Atlantic Yards or Atlantic Lots?
These past few days have been a big one for Atlantic Yards news. Saturday, hundreds of protesters led by three opposition groups and several politicians rallied at the Atlantic Yards footprint, calling for a halt to demolition until developer Forest City Ratner can provide details on its plans and assurances that it has the financing…
These past few days have been a big one for Atlantic Yards news. Saturday, hundreds of protesters led by three opposition groups and several politicians rallied at the Atlantic Yards footprint, calling for a halt to demolition until developer Forest City Ratner can provide details on its plans and assurances that it has the financing to see them through. They were met by a 50 percent larger group of counter-protesters, estimated Atlantic Yards Report blogger Norman Oder, who proceeded to comment on the ethnicity, neighborhood of residence and motivation of each one. On Sunday, Bruce Ratner penned an op-ed piece in the Daily News blaming construction delays on the project’s “rigorous public review” and legal challenges waged by opponents. He said “the delays have pushed us into a time when the economy has slowed, and both financing and tenant commitments are more challenging to obtain. But contrary to rumors, large deals are still getting done, and in the past year alone we have closed on the two largest construction financing in our company’s history, totaling over $1.3 billion. Atlantic Yards will be no different.” Ratner said the company’s first goal is to break ground on the Barclays Center (Nets basketball arena) this year, then the first residential building. “As for Miss Brooklyn, Frank Gehry’s signature commercial tower, a targeted marketing campaign to identify an anchor tenant is currently underway. When that tenant is confirmed, we will finalize plans and start building,” he wrote. He said the whole thing would be completed by 2018, which opponents called crazy talk.
Today, the New York Post obtained renderings commissioned by the Municipal Arts Society depicting how the project’s footprint would look as economic woes stall its construction indefinitely. They name it “Atlantic Lots” after the sea of parking lots that surround the arena and lone tower the developer said he’d work on first. Ratner spokesman Loren Riegelhaupt responded, “Frankly, this is so far from anything even remotely resembling what we are building that it’s not worth commenting on further.” For one thing, he said, the developer would mostly likely plant trees (you know, temporarily) on that big grey slab surrounding the arena. Also today, the Daily News has an article proclaiming “Miss Brooklyn is slashed more than 100 feet in a massive redo” from 620 feet to 511 feet. That of course happened before the project was approved Dec. 2006, but the new model looks substantially different, “replaced by an asymmetrical design that rises like a spiraling Lego structure.” State officials told the newspaper Miss Brooklyn would only have 650,000 square feet of office space and no condos or hotel. But a construction timetable for the project’s signature tower was not given, and an anchor tenant still needs to be secured before it can ever get financing. They also unveiled that red building to the right of Miss Brooklyn, also a revised design. Technically, the Post and Daily News models are not competing visions, they just depict different stages of construction. As usual, the Atlantic Yards Report has a meticulous dissection of everything. And a Metro columnist says the city would be better off if the Nets just went to Newark.
Ratner: AY Dead? Dream On [Daily News]
The Future is ‘Blight’ [NY Post]
Atlantic Yards’ Miss Brooklyn is Slashed [Daily News]
Opponents say Ratner’s Time Line for AY is Pie in the Sky [Daily News]
Nets to Newark Could be a Blessing [Metro]
Bruce Ratner: Put Up or Shut Up! [Daily Gotham]
Not a Done Deal: Time Out Rally Met With Counter-Protest [Daily Gotham]
Original aerial photos in Municipal Arts Society models by Jonathan Barkey
11:06, I’m Andrew Rowe (for the sake of removing anonymity) and I have lived in Ft. Greene for my entire life. I would say that I have to agree with 11:12 in that most of my neighborhors are either (a) indifferent to the project, (b) looking forward to SOMETHING being built on those train tracks (because now it’s a whole in the ground or (c) very much looking forward to the basketball. Granted my friends are largely native Brooklynites, so our perspective may be different from those of the gentrifiers, and transplanted Manhattanites who I think comprise the vast majority of the DDDB crown
Hello 11:06. This is 10:21.I do live in the area and own a brownstone.Not right in the footprint area but close enough. While I am not exactly a sports fan,and would not have chosen a sports arena, I am in favor of something new and exicting for Brooklyn.I do support the project as a whole.( Maybe the arena can be used for concerts or other events in the off season).I find it hard to believe that you have not come across ANY supporters of the project in the area,as I know quite a few. By the same token,I also know people who are against it. As for your crack about anonymous comments,I just find it quicker to sign in as guest.I have no problem standing by my statements. By the way my name is Mimi and I have signed in under my name in the past.
Gotta agree with 11:06. I live in Prospect Heights and I was in the boat of qualified support because I thought it was inevitable. I saw the lawsuits against eminent domain not really having a good chance. I was of the view: if we are going to have it, so be it. But build it and build it quick so we don’t have to live near a construction zone for 20 years.
These lawsuits, however, have changed the dynamic of the whole project. No f’in way do I want a stadium with 1-2 towers and parking lot city. I am now if the boat that if you aren’t going to build what you promised and build it quick, I don’t want you to start building at all.
11:06, where do you live? I live in Prospect Heights and most of my neighbors are either for the project or are indifferent to it. At the very least, most believe that it will increase property values.
So, your experience is different than mine, but in the end, speaking with your neighbors is about as far from concrete evidence as can be.
That is reality.
Notwithstanding these anonymous comments on Brownstoner, I think it is clear that the substantial majority of the residents of the neighborhoods surrounding Atlantic Yards — Prospect Heights, Fort Green, Park Slope and Boerum Hill — are very much against the project. Do I go out to demonstrations? Not so much (I work, I’m busy, blah blah blah). Do I talk to my friends, neighbors and other acquaintances? Absolutely. Have I ever heard anyone enthutiastic about the project? I don’t think so. Have I heard opposition? Yes — hysterical opposition and rational opposition. Have I heard qualified support? Yes, often out of a sense of the inevitable.
This is the reality. The commenters above bear no resemblance to the views expressed in the neighborhoods most immediately affected.
Yawn. Yet another protest that will amount to squat. I agree with 10:21 – the anti AY crowd seems to love vacant lots, train yards, and decrepit buildings.
10:28, “community” opposition is infinitesimal. If as many people objected to AY as DDDB and others claim, there would have been 4000 protesters.
Saying that union members are paid to protest is disingenuous at best. The time that they devote to these events is voluntary, but anti AY make it seems that they are paid by the hour.
As usual, Norman Oder seems hell bent on boring his readers to tears. DDDB should hold a fundraiser to hire this guy an editor.
Hard to compare protestors vs. counterprotestors since the counter protestors are largely people being paid to show up by the developer.
Also hard to blame protestors for blight caused by the developer. From the start, this project has been a giveawy to the developer who gets day one benefits from the city + state in exchange for promises to deliver benefits over a decade from now.
That new rendering is the ugliest thing I have ever seen.
Goldstein and his crew have the most non-sensical circular logic I have ever seen. They complain that Ratner is creating urban blight by not moving forward with Atlantic Yards. Furthermore, they accuse Ratner of backing out of his promise to build affordable housing. What a sec, isn’t the reason that (a) Atlantic Yards is stalled and (b) affordable housing in the project in jeopardy because of the frivoulous lawsuits (they have lost at every juncture) and delaying tactics implemented by Goldstein in the first place?