Atlantic Yards Will Survive...Kind Of
It’s not the economy, stupid. Except it is. Last week, Forest City Ratner blamed the eminent domain lawsuit for delays at Atlantic Yards, and yet now he says that the project will remain pretty much on hold until the economy rebounds. The $4.2 billion project will survive, they say, but it may take even longer…
It’s not the economy, stupid. Except it is. Last week, Forest City Ratner blamed the eminent domain lawsuit for delays at Atlantic Yards, and yet now he says that the project will remain pretty much on hold until the economy rebounds. The $4.2 billion project will survive, they say, but it may take even longer than expected. “‘I think we can successfully delay until we are prepared to start [the project],’ Forest City President Charles Ratner told investors just hours before the price of the company’s stock fell 15%, to $7.02 a share,” writes the NY Daily News. Atlantic Yards isn’t the only Forest City project relegated to the slow lane; they’ve “put virtually all new development on hold until economic and financial market conditions improve meaningfully.” Opponents to Atlantic Yards reacted to the news with “a mixture of glee and fear.”
Atlantic Yards Will Go Up… When Economy Does [NY Daily News]
Photo by NoLandGrab.
i can.
Here’s a link to info. about the boundaries: http://www.atlanticyards.com/html/ay/location.html
Just Google map-ed it. The area looks like CRAP.
E-gads! I was thinking the same thing as Norman Oder:
http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2008/12/second-look-at-judges-ruling-that-there.html
so, who here who calls it a hole in the ground or “dumped cars” can name the boundaries of the project site?
“AY opponents scream against Govt subsidies on project (when really all they care about is no arena/no tall building)”
yeah, far be it from human beings to be able to be against corporate welfare AND idiotic urban “planning.”
“Bxgrl, you know as well as I do that Brooklyn is OVERPOPULATED with people that (literally) have nothing better to do (retirees? trustafarians? wackos?) than protest, stonewall and block.”
I think that’s typical of the thinking of Pro-AYers. Demean your opposition instead of deal with them. (Hmmm…sounds like a recent presidential campaign. You remember- older white guy, bimbo running mate)?
Maybe it’s easier for you to think that way, but there are plenty of us out here who are against the sheer size and scale of it for many reasons. Ratner has no one but himself to blame- he thought he could just march in and do whatever he wanted. Obviously not. All he has invested in Brooklyn is money. The rest of us have money, homes and quality of life invested in Brooklyn.
The Unity Plan? Can’t say, but from what I’ve seen it’s a lot better than Ratner’s (of course, IMHO). Of course there will be people to fight it- but I doubt you’ll see the same opposition to that plan because it addresses the issues in a more realistic and integrated way.
AY isn’t about people- AY is a big ego trip for Ratner and Gehry. It’s a huge warehouse- in a not luxury location. People love Brooklyn housing stock and the smaller scale. I don’t see people with money rushing to live packed like sardines in apartments no matter how hi end the bathrooms and kitchens. It’s not Manhattan, the train commute will be nightmarish and the car commmute will be worse.
I have driven by the area numerous of times and all I see are stolen/stripped down cars being dumped around the area. Right now, if I had a choice I’d pick the ugly development over the current hole in the ground.
All of the recent bad news (and rumors) makes me wonder, at what point does ESDC–perhaps as a result of yet another lawsuit–have to admit that the project is so different (development components, project timeline, etc.) from the approved plan that the GPP is null and void?
yeah, i don’t really see it as NIMBY, because “that hole in the ground” isn’t even the backyard of many of the anti-AYers. i live in the neighborhood, and a lot of people there actually support AY, despite what you read here. and many of the neighborhood people who don’t support it – including some in the footprint – have absolutely no problem with tax issues, infrastructure, scale or housing affordability. they’re just pissed at the declaration that the area was “blighted,” pure and simple. i’ve had people tell me they didn’t care about the eminent domain piece of it! the label was just offensive. it was a strategic error on ratner’s part not to have addressed that aspect, because there are a lot of people who would have supported the project on fundamental grounds, and instead they’re now emotionally invested in opposition.
i think it was a crappy financial deal, but i like most aspects of the project other than the scale of the housing. i hope it, or some version of it, gets built some day.
Bxgrl, you know as well as I do that Brooklyn is OVERPOPULATED with people that (literally) have nothing better to do (retirees? trustafarians? wackos?) than protest, stonewall and block. Let’s say AY goes down in flames (which would not surprise anybody) and the UNITY plan is adopted…do you honestly believe that within weeks some anti-UNITY plan group (“Dis-Unity?”) won’t spring up suing the developer, the city, the state, yo mama, their mama and everybody else to try to shut it down?