July 23, 2008
Higher-resolution arena renderings suggest how close glass would be to the street
Atlantic Yards Report
The 2008 edition of the New York Post's Brooklyn Tomorrow advertorial reproduces Frank Gehry renderings already in the Image Gallery on the Atlantic Yards web site, but the higher-resolution versions in the publication offer a clear reminder: the arena's glass walls would be quite close to the street, raising security concerns.
Remember, last fall, only after much prodding by the New York Times, Forest City Ratner acknowledged that the arena would be just 20 feet from the street at Flatbush Avenue and Atlantic Avenue, the same distance as in Newark, where officials have decided to close streets during arena events.
...Alan Rosner, who wrote a July 2005 White Paper, titled Terrorism, Security and the Proposed Brooklyn Atlantic Yards. High Rise and Arena Development Project (PDF), has continued to follow the issue.
"The renderings for the new AY arena & towers do point to a lack of meaningful setbacks from both Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues," Rosner told me. "FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) the GSA [General Services Administration] & DoD [Department of Defense] all indicate that the single most effective mitigation for explosions is distance from the blast. By any standard 20 feet is too close to the curb."
NoLandGrab: Elected officials who called for a comprehensive security review last November are still waiting for a meaningful response from the developer and state agencies.
Posted by eric at 8:55 AM
April 18, 2008
TRASHY WTC SECURITY
HOMELESS GUY FINDS KEY PLAN IN A CAN
New York Post
by Jeremy Olshan and Kevin Fasick
OK, we know that the World Trade Center and Atlantic Yards are two different projects, but if blueprints detailing the thickness of walls and the location of support beams in the Freedom Tower turn up in a SoHo trash can, should we really be taking Forest City Ratner spokesperson Bruce Bender's word that Atlantic Yards arena security plans are A-OK?
Two sets of confidential blueprints for the planned Freedom Tower, which is set to rise at Ground Zero, were carelessly dumped in a city garbage can on the corner of West Houston and Sullivan streets, The Post has learned.
Experts said the detailed, floor-by-floor schematics contain enough detail for terrorists to plot a devastating attack.
"Secure Document - Confidential," warns the title page on each of the two copies of the 150-page schematic that a homeless, recovering drug addict discovered in the public trash can.
...As shocking as such dangerous lapses in security are, experts contend that they are bound to happen again.
"Outrageous security breeches like this amplify how vulnerable New Yorkers are," said Nicholas Casale, former head of security for the MTA.
NoLandGrab: We're reminded that the numerous elected officials who demanded an independent security study of the Atlantic Yards project nearly six months ago have been completely ignored by the ESDC and law-enforcement officials.
And is it too much to add that Mike Fleming, the homeless gentleman who found the Freedom Tower plans, wouldn't be eligible for Atlantic Yards affordable housing — while a family earning $113,000 would?
Posted by eric at 3:21 PM
April 10, 2008
NYPD Letter Blasts Security Lapses At Penn Station
WNBC
In a letter, NYC Police Commish Kelly "voiced frustration" toward Madison Square Garden stakeholders for failure to implement security measures:
Kelly's frustration was directed at the owners of Madison Square Garden, the chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, the head of the MTA and the president of Amtrak. Kelly did praise the MTA for securing millions of dollars to build the permanent security perimeter, a perimeter that would be complete with bollards and delta barriers able to stop truck bombs.
Currently, the streets between West 31st and 34th streets between 7th and 8th avenues either have no barricades or are surrounded with dirt-filled planters.
NoLandGrab: Meanwhile, as reported in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, regarding Bruce Ratner's plans to build an arena over one of the area's largest transit hubs:
NYPD spokesman John Kelly said, “The department has met numerous times with the builders, who have been very cooperative and have done everything we have asked.” He also said the department doesn’t foresee any street or land closures, sidewalk widening around the arena or the instillation of bollards.
No bollards or closures, and an arena just 20 feet from the street: have the NYPD and Bruce Ratner overlooked something?
Posted by lumi at 4:58 AM
March 8, 2008
i generally have nice photographic encounters
not another f*cking blog!
yesterday, while shooting the demolition of the Ward Bread Bakery smokestack (which, along with its water tower, are my Prospect Heights neighborhood icons), i was approached by an employee of Gateway Demolition, the contractor doing the demolition of the Ward Bakery. he talked about his new optic gear which enabled him to tell the brand of cigarette one of the workers was smoking on his break atop the smokestack, i talked about my trying to capture some of the history of the 'hood before his company dismantles it, and then we got into a short but interesting discussion about the history of the Ward Bakery.he was pretty knowledgeable about Wards, how it was built in 1905 (or is it 1910? 1911?) and was where sliced bread was introduced. i asked him what is was like inside the old bakery. he told me about ovens large enough that one could drive a truck around inside of them and how the oven floors were on a giant rotisserie to evenly bake thousands of loaves at a time. he told me that it's very cold inside right now, like an icebox, with lots of peeling paint and beautiful light.
Posted by amy at 10:15 AM
March 5, 2008
March Madness: Homeland Security Issues Warning on Sports Arenas
A report issued by the FBI and Dept. of Homeland Security warning of the "potential threats against sporting events" is another opportunity for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn to remind Brooklynites and the politicians who represent them that Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner and the Empire State Development Corporation have not disclosed any potential impact of the planned arena and in fact, "have said that no road or lane closings will take place, and that there aren't even any plans to place bollards around the arena."
Read more about the FBI and DHS joint report at ABCNews.com
Posted by lumi at 5:36 AM
March 2, 2008
At MetroTech, no photography; what about AY?
Atlantic Yards Report
Given the hassles that videographer Katherin McInnis and photographer Tracy Collins recently experienced at the Atlantic Yards footprint, the experience I had at Forest City Ratner's MetroTech Center two weeks back was small beans, but still worth noting.While I was walking around the Commons, shooting a few photos, a couple of security guards told me (nicely) that photography was not permitted. I had already taken the photos I wanted, and they didn't ask for the camera.
Only later did I see and photograph the rules. (Click to enlarge.) While photography isn't explicitly banned, it apparently qualifies as "unauthorized activity."
That raises a question. Should Atlantic Yards open space be built--the eight acres would appear in the increasingly distant second phase of the project--would photography be permitted?
link
NoLandGrab photographers were also harassed at Metrotech back when this fight began and we wanted to illustrate the stark difference between public parks and "open space." Maybe we should have just photographed the security guardpost...
Posted by amy at 10:28 AM
February 28, 2008
Pros fear new towers at World Trade Center site have security gaps
NY Daily News
by Greg B. Smith and Douglas Feiden
This eye-opening article from last Sunday's Daily News must've slipped by us like the Atlantic Yards security plan slipped by the NYPD.
Law enforcement officials have major concerns about security weaknesses in the planned World Trade Center complex, a Daily News investigation has found.
The potential problems expressed to the Port Authority and others involved in the most high-profile development project in New York City history include:
A row of three mostly glass towers positioned too closely to city streets, increasing their vulnerability to attack.
Difficulties in inspecting some 2,000 delivery trucks and sightseeing buses that will enter or leave the site daily.
A vehicle security center that hasn't been fully designed and relies on vehicle inspection technology that hasn't even been developed yet.
Asked about weaknesses uncovered by The News in the plans for rebuilding Ground Zero, Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said, "The NYPD has been in talks with the Port Authority, but we don't disclose any information about possible security vulnerabilities for obvious reasons."
NoLandGrab: What is it about Atlantic Yards that makes what appears to be basically the exact same design different from the World Trade Center? Has WTC developer Larry Silverstein been tardy with his donations to Shelly Silver and the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee?
Posted by eric at 10:56 PM
February 24, 2008
Photoblogger Stopped from Taking Snow Pics on Ninth St. Bridge
The Gowanus Lounge
This is a photo of snow on the Gowanus from photographer Joe Holmes that we found while looking at snow pics on flickr. It's a great pic, but what's even more s interesting about it, though, is what is in the description. Mr. Holmes, whose photoblog Joe's NYC is very highly regarded, writes: "...taken seconds before I was told that photography is prohibited on the 9th Street bridge because of 9-11 concerns. Those crafty terrorists -- blow up the 9th St bridge, and they'll bring this country to its knees." We have taken thousands of pics from all the bridges over the Gowanus and haven't realized we were endangering national security. Thank God he wasn't taking photos of the Atlantic Yards site.
Posted by amy at 1:42 PM
December 17, 2007
"Not the crime but the cover-up": Why the arena security issue is (sort of) like Watergate
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder explains that it's hard to believe the Empire State Development Corporation and Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner's security assurances, when they are acting so cagey. But what could the State's quasi governmental corporation and the mega developer be hiding, and so what?
One of the cliches that emerged from the Watergate investigation was "it´s not the crime, it´s the cover-up," a reference to how a third-rate burglary unraveled the presidential administration.
That's a useful, though inexact, way to look at the still-simmering issue of Atlantic Yards arena security. No, there's no crime. But there was something of a cover-up, and the city and state agencies overseeing the issue, as well as Forest City Ratner, have not been sufficiently forthcoming.
That's not to say that the belatedly released information that the Atlantic Yards arena would be (in part) as close to the street as the new Prudential Center in Newark will unravel the project. Or that Forest City Ratner is not taking security seriously. The city has vouched for FCR's preparations, but it's unclear whether the state has done much review.
However, the pattern of behavior by the latter three entities doesn´t inspire much confidence. Rather than answer the basic question--how far would the arena be from the street?--the developer and state stonewalled for weeks.
And that unwillingness to come clean means that, whatever the further explanations, more scrutiny is needed.
According to Oder, a recent statement by the ESDC suggests four possible scenarios:
- street closures are on the table, despite denials
- the Brooklyn arena, despite the presence of copious glass, is designed to a greater level of security than the Newark arena
- the Brooklyn arena is being redesigned
- New York officials genuinely believe Newark overreacted but are too diplomatic to say so.
Any of these scenarios deserves greater scrutiny from the outside, even if some of the details may not be subject to public disclosure,
Posted by lumi at 5:32 AM
December 14, 2007
Garden security has Brooklyn pols asking Yards questions
The Brooklyn Paper
By Mike McLaughlin
Brooklyn Paper follows up on the issue of security concerns at Atlantic Yards:
State officials tried to defuse tension about security at Atlantic Yards, saying that the NYPD won’t need to close streets around the Nets arena because police don’t close roadways next to Madison Square Garden on game nights.
The only problem with the promise is that it’s not entirely true: the NYPD did shut a roadway used as a taxi stand and pedestrian walkway between the Garden and Penn Plaza after 9-11 for security reasons.
While it’s not exactly Eighth Avenue, that closure did raise some eyebrows.
...
Not only that, Brooklyn elected officials said that the comparison made by ESDC President Avi Schick between Madison Square Garden and the proposed Atlantic Yards arena is like comparing basketballs and hockey pucks because MSG is not glass-walled, does not sit in a residential neighborhood and is more than 20 feet from busy avenues as the Atlantic Yards arena will be.
NoLandGrab: Local elected officals appear to be very serious about lingering security issues; meanwhile, the Empire State Development Corporation doesn't.
Posted by lumi at 5:18 AM
Radio reaction
The Brooklyn Paper, Letter to the Editor
To the editor,
I recently heard your editor on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show and want to thank him for stating the community’s concerns about Atlantic Yards in a balanced way and for putting the security issue in context.
Opponents’ supposedly “unreasonable” concerns turned real in Newark, where, two weeks before that city’s hockey arena opened, people were informed that two local streets would have to be closed every home game.
It’s no wonder Brooklynites fear that two weeks before our basketball arena opens, the NYPD will announce that there will be lanes closings on Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, or rerouted traffic, or vehicle inspections.
Given the size and location of Atlantic Yards, any one of these actions would cause incalculable harm to Brooklyn’s economy, traffic movement, air quality and public health by gridlocking the intersection of Atlantic, Flatbush and Fourth avenues. The effects would extend far beyond the area studied in the state’s narrowly focused environmental study.
The only thing that’s unreasonable is to pretend there is no problem.
Alan Rosner, Prospect Heights
Posted by lumi at 4:31 AM
December 12, 2007
It came from the Blogosphere...
Queens Crap, Doctoroff reflects
"Crappy" reacts to Deputy Dan's love of ULURP (NYC's local land use review process):
ULURP is a joke, Dan. Deals are "done" before they even get to the community board level. That's probably why you're such a big fan of it.
not another f*cking blog, dysfunctional
"Atlantic Yards" is among the litany of reasons the MTA is dysfunctional:
then there's the fact that they've practically given away the rights to develop over the Vanderbilt Yard in Prospect Heights Brooklyn for the proposed Forest City Ratner Atlantic Yards project. that's 100's of millions of dollars that could have been used to avoid a fare hike. unfortunately, Atlantic Yards isn't the first (and, i fear) not the last time that the MTA did not get fair market value for some very rare and valuable real estate. it appears that the MTA is trying to atone for their Atlantic Yards sins by handling the development over the Hudson Yards in Manhattan in what seems to be a rational, functional and considerate fashion. only time will tell, though.
Curbed, Change of Heart
Actually, what [Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff] says is "If it happened again, and the state were to ask" he'd encourage it not to do an end run around the city.
NoLandGrab: In hindsight, running the ball straight up the middle would have given Ratner more pr cover and probably shaved a few months off the process.
The Knickerblogger, Passenger Ships Didn't Have Lifeboats Before the Titanic, Why Have Them Now?
"Knickerblogger" considers the Empire State Development Corporation's (ESDC) brush-off of calls to deal with security concerns for Bruce Ratner's arena plan, and the agency's screwed up logic.
NoLandGrab: Though we're pretty sure that passenger ships DID have life boats before the Titanic, according to the ESDC's thinking, drivers don't really need that extra stuff like seatbelts and airbags.
Posted by lumi at 5:02 AM
December 10, 2007
ESDC gives elected officials the brush-off on arena security
Atlantic Yards Report
Local politicians get a "Dear Colleague" letter in return for their efforts:
The eight elected officials who asked the state for an independent study of Atlantic Yards security got a cordial brush-off from the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), which sent a brief November 30 letter (right, click to enlarge) reiterating that, just as Madison Square Garden operates without street closures, so could the Atlantic Yards arena.
That doesn't quite answer the issue, as I explained, because the parts of MSG closest to the street are mostly concrete, not glass, as planned for Atlantic Yards and the trigger for street closings around the Prudential Center in Newark, and an interior street next to MSG was closed after the 9/11 attacks.
Posted by lumi at 6:57 AM
December 7, 2007
Yards not safe
The Brooklyn Paper
Brooklyn Heights resident and Freddy's Brooklyn Roundhouse producer Steve DeSeve weighs in on the Atlantic Yards security issue:
To the editor,
Gore Vidal once called the U.S.A. the “United States of Amnesia,” and the way the governor’s office, the Empire State Development Corporation and Forest City Ratner are treating the terror threat at the proposed Atlantic Yards, it seem like they have forgotten that a lot of Brooklynites lived through 9-11 (“Pols want Atlantic Yards security review,” Nov. 10).
Is Forest City Ratner depending on our forgetting that the World Trade Center had its own world-class security firm certifying its safety? The NYPD also says it is satisfied with the “secret plan” to prevent terrorism at Atlantic Yards. We are also, apparently, supposed to forget that the same NYPD regarded the twin towers as safe.
link (scroll down)
Posted by lumi at 1:45 PM
Vallone Asks for Atlantic Yards Security Info
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
Will the Chairman of the City Council's Public Safety Committee be included among the "appropriate law enforcement agencies” on Forest City Ratner security consultant Jeffrey Venter's list?
DDDB weighs in on the Brooklyn Downtown Star's coverage of Atlantic Yards security concerns.
Posted by lumi at 9:08 AM
FOIL-ed! State says it can’t talk security
The Brooklyn Paper
by Mike McLaughlin
What's the point of a Freedom of Information Law if the information is not forthcoming — and it's the developer's consultant who makes the call?
In October, The Brooklyn Paper filed a Freedom of Information Law request for all documents related to security planning at Atlantic Yards by the Empire State Development Corporation.
Last week, we finally got our long-sought documents. So what did they amount to?
A 10-page affidavit from a Forest City Ratner security consultant that explained why all the plans must be kept classified.
NoLandGrab: Let us once again point out that an "independent" security study is not one produced by a consultant hired by Forest City Ratner, a point not lost on Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn.
Posted by lumi at 8:53 AM
Could Security Concerns Sink Nets Arena?
Brooklyn Downtown Star
By Shane Miller
[City Councilwoman Letitia] James said that she has spoken with both Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr., who chairs the City Council's Public Safety Committee, and Councilman John Liu, who chairs the Transportation Committee, requesting that both hold hearings on the possible impacts of the Atlantic Yards proposal.
Vallone has sent a letter to NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly requesting information on any security studies that have been completed on the project, as well as any anti-terror safeguards that have been included in plans for the arena.
"Given the proposed Atlantic Yards arena's close proximity to the streets, its use of large glass structures and its connection to the city's third-largest transit hub," wrote Vallone, "its potential as a terrorist target is a legitimate concern." Vallone cited a study similar to one conducted for the Freedom Tower in his letter.
Posted by lumi at 5:10 AM
December 6, 2007
Would AY arena be more like Newark or MSG? Brian Lehrer Show raises the issue
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder provides an overview of yesterday's Brian Lehrer Show for those of us who couldn't tune in. Guest host David Cruz moderated a discussion between Gersh Kuntzman of the Brooklyn Paper and Errol Louis of the New York Daily News. The discussion contained more than its fair share of Atlantic Yards misconceptions, particularly on the part of Mr. Louis:
Here's Louis's take on the security issue, and Oder's response:
EL: My sense of it is... the best way to put it, fishing for striped bass, so to speak. Those of your listeners who remember the way the Westway project was killed back in the 1980s was by pushing for what in the end looked like a subsidiary issue, which was whether the Army Corps of Engineers had done an adequate environmental review of the impact of that multi-billion dollar project on the striped bass and the snail darter in the Hudson River. That actually was sufficient for a judge to issue an injunction and kill it. I think the opposition’s tactic at Atlantic Yards has always been three words: delay, delay, delay. They've kind of moved from one issue to another, and they've settled most recently on the security issue that may or may not have any substance to it.
Actually, the security issue, well beyond the question of arena setbacks, was first raised in a 7/22/05 White Paper, and the security issue was raised earlier this year in the pending challenge to the state's environmental review.
And Louis didn't acknowledge that the security issue has drawn concern from elected officials like City Council Members Bill de Blasio and David Yassky and Assemblymembers Hakeem Jeffries and Joan Millman, who are not exactly opponents.
Louis elaborates further regarding the exact location of the arena, and Oder comments:
EL: What I’ve heard is a number that is either plucked out of thin air or taken from what recently happened in Newark, but somehow the plans that show part of the arena being 20 feet from Atlantic Avenue and 20 feet from Flatbush Avenue is by the opponents now being declared as inadequate, susceptible to terrorist attacks.... I think it’s a red herring, or a striped bass...
It hasn't been plucked out of thin air; it was revealed belatedly by the developer two weeks ago.
Oder ends his post by addressing another problematic Louis remark:
EL: There's a lot in the project.... There are people who like it a lot because of basketball's status as a secular religion in Brooklyn. There are people like me who don't care about professional sports in general and probably would never go to a game, but like things such as the fact that it will create some jobs and it'll create a lot of housing. There's something there for everybody, and that's kind of the whole point of the project.
Well, a lot fewer jobs than originally promised. It may seem like nitpicking to point this out, but that locution--the project "will create"--obscures the mix of private and public and tax-advantaged support needed.
NoLandGrab: Maybe one of these days, The Brian Lehrer Show could host a discussion that would include both Errol Louis and Norman Oder. That would be great radio.
Posted by steve at 7:19 AM
Foes' latest plan seems fishy
NY Daily News
Columnist Errol Louis says WE can't be trusted, but meanwhile, journalists had to pull teeth to obtain top-secret info from Forest City Ratner, like how far from the curb Ratner plans on building the glass-walled arena:
Opponents of two mega-projects - Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn and the Columbia University expansion in West Harlem - have lately taken to arguing that the deals should be halted because potentially dire security concerns haven't been thoroughly examined.
The public should take these complaints with a grain of salt. Every sane person wants to make sure new development is done safely - but project opponents, desperate to kill these projects by any means, are hardly the kind of trustworthy and neutral authorities to decide what's safe and what's not.
Meanwhile, hearty saltwater anglers are still fishing the fall run:
It's not surprising that die-hard opponents are searching for a modern version of the striped bass. But I strongly suspect they are fishing in empty waters.
Posted by lumi at 6:07 AM
December 4, 2007
Brooklyn’s Neverending Story: The Debate over Atlantic Yards Continues with Concerns Over Security
Nets Fan in New York sends naysayers back to "Pleasantville" and takes his best shot at politicians and residents who have called for an independent security analysis for Atlantic Yards:
The Hearst Corporation’s new 46-story headquarters in Manhattan boasts over one mile of glass office fronts. Yet, this building, with its reinforced blast-resistant glass, is being praised as a new “green” wonder with its use of natural light and sensor-control lighting.
It’s all a matter of how you spin it. Positive preventive security checks and proper planning are important, but using talks of terrorism to create a heightened sense of panic among residents does not encourage healthy discussion. Are we supposed to embrace a no building buildings policy in the 21st century? This recent argument is as transparent as Gehry’s glass-clad arena. With this neverending wave of debate, the AY development project remains in a perpetual state of suspension. With any luck, the Nets will move into their new arena by 2020.
NoLandGrab: This still doesn't answer the question of how the NYPD proposes to protect the arena block, which includes four high-rise towers, without having to close streets, or, as an NYPD spokesperson claimed, not even having to use bollards (unless the high-rise towers ARE BOLLARDS???).
Posted by lumi at 4:32 AM
December 3, 2007
The best reason for not airing security concerns...
...because they know that they're real.
At last week's press conference, 33rd District City Councilman David Yassky, produced the best reason for keeping security concerns of Atlantic Yards under wraps:
"I suspect that when the security thread is pulled, that may well unravel a whole ball of yarn that is holding this project together. We saw this with some of the Ground Zero buildings, we've seen this with the Goldman Sachs building Downtown — people didn't want to air the security concerns because they knew they were real.
"When they were aired they had to make serious, serious changes. I think that when the security concerns get a real look here, people are gonna see that they have to make changes and they don't want to. That is why we have not seen any security plan come to light.
"They will have two choices. They will either have to push the building back significantly and make serious changes in their plan. Or they will have to start talking about streets, and I will say this, if they start talking about street closures, they will see unyeilding opposition. This project will already have such a disasterious impact on traffic, if they start doing that.. they will meet, I believe, a tidal wave of opposition
"I think that may be the reason that they may have been so quiet, so mum, on the security issue. The community, the public, is owed an answer and owed a serious genuine security plan, we are entitled to that."
Posted by lumi at 7:30 PM
December 2, 2007
It came from the Blogosphere...
We're still catching up in the wake of last week's news about Forrest "City" Taylor's appointment as the ombudsman, the latest call by local politicians for an independent security analysis, and Dolly Williams's $4,000 fine for using her position on the City Planning Commission to further her own business interests.
Here's what they were saying in the blogosphere:
Brownstoner, Another Call for an Atlantic Yards Security Study
AY opponents are asking for more transparency from the state and Forest City, according to an article in the Daily News: "The [Empire State Development Corp.] and Forest City Ratner are asking us to trust that they have shared a security plan with the NYPD, and that the NYPD is fine with it," said CBN’s Eric McClure. Forest City won’t disclose details of Atlantic Yards-related security studies it’s funded, citing the issue’s sensitivity, but points out that a consulting firm has reviewed AY security plans and found them comprehensive. Atlantic Yards Report, meanwhile, notes that Council Members David Yassky and Bill De Blasio—both of whom have generally supported the project and who are running for Comptroller and Borough President, respectively—came out yesterday to also call for increased scrutiny of the arena’s security. “The ball game’s not over,” said De Blasio, noting that unless Forest City behaves with more transparency, “the future of their project is in danger.”
The Gowanus Lounge, Call for Independent Atlantic Yards Security Study Gets Louder
A broad-based group that includes local officials supporting the Atlantic Yards development renewed their call for an independent study of security at the planned arena at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues. Citing a setback that is only 20 feet in some places, the officials said a full public airing of issues is needed. Some of the strongest criticism actually came from arena supporters. “If they start talking about street closings, they will have unyielding opposition,” said Council Member David Yassky. "They will have two choices—push the building back, or close streets.”
The Gowanus Lounge, BREAKING: Underground Railroad House Spared
The Underground Railroad House at 227 Duffield Street will be spared from eminent domain and the wrecking ball.
...
The building is on the site of the proposed Willoughby Square Park atop a big underground garage that will serve some of the massive developments planned downtown. The city was planning a commemorative of the Underground Railroad. Could the shift indicate that after enduring bad publicity in what became a national story, the city might be planning a museum that would include an actual Underground Railroad structure?
The Real Deal, Planning commission member fined for Atlantic Yards vote
City Planning Commission member Dolly Williams was fined $4,000 yesterday for casting a vote three years ago in support of the Atlantic Yards project. Williams allegedly owned property in the neighborhood. The announcement by the Conflicts of Interest Board came as Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz appointed Shirley McRae, Community Board 2 chairwoman, as Williams' prospective successor. Following the implication, Williams recused herself from voting on a rezoning plan for Gowanus, where she also has a financial stake.
Moving On, 2 offers
One blogger has an offer in on a nearby brownstone. Though she fears for her car, she is looking forward to gentrification spurred by Atlantic Yards.
This Recording, In Which This Area Is Incapable of Building Anything Interesting
A review of the region's new sports venues gives a favorable nod to Ratnerville:
The most interesting of the new stadium concepts was developed by tycoon Bruce Ratner, in a project conceived by Frank Gehry and titled Atlantic Yards. There has been moderate community opposition to this proposal. It’s tougher to build stadiums in cities because of community opposition and other lobbying interests. It’s also important to build them there so that these Babel Towers doesn’t cower in New Jersey, some place where we don’t care if God sees us.
The interior of the arena, a small part of the overhaul pacakge, is an exciting contemporary area, suited for concerts and other cultural events, expansive enough to keep prices down for the people of the area. It is the total opposite of the only New York arena stadium not being totally rethought, Madison Square Garden.
NoLandGrab: "People of the area?" Could one be more condescending, while trying not to be?
Posted by lumi at 7:50 PM
Arena Setback Should Be a Major Setback
Queens Ledger
Now with news that the arena will be closer than an NFL first down to two of Brooklyn’s busiest thoroughfares, it’s time for the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), FCR, the governor, the mayor, the NYPD, and whoever else has been involved in heretofore undisclosed security discussions to be more forthcoming with their plans.The ESDC continues to assert that security talks are ongoing with the NYPD, but that it would be a breach to divulge any specifics. It’s amazing that the same security concerns didn’t prohibit the public from learning that the most high-profile building being planning in the world - the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero - was, in fact, too close to the street.
And how close was the Freedom Tower when first proposed? Twenty feet.
Posted by amy at 12:06 PM
Video: City Hall Ratner Arena Press Conference
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
Video coverage of the full November 29 press conference sponsored by the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN). The press conference was headlined:CBN, Elected Officials Renew Demand for Independent Atlantic Yards Security Study
Revelation of Scant 20-Foot Setbacks from Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues Raises Specter of Street Closings or Unacceptable RisksThe speakers at the City Hall press conference included Councilman Bill de Blasio, Councilman David Yassky, Assemblywoman Joan Millman, Councilwoman Letitia James, and CBN Steering Committee Member Eric McClure.
Freddy's Brooklyn Roundhouse has included the full press conference in a special report called "The Glass Target: New Revelations about the Atlantic Yards Terror Threat." It is embedded here and can be found on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtHYHDSeoqE
link
NoLandGrab: The press conference will be shown in full Tuesday, 8pm on BCAT1 and Thursday, 8:30pm in Manhattan on MNN.
Posted by amy at 11:35 AM
November 30, 2007
Atlantic Yards Security Issue Also About Trust
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Reporter Sarah Ryley provides some details from Forest City Ratner's campaign to convince reporters and the public that they have the security and terrorism angle all covered.
However, for the public, without the benefit of a third-party analysis, it's also an issue of trust.
A spokesman for Forest City sent along an affidavit from its independent security consultant, Jeffrey Venter of Ducibella Venter & Santore, briefly describing 3,300 hours of work on a security plan for the project, including five meetings with the NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau. Aside from that, it’s been said that the company began considering security issues as early as 2003, and continues to do so today. In contrast, the Newark arena apparently underwent little-to-no security review, given that police decided to shut down streets only two weeks before it was scheduled to open. Since security is found not just in distance from the street, but also in structure, that leads one to wonder what other vulnerabilities afflict the Newark arena.
NYPD spokesman John Kelly said, “The department has met numerous times with the builders, who have been very cooperative and have done everything we have asked.” He also said the department doesn’t foresee any street or land closures, sidewalk widening around the arena or the instillation of bollards. And Bruce Bender of Forest City was more pointed in his response, in a prepared statement: “We do not play around with public safety and neither should politicians who have no experience or background in security issues. Our security plan has been vetted and approved by the NYPD and the best anti-terrorism experts in the city. At some point, a base level of common sense needs to be followed and those people who do not have any security experience need to let the NYPD and the security experts do their jobs.”
...
“Part of our distrust is based upon our four years of experience with this project,” said [NYC Councilwoman] James. “They’ve misrepresented the truth, [the project has been] shrouded in secrecy, and there’s been a lot of misinformation. My distrust is based on my frame of reference.” For those who haven’t been following the project for the past four years, the battles have been ugly, to an epic scale (in the urban planning world, at least, no fatalities so far). And James is accurate that Ratner and the state Development Corporation have not exactly been forthcoming about many details regarding the project, including the amount of taxpayer money that would be used.
Posted by lumi at 6:52 AM
Opponents slam plan to build Atlantic Yards arena near busy intersection
New York Daily News
by Jotham Sederstrom
Coverage of yesterday's press conference on City Hall steps called by the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods.
Critics of the Atlantic Yards project renewed their call Thursday for an independent security review in light of news that a portion of a planned basketball arena would be built just 20 feet from Brooklyn's busiest intersection.
The potential security risk at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Aves. is within reach of terrorists hellbent on crashing into the glass-walled arena, opponents charged.
"The [Empire State Development Corp.] and Forest City Ratner are asking us to trust that they have shared a security plan with the NYPD, and that the NYPD is fine with it," said Eric McClure, member of the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, an Atlantic Yards watchdog group.
Security has always been an issue for Yards critics, but it was only recently that a spokesman for Forest City Ratner revealed just how close arena walls would be to the street.
No Land Grab: This article does a good job of summarizing security concerns for the proposed Nets arena. It is inaccurate, though, to characterize the participants of the press conference as "opponents". Attendees included David Yassky and Bill de Blasio who are frequent critics, but not necessarily opponents of the project.
Posted by steve at 6:43 AM
Community Groups Call For Independent Study Of Atlantic Yards Project
NY1
Several elected officials and community groups gathered Thursday to demand an independent study for the Atlantic Yards project.
...
“The public needs to know why Brooklyn is different than Newark,” said Eric McClure of the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods. “Why is a 20-foot setback in Brooklyn okay, while a 25-foot setback in Newark is not safe?"
article/video (dialup/broadband)
NoLandGrab: Since we don't have our hands on a political-speak code book, we're not exactly sure what Bruce Bender's statement is supposed to mean, but we think that it roughly translates to "F U."
Posted by lumi at 6:35 AM
GL Analysis: In Ten Years, Will They Ask "How Did This Happen?"
The Gowanus Lounge
The ESDC has stated (through the Environmental Impact Statement for Atlantic Yards) that a terrorist attack is not a "reasonable worst-case scenario." Gowanus Lounge takes the step to consider what the ESDC, apparently, cannot.
Whether one supports or opposes the Atlantic Yards project, an arena that ignores the threat of truck bombs and other terrorist attacks is far more than a planning blunder: it is a calculated and almost unthinkable act of public negligence. Bromides from city government that the security threat is under control and that the issue simply can't be discussed are unacceptable and dishonest. The Atlantic Yards security issues need to be dealt with publicly before a single shovel of Brooklyn soil is moved.
...
What if nothing is done? Our fear is that in ten or fifteen years, when maniacal mass murderers espousing a cause no one has even contemplated yet detonate trucks loaded with explosives outside of the Atlantic Yards arena during a basketball game or concert, there will be terrible loss of life. It will be followed by one of those wretched "How did this happen?" moments that inevitably follow catastrophes that could have been prevented. There will be an investigation and a blue ribbon commission. In Albany, there will be a legislative panel that points the fingers of blame at Gov. Pataki and at Gov. Spitzer. In Washington, Representatives and Senators will demand national security standards for arenas so there will "never be another Brooklyn." Then, the arena will be rebuilt, set back further from the street, and become the "Barclays Memorial Arena" or the "Freedom Center." More children will lose fathers and mothers, millions of hearts will be broken and billions of tears will be shed.
The risk of a terrorist attack on Atlantic Yards demands impartial studies, public hearings and corrective action before thousands of people are slaughtered in the interest of expediency. To do otherwise would be criminal negligence on the part of every public official that will have a role in a future tragedy.
Posted by steve at 6:05 AM
November 29, 2007
PRESS RELEASE: CBN, Elected Officials Renew Demand for Independent Atlantic Yards Security Study
Revelation of Scant 20-Foot Setbacks from Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues Raises Specter of Street Closings or Unacceptable Risks.
What Makes Brooklyn Different from Newark?
New York, NY –The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, Inc. (CBN) and State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, State Assembly Members Joan Millman and Jim Brennan, and City Council Members Letitia James, Bill de Blasio and David Yassky, today renewed their demands for an independent security study of the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards project, in light of new revelations that its planned basketball arena would be situated a mere 20 feet from both Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues.
In an interview in the November 24th edition of The New York Times, a spokesperson for Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) acknowledged publicly for the first time that portions of the glass-walled arena, six-story glass-walled “Urban Room” and adjacent glass-walled residential and commercial buildings would lie just 20 feet from Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, two of the boroughs most heavily trafficked thoroughfares. Police officials in Newark recently ordered the closing of two streets adjacent to that city’s new Prudential Center arena during events out of concern that a vehicular terrorist bomb could inflict significant damage upon the arena and its occupants. The streets ordered closed in Newark lie more than 20 feet from the arena’s walls.
Eight Brooklyn elected officials, including all those named above along with Assembly Member Hakeem Jeffries and State Senator Eric Adams, and all of whom represent areas in and around the planned Atlantic Yards site, sent a formal request for an independent security study to Governor Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg on October 29th. That request and similar calls by CBN and other community groups have thus far gone unanswered.
FCRC, the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) – the project’s sponsor – and the New York Police Department (NYPD) have said that police security officials have reviewed the plans for Atlantic Yards and are satisfied with their security provisions. But given the recent developments in Newark, Brooklyn elected officials and CBN have questioned why the NYPD believes the smaller setbacks planned in Brooklyn would be less of a security risk than the larger setbacks around Newark’s Prudential Center.
“Logic dictates that Newark police officials were apprised of the Prudential Center’s design well before they made the decision to close streets,” said Eric McClure, a member of CBN’s Steering Committee. “We can’t have the same after-the-fact scenario play out with Atlantic Yards. Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues are already two of Brooklyn’s most-congested roadways, and they’re already frequently gridlocked. Closing them during arena events – even closing a single lane – would be an unmitigated disaster. We need to know why the NYPD believes Brooklyn’s situation is different than Newark’s.”
The same elected officials who have called for an independent security study, along with CBN and other groups, have also repeatedly raised concerns about the effect that the planned Atlantic Yards project could have on traffic in Brooklyn. Newark-style street or lane closings could so negatively affect traffic conditions as to make the intersection of Atlantic, Flatbush and 4th Avenues – widely acknowledged as Brooklyn’s worst – virtually impassable during arena events.
CBN first raised the issue of security when it submitted comments during the scoping hearing for the Atlantic Yards Draft Environmental Impact Statement in October, 2005. The State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) does not mandate the study of security impacts, but the law governing SEQRA was last amended in June, 2000, well before the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy, in announcing the Prudential Center street closings, told the Newark Star-Ledger “you can't construct an arena and put it right against a street in a post 9/11 world.”
CBN again asked that the state conduct a security study in August, 2006, in extensive comments submitted at the public hearing on the Atlantic Yards Draft Environmental Impact Statement. The ESDC rejected that request, and claimed that the threat of a terror attack, including a vehicular bomb, at the proposed site of Atlantic Yards, was not a “reasonable worst-case scenario,” and therefore required no disclosures to the public regarding any aspect of security planning. This assertion is presently under legal review in New York State Supreme Court, and CBN believes ESDC’s position is without merit, since the Atlantic Terminal subway station, which lies beneath a portion of the proposed project site, was the target of a thwarted terrorist bomb attack in 1997.
The Newark police department’s decision to close streets after the Prudential Center was approved and built, along with the NYPD-mandated redesign of already-approved plans for the World Trade Center’s Freedom Tower, which increased building setbacks from 25 feet to 90 feet, are clear evidence that design and security are closely interconnected. The Prudential Center illustrates how security problems can radically alter the surrounding environment, while the Freedom Tower presents an example of significant changes to building design. Both scenarios appear possible in Brooklyn.
“The public must have the benefit of an independent and transparent inquiry into the design of the Atlantic Yards project and its arena, and the management techniques that will be put in place to ensure security at the site,” said Therese Urban, co-Chair of CBN. “Street closures would wreak havoc, and turning the arena into a bunker as a security ‘compromise’ would cheat Brooklynites of the ‘world-class’ design we’ve been promised.”
The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, Inc. is a coalition of community groups formed to provide a community voice in the scoping and review of the Environmental Impact process as it pertains to the development of the Vanderbilt Yards in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. All block associations, church, community and business groups regardless of their position toward any proposed development are invited to join CBN and are encouraged to attend and participate in CBN's bi-monthly meetings. A calendar and all CBN documents can be found at http://www.cbrooklynneighborhoods.homestead.com
Contact: Eric McClure
718-369-9771 / 646-522-2589
Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods
201 Dekalb Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205
cbrooklynneighborhoods@hotmail.com
http://www.cbrooklynneighborhoods.homestead.com
Posted by lumi at 8:48 PM
November 28, 2007
CBN Media Advisory: Thursday, Noon Press Conference at City Hall
November 28, 2007
Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN)
WHO: State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, State Assembly Member Joan Millman, a representative of State Assembly Member Jim Brennan, City Council Members Letitia James, David Yassky and Bill de Blasio, State Senator Eric Adams and State Assembly Member Hakeem Jeffries pending, representatives of the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods
WHAT: Press Conference on Atlantic Yards Security Issues / Planned Arena Setbacks
WHERE: City Hall Steps, New York, NY
WHEN: Thursday, November 29th, 12:00 PM
Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods and Elected Officials
Renew Call for Independent Security Study of Atlantic Yards
Press Conference: Thursday, November 29th, 12:00 PM
Brooklyn, NY — On Thursday, November 29th at 12:00 p.m., State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, State Assembly Member Joan Millman, a representative of State Assembly Member Jim Brennan, City Council Members Letitia James, David Yassky and Bill de Blasio, and representatives of the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN) will hold a press conference on the steps of City Hall to renew a call for an independent security study of the planned Brooklyn Atlantic Yards project, and especially its basketball arena, in light of this week’s revelation that portions of the glass-walled arena and other adjacent glass-walled buildings would lie a mere 20 feet from heavily trafficked Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. Newark police officials recently mandated the closing of streets adjacent to that city’s new Prudential Center during arena events; those streets are approximately 25 feet from that arena’s walls.
A spokesperson for Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner last week admitted publicly for the first time that portions of the planned "Barclays Center" would sit back just 20 feet from two of Brooklyn’s busiest thoroughfares. Council Members James, Yassky and de Blasio, Senators Montgomery and Eric Adams, and Assemblymembers Brennan, Millman and Hakeem Jeffries formally requested an independent security study on October 29th, and questioned what would make the planned Brooklyn arena more secure than Newark’s arena. Street closings – or even lane closings – in Brooklyn similar to those instituted in Newark would create a nightmare of traffic and gridlock more than 230 days a year.
Posted by lumi at 5:10 PM
November 27, 2007
Eagle Twofer: Real Estate Round-Up, November 26, 2007
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
By Sarah Ryley
link
City Council hopes to expand oversight on massive NYC building boom:
The City Council is proposing a new task force that would examine the impact that large, private development projects have on surrounding infrastructure, included those sponsored by the city and state, reported The New York Sun. Headed by Council Members Daniel Garodnick and Letitia James, a chief opponent of the Atlantic Yards arena and high rise project, the task force would examine impacts on traffic, schools and energy.
So the glass-walled arena and high-rises are only 20 ft. from Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, what's the big deal?
The New York Times confirmed that the Atlantic Yards arena, renamed the Barclays Center, would be set back from Atlantic and Flatbush avenues only 20 feet in most places. The issue, brought up by opponents of the project as early as 2005 and the subject of a lawsuit, reemerged after Newark police decided two weeks before the grand opening of the Prudential Center arena to close adjacent streets during events because it was deemed too close at 25 feet.
Posted by lumi at 6:01 AM
November 26, 2007
DDDB PRESS RELEASE:
Major Security Flaw Revealed in Ratner's Atlantic Yards Plan
Arena Setback Only 20 Feet From Congested Brooklyn Avenues
Newark Arena Requires Street Closings - How is Brooklyn Different?
ESDC, NYPD, Mayor and Governor Not Saying
BROOKLYN, NY — Developer Forest City Ratner's planned basketball arena would be set back a mere 20 feet from Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, two of Brooklyn's main arteries, which intersect at what is already a heavily congested choke-point abutting the proposed arena site. Security experts agree that substantial setbacks for facilities like an arena are required to protect against vehicular bombs and other terror attacks. Twenty feet is not substantial.
This major security flaw in Ratner's Atlantic Yards development plan in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, was revealed by the developer, after weeks of stonewalling, over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in a New York Times article.
In mid-October, just two weeks before the grand opening of Newark's Prudential Center arena, that city's police department mandated that at least two streets adjacent to the new arena would be closed during events as a necessary precaution against terrorist attacks. Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy told the Newark Star-Ledger, "you can't construct an arena and put it right against a street in a post 9/11 world. So we're playing catch-up and taking measures to make sure it's safe."
The Newark arena is set back about 25 feet from its nearest abutting streets. Forest City Ratner's arena would be set back only 20 feet, in most places, from busy avenues. But unlike in Newark, the NYPD says that street closures will not be necessary in Brooklyn; according to the Times, the NYPD "found that the arena was safe and streets need not be closed on game days."
"It is a major security flaw to have a mere twenty foot distance between Ratner's planned arena and congested Brooklyn avenues. What makes the Brooklyn arena's proximity to streets different from the Newark arena that it will not require street closings? This is the key question that Governor Spitzer and his Homeland Security Deputy Michael Balboni, Mayor Bloomberg, ESDC President/CEO Avi Schick and NYPD Commissioner Kelly all need to answer," said Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) spokesman Daniel Goldstein. "One can assume that during the Newark arena planning process, Newark's police officials ‘found that the arena was safe and streets need not be closed'—just like the NYPD is saying now—only to decide at the last minute that streets did indeed need to be closed. There is every reason to think that scenario can occur in Brooklyn; the problem is that Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues cannot be closed for 230 events per year."
Twenty-six community groups, led by DDDB, filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court in April 2007 (that suit is still pending) in which they asserted, in part, that the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) violated state environmental review laws by failing to consider the potential security issues and impacts from a terrorist attack on the proposed Atlantic Yards project in its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). During the environmental review of the project, the three jurisdictional community boards, community groups, elected officials and individuals commented on the need for the ESDC to study security and terrorism. The ESDC—the state agency overseeing the project—responded that: "Emergency scenarios such as a large-scale terrorist attack similar to the World Trade Center attack, a biological or chemical attack, or a bomb are not considered a reasonable worst-case scenario and are therefore outside of the scope of the EIS." Tellingly, the 20-foot setback distance was never mentioned in the Atlantic Yards Final Environmental Impact Statement or General Project Plan which were both approved by the ESDC Board of Directors in December 2006.
"When ESDC denied that a terrorist bomb attack on the arena is a ‘reasonable worst-case scenario' worthy of study, we wonder if ESDC officials even knew that the proposed arena would only be 20 feet from the street. The attendant risks from that mere 20-foot setback present a very reasonable worst-case scenario," said DDDB Legal Director Candace Carponter. "If ESDC did know about the inadequate setback from the surrounding streets, then they have been grossly irresponsible by ignoring it. And if they did not know what the setback would be then they could not have logically determined what is or isn't a reasonable worst-case scenario worthy of study. Since the NYPD and ESDC have refused to answer anyone asking for the simple fact of setback distance, we wonder if they were even aware of the insufficient setback until it appeared in the newspaper."
For more than two years, elected officials and many community groups have been asking for a proper and comprehensive review of the Atlantic Yards project in the context of security and terrorism issues and impacts, but such a review has never been done. About one month ago, eight elected Brooklyn officials sent a letter to Governor Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg demanding an independent security review of Atlantic Yards. The officials have yet to receive a response.
"The revelation that the arena would be only 20 feet from Atlantic and Flatbush, a fact that has clearly been hidden by Ratner and the ESDC for more than three years, presents the final evidence that the Atlantic Yards plan requires an independent security review," Goldstein said.
Atlantic Yards would be a glass-walled arena surrounded by glass-walled skyscrapers, abutting the busiest (and frequently gridlocked) intersection in Brooklyn, on top of the third-largest transportation hub in the city, which was the site of a thwarted terror attack in 1997. It would be the densest residential community in the United States, by far. Forest City Ratner projects about 230 events per year at the arena.
Renderings of the Atlantic Yards project illustrating the issues discussed above are here:
http://www.dddb.net/homeart/illustrations.pdf
More background can be found here:
What Would the Worst Case Be?
http://www.dddb.net/php/latestnews_Linked.php?id=371
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's July 2005 white paper, "Terrorism, Security and the Proposed Brooklyn Atlantic Yards High Rise and Arena Development Project" can be found here:
http://www.dddb.net/php/reading/security.php
Posted by lumi at 10:52 AM
November 22, 2007
FREE TURKEYS
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! This year, we are giving out free turkeys to a few NoLandGrab All-Stars.
The Turkey Trot...
is awarded to Bruce Ratner, the Empire State Development Corporation, and the New York Police Department for dancing around the terrorism and security issue.
The Leaky Turkey...
goes to Frank Gehry, who came up with this canard last week: "My name is Frank Gehry, and my buildings don't leak." Like, ok, at least half that sentence is true.
The Jive Turkey...
will be delivered to Eliot Spitzer's home, because today is day 325 after "day one," when "everything changes" (except in Ratnerville). One thing that actually has changed is the Governor's approval rating.
Tofurkey...
goes to the ombudsman, because he or she is not real either.
Leftover Turkey...
will be served to the folks who are working on the UNITY plan, just in case this project doesn't happen and someone is looking for a plan B.
Turducken
The red herring stuffed in a land grab, stuffed in a boondoggle, goes to the proverbial three men in a room (you know who you are).
Turkey Gravy...
will be on Vito Lopez's table this holiday, for sneakily inserting a special clause in 421(a) "reform" legislation that delivers special affordable housing subsidies to Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan.
The "Gobble Gobble" Award
This year's recipient is none other than Bruce Ratner, for taking down every building he possibly can in the Atlantic Yards footprint.
Posted by lumi at 9:00 AM
Ratner's Arena Only 20 Feet from Streets
In the wake of breaking news on just how close Bruce Ratner plans on building his 18,000-seat arena to Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues (a scant 20 feet in some places), Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn calls on government officials to come clean with the public on how the NYPD plans on dealing with this major security flaw in the project's design.
Also, The New York Times screwed the pooch on this story and is now seeking to rectify the situation by breaking the news on Thanksgiving Eve on the City Room blog. It's a nice try, but Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn suggests, "because the Times got it so wrong in its original article and the actual setback distance is of such great importance, the Times must publish this news in the newspaper."
NoLandGrab: For years, the Grey Lady has done little to combat the notion that the paper is in its development partner Bruce Ratner's pocket — the decision to rectify its mistake on the arena security story by burying it on some blog on Thanksgiving Eve does nothing to counter this impression.
Posted by lumi at 5:03 AM
November 21, 2007
News flash: Brooklyn arena would be as close to the street as the Newark arena
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder analyzes Andy Newman's article from the Times's City Room blog.
His first beef starts with the headline, and he makes a good point — and one we totally missed:
The news surfaced this afternoon on the Times's CityRoom blog, in an article both substantial and whimsical that was marred by the oblique headline Putting the Atlantic Yards Arena in a Secure Place. (A literal reading suggests that some entity is enhancing AY security, which is not the subject of the article.)
Oder suggests that the article could have been clearer if it had more teeth, recommends that an article run in the paper, and notes that the timing of today's revelation is in sharp contrast to other NY Times Atlantic Yards exclusives.
Posted by lumi at 8:04 PM
Putting the Atlantic Yards Arena in a Secure Place
This piece should have run in the paper, instead of the Times's City Room blog, but despite a few more details on the distance of the setback of the arena, and what amounts to a mea culpa on reporter Andy Newman's part, the "cone of silence" persists.
Here are some excerpts, but, since the article is a must read and sort of hilarious to boot, you die-hards might want to head on over and read it in its entirety.
After some digging by Norman "The Mad Overkiller" Oder, Newman kept noodging Forest City Ratner spokesperson Loren Riegelhaupt for some real answers as to just how close the planned arena would be to Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues:
Mr. Riegelhaupt confirmed that this meant that at all points, the arena would be set back at least 20 feet from the street.
Is that to say, he was asked, that at its closest point the arena would indeed be set back 20 feet from the street, or could “at least” mean 25 feet, or 50 feet, or more?
Mr. Riegelhaupt was initially unable to answer. The problem was that the location of the arena falls under the rubric of a “security issue,” a phrase that brings a magic cone of silence crashing down onto even the most innocent-seeming inquiry. Somehow the planned location of an 18,000 seat basketball arena had become as classified a piece of antiterror information as, say, the structural vulnerabilities of a bridge.
NoLandGrab: For the record, the Times should at least run a correction in the paper and an addendum to the original article, which cited the distance at "about 75 feet back from Atlantic Avenue and about 150 feet from Flatbush Avenue."
Posted by lumi at 6:33 PM
November 16, 2007
Electeds Join in Call for Yards Security Study
The Downtown Brooklyn Star
by Shane Miller
This article covers the letter sent last week to Spitzer and Bloomberg calling for a security study for the proposed Nets arena.
Growing concern that street closures like those around the new Prudential Center arena in Newark could shut down some of Brooklyn's major thoroughfares if the Nets arena is built prompted the borough's elected officials to demand an independent security study. The study was called for in a letter sent to Governor Eliot Spitzer and Mayor Michael Bloomberg that was signed by assembly members Joan Millman, James Brennan, and Hakim Jeffries, state senators Eric Adams and Velmanette Montgomery, and council members Bill de Blasio, Letitia James, and David Yassky.
Posted by steve at 6:00 AM
November 13, 2007
State secret? ESDC stonewalls on arena setbacks, but graphics hint building's near street
Atlantic Yards Report
Bruce Ratner and the Empire State Development Corporation would tell you how far the arena would be set back from Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, but to do so might undermine the war against terror?
It's a basic architectural detail that would inevitably become public, but the state agency supervising the Atlantic Yards project won't disclose how far the planned arena would be set back from the street, saying security concerns mandate confidentiality.
Meanwhile, though state documents are vague about the setbacks, graphics, though not necessarily to scale, in the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) suggest some parallels to the situation that recently caused alarm in Newark, even though the arena there's a standalone box, while the Brooklyn arena would be enveloped in four towers.
Read about how last-minute revelations about the Newark arena opened up a can of worms here in Brooklyn and how the NY Times's claim that the arena would be sited "75 feet back from Atlantic Avenue and about 150 feet from Flatbush Avenue" doesn't appear to be based on any documents available to the public — or reality.
NoLandGrab: Seriously, if the ESDC claims that a security study isn't warranted because a terrorist attack isn't a "reasonable worst-case scenario," then why has one security expert testified on FCRC's behalf that "safety of the arena and surrounding area could be easily compromised" if security measures were disclosed?
The implication is, if they told us how bad things really are, then a worst-case scenario might be within reason.
You may have noticed that this rendering (click image to enlarge), added to the Final Environmental Impact Statement, isn't very promising in regards to current security concerns.
Posted by lumi at 5:26 AM
November 9, 2007
Pols want Atlantic Yards security review
The Brooklyn Paper
By Mike McLaughlin
On Wednesday, eight Brooklyn Democrats announced that they had sent a letter to Gov. Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg asking for a security analysis in the wake of developments in Newark, N.J., where local cops decided — at the “eleventh hour,” the lawmakers said — to close off several streets to protect that city’s new glass-walled arena.
The Brooklyn lawmakers said they don’t want to be surprised by potentially major disturbances like street closings of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues.
...
“[The security review] should be strictly independent of the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) to avoid any semblance of conflict of interest,” the letter added, referring to the state agency that is the development partner at Atlantic Yards.
...
“Our counterterrorism experts have examined the Atlantic Yards plans and they have met with those involved with its design and planned construction,” the spokesman, Paul Browne, told the New York Times. “They have been cooperative and receptive to NYPD recommendations, which did not require street closings.”He declined to offer further details, telling the Times that the NYPD does not discuss “any vulnerabilities we’ve identified.”
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz puts his trust in Ratner (because the developer has such a great track record in the community?):
“I said this early on, and am confident that developer Forest City Ratner is taking the proper steps in working closely with the NYPD and other relevant security agencies in ensuring the project adheres to the highest standards of safety.”
NoLandGrab: So far, none of the spokespersons for NYPD, ESDC or Forest City Ratner have gone as far as to make the claim that “any vulnerabilities [the NYPD] identified” have actually been addressed. By not publicly discussing security issues, the implication is that these vulnerabilities remain and therefore must be preserved as state secrets.
Posted by lumi at 5:54 AM
Brooklyn Officials Push for Safety Study At Atlantic Yards
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
By Charles Maldonado
After safety concerns forced Newark officials to close streets adjacent to the new arena on game and event nights, local Brooklyn politicians renewed their request for a full security and terrorism analysis for Atlantic Yards:
“We do not want to face a similar failure of planning in relation to Atlantic Yards, a project at least as susceptible to attack as the Newark arena,” said the letter, dated Oct. 29. “The Barclays Center Arena will sit directly above the city’s third largest transportation hub, the Atlantic Avenue station, at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, two major Brooklyn thoroughfares.
The letter was signed by State Senators Eric Adams and Velmanette Montgomery; state Assembly Members Jim Brennan, Hakeem Jeffries and Joan Millman; and City Council Members Letitia James, David Yassky and Bill de Blasio.
...
Jeff Gordon, a representative from Spitzer’s office, said that the NYPD has reviewed and approved the plans.“The New York Police Department has been very involved in reviewing the project and working with the developer, as they are with most large-scale developments,” Gordon said.
Posted by lumi at 5:18 AM
November 8, 2007
Officials demand independent arena security study; NYPD says no street closings
Atlantic Yards Report
AYR wonders where The Times got its measurements, and how accurate they might be:
Still somewhat unclear, however, remain comparisons between the Atlantic Yards arena and the Prudential Center. The Times attempted an assessment, under the headline Security Study Urged for Atlantic Yards:
Plans for the Brooklyn arena, though preliminary, seem to show it set back farther from the street than the Newark arena, the Prudential Center. The Prudential Center is about 25 feet from both Edison Place and Mulberry Street in downtown Newark, while renderings of Atlantic Yards show the arena about 75 feet back from Atlantic Avenue and about 150 feet from Flatbush Avenue.
No source of that data was provided, and it's not clear whether "seem" is based on direct information from an official source or an eyeball of renderings.
And for good measure, Norman Oder reminds the "Newspaper of Record" that even Bruce Ratner isn't sticking to the 2009-opening story anymore:
The Times reported that the arena "is scheduled to open in 2009." They didn't get the memo that explained it's impossible.
Posted by lumi at 8:18 AM
PRESS RELEASE: Assemblyman Jim Brennan
Local Elected Officials Demand Independent Arena Security Study in Letter to Governor Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg
Eight officials representing area of proposed “Atlantic Yards” project unify around public safety and security concerns; lack of planning cited
(Brooklyn, NY) Elected officials representing the site and surrounding areas of the proposed Atlantic Yards arena, mixed-use project sent a letter to Governor Eliot Spitzer and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, demanding an independent security study for the project. The eight officials sending the letter included: Assembly Members Jim Brennan, Joan Millman, and Hakeem Jeffries, State Senators Eric Adams and Velmanette Montgomery, and City Council Members Bill de Blasio, Letitia James, and David Yassky.
Many of these same elected officials wrote a letter to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly in December of 2005 requesting information on terrorism and security planning for the project. No response was received.
As proposed, Atlantic Yards consists of a glass-walled arena with a towering glass entrance (with approximately 240 arena events per year), surrounded by glass-walled towers, built to the sidewalks, over the city's third-largest transportation hub, abutting the congested intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues—one of the busiest intersections in the city.
The letter was spurred not only by the lack of response to previous letters, but also by recent relevant eleventh-hour actions at the Newark Prudential Center Arena – actions which validate previous calls for an Atlantic Yards security study. Just days before the Newark arena was set to open, the Newark Police Department announced they would close streets around the arena, citing terrorism concerns and security measures. On the decision and necessity of closing those streets, Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy told the Newark Star Ledger, “You can't construct an arena and put it right against a street in a post 9/11 world.” The Atlantic Yards arena would abut two of the major thoroughfares in Brooklyn.
“We are asking for something quite reasonable- that the NYPD provide meaningful information to the public, as they have with the developer, regarding possible dangers and precautions being taken to ensure the safest arena/skyscraper complex possible, and the impacts of any security measures on the community and treasury,” said Assembly Member Jim Brennan. “We want to know how the situation in Brooklyn differs from that which has just occurred in Newark.”
“The risks are clear and the lack of information that has been shared with us is unacceptable,” said Council Member Letitia James. “As a representative of my constituents I take no comfort in this. We need a proper security study now, well before any potential construction starts.”
The letter from the eight elected officials was also sent to NYS Deputy Secretary for Public Safety Michael Balboni and Empire State Development Corporation President and CEO Avi Schick. The letter is attached, and will be available at: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=044.
Posted by lumi at 5:20 AM
Security Study Urged for Atlantic Yards
The NY Times
By Andy Newman
Like all-things Atlantic Yards, the powers that be claim that the project has met every standard, though details are closely guarded secrets:
A New York City police official, however, said yesterday that the Brooklyn arena would require no street closings.
“Our counterterrorism experts have examined the Atlantic Yards plans and they have met with those involved with its design and planned construction,” said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. “They have been cooperative and receptive to N.Y.P.D. recommendations, which did not require street closings.”
Mr. Browne declined to offer further details, saying it was policy not to publicly discuss “any vulnerabilities we’ve identified.” The developer of Atlantic Yards, Forest City Ratner — a development partner in the new Midtown headquarters of The New York Times Company — said yesterday that it had been working closely with the police and other antiterrorism experts on the design of Atlantic Yards.
And once again, the Times seems to have some sort of exclusive access to info that hasn't been released to the public, because as far as we can tell, plans for the Urban Room, arena and four towers have not been revealed:
Plans for the Brooklyn arena, though preliminary, seem to show it set back farther from the street than the Newark arena, the Prudential Center. The Prudential Center is about 25 feet from both Edison Place and Mulberry Street in downtown Newark, while renderings of Atlantic Yards show the arena about 75 feet back from Atlantic Avenue and about 150 feet from Flatbush Avenue.
Posted by lumi at 5:11 AM
November 6, 2007
The serious street shutdowns outside the Newark arena
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder took a field trip to the Newark arena last Saturday. Here's what he found.
the two intersecting streets that lead to the main entrance are completely shut down, though emergency vehicles are allowed on both blocks and one partially accommodates some cars heading into a private parking lot.
(Photo at right of four-lane Mulberry Street looking north from Lafayette Street. A police vehicle is parked at left.)
Remember, on Oct. 10, the Newark Star-Ledger reported that city officials were planning to close, or partly close, one or two streets bordering the arena—a decision that caused some consternation, because it was made only two weeks before the arena was to open.
The Star-Ledger reported that "the so-called 'standoff' -- the distance between the building and a potential terrorist threat -- was not sufficient on Edison [Place] and Mulberry [Street]." The solution has been to use concrete "Jersey barriers," like ones used as highway dividers, on both streets.
This raised questions in Brooklyn about whether the streets around the Atlantic Yards arena would have to close, in whole or in part, to protect against potential terrorist attacks, and led to calls for a state hearing on Atlantic Yards security. So far, city and state officials, and developer Forest City Ratner have stressed their extensive security preparations, but have not answered the questions about potential street closings.
NoLandGrab: Serious security and traffic issues aside, we're impressed that Norman Oder visited the Pru Center arena before Bruce Ratner did.
Posted by lumi at 6:07 AM
October 30, 2007
‘Dismissive’ journalism
For years, Alan Rosner, the co-author of the "2005 White Paper: Terrorism, Security and the Proposed Brooklyn Atlantic Yards High Rise and Arena Development Project," has been trying to get public officials to assess the security and terrorism risk of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project.
We've recently seen the consequences of ignoring these issues in Newark, but when the matter was raised again in Brooklyn, one of our weekly papers characterized the issue as "Grasping at Straws."
This past week, the Courier-Life published Rosner's letter to the editor, which takes the paper to task and spells out the questions that reporters should be asking:
It is disheartening that your recent front page article on community concerns, regarding the proximity of the Atlantic Yards (AY) basketball arena to Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, begins with these three words, “Grasping At Straws.”
In fact, this sort of dismissal of the community’s concerns has been the response of AY’s proponents for close to three years.
Even when the Ground Zero site plan was revised to shift the Freedom Tower away from West Street out of concern that a truck bomb could bring down the entire building, AY supporters quickly labeled raising similar security concerns in Brooklyn as desperate.
Nevertheless, Community Boards 2, 6 and 8, several local elected officials and dozens of community organizations all submitted such concerns regarding the implications of living in a post 9/11 world to the lead agency for Atlantic Yards, the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC).
Unfortunately, even after the Madrid and London terrorist bombings, the ESDC ignored community requests to take a hard look at the public safety issues surrounding the development of a glass arena, a glass skyscraper and a glass entrance into the Atlantic Avenue Station that was the target of a thwarted suicide bombing attempt in 1997.
In fact the ESDC went so far as to declare such concerns as – their word –“unreasonable!”
Now, with the revelation that Newark did not address terrorism and so is being forced to close off streets every single time there is a hockey game, the same disregard for the substance of Brooklynites’ concerns is being exhibited. Thus the developer’s spokesperson is quoted as saying that concerns about terrorism are political, irresponsible and offensive.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the ESDC, Errol Cockfield, adds that the project has been “thoroughly reviewed by the anti-terrorism experts at the New York Police Department.”
Any confidence we might have in that statement disappears as soon as we learn that, as a former spokesperson for Newark’s project has been quoted as saying, Newark’s “homeland security director and police were involved in security planning regarding the arena.”
Your newspaper would do us all a real service if its reporters simply asked if the secret plans of the developer, the NYPD and the NYFD to keep us safe will entail any street closings – as it has in Newark – lane closings, barricades, vehicle inspections, or any other sort of disruption of traffic flow at the already near grid-locked intersections of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues.
They might also ask if the MTA was involved in coordinating their security and evacuation planning with the NYPD or NYFD since I have never heard the MTA mentioned regarding security planning.
It is insulting to your readership to unquestioningly accept the self-serving and condescending claim that all these security experts can’t tell us anything out of fear of letting the bad guys know what we are doing.
As City Councilmember Letitia James has already noted, any disruption of traffic based on anti-terrorism measures will be immediately apparent the day AY’s Barclay’s Center Arena opens. The only thing that’s being kept secret is the disruptive impact that protecting all that glass will have on our local communities.
Not surprisingly, Councilperson James’s reasonable position is supported by the Supreme Court’s refusal to accept the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s claim that they did not have to consider terrorism when issuing a license for a nuclear waste facility out of concern that doing so would reveal too much.
And finally, in a related security matter, regarding your article about Rep. Anthony Weiner getting money grants from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to help safeguard Brooklyn hospitals and yeshivas, perhaps, in light of the Newark fiasco, a reporter could ask Rep. Weiner if he could estimate how much of DHS funding might have to go towards protecting AY and the Barclay’s Center Arena.
And, further, if he thinks that such funding needs to be added to the calculation of project subsidies in any cost benefit analysis of this already heavily subsidized project.
These are just some of the many questions and issues that deserve answers. Newark is a wake up call. Newark’s Mayor Cory Booker’s belated, ad hoc response to an obvious failure by his predecessor to anticipate the possibility of terrorism reminds us how little has changed since day one of Governor Spitzer’s taking office.
Alan Rosner,
Co-author of the 2005 White Paper: Terrorism, Security and the Proposed Brooklyn Atlantic Yards High Rise and Arena Development Project
Posted by lumi at 6:54 AM
October 25, 2007
Newark arena police costs--a benchmark for AY?
Atlantic Yards Report
Last week, we explained that Ratner has no incentive to redesign the Atlantic Yards project to conform to an era of increased security measures, when a plan could be implemented after the fact at the taxpayers' expense.
This week, Norman Oder explores the issue, finding clues in the Newark arena overtime costs and the Independent Budget Office projections:
In a 10/21/07 article headlined Determined to show Newark at its safest, the Star-Ledger reported that, in policing the area around the new Prudential Center opening today, the city will deploy "more than 80 cops -- roughly five times the normal number" and expects to spend about $3 million this year on police overtime.
Now Downtown Newark has a much bigger crime problem than Downtown Brooklyn and Prospect Heights, and Newark might well dial back on police presence after a while. Still, the number suggests a rough benchmark regarding costs to police the planned Atlantic Yards arena.
The New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO), in its September 2005 Fiscal Brief estimated annual overtime costs of $1.7 million for 45 Nets games.
Additional events at the arena would raise the cost, but the IBO didn't estimate that, given that "security needs and therefore the policing costs would vary widely depending on the types of events."
Naturally, Bruce Ratner's initial economic analysis, compiled by Andrew Zimbalist, "concludes that the increment in fire and police budgets would be negligible."
NoLandGrab: If there is no reason to increase fire department services in the area, then who will be around to put out Forest City Ratner's pants, which appear to be on fire?
Posted by lumi at 10:07 AM
October 22, 2007
Security concerns "a new low" or a question of parallelism?
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder examines the Brooklyn weekly media coverage of security questions for Atlantic Yards.
One Brooklyn weekly gets a "no comment" from the development company, and the other carries the boilerplate response. Can you guess which one?
But FCRC Executive Vice President Bruce Bender countered that "opponents are reaching a new low in their misguided attempts to delay a publicly approved and supported development."
One thing's for sure: the company has a plan, but they can't tell you what it is because it would no longer be a secret. The Empire State Development Corporation has stated, "that state officials would be happy to meet with community representatives. So maybe it all will be ventilated."
Posted by lumi at 8:25 AM
October 19, 2007
Tale of 2 cities: Newark arena closes key streets; Yards next?
The Brooklyn Paper
By Michael McLaughlin
Three days after Newark residents learned that two streets around that city’s new glass-walled sports arena would be sealed off on game nights, residents near the Atlantic Yards footprint called on state officials to admit that the same frustrating scenario will likely happen in the heart of Brooklyn.
The Frank Gehry–designed arena that is a part of Bruce Ratner’s $4-billion mega-project bears striking similarities to Newark’s Prudential Center — similarities that opponents seized on at Sunday’s walkathon against the project.
“The Prudential arena is a wake-up call,” said Jim Vogel of the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods. “We cannot allow the security questions about the arena to continue unanswered.”
Like the Prudential Center, Gehry’s “Barclays Center” sits at a major public transportation hub. And like the future home of the New Jersey Devils, the future Brooklyn Nets arena is lined on all sides with glass — which Newark officials have concluded makes it so tempting a terror target that they’ll need to close two streets around the arena when games are being played.
If the same security protocol was put in place at Atlantic Yards, Dean Street — and parts of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, which also face the arena’s glass walls — would be closed, causing major traffic disruptions.
...
“There is a reasonable expectation on the part of the public that they be informed,” said Robert McCrie, a security management professor at John Jay College“If the public is going to be inconvenienced, they should know, in advance, what is anticipated — and that they have an opportunity to voice their feelings.”
NoLandGrab: There is likely a perfectly simple explanation for why City officials and developer Bruce Ratner can't talk about security measures — any public disclosure will cost Ratner millions of dollars, and perhaps make the project financially unfeasible.
REDESIGN
On the one hand, conventional wisdom among security experts would dictate a total redesign of the arena, which at Frank Gehry's rates could run tens (maybe hundreds) of millions of dollars in design and delay costs...
TRAFFIC & THE EIS
...or, if the arena complex were not redesigned, standard security measures like street closures would significantly increase traffic, which could jeopardize the validity of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), perhaps requiring a new one. Like a redesign, a new or amended EIS could bog down the project for another year or so, costing Ratner tens of millions of dollars.
ONCE AGAIN, RATNER'S INTERESTS ARE PLACED ABOVE THE PUBLIC'S
Therefore, it's in Ratner's self-interest to build the arena first and ram additional security measures down our throats later (probably at the taxpayers' expense), at which point no one could complain, because it's unpatriotic to speak out against "security."
Posted by lumi at 9:32 AM
Newark Arena Fuels Yards Security Concerns
Brooklyn Downtown Star
Shane Miller reports from last weekend's press conference on concerns about security measures for a new Nets arena and the shroud of secrecy:
"We want to know what security measures have been planned," said Jim Vogel of CBN. "And how will this security be funded? Who is footing the bill for the security of a private development? If it is the city's problem, then it is the city's right to review." Up until now, ESDC and FCR have revealed little about security measures for the arena, citing confidentiality. That includes refusing requests by James, who represents the area in the City Council, to review such a plan.
"They have even refused to disclose security plans that impact on your safety to an elected official chosen to represent you," she told the crowd Sunday.
Posted by lumi at 9:24 AM
October 16, 2007
This Week's Atlantic Yards Issue: Terror Risk
Gothamist
Jen Chung sums up the Atlantic Yards security issue, which may seem like the issue of the week, but as Chung notes, "DDDB has actually been worried about terror risks since last year."
NoLandGrab: Based upon the Gothamist 
comments section, it appears the public thinks that Atlantic Yards critics are really grasping at straws and are attempting to exploit the public's fear of terrorism.
Whatever — this issue has been on the radar for the past TWO years, primarily due to the work and efforts of Prospect Heights resident Al Rosner.
July, 2005
A white paper, "Terrorism, Security and the Proposed Brooklyn Atlantic Yards High Rise and Arena Development Project," was released. It has been available for download on NoLandGrab for the past two years.
December, 2005
A letter addressed to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, signed by local elected officials, requested that the NYPD undertake a security study of the Atlantic Yards project as it did for the Freedom Tower. This letter has remained unanswered.
July, 2006
White paper author Al Rosner issued an open letter exhorting public officials and the press to ask tough questions about "Glass-clad skyscrapers, next to a glass sports arena, above the third largest transportation hub in the city."
November, 2006
The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods Calls on Public Authorities Control Board for Terror Study (press release).
The Final Environmental Impact Statement issued by the Empire State Development Corporaton states in Chapter 24, page 235, "Emergency scenarios such as a large-scale terrorist attack similar to the World Trade Center attack, a biological or chemical attack, or a bomb are not considered a reasonable worst-case scenario and are therefore outside the scope of the EIS."
October, 2007
The announcement that Newark officals have authorized street closings for the city's arena illustrates the point that Atlantic Yards critics have been making for more than two years.
Posted by lumi at 8:43 AM
Terrorism Concerns at Atlantic Yards
WNYC Newsroom
NEW YORK, NY October 15, 2007 —Opponents of Brooklyn's planned NBA arena are urging the state to confront the risk of terrorism near the $4.2 billion Atlantic Yards complex.
This, in the wake of a decision to block off streets near Newark's new arena, after the stadium was found to be too close to the street to shield it from a terror attack. Bruce Bender, executive vice president for the developer, Forest City Ratner, said they have "worked very closely with security experts on Atlantic Yards."
NoLandGrab: Bruce Bender's boilerplate explanation leads one to wonder what developer Forest City Ratner and the Empire State Development Corporation aren't telling the public.
Posted by lumi at 8:37 AM
It came from the Blogosphere...
The Knickerblogger, Simple Questions the Big Daily Papers Never Asked:
Some reaction to the oral arguments in the appeal of the federal eminent domain case:
Why is the ESDC defending a proposal that knowingly would bring in less money than a competing project, and NOT require disenfranchising other citizens?
Why Is the state taking such a cavalier attitude towards impropriety and corruption? Isn't this a de facto endorsement of government corruption?
New Media Newsroom 2007C, Vibe and Ratner
Did anybody else notice Bruce Ratner in a photo montage in the September issue of Vibe? It was about who parties with Jay-Z. Sure, they work together, but it's hard to imagine the actual party. See the mag for the full effect.
NoLandGrab: Does anyone have a copy?
Extremes of Perception,
Astounding
Atlantic Yards joins the eminent domain hall of fame.
The Knickerblogger, You can't construct an arena and put it right against a street in a post 9/11 world....
...Unless you live in the fantasy world of Bruce Ratner/Forest City/ESDC, where demapping city streets is good urban planning and luxury condos are affordable housing.
Posted by lumi at 7:43 AM
October 15, 2007
Will Atlantic Yards security get a state hearing (and would streets close)?
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder reports on issues raised at yesterday's press conference, and Borough President Marty Markowitz's response to calls for more information about security measures for Bruce Ratner's planned arena:
NEWARK: CANARY IN A GOLD MINE
Atlantic Yards opponents and critics yesterday called for a state-level hearing to address security at the planned Atlantic Yards arena, citing the announcement last week that the city of Newark would partially close streets during events at the Prudential Center arena, scheduled to open October 25.
SECURITY ISSUES SHOULD BE DISCLOSED BEFORE CONSTRUCTION
"Study security issues through a public process before construction," declared Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) spokesman Daniel Goldstein (right), at a press conference held before DDDB's third annual Walk Don't Destroy walkathon. "Common sense dictates" that the unique location, use, and density of the project "makes for an attractive terror target." (DDDB points to multiple scenarios.)
"We don't know what the setbacks are" along Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, where the glass-walled arena will connect with the glass-walled Miss Brooklyn tower, Goldstein said outside Freddy's Bar & Backroom, at the corner Dean Street and Sixth Avenue, scheduled to be demolished for the project, at the southeast corner of the planned arena block.
SECURITY MEASURES SHOULD BE DISCUSSED
At the press conference, Jim Vogel of the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN) said a hearing should reveal the impacts a security plan would have on: public access to streets and other public areas during arena events; the people in the residential towers planned around the arena; the people across the street from the arena; and the cost and funding of security plans.
MARTY AGREES, AT LEAST WITH ONE POINT
Later that afternoon, I ran into Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz at a stop on the Prospect Heights House Tour. I pointed out that the ESDC didn't consider a terrorist attack a "reasonable worst-case scenario" but the Newark police director did so.
"I happen to agree with the Newark police director," Markowitz said, offering a commonsense interpretation of the phrase, rather than the ESDC's more legalistic one. "That's why I'm confident Forest City Ratner has taken into the construction of the new arena the issues of security."
Should these issues be discussed publicly? "As the plan moves forward," he said, "we'll be informed."
When?
"Way before two weeks."
Would or should streets be closed?
"I don't know," he responded.
When will we know?
"At the appropriate time."
Posted by lumi at 11:42 AM
Opponents Of Brooklyn Arena Raise Security Issues
Want Governor Spitzer To Address Terror Risk
AP, via WCBSTV.com
Opponents of Brooklyn's planned NBA arena said Sunday that Gov. Eliot Spitzer should address security concerns connected to the project, citing the decision by officials in Newark, N.J. to close streets abutting a new arena there.
Daniel Goldstein, a spokesman for the group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, said the terror risk for the planned Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn "is potentially far greater than that faced by the Newark arena."
"The time for a review of the impacts of a terrorist threat against Atlantic Yards and a state hearing on the issue is now," Goldstein said.
He said Spitzer's homeland security czar, Deputy Secretary for Public Safety Michael Balboni, should testify at such a hearing on Atlantic Yards terrorism security issues. On Sunday, state officials said Balboni would be happy to meet with the community to go over security concerns. ...
Bruce Bender, executive vice president with the developer, Forest City Ratner, said the project had always paid attention to security issues."From the start, Forest City Ratner has worked very closely with security experts on Atlantic Yards, and the top police, fire and security experts in the City have reviewed and approved our comprehensive plan. Anyone who has any experience in security knows that you do not discuss sensitive security matters in public for very obvious reasons," he said.
The AP article also ran in various forms in:
NY Daily News, Atlantic Yards complex foes urge state to consider terror risk
The NY Sun,