The Nets recently retained the services of Transition, a "branding firm," to burnish its image. According to an Ad-Age article published Wednesday:
Translation is charged with speaking to a variety of constituencies surrounding the Nets' move from New Jersey, including potential new season-ticket holders, current season-ticket holders, longtime fans of the team, local businesses and, perhaps most important, to a vocal though now dwindling group of citizens who have long opposed a new arena in Brooklyn...
The article continues, "Expect Translation to...utiliz[e] rap star Jay-Z." What it doesn't mention is that Jay-Z owns a stake in Translation.
A commenter at the tireless Norman Oder's Atlantic Yards Report pointed out the connection, linking to a Times article from two years ago about Jay-Z's investment in Translation Advertising, a part of Translation Consultation and Brand Advertising.
Oh, it's like when the Bush administration gave all those contracts to Halliburton.
Posted by steve at 4:50 PM
February 9, 2011
Looking for local coverage of Markowitz's fine
Atlantic Yards Report
On Monday, the dailies reported that Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz was fined by the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board for using Chief of Staff Carlo Scissura as his lawyer for a home-buying transaction in 2009.
The Brooklyn Paper hasn't reported that news yet, though yesterday it offered a tough story about Markowitz's objectification of women in public comments--a point I raised in my coverage last week of the State of the Borough address--and today covers the news/photo op involving the visit of Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas to Borough Hall.
Posted by eric at 10:57 AM
February 6, 2011
A random, off-kilter Atlantic Yards reference in fiction
Atlantic Yards Report
If Amy Sohn's dishy novel Prospect Park West offers some amusing references to Atlantic Yards, Adam Dunn's recently published Rivers of Gold, a dystopian, near-future (2013) fictional vision of New York, pushes AY off kilter:
Within forty minutes, Dr. Zuckerman's Z was on its way to the police impound on Eleventh Avenue (a half-cleared yard left fallow since the city's Atlantic Yards renovation project collapsed in '08) where it would stay lost for a month.
Well, Atlantic Yards isn't a city project, nor a renovation project, nor located on Eleventh Avenue in Manhattan, nor collapsed.
But it must have a dystopian ring of some sorts.
Here's an enthusiastic review of the book from the Washington Post.
Posted by steve at 8:32 PM
February 5, 2011
The Brooklyn brand proceeds, to gin
Atlantic Yards Report
Marty Markowitz, in his State of the Borough address Thursday, had a section about the Brooklyn Brand:
It has been clear for several years that Brooklyn is now a brand unto itself. But what does that brand represent? NBC news anchor Brian Williams had a humorous take on the concept during a recent appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show with Joe Scarborough. Let’s take a look.
[Video of Brian Williams joking about New York Times discovering Brooklyn]
He’s right. If you’re looking for anything artisanal, sustainable, locally grown or made by hand, Brooklyn’s got it. And now, so does the world. The Brooklyn brand is available from the shores of Manhattan, home of the Brooklyneer bar, which carries Brooklyn-made foods, to Tokyo, where you’ll find the new Brooklyn Parlor, serving up beers from Brooklyn Brewery and a genuine Brooklyn Burger.
And they “absolutely” value the Brooklyn brand in Sweden, home of Absolut vodka. When the company decided to market a New York-themed vodka, they didn’t choose Absolut Bronx (sorry, Ruben!) or Absolut Queens. Nope, they went with Absolut Brooklyn, using a bottle designed by Brooklyn’s own Spike Lee.
And yesterday the New York Times told us about the battle between two Brooklyn gins, Breuckelen and Brooklyn:
Manhattan may have a namesake cocktail, but Brooklyn is playing muse to two rival gins. And the existence of both Mr. Santos’s Brooklyn gin and Mr. Estabrooke’s Breuckelen gin provides an unusually clear — you could even say distilled — example of just how much the symbolism of that borough has changed and just how potent its branding potential is perceived to be.
Tellingly, neither man has deep roots in Brooklyn, or called it home until the last few years. Brooklyn these days is an identity divorced from ancestry or actual time served.
So maybe it won't be quite as hard to sell the Brooklyn Nets. But those "brownstone" and "loft" suites will remain a stretch.
Posted by steve at 2:55 PM
February 3, 2011
Please give us all the facts next time, Lizzie
The Sports ITeam Blog [NYDailyNews.com]
by Michael O'Keeffe
There's a good story - "Boom Town and Bust City: A Tale of Two New Yorks" - in The Nation's Feb. 14 edition that examines how the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer thanks to the Great Recession.
But author Lizzie Ratner fails to note that her family has been one of the winners in the economically anxious times.
Ratner's father is Bruce Ratner, the Nets minority owner and Atlantic Yards developer who has received hundreds of millions of dollars in state and city subsidies and tax breaks. And let's not forget that the MTA sold Bruce Ratner prime real estate in central Brooklyn for the Barclays Center for a bargain-basement price - $150 million for land that was appraised at almost $215 million.
Lizzie Ratner, by the way, has been listed as an officer in Forest City Ratner-related companies involved with Atlantic Yards. So has her uncle, Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Ratner has been a hero to many people who care about civil and human rights, but you have to wonder why he's opposed to throwing Palestinians out of the West Bank but does’t seem to care when Brooklyn residents are thrown out of their homes for a basketball arena.
So when you're standing on a dirty, overcrowded subway car, when you have to pay yet even more money for your Metrocard, when you read that Gov. Cuomo is hacking education and Medicaid funding, it may be some consolation that Lizzie Ratner of The Nation knows the score.
NoLandGrab: Michael O'Keeffe is being too generous — Papa Bruce is paying only $100 million for the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard. And when paying in one lump sum became a little onerous for Ratner, the MTA sweetened his already syrupy deal by allowing him 22 years (at a below-market interest rate) in which to pay it off.
Posted by eric at 10:51 PM
January 26, 2011
For Times, arena returns as a sports story, sourced to Ratner, who claims, “Brooklyn has been waiting for this, really, since the Dodgers left"
Atlantic Yards Report
Atlantic Yards is once again a sports story, and the only sources for the New York Times's New Arena for the Nets Is Sprouting in Brooklyn are developer Bruce Ratner and uber-marketer Brett Yormark.
In response to some not-so-informed comments by former point guard Jason Kidd, who didn't think the arena was happening, and perhaps (as per NLG) a not-so-flattering article telling us Nets tickets are going for pennies, the Times tells us:
After several years of legal wrangling and the economic downturn, the Barclays Center is finally and firmly on the way after ground was broken last year.
“It got delayed so much and there were so many false starts, ‘I think we’re there, I think we’re there,’ and then the economy got bad and this thing happened and that thing happened, so unless you read carefully, you don’t realize how far along it is and that it’s really on its way,” Ratner said.
Well, it's on its way, but exactly how far is not completely clear. A more independent source, a consultant to the bond trustee, has indicated that a meeting on schedule disputes was to happen last month, and that substantial completion had been nudged back from July to August 2012.
...Remember, back in November, 2005, Scott Turner of Fans for Fair Play savaged the relevance of Dodgers nostalgia in the context of the Atlantic Yards saga, contrasting owners, their devotion to sports, their commitment to local fans, the players, ticket costs, and commitment to local businesses, among other things.
Posted by eric at 11:53 AM
Required Reading for Brooklynites of a Political Persuasion: What’s Happening to Our Borough?
About.com Brooklyn, NY Blog
by Ellen Freudenheim
In case you missed them, two important pieces were published in the past few days about Brooklyn. Not about restaurants and places to spend money, but about Brooklyn's fundamental direction--and the power of big developers to literally shape the landscape of a borough that so many call home.
"We're Essentially Powerless"
Sunday's New York Times published a powerful piece calling out Brooklyn's lack of political muscle. Brooklyn civic activist Norman Oder (who, as author of the Atlantic Yards Report blog, certainly has had a birdseye view of power politics in Brooklyn) says, "We lack meaningful local government, as well as broad-based media and civic organizations." His conclusion? Putting it mildly, "Brooklyn's powerful developers, institutions and politicians often evade scrutiny."
Posted by eric at 11:13 AM
January 21, 2011
Complaint Box | Powerless in Brooklyn
City Room
by Norman Oder
The man who launched Atlantic Yards Report as TimesRatnerReport is becoming a semi-regular fixture in the paper. This essay will also appear in Sunday's Times.
Of the boroughs outside Manhattan, Brooklyn gets the most buzz — as a tourist attraction, a “hipster brand” and an incubator of art and artisanal products. That has provoked a backlash from longtime Brooklynites and others wary of smugness from the borough’s Brownstone Belt.
However entertaining these debates, Brooklynites — and, I dare say, all of us in the non-Manhattan boroughs — share one common problem: we’re essentially powerless. We lack meaningful local government, as well as broad-based media and civic organizations.
Marty Markowitz, the borough’s president and its relentless cheerleader, says that Brooklyn has nearly everything a city needs and that fulfillment will arrive when a professional sports team, the Nets, finally moves to an arena here in 2012 or 2013.
If only that were true.
...Thus, Brooklyn’s powerful developers, institutions and politicians often evade scrutiny. While local blogs and community weeklies do their part, the latter have been diminished. After Rupert Murdoch bought the independent weekly Courier-Life chain in 2006, its rival, The Brooklyn Paper, trumpeted its independence, only to suffer the same fate — a Murdoch takeover — three years later. The papers have since moved into the same building, cut the staff and published many of the same articles. In my blog, AtlanticYardsReport.com, I’ve observed how The Brooklyn Paper has muted once-tough coverage and editorial criticism of Mr. Markowitz’s beloved arena project, Atlantic Yards, which is being developed by the newspapers’ landlord, Forest City Ratner.
...The upshot? While Brooklyn may make a neat T-shirt slogan and be shorthand for culinary innovation, such a focus on consumption and authenticity gives a pass to the powers that be.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, New York Times Complaint Box essay: Powerless in Brooklyn (without meaningful local government and broad-based media, civic organizations)
I have a Complaint Box essay in the Metropolitan section of Sunday's New York Times, now online at CityRoom, headlined Powerless in Brooklyn.
...It's a bit of a departure for Complaint Box, which tends toward examinations of the nuances of such things as subway etiquette or tipping, but, given the limited space for op-eds in the paper--after all, the former City section is gone--any space is welcome. (Fun fact: they don't pay for this type of reader contribution.)
And yes, in only about 500 words, my essay is less nuanced than a longer version, so let's see how the comments play out.
Comments and responses
I will update this post with some comments and responses to them.
Posted by eric at 11:01 AM
January 20, 2011
In Brooklyn, hyperlocal news gets a boost with Patch (but we need much more)
Atlantic Yards Report
The nature of the local new media is changing and, for Brooklyn, there may be some promise in Patch, the AOL-funded enterprise that's hiring do-it-all editors (without offices) in communities around the country--800 so far, with a goal of 1000.
The editors are assisted by freelancers and other contributors and, in Brooklyn at least, form a bit of a network. Right now there's a Prospect Heights Patch, Park Slope Patch, Fort Greene/Clinton Hill Patch, Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill Patch, and Bed-Stuy Patch.
What, no Brooklyn Heights or Williamsburg? Maybe those communities were seen as already "taken" by the Brooklyn Heights Blog and culture blogs like Free Williamsburg. (Disclosure: I've done one freelance piece for Patch.)
Not just news
Patch, self-described as "your local source for news, events, business listings, and discussion," got some semi-skeptical treatment in a New York Times article January 17--an article that ignored Patch in New York but pointed out that the company is focusing on relatively affluent suburban towns that can generate advertising.
Indeed, Patch strikes me as optimized for small communities that don't have a newspaper to cover key local institutions like the school board and mayor's office. (See, for example, the comment by Ann O. at the bottom of this CJR post.)
Brooklyn lacks such cohesion--even the community boards stretch beyond a single community--so the match is inexact.
And Patch is still feeling its way. I'm not sure what an article on "Rent is Too Damn High" candidate Jimmy McMillan shilling for a New Jersey car dealership was doing on the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill Patch. Then again, Patch did a nice job covering the memorial for former District Leader Bill Saunders--and no other news outlet bothered.
Posted by eric at 11:26 AM
January 17, 2011
Washington Post re-launches Fact Checker column; CJR says every reporter should evaluate truth; what about KPMG's report to the ESDC?
Atlantic Yards Report
The Washington Post has re-launched its Fact Checker column that previously concentrated on the presidential campaigns and "will focus on any statements by political figures and government officials--in the United States and abroad--that cry out for fact-checking."
Writes Glenn Kessler:
But we will not be limited to political charges or countercharges. We will seek to explain difficult issues, provide missing context and provide analysis and explanation of various "code words" used by politicians, diplomats and others to obscure or shade the truth.
The Post will use the Pinocchio Test, which includes:
- One Pinocchio: shading of the facts, but no outright falsehoods
- Two Pinocchios: significant omissions and/or exaggerations, without necessarily a formal error
- Three Pinocchios: significant factual errors and/or obvious contradictions
- Four Pinocchios: whoppers
Unalloyed truths--they will get "our prized Geppetto checkmark."
And in New York?
There's a crying need for such a service in the New York media; to my knowledge, fact-checking has been deployed mainly when checking claims in political advertising.
But what if the media decide to check, say, KPMG's report to the Empire State Development Corporation on the condo market? I give it four Pinocchios.
NoLandGrab: We prefer to call our Pinocchios "Yormarks."
Posted by eric at 11:06 AM
January 15, 2011
Yormark claims "disbelief that the Dodgers left... has been passed on from generation to generation"
Atlantic Yards Report
On ESPN, True Hoop J.A. Adande listens to New Jerseyan Brett Yormark pontificate on Brooklyn:
I chatted with Nets CEO Brett Yormark about what the arena means to Brooklyn, why the Nets need a superstar, the building of the brand and a man he calls Michael -- that would be Mikhail Prokhorov.
“I’ve been engaged in this whole move for about six years,” Yormark said. “I’m in Brooklyn quite often, if not daily. The disbelief that the Dodgers left [in 1957], that underserved nature with respect to sports and entertainment, has been passed on from generation to generation."
Not so. He needs to get out more.
As I wrote in March 2009, Michael D’Antonio's revisionist biography of Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, Forever Blue: The True Story of Walter O'Malley, Baseball's Most Controversial Owner,and the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles, put Dodgers nostalgia in perspective, blaming it on Roger Kahn’s book The Boys of Summer.
Posted by steve at 11:44 AM
January 12, 2011
"Shocking news": Observer floats lightly-sourced claim that Apple is looking for store near arena location; what about the EB-5 story?
Atlantic Yards Report
Yeah, and LeBron James is going to cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the first Frank Gehry-designed Apple Store, which will also contain 300 units of affordable housing.
The New York Observer claims it's broken "some shocking news recently and nobody noticed," because only subscribers to the new Commercial Observer Now tri-weekly newsletter got it.
The headline in the Observer is iRatner! Apple Digging Atlantic Yards for First Brooklyn Store, but the story--likely based on a real estate broker--is more vague:
With plans dashed for a fifth Apple store on 34th Street late last year, sources say the tech behemoth is now setting its sights on a location near the proposed Atlantic Yards arena in Brooklyn, future home to the Nets basketball team.
Since last month, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has been informally chatting with potential landlords, including Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner, about leasing options in the area, a source with ties to Forest City Ratner told The Commercial Observer on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Observer and others have steered clear of some other "shocking news," such as the admission, by a firm with ties to Forest City Ratner, that its agents are misleading potential immigrant investors about an EB-5 investment in Atlantic Yards tied to green cards.
Related coverage...
The Commercial Observer, Apple Mulling Atlantic Yards Store
"They've been very gun shy, the Apple people," said the source, who refused to be identified because the person was not given clearance to speak publicly. "They're focusing on the arena area right now, but there's no space. But it's the only place in Brooklyn that's super visible, close to trains and about as close as you can get to a 24-hour community in the borough."
Spokespeople for Forest City Ratner and Apple did not immediately return calls Wednesday.
If you're wondering how these fanciful stories sometimes take on a life of their own, here's how...
Curbed, Atlantic Yards to Get Brooklyn's First Apple Store?
Gothamist, Brooklyn Teased With Talk of Atlantic Yards Apple Store
Posted by eric at 12:26 PM
January 8, 2011
A letter to the editor gets published by the Courier-Life, but mention of my blog and EB-5 series gets excised.
Atlantic Yards Report
So I wrote a letter to the Brooklyn Paper and Courier-Life chain in respond to the year-end round-up.
The Brooklyn Paper doesn't have a letters page this week, but the Courier-Life does. However, the paragraph that mentioned my blog, italicized below, somehow got excised. So much for serving the readers.
Also, oddly enough, they changed my rhetoric from "Shouldn't Brooklynites care?" to "Brooklynites should care." (They also changed "committed by" to "committed to," which misleads.) At least we know that a two paragraph letter from the editor's father in the Westchester suburbs merited a four-column headline.
The original letter:
I was amused to read, in your year-end round-up, a fanciful tale involving me on the final night of Freddy’s Bar and Backroom. I was less amused to recognize that the Brooklyn Paper has not covered some important Atlantic Yards news, notably Forest City Ratner's effort to raise $249 million from immigrant investors seeking green cards.
Shouldn't Brooklynites care that Borough President Marty Markowitz, in a video message taped for potential investors in China, claimed that "Brooklyn is 1000 percent behind Atlantic Yards"? Shouldn't Brooklynites care that tax money already committed by city and state agencies is apparently being used to help calculate the jobs "created" by such investors? Shouldn't Brooklynites care that the spirit, if not the letter, of a federal immigration program is being violated?
The tape of Markowitz's statement and extensive coverage of this controversy appears in the "Anatomy of a Shady Deal" series on my Atlantic Yards Report blog (AtlanticYardsReport.com).
Norman Oder Park Slope
Posted by steve at 8:45 AM
January 5, 2011
Village Voice jettisons Wayne Barrett, fellow investigator Tom Robbins resigns, local journalism loses (for now) institutional memory, watchdogs
Atlantic Yards Report
Yesterday, just a few hours after I finished the amazingly (and disturbingly) detailed 1988 book, City for Sale: Ed Koch and the Betrayal of New York, by Jack Newfield (R.I.P.) and Wayne Barrett, did I learn that Barrett had been laid off from the Village Voice for budgetary reasons and that Tom Robbins, the other Voice investigative reporter with deep knowledge of the city and state, had resigned in solidarity.
(Voice editor Tony Ortega disagrees with the latter interpretation.)
Wrote Barrett in his valedictory:
It never mattered to me what the party or ideology was of the subject of an investigative piece; the reporting was as nonpartisan as the wrongdoing itself. I never looked past the wrist of any hand in the public till. It was the grabbing that bothered me, and there was no Democratic or Republican way to pick up the loot.
The greatest prize I've ever won for the work I've done in these pages was when Al D'Amato called me a "viper" in his memoir. Chuck Schumer, who ended D'Amato's reign after 18 years, ascribed his victory in a 2007 memoir to a story I'd written a decade earlier that devastated the incumbent Republican. What Schumer didn't say was that as soon as Hank Morris, Schumer's media guru, went up with an ad based on my revelations about D'Amato, Arthur Finkelstein, who was running D'Amato's 1998 campaign, aired a commercial about Schumer's near-indictment and flashed my nearly two-decade-old clips breaking that scandal on the screen as well. I was the maestro of a commercial duel.
I've cited Barrett and Robbins periodically, including Barrett's amazing (and criminally ignored) report on Democratic Mayoral candidate Bill Thompson's reason for never getting tough on Mayor Mike Bloomberg (that museum Thompson's wife leads and Bloomberg has funded), or Robbins's description of Bloomberg's "Velvet Coup" in getting term limits overturned.
Neither turned their attention to Atlantic Yards, rich if complicated fodder, and that's another piece of luck for Forest City Ratner. (Was it because of lingering sympathy for ACORN? Too many other juicy targets?)
Their role at the Voice
I've been inspired by Barrett and Robbins, who come to conclusions and opinions--unlike reporters constrained by journalistic convention--but only after doing the reporting.
“The reporting I do I believe is very objective,” Barrett told WNYC. “After I’ve reported a story, I am allowed, unlike people at dailies, to frame the reportage in a piece that contains opinions. But it’s the reporting that shapes the opinion. It’s not the opinion that shapes the reporting.”
Posted by eric at 10:16 AM
January 2, 2011
The Battle of Brooklyn Trailer
tricityrealestatenews.com
The Battle of Brooklyn explores the poorly understood phenomenon of eminent domain abuse. A feature-length documentary from filmmakers Michael Galinsky, Suki Hawley, and David Beilinson, this film investigates how real estate developers, local government, community activists, and the media have clashed over the largest single-source development project ever proposed in New York City. Widely known as the Atlantic Yards project, this undertaking has for the past four years been a major source of contention as local residents resist a billionaire developers attempt to use eminent domain to seize their homes and businesses. Done in the name of “development,” schemes such as this one eviscerate private property rights and make a mockery of the Fifth Amendment–and yet they freely exploit lucrative taxpayer subsidies, easements, and tax abatements.
Posted by steve at 7:36 PM
December 25, 2010
In novel Prospect Park West, "Atlantic Yards" is a screenplay about terrorism and a character has the arena on the brain
Atlantic Yards Report
Amy Sohn's dishy novel Prospect Park West, optioned to be a mini-series starring Sarah Jessica Parker, has gotten lots of buzz for her satirical take on motherhood and Park Slope, with the park, the food co-op, the Park Slope Parents listserv, house envy, and more serving as the backdrop.
(See local reviews pro and con from FIPS and OTBKB.)
There are numerous real people and places in the book, but Atlantic Yards watchers may notice a few stretches:
Lizzie and Jay's brick walk-up [on Park Place] was between Vanderbilt and Underhill, in the footprint of the developer Bruce Ratner's proposed Nets arena, which meant that it might be knocked down in order to build the arena.
Actually, the project footprint doesn't go beyond Dean Street south to Park Place, nor does it go east of Vanderbilt Avenue.
Atlantic Yards, the film?
More entertaining is the name of the screenplay being written by Stuart Ashby, an Australian actor married to Melora Leigh, a Park Slope super-couple based loosely on Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly:
"Atlantic Yards. It's sort of a thriller about gentrification and terrorism."
"What's thrilling about gentrification?"
"Well," he said, "ultimately it's more about the clash between different types of people. There's a terror cell run out of a muffin shop, and a corrupt borough president funneling money to the terrorists, and then there's this weathered Seventy-eighth Precinct cop who catches on to the scheme and winds up saving the day. She's a woman. And I'm trying to figure out a way to work in that rape on the ball fields."
Well, you could probably get a good screenplay--Russian billionaire, Chinese millionaires, obsessed Borough President--involved in the real Atlantic Yards.
Ratner on the brain
There's also an entertaining moment in which a zonked-out Melora, unable to find a cab or orient herself homeward, winds up walking north in the Slope after a show at Southpaw:
Up Fifth Avenue, she could see the lights of the Atlantic Terminal mall.
What an atrocity. How this Ratner idiot had gotten permission to build it, she had no idea. When Heath [Ledger] was alive, he and Michelle [Williams] had gotten her and Stuart to sign on to the Develop-Don't Destroy advisory board. Even though Frank Gehry was supposedly going to design the arena, if Bruce Ratner was behind it, it was bound to be ugly.
Why was she thinking about the feasibility of the Nets arena at a time like this?
Good question. Maybe it sticks in too many people's minds.
Posted by steve at 8:55 AM
December 24, 2010
In the Brooklyn Paper, editor insists that the newspaper's covering Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards Report
In a very interesting phone interview (Vito speaks — sort of!) with Vito Lopez, in which the beleaguered Assemblyman urges the Brooklyn Paper to cover affordable housing issues--good idea--editor Gersh Kuntman asks,"Assemblyman do you really think we aren’t covering the Brooklyn Bridge Park and Atlantic Yards and other issues?"
Lopez says he doesn't read the paper, but I do, and I can say--sorry to sound like a broken record--that the Brooklyn Paper doesn't cover Atlantic Yards all that much any more.
Yes, there's some good stuff about the census in this week's issue, and the Paper covers Atlantic Yards news when it emerges via press release and yes, it's shorthanded, but...
Did the Brooklyn Paper cover the Empire State Development Corporation board meeting December 16 in which a 25-year project buildout was deemed not to have significant impacts or the subsequent court hearing December 22?
Nope.
Posted by eric at 10:03 AM
December 22, 2010
A developer (not Ratner) described as "in full marketing mode"
Atlantic Yards Report
There was an unusually skeptical close to an article in yesterday's New York Times headlined Council Approves West Side Apartment Towers:
Work on the new buildings may not begin until 2012, the developer said.
“It will be the capstone for the newest and most vibrant neighborhood in the city,” Mr. [Gary] Barnett said, in full marketing mode.
What about AY?
If only reporter Charles Bagli made similar observations when he covered Atlantic Yards. Consider this quote from an 11/25/09 Times article headlined Ruling Lets Atlantic Yards Seize Land:
Mr. Ratner called the court’s ruling a “light-switch” kind of decision for the long-stalled project. “I look at this as the last major hurdle; now we can proceed as we’ve wanted to for the last three years,” he said on Tuesday. “The courts have made it clear that this project represents a significant public benefit for the people of Brooklyn and the entire city.”
As I pointed out at the time, the courts had not made such a thing clear; they deferred to the Empire State Development Corporation rather than conducting any fact-finding.
Posted by eric at 11:45 AM
December 19, 2010
Thinking about the press: David Cay Johnston on "news on the cheap;" Jay Rosen on "radical doubt"
Atlantic Yards Report
Who's covering Atlantic Yards any more?
From David Cay Johnston in Neiman Reports, It’s Scary Out There in Reporting Land: ‘Beats are fundamental to journalism, but our foundation is crumbling.’:
Far too much of journalism consists of quoting what police, prosecutors, politicians and publicists say—and this is especially the case with beat reporters. It’s news on the cheap and most of it isn’t worth the time it takes to read, hear or watch.
Like, um, this?
A reporter's job?
NYU Journalism Professor Jay Rosen quotes Michael Massing on New York Times Reporter Judith Miller:
Asked about this, Miller said that as an investigative reporter in the intelligence area, “my job isn’t to assess the government’s information and be an independent intelligence analyst myself. My job is to tell readers of The New York Times what the government thought about Iraq’s arsenal.”
Rosen adds:
That’s not getting the story wrong. That’s redefining the job as: reflecting what the government thinks.
"Radical doubt" and Atlantic Yards
Rosen connects the dots to WikiLeaks:
Radical doubt, which is basic to understanding what drives [WikiLeaks founder] Julian Assange, was impermissible then. One of the consequences of that is the appeal of radical transparency today.
You don't need "radical doubt" to question some aspects of Atlantic Yards. Entry-level doubt would suffice.
Posted by steve at 10:01 AM
Journalism 101: false dichotomies when it comes to Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards Report
Students at Columbia Journalism School produce a web site of local coverage called City Beats. One recent BUILD-centric article, headlined Atlantic Yards project needs further review, shows a student journalist falling for a false dichotomy:
November 9th was a great day for the Brooklyn residents who want to see the Atlantic Yards project reevaluated, but it was an awful day for Lloyd Mathews.
State Supreme Court Justice Marcy S. Friedman ruled that the $4.9 billion Forest City Ratner development project, known as Atlantic Yards, needs further review. To critics of the project, it means a progress; to Mathews, the decision means his job prospects are uncertain.
...Despite the potential benefit of more jobs in Brooklyn, opponents also take issue that the Community Benefits Agreement was designed without public input.
Let's rewrite that:
...Despite the potential benefit of more jobs in Brooklyn, opponents also take issue that the Empire State Development Corporation operates with little oversight.
ad absurdiam....
...Despite the potential benefit of more jobs in Brooklyn, opponents also take issue that Prospect Park shouldn't be used for a new development.
Posted by steve at 9:45 AM
December 11, 2010
The Brooklyn Paper tally: two Ratner/Nets announcements, no coverage of EB-5
Atlantic Yards Report
Last week, the Brooklyn Paper covered the debut of a Russian-language web site for the Nets.
This week, we learn that the circus will come to the Barclays Center.
It's easy for a newspaper to cover such press releases, and while the information may be worth sharing, is it more important than:
- the new seven-year potential delay in Phase 1 of the project?
- Brooklyn Borough president Marty Markowitz's astonishing words in China?
The answer is no.
Both of the latter stories are connected to Forest City Ratner's attempt (my series) to raise a $249 million no-interest loan from Chinese investors seeking green cards under the federal government's EB-5 visa program, thus saving the developer perhaps $191 million.
Posted by steve at 8:43 AM
December 10, 2010
Corrections
The New York Times
The Times has been correctin' up a storm this week, but still doesn't seem interested in Forest City Ratner's green cards-for-cash program.
The Arts
A Critic’s Notebook article on Wednesday about political theater based on real events, including the show “In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards,” misstated the circumstances under which Daniel Goldstein, an opponent of the Atlantic Yards project portrayed in the show, lost ownership of his condo in a building that needed to be emptied for ground to be broken. While he did receive $3 million in a settlement, the State of New York took the condo under eminent domain. He did not sell it. (Go to Article)
Posted by eric at 7:22 AM
December 9, 2010
Wikileaks and the role of Documentary
rumur.com
Battle of Brooklyn filmmaker Michael Galinsky draws some parallels between the Wikileaks controversy and Atlantic Yards.
I’ve been pretty much ignoring the wikileaks mess because I know that if pay attention I’ll get infuriated. I understand that governments need a certain level of secrecy to function properly. So when I first heard about some of the diplomatic cables being released I cringed a little. In some ways these releases seem vindictive and counter productive in terms of bettering relations among nations. On the other hand, as a documentary filmmaker, working without support or credentials, my hackles are raised by the way Assange is being attacked by both governments and the media. Still, I tried to avoid paying attention because all of the focus on Assange takes away from the very legitimate concerns of those who want to hold governments and the military accountable when they cross the line. When soldiers accidentaly kill innocent people, even when following protocol, it’s important that we have the right to discuss it. Knowing that there are consequences for our actions gives us a reason to be more careful.
Last night, while going through footage for our current documentary, “Battle of Brooklyn” I came across the footage embedded below. The occasion was a hearing on the environmental impact statement about the Atlantic Yards project in 2006. This hearing was supposed to be an opportunity for community residents to air their concerns about the environmental impacts of the proposed project. I was filming the crowds outside the event when a publicist instructed me to head across the street to a press conference being given by the developer. I was extremely excited because I knew that I needed the developer’s point of view to keep my documentary balanced. some parallels between the Wikileaks controversy and Atlantic Yards.
I ran across the street and got set for the fun to begin. After about 10 seconds another publicist told me that I had to leave. I explained to this gentleman that his colleague had instructed me to come over, but as you can see in the footage he made it clear that the event was only for credentialed media. What made this particularly galling to me was that the publicity company organizing the event was owned - or at least previously owned - by documentary filmmaker Dan Klores.
There is no question that Mr. Klores is a very talented filmmaker, and I would hope that he understands how important the free flow of information is to telling even-handed, complex stories. I also understand that he now has very little to do with the day to day running of the organization that bears his name. Last year, while discussing a recent film on the radio, when questioned about the project, he made statements in support of it. While I believe that he has every right to support the project, I object to the fact that the company bearing his name worked diligently for 7 years years to obstruct the flow of useful information.
NoLandGrab: Keep in mind that Forest City Ratner is the company that claims: "When it comes to sharing information with the public and governmental bodies, there’s no such thing as too much, as far as we are concerned."
Posted by eric at 4:57 PM
December 8, 2010
Anatomy of a Shady Deal: Norman Oder Takes A Close Look At Ratner's Quest for Money in China
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
While The New York Times publishes its third article about The Civilians' extraordinary production of "In The Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards" (and we congratulate The Civilians for this deserved accomplishment and the rave reviews the play has been receiving) Norman Oder has been running an extensive series on Bruce Ratner's shady cash for green cards scheme otherwise known as the EB-5 program. The Times has not once made mention of this highly questionable use of the little-known immigration program.
...It is a complicated issue which boils down to this: The Ratner crew and its public and private enablers are gaming this federal EB-5 immigration program by making stuff up, deceiving potential Chinese investors, double counting and wildly exaggerating job numbers all to pump up the developer's bottom line rather than benefit the public.
In other words: The usual, only overseas.
Posted by eric at 10:02 PM
A theater critic lectures The Civilians on journalism regarding "In the Footprint." He has a point. Maybe the Times should follow it, too.
Atlantic Yards Report
As per normal, Norman Oder covers a story with a bit more nuance than we do.
This is kind of rich: New York Times theater critic Jason Zinoman pens a Critic's Notebook column for tomorrow's paper, When News Events Are Retold Onstage, raising (reasonable) questions about the balance in The Civilians' IN THE FOOTPRINT: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards, then lectures solemnly about the value to a documentary theater company of "the rules taught in journalism school."
Well, if the New York Times were following "the rules taught in journalism school," it might be giving paying attention to stories like state Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman's decision last month rebuking the Empire State Development Corporation for "what appears to be yet another failure of transparency" regarding Atlantic Yards.
Instead, we got a blog post a day later.
If the Times were doing its job, we might see some coverage of Forest City Ratner's attempt to save some $191 million--a conservative estimate-- by marketing green cards to Chinese millionaires enticed to invest in an arena that doesn't need funding.
If the Times were doing its job, we might have seen a dollop of skepticism in the Times Magazine 10/31/10 cover story lionizing Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, the new Nets owner.
Instead, in the last month, we've seen two feature articles and a review regarding The Civilians, as if Atlantic Yards is ovah, history, an arts story. Nah.
NoLandGrab: Oder also points out that The Times barely covered, and only belatedly, Forest City Ratner's $1.5 million bailout of ACORN — something In the Footprint skips over, too.
Posted by eric at 10:18 AM
When News Events Are Retold Onstage
The New York Times
by Jason Zinoman
The Times, which has failed in its coverage of Atlantic Yards in so many ways, thinks The Civilians should be more "balanced" in their staging of In the Footprint. Say what?
If the company uses tools of journalism and benefits from the authority of real reporting, does it have an increased responsibility to journalistic standards? Is it enough to aim for the essence of truth, or should its artists also be concerned about conflicts of interest or that famously elusive virtue, balance?
...In reviving the debates over a plan to reconfigure 22 acres of urban landscape in Brooklyn, displacing residents and small businesses in the process, “In the Footprint” expresses a range of viewpoints, but make no mistake: the way its material is edited, expressed and contextualized belies a passionate perspective.
“In my work, I don’t think about balance,” Steve Cosson, who wrote and directed “In the Footprint,” said in an interview. “I think more about conflict. To have a good conflict in a real-life story, the opposing perspective needs to be equally strong. I try to make that conflict as difficult to solve as it is in real life.”
Judged by these standards, the show succeeds much more often than most examples of its genre, but not as much as it could. The arguments by those opposed to the Atlantic Yards are more fleshed out than those in support of the project, partly because they are based on actual interviews, while major players on the other side, like the developer Bruce Ratner and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, did not agree to talk. Their lines were taken from public events, making them seem remote. Instead of being played by actors, they are represented by symbolic props. (Mr. Bloomberg is an empty suit.) In a show that humanizes a wide range of real people, they are figures from a morality tale.
Atlantic Yards supporters generally come off as defensive, while the opponents are reasonable and endearingly ordinary.
NoLandGrab: Gee, could that possibly be because we're right, and they're all in on the fix? Get back to us when you run a story on Bruce's magical mystery EB-5 China tour.
Posted by eric at 10:09 AM
Corrections
The New York Times
The Arts
A theater review on Nov. 24 about “In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards” misstated the name of the rail yards that the Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn is to be built over, in part, and also referred incorrectly to them. They are the Vanderbilt Yards, not the Atlantic Yards, and they are still used by the Long Island Rail Road. They have not been abandoned.
A listing of credits with the review misspelled the surname of an opponent of the project who is played by Colleen Werthmann. As the review noted, she is Patti Hagan, not Hagen. (Go to Article)
NoLandGrab: There, New York Times. Doesn't that feel better?
Posted by eric at 10:02 AM
December 1, 2010
Blogger says new book doesn't give full story on ACORN's support of new Brooklyn arena
The Sports ITeam Blog {NYDailyNews.com]
by Michael O'Keeffe
"Seeds of Change" by John Atlas has earned favorable reviews since it came out a few months ago. But in a lengthy and detailed analysis, Atlantic Yards Report blogger Norman Oder says the book about ACORN, the anti-poverty group that's become a favorite target of Republicans, is rife with errors and omissions when it comes to the organization's support of the Nets' Brooklyn basketball arena and the rest of the massive Atlantic Yards project.
Posted by eric at 10:26 PM
When "low six figures" makes the Times (a new Nets sponsor) and when it doesn't (the failure to hire a monitor for the Community Benefits Agreement)
Atlantic Yards Report
From today's print New York Times, Nets Add Zippo as Team Sponsor:
The Nets and Zippo announced on Tuesday a sponsorship deal that includes courtside advertising, advertising on local radio broadcasts, and ads on the Nets’ English and Russian-language Web sites. The one-year agreement is thought to be worth “low six figures,” according to an industry executive.
Funny, but the Independent Compliance Monitor Forest City Ratner was supposed to hire to oversee the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement required a payment of $100,000 in escrow, and presumably annual fees, as I reported Monday.
Sounds like "low six figures," as well.
Not that the Times deemed it worthy of coverage.
NoLandGrab: "Zippo" is also the number of stories in The Times we can recall about minor sponsorship deals involving any metro-area team not partly owned by its headquarters development partner.
Posted by eric at 7:46 PM
November 30, 2010
Meaningful news on timetable lawsuit and CBA failure, meaningful press avoidance
Atlantic Yards Report
Was it meaningful that two coalitions of civic groups just asked state Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman for a stay on Atlantic Yards construction?
Sure. It's a longshot Friedman will stop the arena, but the petitioners--coalitions organized by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and BrooklynSpeaks--have to be taken seriously.
The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and developer Forest City Ratner (FCR) knew that the project could take 25 years but only studied the impact of the official ten-year construction period.
So the ESDC must either appeal Friedman's stinging November 9 ruling on the project timetable or, more likely, produce a document that claims that a 25-year buildout would create no more burdensome impacts than the ten-year one.
Given the track record of ubiquitous environmental consultant AKRF, which always produces the reports its clients want, it's likely such a document can be finessed.
But it's also likely that document will be highly questionable. After all, the state never studied the impact of an "interim" surface parking lot that could last for decades.
Press avoidance
And publications like the Brooklyn Paper and New York Observer, which readily covered the Forest City Ratner press release last week that steel had arrived at the arena site, have so far ignored the latest story on the lawsuit.
The only news outlet to cover it so far is the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, via Ryan Thompson (FCR executive MaryAnne Gilmartin's favorite reporter), who called the decision an "unusual, but possibly meaningless, legal victory."
No, no matter what happens, it's not meaningless.
Journalists and others who think the Atlantic Yards story is ovah simply have closed their minds.
Posted by eric at 11:10 AM
November 26, 2010
Two front pages, two weeks apart, two AY stories
Atlantic Yards Report
The Brooklyn Paper cover this week. (Click on images to enlarge.)
The Brooklyn Paper front page two weeks ago.
Draw your own conclusions.
Posted by eric at 11:12 AM
November 24, 2010
From theater critics, "In the Footprint" draws mostly raves; no one agrees with Brooklyn Paper's claim that play would "appall" project opponents
Atlantic Yards Report
Well, after a dubious pan by the Community Newspaper Group's Gersh Kuntzman (oddly and hastily endorsed by the Observer) and my mixed but appreciative review, theater critics are pretty much raving about IN THE FOOTPRINT: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards, by The Civilians.
The key review, from the New York Times's Charles Isherwood, sums it up:
This simple, scruffy-looking but smartly put-together production, written and directed by Steve Cosson and featuring songs by Michael Friedman (“Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson”), is as fresh, inventive and frankly as entertaining as any new work of musical theater to open this fall.
TheaterMania's review calls the show "often-compelling" though it acknowledges the challenges:
There's a lot of matreial here to squeeze into 100 minutes, and while director Steven Cosson does an admirable job, the staging can feel unfocused.
Critic Aaron Riccio writes on his That Sounds Cool blog:
It is also one of the year's most sincere, clever, and enjoyable shows, period.
Related coverage...
The New York Times, A Brooklyn Civics Lesson, Offered in Word and Song
As subjects for musical comedy go, it would be hard to fathom anything less promising than the legal intricacies of the concept of eminent domain. Or, for that matter, the socioeconomic diversity of the crazy quilt of Brooklyn neighborhoods. The great Stephen Sondheim himself might find it tricky work to make lyrical magic of the relationships among the various civic entities charged with approving land-use deals in New York City.
Yet these matters are rhapsodized in song with style and wit in the spirited new show from the Civilians, “In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards,” which opened on Monday night at the Irondale Arts Center in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, within a demolition ball’s swing of the site in contention.
...It is not hard to discern where the sympathies of the show’s creators ultimately lie. Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president who was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the multibillion-dollar redevelopment proposal, is depicted as a yapping basketball. Frank Gehry, the renowned architect whose signature pencil-shaving design for the arena is represented by a twirling disco ball, is heard pontificating fatuously about his “iconic” buildings in Spain and Los Angeles and the tower he refers to as “Miss Brooklyn,” one of more than a dozen in the original plans.
As for Bruce Ratner, the prominent developer behind the project — let’s just say that should anyone offer Mr. Ratner a pair of tickets to the show, he would be wise to decline. Mr. Ratner might be marginally more welcome at a Nets game in New Jersey this season.
The Local [Fort Greene/Clinton Hill], Atlantic Yards: The Musical
...the real stars of the show are local residents, who were interviewed by The Civilians, a self-described investigative theater company that incorporated the neighbors’ words into the script and into lyrics.
“I felt that a play could tell that story in a different way than a newspaper article or journalism,” said Steve Cosson, the director and co-writer. “Since a play is social and it brings an audience in, and it’s a community experience, I just think there’s a particular value to the art form.”
WNYC Radio, Atlantic Yards Gets Musical Treatment
For this production, the actors were also the reporters. Greg McFadden plays half a dozen characters, including Brooklyn Borough president Marty Markowitz and architect Frank Gehry. He interviewed all the people that he plays on the show and said he tried to absorb everything, from their beliefs to the rhythm of their voice. “It’s nerve racking to portray someone who is a real person and who is going to come see what you’re doing with their words and their cause and their life really,” he said. “So you try to be as faithful as you can to them.”
Cosson says that if the play sounds too much like reality, well, that is the idea. “It’s not a satire, it’s not a sketch comedy, it’s all authentic. It’s all people represented by actors, but real people are fascinating idiosyncratic creatures.”
Posted by eric at 9:55 AM
November 21, 2010
Jay-Z's new book Decoded is anthology, catalogue, memoir of his creation of a persona; no AY; bio next year should dig deeper
Atlantic Yards Report
So, is there anything about Atlantic Yards, and his fractional ownership of the Nets, in Jay-Z's new book Decoded?
Not really, at least according to my quick skim of the book at the bookstore. It's not an autobiography. The New Yorker, covering Jay-Z's recent appearance at the New York Public Library, described the book as "part memoir, part carefully annotated lyrics anthology, and part visual catalogue."
Click on the link to read about the Shawn Carter and the cultivation of his alter-ego, Jay-Z.
Posted by steve at 11:32 AM
November 20, 2010
A letter to the Courier-Life (and Brooklyn Paper) on coverage of the Friedman decision
Atlantic Yards Report
Uneven coverage in the New York media, in general, and in the Brooklyn Paper specifically, continues to prevent an understanding of the issues surrounding the Atlantic Yards project.
I sent this letter to both the Brooklyn Paper and the Courier-Life chain, which published identical articles, in the Brooklyn Paper as Yards foes win a big case that will not likely change a thing.
There's no Letters page in the Brooklyn Paper, but my letter is published this week in the Courier-Life under the headline "Nervy claim."
Note that italics indicate words added by the editor, while bold indicates words in my original letter that were not published:
Your recent coverage described the state Supreme Court's decision slamming the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) for its questionable behavior regarding the Atlantic Yards timetable as a "meaningless victory" for Atlantic Yards foes ("Yard foes win a big case," Nov. 12).
That's rather conclusory. Neither the ESDC nor developer Forest City Ratner made such a claim. In fact, a day after the decision, an executive from Forest City Enterprises, FCR's parent company, seemed somewhat unnerved as he discussed the issue. (See my coverage at http://bit.ly/dAEYON.)
It's unclear at this point whether the ESDC will appeal the decision--and have to further defend its behavior--or whether the agency will produce a document that asserts that a 25-year buildout (as opposed to the ten-year buildout that was studied) would have little impact on the community around the project site. Either tack invites more litigation.
As Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman noted, courts typically defer to administrative agencies, but "judicial review must be 'meaningful." In this case, a meaningful review meant that the corporation's delay in releasing the Development Agreement it negotiated--an agreement kept under wraps until just after a crucial court argument--didn't get a pass.
Evidently, And that meant that someone official agreed that the process behind Atlantic Yards was just a little fishy. That's meaningful.
Norman Oder Park Slope
Oder, a journalist, writes the Atlantic Yards Report blog.
The slight edits--the omission of my credits--serve to diminish my authority a bit.
Posted by steve at 8:12 AM
November 15, 2010
What's different today from Jane Jacobs's time? The Village Voice, and the journalistic milieu
Atlantic Yards Report
I've written periodically about The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs, by Roberta Brandes Gratz.
When the book was issued in the spring, Gratz spoke at a bookstore in SoHo and, at one point, recalled the battle to stop Robert Moses from building a highway through that then-transitional neighborhood.
"There was a very important element, which we don't have today, and that was the Village Voice. Mary Nichols of the Village Voice was totally in [Jane] Jacobs's camp," Gratz said. "Because the daily press paid very little attention to these issues. The Voice was out there, so the press was on top of it."
Posted by eric at 8:09 AM
November 14, 2010
From Bed-Stuy stoops, 21 years later, to Absolut stoops
Atlantic Yards Report
Seeing the posters advertising Absolut Brooklyn via an idealized version of Brooklyn stoops (and reading Clay Risen's kinda-late meditation in The Atlantic's food blog, How Spike Lee and Absolut Vodka Sold Out Brooklyn), I was reminded: stoops were crucial to Lee's most enduring work, Do the Right Thing, which emerged in 1989, a time when Brooklyn was much rougher.
Set in a Bedford-Stuyvesant subject to very little gentrification, the stoop was not just the neighborhood porch but also where conflict played out. As one description of the plot has it, "Da Mayor walks by Mother Sisters' stoop, and the lady denounces him as a drunken fool."
Then there was another stoop-side confrontation, as described in this teaching guide:
Buggin' Out shows up, declaring that Mookie is "the man." As he turns to go on his way, a white property-owner wearing a Boston Celtics shirt accidentally steps on his Nike Air Jordans. Yo! YO! This white man is lucky that "a black man has a loving heart."
Does this have anything to do with Atlantic Yards? Only in the macro sense: some people (on both sides of the conflict) are shaped by 1989, and others by 2010.
Posted by steve at 12:21 PM
Two letters on the Times Magazine's Mikhail Prokhorov cover story
Atlantic Yards Report
So, how many letters did the New York Times Magazine publish today regarding its generous profile two weeks ago of Russian mogul Mikhail Prokhorov?
One, and it was an attaboy.
Letter: The Playboy and His Power Games
Chip Brown’s article about the New Jersey Nets’ owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, was fascinating, but it omitted a strand of the billionaire Russian’s life story that could have been illuminating. In addition to his roles in banking and industry, Prokhorov has been president of the Russian Biathlon Union for over two years, and he is credited with turning around a moribund organization tarnished by doping. It would have been interesting to read more about Prokhorov’s work in that sport, since the Nets seem to be in need of a similar reversal.
NATHANIEL HERZ
Williamstown, Mass.My letter
Here's a letter they didn't publish:
The profile of Russian billionaire and New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov ("An Oligarch of Our Own," Oct. 31) fails to answer who, exactly, is "us" (other than a Nets fan who was unwilling to reveal his name).
As to whether Prokhorov has "the cash to save a reeling franchise," consider--unmentioned in the article--that the oligarch has more to spend thanks to the subsidies, tax breaks, and eminent domain for the new arena (of which he owns 45%), which also will raise the value of the team. Had Prokhorov been the team's owner before the Atlantic Yards project was approved, it would have been much tougher to have justified all that governmental help.
The article suggests that Prokhorov, in trying to build a winning basketball team, faces heavy "pressure to live up to expectations." Prokhorov bought the team in order to become a household name in North America and open up investment opportunities. The Times's mostly uncritical article has already helped him live up to those expectations.
Norman Oder
BrooklynThe writer, author of the Atlantic Yards Report blog, is writing a book about the project. In June 2010, he wrote an essay for the Times, "A Russian Billionaire, the Nets and Sweetheart Deals."
Posted by steve at 12:16 PM
November 13, 2010
In Brooklyn Paper, Shake Shack and racist cabby seen as bigger news than court ruling slamming ESDC on Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards Report
There you have it. Among the articles the Brooklyn Paper considers more important than this week's Atlantic Yards court decision are ones concerning the arrival of Shake Shack and the arrest of a racist cabby.
Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Paper is sure to tell us the court decision is unimportant:
The state agency overseeing the Atlantic Yards mega-development purposefully withheld information on the project’s timetable to avoid having to reexamine the project’s negative impacts, a judge ruled on Tuesday in what appears to be a meaningless victory for foes of Bruce Ratner’s project.
As I commented:
It's curious that the Brooklyn Paper can so confidently assume that this is a "meaningless victory." The day after the decision, an executive from Forest City Enterprises, the parent company of developer Forest City Ratner, was somewhat unnerved as he discussed the decision. He didn't call it "meaningless."
Note that the deck beneath the YARDS FOES WIN A CASE headline is even more conclusory than the text: "Judge says state lied, but ruling won't change a thing."
Battle over?
By the way, the article in the companion Courier-Life chain, on p. 16, is paired with a longer feature article on The Civilians' play In the Footprint.
The article begins with an inaccurate claim:
The battle over Atlantic Yards may be over, but it's still brewing on stage.
Yes, the battle to stop the arena from construction is over, and most (but clearly not all) of the legal fight is over. And, yes, activism has diminished. But the controversy is not over.
Posted by steve at 8:20 AM
November 11, 2010
Why was the court decision on the Development Agreement so late? It wasn't the petitioners' fault
Atlantic Yards Report
Oh, snap.
Too Little, Too Late: Atlantic Yards Opponents Finally Win a Court Case, reports the Observer.
Yards foes win a big case that will not likely change a thing, suggests the Brooklyn Paper.
Neither publication bothered to cover the Empire State Development Corporation's (ESDC) belated, delayed release of the Development Agreement in January, nor the oral arguments in the case in January and June during which the document was very much at issue.
(Updated and corrected: the Observer didn't cover the oral argument in January, but the Brooklyn Paper did, though I earlier said it didn't.)
Had they bothered to do their job, they and others in the press might have recognized that the reason this new decision might be "too late" is because the ESDC didn't play fair, not because those filing suit were delaying things.
Posted by eric at 10:44 AM
November 10, 2010
Despite official efforts to downplay news, Friedman decision represents severe rebuke to ESDC; why did several news outlets ignore it?
Atlantic Yards Report
At the Atlantic Yards arena groundbreaking in March, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg soothingly declared, "[N]obody's going to remember how long it took, they're only going to look and see that it was done."
The official line regarding yesterday's ruling by state Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman seems similar: "Nobody's going to remember how it got done, they're only going to look and see that it was done."
“Nothing was announced today that’s going to impact construction,” Jeff Linton, a spokesman for Forest City Enterprises, parent of Brooklyn developer Forest City Ratner, told Bloomberg Business Week.
An Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) spokeswoman--who didn't respond to my queries--told the Brooklyn Paper that the agency was “reviewing today’s ruling, which does not enjoin construction taking place on the Atlantic Yards project.”
Why it's important
Well, it won't stop current construction, but it could impact future construction. And, despite the Brooklyn Paper headline (Yards foes win a big case that will not likely change a thing), the case will, at the very least, provoke the ESDC to issue more findings justifying its ten-year timetable.
That timetable is less and less defensible--and that could lead to additional lawsuits, possibly affecting Phase 2 of the project. The upshot: people can and will very much remember how it got done.
Also, despite attempts to downplay the ruling, it's news when a judge rebukes the ESDC for "what appears to be yet another failure of transparency" and "totally incomplete representations" in legal papers.
In other words, the agency in charge of economic development in the state behaves somewhat like a guy on Craigslist trying to rent you an apartment he doesn't quite own.
Posted by eric at 9:53 AM
November 6, 2010
Times finally corrects error claiming Ratner took possession of entire AY site
Atlantic Yards Report
From a September 28 New York Times City Room post headlined Latest Design Is Unveiled for Atlantic Yards Plaza: This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: November 5, 2010
An earlier version of this post stated inaccurately that Mr. Ratner had taken possession of the entire 22-acre Atlantic Yards site. Because condemnation is taking place in phases, he has possession of only a portion of the site.
It shouldn't take so long to get such a simple correction made.
The back story
When the article emerged, I filed a online comment that evening regarding the error.
The next day, I filed an official request for a correction through the proper channels and wrote to reporter Charles Bagli directly. He acknowledged the error but, for whatever reason, no correction emerged.
On October 24, I posted another comment regarding the error, as I wrote October 28.
Today I wrote to the Public Editor, with copies to the news desk in charge of corrections and the reporter. That did the trick--without having the Public Editor intervene.
Posted by steve at 12:25 PM
October 31, 2010
In promotional "Brooklyn Tomorrow," architect Pasquarelli hailed as Barclays Center savior; he says arena's in a "residential neighborhood"
Atlantic Yards Report
After taking an Atlantic Yards hiatus in 2009, the infamous Brooklyn Tomorrow advertorial published by the Community Newspaper Group, publisher of the Brooklyn Paper and the Courier-Life chain, again puts Atlantic Yards on the cover, as it had in the 2007 and 2008 issues.
...
The Table of Contents pulls no promotional punches regarding p. 14: "Barclays Center: Architect Gregg Pasquarelli will be remembered as the man who saved basketball in Brooklyn."
The letter from the editors, Vince DiMiceli and Gersh Kuntzman, further assists developer Forest City Ratner (who just happens to be the two newspapers' landlord) citing "our exclusive interview with the man who saved the Barclays Arena (the focal point of what we're sure is to become America's Downtown)."
The focal point of America's Downtown? Even for a promotional real estate publication, that's a double stretch. The arena would extend Downtown Brooklyn to the southeast.
And no one's going to mistake the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, even with the new temporary plaza Pasquarelli's designing, as America's Downtown. Not even New York's. Does America's Downtown feature Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal malls?
Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Paper hasn't touched the story about Forest City Ratner's effort to raise $249 million by hawking green cards to Chinese investors.
Click on the link below to read about an "exclusive" interview with architect Gregg Pasquarelli and see how he boasts about designing a building for which he only did the facade work.
NoLandGrab: The publicity machine put in place to promote the Atlantic Yards project at least made some sense as part of an effort to get the project approved. Any hype generated now is just an indication of how bad this project is.
Posted by steve at 8:25 AM
October 30, 2010
Regan Jaye Fishman on KingCon II
Talking with Tim
A panel about Atlantic Yards will be part year's KingCon II, an independent comic, animation and illustration convention being held November 6 and 7 at the Brooklyn Lyceum. The blog's author interviews KingCon II's co-organizer.
O’Shea: The second panel to be also held on Thursday (at 9 PM), what can you tell me about it?
Richmond: [The second panel is] The Wants of the Few: Atlantic Yards, Comics and the Changing Face of Brooklyn
Was it the right place?
Was it the right time?
Was it the right process?
Atlantic Yards continues to fulfill the major media expectation of Brooklyn as a backwater where the people don’t matter.
Laws that seem pretty clear are ignored.
Captains of industry (well real estate) rule the day.
The common man is marginalized so that they an tear down middle class housing to build rich person housing while promising that they “might” throw a bit of affordable housing out there. All at the promise of more tax revenue that is clearly a bald-faced lie.
Judges make rulings that only seem appropriate if you believe everyone is already in the bag since the rulings grasp at any straw to not actually deal with the issues at hand.
Kind of make comics irrelevant if the actions of the leaders and monitors of gotham are already that much of a caricature.
And, lastly, where is the urban grit and spit in your eye that propelled comics to a position of status anyways? Will everything look like a cheap glass tower that charges ore for less?
Maybe the comic industry should start the pullout from an urban psyche if that urban core is just like Des Moines.
Posted by steve at 7:07 AM
October 28, 2010
Does Ratner have “possession of the 22-acre Atlantic Yards property”? No, but the request for a Times correction is a month old
Atlantic Yards Report
This isn't big news, but it's an example of how errors in the "Paper of Record," however basic, need correction, given that they could mislead readers and researchers, as with the yet-uncorrected claim that the arena would be built "on the railyards."
A 9/28/10 New York Times City Room post, headlined Latest Design Is Unveiled for Atlantic Yards Plaza, claimed that the entire 22-acre site was controlled by the developer:
Seeking a correction
I posted a comment that day saying it wasn't true, given that several properties (e.g., houses on Dean Street east of Sixth Avenue, the P.C. Richard building on Site 5) are controlled neither by the state nor the developer, and that eminent domain is supposed to proceed in at least one more phase.
...I filed an official request for a correction through the proper channels and wrote to reporter Charles Bagli directly. He acknowledged the error but, for whatever reason, he and his editors have been unable or unwilling to get it corrected.
...Meanwhile, the Times today publishes corrections that tell us that the first name of the daughter of an artist recently profiled is Ona, not Oona and that the surname of a customer of a designer is Rattazzi, not Ratazzi.
Posted by eric at 8:50 AM
October 26, 2010
Errata
Every once in a while, it's important to remind people that Atlantic Yards is still not a place. It's a project, a marketing slogan, it has a footprint, even — but there's still no physical "Atlantic Yards."
Gothamist, Guess The Year: Model Edition
If you can figure out what's going on here, you may be able to guess the correct year. Put your best guesses in the comments, and we'll update later with the answer, more details and photos.
UPDATE: These photos were taken in 1955, and are of a model of Ebbets Field. When the Brooklyn Dodgers outgrew Ebbets, club owner Walter O'Malley announced plans for a privately-owned domed stadium at the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, but New York City Building Commissioner Robert Moses wanted the city to build a stadium in Flushing Meadows instead—the team eventually chose Los Angeles over Queens, and the original field was demolished in 1960.
NoLandGrab: Wrong on two counts! O'Malley wanted to build his stadium across the way from the Vanderbilt Yard, on a site now occupied by Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Center mall.
The New York Times, Making Construction Beautiful in Brooklyn
Mauricio Lopez’s “Color Mesh,” one of four designs selected in a recent city competition aimed at beautifying construction sites, had its debut on Monday on a construction fence at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn.
NLG: "At the Atlantic Yards project site" we'd accept. "At Atlantic Yards," not so much.
Posted by eric at 11:53 AM
October 24, 2010
To ESPN, the biggest thing about the (non-turnaround) Nets is still their owner, likened to the omnipotent Galactus
Atlantic Yards Report
In ESPN The Magazine's preview issue on the National Basketball Association season, each team is represented by a comic book cover rendering.
It's notable that, among the 30 teams, only four don't feature players dominating the image: the New Jersey Nets, with Mikhail Prokhorov (right); the Charlotte Bobcats, with player-turned-owner Michael Jordan; the Indiana Pacers, with player-turned-president Larry Bird; and the Dallas Mavericks, with flamboyant owner Mark Cuban.
The text
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
Mikhail Prokhorov is many things to many people: billionaire entrepreneur, playboy, and new owner of the Nets. But to Marvel, he's Galactus, an omnipotent figure with infinite resources and a voracious appetite for devouring worlds. Prokhorov took over the Nets in May, and the team already has a new GM (Billy King), coach (Avery Johnson) and arena (Newark's Prudential Center). But Silver Surfer Devin Harris remains. Can Prokhorov's team turn around last season's 12-70 mark? He's not that powerful--yet.
Some caveats
First, some people, like Matt Taibbi, might add the term "gangster" to the description of Prokhorov.
Also, it's misleading to conclude that Prokhorov is fully responsible for the changes cited. Longtime GM Rod Thorn decided to leave, precipitating the search for a replacement, and the team had had interim coaches last season.
And the interim move to Newark had been in place since last March.
Posted by steve at 8:41 AM
From the Village Voice's Best of New York: Prokhorov, Stoudemire, and Markowitz
Atlantic Yards Report
The Village Voice "Best of New York" issue reflects diminished journalism.
In the category of Best Oligarch - 2010, we get (of course) Mikhail Prokhorov:
We're sorry that recent Russian émigré Mikhail Prokhorov couldn't sign LeBron James, even though he was rich enough ($13.4 billion) and tall enough (six-foot-eight) to look the hoops star in the eye. But give the guy a break: The owner of the New Jersey Nets (soon to be the Brooklyn Whatevers) is still the world's second richest Russian, the tallest of the world's richest, and one of the youngest of the top 100 (he's only 45). Talk about a guy who fits in well with our homebred corporate piranha: Prokhorov made his billions by feasting off Russia's helter-skelter, mostly illegal, and highly immoral conversion from merciless Communism to merciless capitalism. Now if he can just translate some of that money into a winning team.
In other words, winning will make us forget
There is also an entry classifying Amar'e Stoudemire as the Best Jewish Athlete - 2010, even if the evidence for his Jewishness is thin at best.
Finally, the entry for Marty Markowitz (Best Between-Acts Concert Entertainment - 2010) pokes fun at Brooklyn's Borough President without an indication of an understanding of the BP's role.
Wingate Field in Bushwick is the place to be every Monday night during the summer, when the Martin Luther King Jr. Concert Series brings through a cavalcade of old-school hip-hop, soul, gospel, and r&b stars. (This year featured Parliament/Funkadelic, BeBe & CeCe Winans, and an epic set from Salt-N-Pepa.) The free shows lure in thousands of lawn-chair-toting nostalgia enthusiasts in need of between-act cajoling, and for that, thank God, there is Marty Markowitz. We have no idea what being Brooklyn borough president actually entails other than emceeing these things (there's a weekly summer series at Coney Island, too), but we can confirm that it does involve inviting to the stage a motley crew of City Councilmen, radio DJs, preachers, wayward Applebee's employees, and assorted other yahoos. All of them have their charms, but none can compare with ol' Ramblin' Marty himself, soothing an oft-restless crowd in dulcet tones, never failing to enthrall even when he's announcing that Aretha Franklin canceled the show she was supposed to play there next week. It's infuriating at first, but eventually you come to regard it as a virtuoso performance: No one on earth kills time with more grace than Marty Markowitz. He is the Picasso of stalling. Go watch him paint sometime. Bring a chair.
Ah, it takes a certain kind of ignorance to say "We have no idea what being Brooklyn borough president actually entails other than emceeing these things."
For Markowitz, such cheerleading duties actually represent a large part of how he's defined the relatively powerless post, but it's not the only model.
Posted by steve at 8:23 AM
October 16, 2010
So, how was Atlantic Yards massaged for the media? Ask DKC
Atlantic Yards Report
Would you like to help break up a lively Brooklyn neighborhood on behalf of a billionaire developer? If so, you might enjoy a career in public relations.
The public relations and marketing firm DKC (formerly Dan Klores Associates) is proud of its work on Atlantic Yards, as summarized in a case study.
(They're leaving out brochure-maker KnickerbockerSKD, now known as SKDKnickerbocker, now home to former Forest City Ratner spokesman Loren Riegelhaupt. And we can't forget the role, as I explained 11/1/05, of "dark genius" Joe DePlasco, a DKC managing director.)
From the DKC site
Forest City Ratner
objectivesDKC was retained by Forest City Ratner Companies, one of the country’s leading developers, to prepare the groundwork for a Frank Gehry-designed development in the Atlantic Yards near downtown Brooklyn.
strategy
The cornerstone of DKC’s strategy was a community and media awareness program consisting of outreach to local advocates and activists around affordable housing, public space development, sustainable development and other community and design benefits.
DKC handled all messaging for the development over the next four plus years, including media materials, local, national and international, along with all media events, including everything from individual reporter walking tours to international press conferences with Frank Gehry and the landscape architect Lauri Olin.
result highlights
In addition to dealing with all levels of media, DKC arranged for numerous editorial board and opinion meetings, ultimately winning support for the project from the New York Times, Daily News, New York Post, Newsday and Crains. DKC also secured coverage of the project throughout the United States and in outlets in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan, among many others.
Posted by steve at 7:30 AM
October 14, 2010
Some props from the Observer on the EB-5 story, but more reporting is needed
Atlantic Yards Report
While I appreciate that the New York Observer's Matt Chaban was willing to recount the high points of my EB-5 coverage, and I appreciate the observation that my "frustration with the media for ignoring the story is understandable," that's not quite enough.
The government agencies backing this plan, the developer, and the New York City Regional Center need to show their math regarding the ten jobs that each of 498 investors is supposed to create or save.
Posted by eric at 7:37 PM
October 13, 2010
A profile in the Observer: "Brooklyn's Angry Man" (and the absence of the Times on the EB-5 story)
Atlantic Yards Report
On September 21, when news that I was leaving my job to write a book about Atlantic Yards surfaced, the New York Observer covered it in their Real Estate blog.
They told me they wanted to run a piece in print, but that didn't happen, as Lockhart Steele, he of the nationwide Curbed ambitions (appropriately) merited precedence as The Player. (Moi?)
However, my coverage of the EB-5 controversy apparently was enough of a hook for them to return to the idea of a print article, so this week we have Brooklyn’s Angry Man: Norman Oder Plans to Keep Up the Fight.
I wouldn't say I'm keeping up the fight so much as continuing to dig.
In closing
The close of the piece references my expectation that news about the project would slow down, and how it hasn't:
That was before Mr. Oder broke one of his biggest scoops ever, a plan by Forest City Ratner, the developer of Atlantic Yards, to arrange thousands of green cards for Chinese investors to drum up $249 million for the project, using a program known as EB-5. Mr. Oder revealed how the numbers on the program do not add up, as well as Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz's planned trip to China to stump for it. Mr. Markowitz canceled after the Post re-reported Mr. Oder's findings. And yet the only other outlets to pick up on it were the Journal and the Daily News (and the story may have been leaked to the Journal before Mr. Oder's post to steal his thunder).
The Transom asked Mr. Oder to name his favorite restaurant. He arched his eyebrows and responded, "Totonno's, in Coney Island."
Really?
"Come on!" he declared, becoming momentarily exasperated. "You should be writing about the EB-5 scandal, not Norman's favorite fucking restaurants."
I'm not sure the Observer should accept that I "revealed" how the numbers don't add up. I'd rather they do some reporting and come to a conclusion.
Posted by eric at 11:37 AM
Brooklyn’s Angry Man: Norman Oder Plans to Keep Up the Fight
NY Observer
by Matt Chaban
Norman Oder was standing at the corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and Dean Street in Prospect Heights last Saturday explaining the cappuccino test. "I have a friend that says if you can get a cappuccino within one block, the area can't be blighted."
He was referring to Atlantic Yards, the 22-acre project that will include a new arena for the Brooklyn Nets and possibly 6,400 apartments, assuming the developer, Bruce Ratner, can find more financing for the $4.9 billion project. Mr. Ratner had acquired much of the land between here and Atlantic and Flatbush avenues based on the argument that the area was blighted. With the backing of the state and the attendant threat of eminent domain, he forced a number of businesses and homeowners out, though not before a seven-year fight.
Mr. Oder led the Transom on a brief stroll down Dean. He knows the place well, having written 3,980 posts—and counting—on his Atlantic Yards Report, the blog he launched in September 2005. He is accustomed to giving tours, operating a company that leads them all over Brooklyn, though far less often since the blog took off.
..."I'm motivated by my recognition that reality as I understand it does not comport with what's being represented," he said. "It requires skepticism and what may be perceived as advocacy journalism. I argue the opposite, that taking a lot of this at face value is a dereliction of duty."
He points to the lead Metro story in a recent Times about the drinking habits of MetroNorth riders compared to LIRR riders. "What the fuck?" Mr. Oder said. "That could be a cute little blog post, but why that needs to take up prime real estate in the paper, I don't know. It's a dereliction of duty."
NoLandGrab: Oder is not so much angry as he is aghast at the failure of any mainstream media outlet to blow the lid off the biggest land-grab scam in New York's history.
Photo: Jonathan Barkey
Posted by eric at 11:27 AM
October 11, 2010
Noting One Oddity, The Times, in Another, Neglects Obvious Explanations: Ratner’s EB-5 Green Cards Sale; A Reason For the Nets To Go To China, And. . .
Noticing New York
Why are the Nets going, as the article reports, to China and Russia? Though the article pronounces it odd that they are going abroad and then spends most of its time tendering possible explanations, it passes up taking a crack at the possible explanations that would seem to be the most logical, but perhaps also the most impertinent to mention.
Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report specifically mentions this particular Times sports story (“The Sports section, however, is all over the Nets' trip to China.”) in writing about how the Times has avoided reporting on the scandalous sale of green cards in China by Ratner and Prokhorov to finance their nets arena.
The sports section may be “all over the Nets' trip to China” except that it isn't reporting that the likely explanation as to why the Nets owners have made it a priority for the Nets to go to China is the EB-5 green cards the owners are selling to the Chinese, something the Times apparently doesn’t want to report about. Also not mentioned is that New York state and local government officials have been expecting to tag along with Ratner to sell the U.S. issued green cards with him in China.
...We have a question for the Times: If, in their estimation, now is not the time to report on the EB-5 green card selling scandal and the dark not-so-secret back stories relating to Prokhorov’s wealth, then when will those things be discussed in the gray lady’s pages? Maybe it is just that the Times reporters, sports reporters and others, are not able to read Chinese. The answer then would be to hire a Chinese translator which is what Mr. Oder did and the reason he has consequently been able to keep breaking new gripping stories in his series about the EB-5 scandal.
What are New Yorkers left to do when the Time sidelines itself this way? Here's one thing we can tell you: If, as the Times reports, “The Nets are creating a Russian-language Web site” then New Yorkers are all going to have to hope that Mr. Oder opens his wallet up one more time for another translator, a Russian one. If he doesn’t, with the Times asleep, we will probably miss out on some major news stories that matter a great deal to our city’s local politics.
Posted by eric at 11:37 AM
Times Covers Nets Fluff Instead of Bruce Ratner's Green Cards for Cash Deal in China
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
Bruce Ratner's ol' friend, The New York Times, is looking the other way when it comes to a Ratner story involving local, federal and international intrigue — the scamful green cards for cash trip to China Ratner is taking with the Empire State Development Corp. You know, the story Norman Oder has been blowing out of the water the past few weeks (and the one the Daily News and the Post haven't totally ignored.)
Posted by eric at 11:14 AM
October 10, 2010
AY Report: NYTimes and Brooklyn Paper Asleep At The Wheel For EB-5 Story
Atlantic Yards Report
Where's the Brooklyn Paper on the "green cards for investors" story? And the Times?
There's been a lot of news about Atlantic Yards in the past week or so, including coverage by the New York Post of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz's planned (and aborted) trip to China in support of Forest City Ratner's "green cards for investors" scheme, and the New York Daily News of the claims behind the scheme and the construction jobs at the site.
The New York Times, which has a tiny Brooklyn bureau and a real estate/development reporter far more concerned with Stuyvesant Town, has ignored the stories. Dismaying, but not surprising.
It's more surprising that the Brooklyn Paper (and its now-mirror, the Courier-Life chain) has missed those stories.
(The EB-5 story has been picked up by a couple of blogs devoted to the topic.)
Selective coverage
It's not that the Brooklyn Paper doesn't cover Atlantic Yards--the lead story this week (PDF) is on crowd control at the planned plaza--it's that they're way behind others.
Once upon a time (2007) the Brooklyn Paper earned awards for its aggressive coverage of Atlantic Yards. Not anymore.
Is it the ownership by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation? (How can it be--after all, the Murdoch-owned Post has covered the story.)
Atlantic Yards fatigue?
Failure to read other newspapers and blogs?
Short staff?
Unwillingness to cover stories that others break first? (If so, that's just not serving the reader.)
From a New York Times editorial yesterday headlined Mr. Paladino and the System, a critique of Republican gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino:
A look at his record as a developer shows that he has been an eager recipient of just the sort of government largess he so bitterly condemns and a generous contributor to politicians who can best do him favors.
His flourishing real estate business was stoked with tax breaks, multimillion-dollar state leases and government land giveaways.
...He won $3 million in tax reductions for his renovations, but, as The Daily News recently reported, only 25 jobs were directly created. His campaign has said that that does not count the jobs indirectly produced by his tenants, but a large number of those tenants were state agencies, which have paid him tens of millions of dollars in rent over the years.
Ok, and what about the low-cost or no-cost financing sought by Forest City Ratner, which, as the Daily News recently reported, won't directly create any jobs?
The Times has ignored the entire EB-5 story.
Posted by steve at 9:23 AM
October 9, 2010
The power of the press
Rumur
Here is an examination of how the mainstream media did such a poor job of covering the Atlantic Yards fight.
In 2010 it is time for us, as a society, to take a hard look at the role of the news media in our political and financial systems. After 7 years of following the Atlantic Yards development project I am troubled by both the print and TV media’s inability or unwillingness to engage in any level of real reporting on this story.
When Forest City Ratner’s project was announced in Dec of 2003 we were compelled to start our documentary because everything that we read was simply a regurgitation of press releases. Not one reporter looked to urban planners or others in government who might be able to respond critically to the information flowing from the developer and their government partners. In the days following the announcement of the project I talked to many of my neighbors about what was really going on, but I had no luck finding out useful or credible information. Those 7 long years ago, blogs were far from being a significant source of information and Facebook had not been launched, and as such the web was not a very useful source of information. The developer had staged a fancy press conference complete with pop stars (jay-z), sports stars (Bernard King), and starchitects (Gehry) in order to distract people from the enormity of what they were proposing. It worked.
...
When the project was announced, one of the main complaints by those opposing it, was that all of the developers promises were unenforceable. They also objected to its massive scale, enormous government subsidies, lack of public process and oversight, and the abuse of eminent domain. However, all of these complaints were waved away by saying that the project would bring enormous benefits.
Now the land has been seized, the streets have been closed, the subsidies have been given, and when the developer admits that he doesn’t plan to build the press barely covers it, and only as part of a story about the unveiling of a private plaza at the site.
Click on the link to get a fuller picture of how the press stood on the sidelines regurgitating press releases, virtually forcing others to get the story of the Atlantic Yards land grab to the public.
Posted by steve at 8:12 AM
The Next Generation - Cristina Cacioppo, Mark Rosenberg & Marco Ursino pick New York City's emerging filmmakers
New York Press
This round-up includes the documentarians who are working to finish their opus dealing with the Atlantic Yards fight.
Michael Galinsky & Suki Stetson Hawley
Husband and wife Michael and Suki have been making radical shoot-from-the-hip fiction and documentary films since the mid-90s, landing films in festivals, theaters and on TV without losing their filmmaking integrity and ceaseless energy. Their latest project is “The Battle of Brooklyn,” a feature documentary about the controversial Atlantic Yards development. Without overt editorializing, the film highlights the fallacy of the developers promises, the co-opting of the neighborhood, and the immanent doom represented in eminent domain.
Posted by steve at 8:04 AM
September 30, 2010
Local Blogging, Both Skeptical and Elegiac
City Room
by J. David Goodman
The blog of The New York Times, which never has any problem getting access to the developer of its headquarters building, recognizes that some others do.
But as Norman Oder of the Atlantic Yards Report keeps discovering, angering the powers that be can also lead to annoyances in the real world: Sometimes they won’t let you into their news conferences. In the latest instance, Mr. Oder reports that he was kept from attending the unveiling of new designs for the Atlantic Yards project on Tuesday.
NoLandGrab: Perhaps if The Times had ever bothered to take a hard look at Atlantic Yards, they might find themselves on Norman Oder's side of the velvet rope.
Posted by eric at 12:39 PM
September 29, 2010
Traffic-free plaza unveiled, with bollards (despite NYPD claim), but the big story concerns Ratner's timetable admissions; the Times whiffs
Atlantic Yards Report
Barred from the press conference, Norman Oder instead evaluates media coverage of Bruce Ratner's big plaza reveal.
The big news yesterday, led by the Brooklyn Paper and WNYC, was not the publication of oddly traffic-free Barclays Center plaza designs with a new subway entrance and the giant oval oculus at the center (remember, there's a meeting tonight at 6 pm), but Bruce Ratner's admission he has no timetable for the project.
As WNYC's Matthew Schuerman pointed out, "the city, state and Forest City all conducted or commissioned economic impact analyses that assumed a 10-year build out."
(I've previously pointed out that such analyses, such as the one conducted by the New York City Economic Development Corporation, depend on an over-optimistic ten-year time frame. And note the "vaportecture" in the official renderings, by SHoP Architects.)
And, Schuerman noted, "Ratner’s associates repeatedly used the 10-year time frame in talking to the press and the public." (I also pointed to Ratner's 2010 contradiction of his 2008 op-ed as well as a changing story regarding the first tower. But I wasn't allowed into the press conference.)
New York Magazine's Chris Smith also noticed that the contrast between the "unveiling" of a plaza versus the planned office tower, as well as the suspended timetable.
Posted by eric at 9:12 AM
Times looks into tainted past of Paladino aides; what about the New York City Regional Center, in charge of EB-5 visas?
Atlantic Yards Report
A New York Times article about the Republican nominee for governor, Carl Paladino, is headlined Paladino Has Aides With Tainted Pasts:
But some of the people whom Mr. Paladino has recruited to run his campaign are plagued by brushes with the law and allegations of misconduct, an examination of public records shows.
His campaign manager failed to pay nearly $53,000 in federal taxes over the last few years, prompting the Internal Revenue Service to take action against him. An aide who frequently drives Mr. Paladino on the campaign trail served jail time in Arizona on charges of drunken driving.
Another adviser has been indicted on charges of stealing more than $1 million from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s re-election bid last year. And Mr. Paladino’s campaign chairwoman left a local government position amid claims that she had steered $1 billion in public money to a politically connected investment manager.
...Sure, that's worth covering.
But what about the questionable past of one of the two Managing Principals of the New York City Regional Center, the private company that has been delegated (like other private companies) to process immigrant investors under the EB-5 visa program? Shouldn't one of the "Billboard Boys" get some scrutiny?
Posted by eric at 8:32 AM
September 25, 2010
Times still not sure whether arena would be "near" Downtown Brooklyn or in it
Atlantic Yards Report
The TImes continues to be thick-headed as regards Brooklyn geography.
From the today's New York Times, Nets Discuss 4-Team Deal to Acquire Anthony:
The Nets are scheduled to move to a new arena in downtown Brooklyn in two years, placing them squarely in competition with the Knicks. Anthony, who was born in Brooklyn, would provide instant star power and credibility and set up a rivalry with Stoudemire, his good friend.
From the Corrections box in the 4/27/06 New York Times:
Because of an editing error, an article in The Arts on Tuesday about Frank Gehry's design for the first phase of the Grand Avenue development project in Los Angeles misstated the location of the proposed Atlantic Yards project that Mr. Gehry is designing in Brooklyn. (The error also appeared in sports articles on Feb. 9 and April 11, in the City section on Jan. 15 and in several articles in 2003, 2004 and 2005.) It is on rail yards and other land in Prospect Heights and on a block in Park Slope; it is not in Downtown Brooklyn, although it is near that neighborhood.
A 9/12/10 Times Arts article said "near downtown Brooklyn."
A 6/30/10 Sports article said "in downtown Brooklyn."
A 6/26/10 Sports article said "in downtown Brooklyn."
A 5/20/10 Sports column said "near downtown Brooklyn."
C'mon, can't they get this straight?
Posted by steve at 8:50 AM
New Ad by Brooklyn-Bulldozing Company Barclays Shows City as Personalized Amusement Park
The Measure
Here's an indication that, instead of building a good name, Barclays will generate lots of ill will by having its name put on the new Nets arena.
Barclays, the company that now owns the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic (where it's begun building its Barclays Center), premiered this new ad earlier in the year, in which the British financial firm outlines its vision of urban design. The insinuation that New York City is your own private plaything pretty much makes sense coming from a company that's been handed a multi-billion dollar site by city agencies. Go Nets!
Barclays does not own the Atlantic Yards development, but the state did fail to derive any money paid by Barclays to Forest City Ratner for naming rights. Despite the factual mix-up, there's no mistaking the anger in this post.
Posted by steve at 7:33 AM
September 22, 2010
Atlantic Yards Report’s Plan to Turn the Development’s Story into a Book
Unbeige
by Steve Delahoyde
We’ve posted our fair share about the trials and tribulations of the seemingly always rocky creation of Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards development, from the early protests to Frank Gehry‘s removal to the disregard for public design reviews and the lawsuits that have nearly shut it all down at times. But as often as we’ve written about the project, we can’t hold a candle to Norman Oder, the man behind the Atlantic Yards Report, a blog that, since 2006, has laboriously chronicled all the many ups and downs the development has been through. Thanks to a tip from a reader, we were passed along the news that Oder has decided to quit his job as news editor of the Library Journal to concentrate on turning his blog about the Yards into a book. Though he doesn’t yet have a publishing deal for it, he’s striking out on his own in order to tell the story of this storied development.
Related...
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Norman Oder to Give Full Time to Atlantic Yards Book (No, He Hasn't Been Giving Full Time)
In a column on Library Journal, where Norman Oder does his day job, the Atlantic Yards Report creator and sole proprietor announces that he is leaving his journalistic duties at that publication to work on the definitive book about the Atlantic Yards epic.
...We wish you, Mr. Oder, all the discipline you need and all the best in your pursuit of this massive endeavor.
NoLandGrab: Only DDDB knows as well as NoLandGrab how valuable Norman Oder has been to the Atlantic Yards fight. For the former, he unearthed numerous stories that fueled and aided their opposition; for us, he's provided about a quarter of our content.
Posted by eric at 10:12 AM
September 21, 2010
Norman Oder Quitting Day Job to Write Definitive Atlantic Yards Book
NY Observer
by Matt Chaban
Matt Chaban, another reporter who's done some good Atlantic Yards reporting of his own (until recently at The Architect's Newspaper), covers the man who's set the bar on Atlantic Yards coverage impossibly high.
Since he launched The Atlantic Yards Report in 2006, Norman Oder has written 3,747 blog posts on the contentious Brooklyn development project. It's probably enough to fill an encyclopedia, let alone a lowly paperback.
But that is exactly what Mr. Oder is setting out to do, when he announces later today—in his 3,748th post—that he is leaving his full-time job (that's right, he's got a day job) at Library Journal to dedicate himself to writing a book about Atlantic Yards.
..."I think the story needs to be told," Mr. Oder said in his demure way. "It's been told in dribs and drabs. It will be mythologized, and it will be spun, and parts of the story will get lost. The story needs to to be synthesized and made sense of. And made compelling."
Therein lies the challenge—how to make DEISes, State Appeals Court cases, and eminent domain sexy. No one knows this stuff better than Mr. Oder. He had yet another blockbuster scoop this morning (more on that in an upcoming post) that was so juicy it was apparently leaked to the Journal to stem the bleeding. But can he write a best-selling book?
"I don't profess to be writing the next Power Broker," Mr. Oder said. "I hope it will be substantial and interesting." He points to Times Square Roulette and Little Pink House as inspirations, but says the former is too long and the latter "scants on policy." What he so loves about the prospects of the book is all the complex pieces involved.
"It's about a certain project in a certain time. It's about development in a certain time. It's about Brooklyn in a certain time. It's a story about our time. It's got politics and planning and architecture and neighborhoods. And journalism, that will be a big subplot." (The blog started as the Times Ratner Report, a critique about the lack of coverage of the project.) "This is a story about a whole bunch of things."
Here's hoping he can get that all sorted out before the arena opens in the fall of 2012. It would make a way better door prize/giveaway than Ratner bobbleheads.
Posted by eric at 6:22 PM
After the film and the play, time for a book about Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder is leaving his day job (how does he even have time for a day job?) to pen Atlantic Yards: The Book.
Well, if Atlantic Yards has spawned a documentary film, Battle of Brooklyn, and documentary-inspired theater, In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards, shouldn't it also generate a book?
That's what a number of people have told me, and why I'm leaving my job to get it done, as I explain in a farewell column for Library Journal, where I've written about library issues for more than 14 years:
With so much to cover, why am I leaving? For more than four-and-a-half years, I’ve been moonlighting on my own blog, the Atlantic Yards Report, about an enormously controversial real estate development—Atlantic Yards—that would bring an arena for the relocated New Jersey Nets basketball team and 16 towers to Brooklyn, just a short walk from my apartment.
I’ve immersed myself in issues like urban planning, affordable housing, and eminent domain. It’s been tiring but rewarding; I’ve written for the New York Times (though I’ve been a fierce critic of its coverage) and cowritten a law review article. Now, I’m working on the book the saga deserves. (Agents, yes, you’re welcome to contact me. Librarians, yes, I’m happy to visit on book tour.)
I'm still in the early stages--just keeping up with the blog has kept me busy--but there's a lot of material to go over.
You can read Oder's valedictory Library Journal column here.
Posted by eric at 5:29 PM
The Anatomy of a "Scoop"
Several weeks ago, a friend called to tell us about a story he'd heard from a business contact — Forest City Ratner was planning to raise funds for Atlantic Yards in China through something called the EB-5 Visa program. He told us to Google EB-5, which we did, and we discovered that there's a two-decade-old U.S. program that essentially trades U.S. resident alien status for half-million-dollar investments that allegedly create at least 10 jobs.
Amazed that Forest City, even with Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov's ill-gotten billions, would need or want to raise yet more money, especially through such a non-traditional and none-too-savory means, we passed the tip along to Atlantic Yards Report.
At first, Norman Oder didn't seem especially interested. After a little more prodding, he started to look into it, and when he came across this Chinese tour itinerary, he quickly became convinced that this was a big story that needed telling. The more he dug into it, the murkier it got. He started calling around, to the Empire State Development Corporation and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, who told him to talk to Forest City Ratner and the New York City Regional Center, who stonewalled him. Even motor-mouthed Marty Markowitz went mute.
Oder was prepared to publish his exhaustive look into Atlantic Yards and the EB-5 program this morning. Late last evening, however, he got "scooped" by The Wall Street Journal's Eliot Brown. Brown, one of the few mainstream media reporters to distinguish himself with his Atlantic Yards coverage, published a 434-word story that barely scratches the surface, and raises no questions about the Atlantic Yards project's ability to actually deliver on the program's "requirements" for job creation.
It's clear to us that Forest City Ratner, while brushing off inquiries from Atlantic Yards Report, scrambled to leak the story before Norman Oder could publish. It's now up to the mainstream media to dig deeper, and toss a wrench or two into Forest City's spin-control operation. Oder's done all the hard work — let's see if they can pick up the ball and run with it.
Posted by eric at 11:07 AM
September 6, 2010
New York Times Public Editor seeks to maintain "sacred cloak of impartiality." Isn't it a bit late?
Atlantic Yards Report
In his second column, Arthur Brisbane, the new New York Times Public Editor, is already wading into deep waters.
His column yesterday, In an Age of Voices, Moving Beyond the Facts, expresses alarm about news articles that contain "opinion" or "interpretive journalism":
When I asked Matt Bai about his Aug. 12 “Political Times” column on Representative Paul Ryan — the one Mr. Johnson criticized — he said: “I guess my column is part of a broader effort to take some chances in the paper and explore different formats for a new era. I think that represents a great and exciting trend for the paper; none of us can afford to think in old rubrics for new generations of readers.”
Bai’s editor, Richard Stevenson, the deputy Washington bureau chief, elaborated on how The Times is navigating the new norms. “We are still exploring how much of a voice you can have ... what kinds of conclusions you can draw when it comes to politics,” he said.
A news-page column like “Political Times” carries the “freedom to reach a reported conclusion,” he said. Not to “throw opinion around,” but to “express in a restrained and fact-bound way a conclusion about something.”
The "reported conclusion"
I think the notion of a "reported conclusion" is legitimate. Why? Because the Times, and the "objective" press, is full of implicitly reported conclusion.
Consider, for example, the egregious example of the Times quoting, without qualms, the claim last September by a New York City Economic Development Corporation spokesman that Atlantic Yards was "a site that is now an open railyard without any public benefit."
What made that claim even more egregious was that, well before the deadline for print, I posted a comment on the CityRoom blog demolishing that claim. I ran this all by Brisbane's predecessor, Clark Hoyt, who, predictably enough, ignored it.
NoLandGrab: If it emanates from Seth Pinsky's mouth, that ought to be reason enough for a healthy dose of journalistic skepticism.
Posted by eric at 9:56 AM
August 31, 2010
To the Times's new Public Editor: Get up to speed on Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder pens a letter to the latest Public Editor of The New York Times. Here's a snippet.
I know, I know. As a new Public Editor, you only look forward, not back. But you should know that the Times, in editorial, op-ed, and news coverage of Atlantic Yards, has not come close to meeting its standards.
(I write this having examined and critiqued the Times coverage for more than five years and, yes, having an op-ed on Atlantic Yards finally published this past June.)
Your predecessors as Public Editors have not distinguished themselves regarding Atlantic Yards, either offering weak defenses of the newspaper or ignoring issues completely.
NoLandGrab: Standards? The Times don't need no stinking standards!
Posted by eric at 12:56 PM
August 28, 2010
Paterson's penchant for fudging facts seen as context for potential perjury charges; Atlantic Yards episode deserves a mention
Atlantic Yards Report
When trying to get support for bad development, it helps to have politicians in high places who put little value in telling the truth.
Now they tell us. An article in today's New York Times, headlined With Paterson, the Simple Facts Can Get Complicated, begins:
A thoroughly honest politician has pretty much always been considered an undiscovered species. But for Gov. David A. Paterson, the distinction between the truth and an untruth can get unusually murky.
Once asked if a statement was accurate or inaccurate, Gov. David A. Paterson replied, “Neither.”
On Thursday, an independent counsel asked the Albany County district attorney to determine whether Mr. Paterson intentionally lied to investigators about paying for baseball tickets, something that could lead to the governor being charged with perjury.
But how do you sort that out? After all, according to many people who deal with Mr. Paterson, it’s not always clear when he might be intentionally lying and when he is just saying wrong things. Or doing something that, by his reckoning, is neither lying nor telling the truth.
And it contains this summation:
But these same people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they continue to deal with his administration, say Mr. Paterson tends to fudge facts, as well as to tell one group one thing and another the opposite.
...
Those of us who saw Paterson (at the Atlantic Yards arena groundbreaking) claim, ridiculously, that Atlantic Yards would "have job creation the likes of which Brooklyn has never seen," got a pretty strong hint of all this in March.
But that anecdote didn't make the Times today. After all, the reporter on the scene took Paterson's claims at face value.
Then, and now, that was unwise.
NoLandGrab: Is Atlantic Yards going to be a powerful economic engine that will benefit others besides Bruce Ratner? Was it approved after a careful public review? Neither.
Posted by steve at 9:26 AM
Battle of Brooklyn
Creative Arson
On my b’day this year, I ran into Beyonce and Jay Z while shooting the ground breaking of the Barclay Center: the largest development project in New York since, I don’t know, forever. It’s being plopped down next to downtown Brooklyn and will make billions for some, while taking away central Brooklyn’s low scale, neighborhood sensibility. The footage I shot was for/with my friends at Rumur Inc who are making an epic doc about the whole debacle. Read all about it and watch the amazing trailer here:
www.rumur.com/bobAnd yes, Beyonce and I had a moment.
Posted by steve at 8:45 AM
August 21, 2010
Show About the Atlantic Yards Finds a Home Near the Atlantic Yards
New York Times
By Erik Piepenburg
This announcement of a show based on the Atlantic Yards fight describes Atlantic Yards as "eight million square feet of apartments, offices, stores and an arena for the New Jersey Nets." The arena is under construction. Except for one or two residential towers, it looks like the rest of the project will just be acres of parking.
The downtown company the Civilians has announced that its new show, “In the Footprint: The Battle Over the Atlantic Yards,” will open in November at the Irondale Center, a theater space not far from the future home of that planned 22-acre development.
“In the Footprint” is a series of songs and monologues about the conflicts over the building of the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project near Brooklyn’s downtown that is to include eight million square feet of apartments, offices, stores and an arena for the New Jersey Nets. The show’s material is taken from interviews that members of the Civilians conducted with Brooklyn residents, community organizers, business owners and politicians who are either for or against the project. Performances are scheduled to begin on Nov. 12 and continue through Dec. 11 at the center at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene.
Related coverage...
The L Magazine, Atlantic Yards Musical In The Footprint Premiering in Fort Greene in November
ArtsBeat reports that documentary theater company the Civilians will premiere their show In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards this fall at the Irondale Center in Fort Greene, a few blocks from the titular mega-development. The show, which combines songs and monologues drawn from interviews with local residents, activists, business-owners, developers and politicians on either side of the fight over the in-progress project to build condos and a basketball stadium along Atlantic Avenue, will begin performances on November 12 and continue through December 11. Can't wait that long? The Civilians will perform songs from the show during a cabaret night at Joe's Pub on September 10. Either way, unfortunately, it appears to be too late.
Atlantic Yards Report, The Civilians' theater piece about Atlantic Yards will debut November 12
In December 2008, the theater troupe The Civilians, which bases its shows on interviews but doesn't quite produce documentaries, debuted Brooklyn At Eye Level, its first (and preliminary) show based on its look into the controversy and passions of the Atlantic Yards project.
I thought the show was well worth seeing, though it also had gaps. Starting in November, we'll see how much the story has been updated and how many of the gaps will be filled in.
Posted by steve at 8:09 AM
August 15, 2010
The Times and Lipsky: skepticism about the city's claims on Willets Point (but what about AY?)
Atlantic Yards Report
The New York Times, likely on a tip from lobbyist Richard Lipsky, ran a story on August 13 expressing skepticism about the Willets Point project. State officials are particularly concerned about the design for highway ramps. Why was Lipsky never skeptical about Atlantic Yards?
Lipsky, on his Neighborhood Retail Alliance blog, slammed the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC):
The fact remains, however, that this entire issue-and the review process itself-is begging to be removed from the parochial clutches of EDC and its flimflam consultant AKRF. If that happens, the economic development agency and its friends may just die from exposure.
But did Lipsky make a peep about AKRF's performance on Atlantic Yards, for example the market study it was hired to do but never did?
...
Did he salute transportation analyst Brian Ketcham's criticism of the ESDC's traffic analysis for Atlantic Yards, surely equivalent to what Lipsky called Ketcham's "blistering critique of EDC's defective [Willets Point] traffic report"?
Nope.
That's because Forest City Ratner hired Lipsky to lobby for Atlantic Yards, and neutralized him.
Posted by steve at 7:32 AM
July 21, 2010
Jane Jacobs, esthete? (or why the High Line belongs in the Metro section)
Atlantic Yards Report
While urbanism certainly encompasses questions of design, it equally involves politics, policy, and economics. So it was a little jarring to see, in today's New York Times, news that High Line Founders To Get Jane Jacobs Medal appear in the Arts section.
The High Line is a spectacular new park and, while it's spurred inventive architecture, it belongs in the Metro section. Last week, a front-page Times article about the High Line's notable ripple effects, After High Line’s Success, Other Cities Look Up, began on the front page, but jumped to the Metro section.
Oddly enough, online that article is assigned to the arts desk.
Posted by eric at 11:31 AM
July 18, 2010
The paradox of "Google News"--or, how AYR original content appears in Google News only when someone else borrows it
Atlantic Yards Report
A Google search has become a critical part of almost everyone's on-line experience, but when it comes to news, and particularly to Atlantic Yards, Google's approach to what is news could probably stand to be improved. For example, press releases are treated as "news" while stand-alone journalists, can only show up as bloggers.
Google, which is based on algorithms rather them whims, should get it right, or at least be consistent, right?
It depends where you look.
If you search on "Atlantic Yards" in Google Blogs, not only do Atlantic Yards Report posts and articles appear in the list, but AYR gets prominence up top, as shown in this screenshot from July 11.
...
But if you search on "Atlantic Yards" in Google News, AYR is ignored.
That's because Google News algorithms exclude sites written and maintained by one person, no matter the quality or reputation.
There's surely the logic behind the rule, and it would be difficult to police, but it disserves readers.
Google News includes self-serving press releases, which, however labeled, are less likely to provide solid information than legitimate standalone journalism, a concept that's more than five years old
And it leads to absurd results, because Google News includes news articles that are partly based on AYR--such as several Gothamist posts in Google News--or nearly completely based on it, such as:
Click on the link for further insight into Google's policies, and see that one way around the exclusion of blogs is to reference blog content in comments on news items.
Posted by steve at 7:55 AM
July 4, 2010
First Annual Kickstarter Film Festival by Kickstarter & Rooftop Films – July 9th – super cool
Transmedia Camp 101
The first annual Kickstarter Film Festival will include the documentary "Battle Brooklyn," about the Atlantic Yards fight.
On Friday, July 9th, Kickstarter and Rooftop Films are hosting the first annual Kickstarter Film Festival on the roof of the OId American Can Factory in Brooklyn. The festival will feature 90 minutes of film and video from a dozen Kickstarter projects, including feature films, stop-motion animation, documentaries, art, and dance. All of them amazing.
...
LOGISTICS
The American Can Factory holds roughly 700 people — 300 on the roof and 400 in the courtyard below (there are two screens). This project’s 260 tickets are for the rooftop seats (some are being reserved for the filmmakers and press). Four-hundred courtyard seats will be sold at the door on the night of the festival, weather-permitting.
TIMES
8pm Doors
8:30pm Music
9pm Films
11:30pm AfterpartyADDRESS
The Old American Can Factory
Corner of 3rd St and 3rd Ave, Brooklyn NY (Map)
Here's a short synopsis of the documentary:
Battle of Brooklyn by David Beilinson, Suki Hawley and Michael Galinksy A documentary about the Atlantic Yards fight over a Brooklyn neighborhood (about 15 blocks from the festival) between a developer, the government, and the people who live there. A 25-minute premiere.
Posted by steve at 9:06 AM
June 22, 2010
My Times op-ed: "A Russian Billionaire, the Nets and Sweetheart Deals"
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder on Norman Oder.
Balancing (?) a one-source portrait of Bruce Ratner, today's New York Times Sports section offers a piece by me labeled "essay" (initially "analysis") that I'd simply call an "op-ed," headlined A Russian Billionaire, the Nets and Sweetheart Deals.
OK, take a read. The conclusion:
But the arena process should have been fair, and [Prokhorov] should have paid full freight. Surely he can afford it.
Someone might've called foul
I posted an FAQ below, but first I'd like to amplify the piece slightly by restoring one line that was cut from the edit I saw three weeks ago:
All was forgotten as flashbulbs popped for Prokhorov, as was the notion that had a man worth nearly $18 billion put his hand out for subsidies, someone might have called foul.
Would it have been possible for Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Governor David Paterson to justify helping Prokhorov's cash flow, as they did with Ratner last September?
...FAQ
Why write the piece?
I was astonished how much the sports press buffed Prokhorov, as if his purchase could be disassociated from the Atlantic Yards controversy and the public subsidies involved.
Why'd they accept the piece?
I can only speculate. But there's been overwhelmingly positive publicity about Prokhorov. And there's a very friendly article about Bruce Ratner today. So there's a hint of balance.
Where was the photo taken?
On the north side of Dean Street east of Sixth Avenue; in the background are two houses subject to eminent domain, but that "taking" has been shifted to a later phase.
Lots more FAQs via the link.
NoLandGrab: Since Oder submitted his piece several weeks ago, we can only speculate that The Times assigned Araton to interview Ratner to "balance" Oder's facts.
Related coverage...
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Norman Oder on Prokhorov, Ratner and Atlantic Yards in the NY Times
Norman Oder, who began his Atlantic Yards reporting as a critic of the NY Times faulty coverage of the controvrsial project, has an oped in today's NY Times sports section. Kudos to the paper for holding back ego and publishing one of its chief critic's columns. But shame on the paper for waiting until the Atlantic Yards horse was so far out of the barn.
Oder offers a synopsis of the Atlantic Yards rip-off, honing in on the public subsidies and government support benefitting one of the richest men in the world, Mikhail Prokhorov, and the fawning press gaggles that followed every little joke and cute remark by the oligarch during his whirlwind April visit to New York.
The question remains: would the Mayor and various governors have propelled Atlantic Yards forwards with all of its public favors if it were a project driven by and owned by Russia's wealthiest man? We doubt it, but that is what has occurred, in the end.
Brownstoner, Oder Does The Times
After years of (rightly) criticizing The New York Times for its failure to bring a critical eye and adequate resources to its coverage of the Atlantic Yards project, Norman Oder, publisher of the Atlantic Yards Report, got his own essay (that's what The Times calls it; he calls it an Op-Ed) in the paper of record. A central point of the essay, and the one that he parses further in a follow-up post on his blog, is that public officials might have thought harder about handing out hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies if they'd known that someone with unlimited financial resources--in this case Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov--would end up being the beneficiary.
Battle of Brooklyn via Kickstarter, Norman Oder article in the Times
Norman Oder has an op-ed (according to the Times it's an essay) in today's Times.
...In film news- We are finally digging into the final sections of footage- the ground breaking. Yesterday we viewed a long assembly of the footage and it was very powerful.
On July 9th- we will be part of a kickstarter film fest- in conjunction with our very good friends at rooftop films. At that event we will likely show the end of the film- we'll certainly send out an update as it comes closer.
Posted by eric at 10:58 AM
June 20, 2010
Behind the Brooklyn Paper's LeBron-maybe-at-Toren story
Atlantic Yards Report
I'm trying to imagine how the Brooklyn Paper went about the article headlined (online) Apartments that are fit for a king — King James and in print "A HOME FIT FOR A KING: Rumor: LeBron looked for Bklyn crib, but he shouldn't miss these palaces."
Here's how it might have gone down.
Editor Gersh Kuntzman: "Hey, Steve, did you see that New York Times interview with Donald Capoccia, the developer of Toren?"
Reporter Stephen Brown: "Yeah."
GK: "He said LeBron James might be looking at the penthouse apartment."
SB: "Shouldn't he know? He's the developer. LeBron is kind of a noticeable individual. He's just trying to get some free publicity."
GK: "If a rumor's good enough for the Times, it's good enough for the Community Newspaper Group."
SB: "Some blogger guy checked into it and found an original purveyor of the online rumor admitted it was a joke."
GK: "We don't listen to that blogger guy any more."
SB: "But Gersh, even if LeBron joins the Nets as a free agent, he'll play in Newark for at least two years. He can't commute from Brooklyn."
GK: "Don't you understand, the story's not about the Toren and LeBron, it's about super-premium real estate still available in several buildings. That's news. Get to it. We'll even put it on the front page."
SB: "If you say so."
Posted by steve at 7:05 AM
The Atlantic asks, "Can Anyone Replace the Local Beat Reporter?" Not that likely (but City Limits is trying to crowd-fund a development story)
Atlantic Yards Report
This blog entry starts by referencing an article from The Atlantic that shows, although a beat reporter can be well-positioned to find a story that might otherwise be missed, sometimes ordinary citizens can come up with story on their own.
Norman Oder's perspective on beat reporter versus citizen reporter:
I'm pessimistic that beat reporting can just bubble up.
Writing in April 2009 on a debate about the future of news between Princeton sociologist Paul Starr, a pessimist, and Outside.in founder Steven Johnson, an optimist, I noted that Johnson agrees that traditional reporting skills are needed "for the macro issues, but on the hyperlocal level the true experts are people on the streets."
As I pointed out, Atlantic Yards is both hyperlocal (and thus too fine-grained in its iterations for daily print coverage) as well as macro (encompassing a wide range of beats, including real estate, public policy, sports business, law, and local politics). So traditional reporting skills are necessary. It's very hard to become an expert on that stuff.
Oder points to one attempt at filling in the gap between the numbers of reporters available and the stories that ought to be written.
Meanwhile, City Limits magazine, which does solid work on a shoestring, is now trying to crowdsource funding for an investigation, aiming to raise $5000 with the following pitch:
Anyone who has lived in or visited New York in the past decade has seen the tower cranes and orange netting that color the skyline—harbingers of the new developments that are remaking the city, from baseball stadiums to shopping malls to