Wednesday Links
Crown Heights. Photo by ann7106. City Budget Forecast: Billions Short [NY Post] Lawmakers Blast Fare Hike [NY Sun] Slope Flasher on the Loose [NY Daily News] Burg Building to Go Rental [Eagle] A Look at Hi-Res Arena Renderings [AY Report] Keillor Celebrates NYC Summers [Salon]
Crown Heights. Photo by ann7106.
City Budget Forecast: Billions Short [NY Post]
Lawmakers Blast Fare Hike [NY Sun]
Slope Flasher on the Loose [NY Daily News]
Burg Building to Go Rental [Eagle]
A Look at Hi-Res Arena Renderings [AY Report]
Keillor Celebrates NYC Summers [Salon]
The AY report makes mention of the closeness of the arena to the street (under 25 feet), and also mentions that in Newark, where their arena is similarly close, they close down the streets for every event. I don’t see that as being anything other than chaotic, inconvenient and a burden on the surrounding neighborhoods. It just points up the sheer ridiculousness of the whole project. I think the security issue is a little shrill- but it is a concern.
More interesting I thought was the MCNY Panel discussion which showed various public officials complaining about public dissent and a few others standing up and saying, dissent is a good thing and forces you to rethink the direction we’re going. one point, that transit-oriented development (as AY is) is the wrong thing to do, whereas development-oriented transit makes much more sense. That the city and state should be developing infrastructure, not real estate, and adding mass transit to attract development, not overbuilding in areas where the transit system is already overburdened.
Michael D.D.White then posted and also mentioned a number of points about the supposed AY funding for infrastructure that should give even the most fervent supporter of AY reason to reconsider their position:
The last section of this post, “The AY complication,†talks about the idea that, to an extent, Atlantic Yards involves funding for infrastructure. It hardly makes sense to give this notion any credence because:
1. The amount of public subsidy going to Atlantic Yards overall is colossal, $1.3 billion for the arena and at least somewhere between $2.5-3 billion overall. Therefore the $200 million or so going to Atlantic Yards is an infinitesimal fraction in the equation.
2. As AYR points out, the infrastructure is directed at benefiting just one project and just one developer to whom the public is giving a theoretical monopoly on a no-bid basis.
3. Money that was supposedly going to infrastructure is being diverted to other uses.
4. The investment in infrastructure is not being recaptured via taxes on increased property values in the neighborhood.