Last week, the Empire State Development Corporation said that Atlantic Yards was not shovel-ready; now the agency is saying it is ready. I am afraid that my office put out some inaccurate information regarding Atlantic Yards and whether it was shovel-ready,” said ESDC spokesman Warner Johnston. The implication, says Atlantic Yards Report, “is that Atlantic Yards is in the mix for some sort of stimulus funds–likely to build the railyard that Forest City doesn’t want to pay for,” a notion promoted by Marty Markowitz in New York Post article today: “This project is shovel-ready, and the jobs it would create are needed now,” the Borough President said. Not surprising, Develop Don’t Destroy’s Daniel Goldstein feels otherwise: “It would be obscene to use such funds for an arena and to foster the misuse of eminent domain,” he told the paper.
Photo by Tracy Collins.