Barclays Center Rising
This photo is the best one we’ve seen of the progress at the Barclays Center, the future home of The Nets and the first piece of the Atlantic Yards project. And it should: It was sent out by someone in-house to potential buyers of basketball tickets yesterday!
This photo is the best one we’ve seen of the progress at the Barclays Center, the future home of The Nets and the first piece of the Atlantic Yards project. And it should: It was sent out by someone in-house to potential buyers of basketball tickets yesterday!
Wow- FSRG added so much to the conversation.And archtect66 and Grand Army nailed it. The key word is “viable.” But whose “viable?”
Dh- its a good point you made but the reality is middle class and poor people don’t have the same resources as wealthy people to find another place so easily. And since rents keep going up, even in poorer neighborhoods, the rent is an ever increasing percentage of their money. As is public transportation and/or the time it takes to get to and from work.
There are plenty of Brownstoner readers who disagree with the rhetoric about AY on this site but choose not to respond because the level of discourse is so ridiculous – evidenced by that lovely “F— YOU ALL IN YOR FACES†comment. I’ll probably regret jumping in today, but feel I have to address some of the stupidity of those who think opposition to AY is based on NIMBY’ism or selfishness.
Yes, the traffic’s already a big problem, and it will get worse. But my issue, along with many of the most serious conservatives, is the abuse of the power of the state to take private property from one owner to give it to another owner, just so the state can receive higher tax revenue from that property. It means that NONE of us who have made our own investments of time, money and sweat equity in our property have secure legal rights to that property. To Benson, DIBS, lechecal, or any of you who are being bought off with basketball fantasies: ANY time a well-connected developer wants your property or mine, all they have to do is ask their pals to give it to them (along with millions and millions of our tax dollars), so they can do whatever they want. Oh, and if the local laws on zoning, environmental impact, etc. are too pesky, they make sure they get exempted from all those, too. You think you’re safe? You think you’re entitled to the profits resulting from your investments? New York State pols say no, only their rich friends get those profits (except it’s not their own money or sweat, it’s ours.)
If you really believe there will be economic benefits for the surrounding area resulting from the arena, you’re delusional. Read any of Neil DeMause’s Field of Schemes blog – he destroys the myth that arenas and stadiums result in economic benefit for the surrounding areas with FACTS from analyzing project after project. Read the NY Times articles on what happened to the area around the new Yankee Stadium – the area is more depressed than ever – arenas and stadiums are now designed to get you in, meet every need you could ever have for food, drink or other purchases, and send you out again with empty pockets, nothing left for local merchants.
The housing component of AY isn’t ordinary large buildings, even by Manhattan standards – the project overrode NYC zoning laws to result in plans for the densest housing in the country by a factor of 2. Where are all the supports for such a huge increase in population? Increased demand for the myriad of city-supplied services will be met by guess who – all of us taxpayers, not that developer.
Add:
• Slimy international financial dealings (Do you think anyone gets to be the second richest person in Russia by being an astute businessman with a love of basketball? Or is it more likely that you had to be an amoral criminal thug? Discuss. And then debate the “green cards for cash†sale going on in China.)
• Sale of and closure of public city streets at the busiest traffic nexus between Brooklyn and Manhattan (yeah, that’s going to help Brooklyn develop economically, making it harder to get in and out of Manhattan, sure)
• Crappy design of the project as a whole, cutting it off from the rest of Brooklyn, resulting in the warmth, charm and neighborliness of an area like MetroTech
• Manipulation of racial tensions to divide opposition, and patently false promises of jobs and “affordable†housing
I could go on and on, but I’d take a homeless shelter filled with mentally ill substance-abusing ex-cons in my backyard over this taxpayer-funded debacle any day.
DIBS – please spare us you Horatio Alger’s story…it diminishes any legitimacy your points might otherwise have.
Oh please – architecht66/grandarmy – people arent filing frivolous lawsuits and protesting and meeting and complaining (and posting over and over) about this because of the “process” – there are far more examples of our Government wasting far more money in far more corrupt ways with ZERO process whatsoever and there is barely a murmur. Of course it is about density, traffic, arena crowds, and about NIMBY – this is a project in the middle of a city, where everyone has an opinion on all these subjects, it wouldn’t matter what kind of “process” occurred, or how much or how little subsidy was involved – any (VIABLE) plan to develop this spot was going to be controversial and cause and uproar – and if you dont know that, then you are naive, stupid or just under heavy medication.
people of all income levels are constantly being priced out of neighborhoods. why is it only an issue when those people are low/lower middle income?
Exactly, dh. I was priced out of Brooklyn Heights and you don’t hear me complaining.
If I had to work 2 jobs to get what I wanted, I would. Far too many people have come to expect things to be handed to them. And the politicians (democrats mostly) enable this welfare society. And don’t any of you go on about the current state of the economy. These people do it as learned behavior, from generation to generation.
Well another fun AY thread. It only took -what- 110 comments or so before Grand Army pointed out the most salient objections to the project. It’s not density, It’s not the fact that there will be an arena there, It’s not the increased traffic (although that will be a pain in the neck for people who must drive). It’s not the NIMBY thing. It is the breakdown of the political process and the dishonesty on the part of the developer and the state in representing both the financial viability and built result of the project.
babs – they will live where they live now, in the affordable portions of Brooklyn, Queens, SI, the Bronx and upper Manhattan – or in NJ, Affordable parts of Westchester, Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, etc….
And if by some chance that all these areas become too expensive and there are a shortage of cooks, secretaries, dishwashers, etc….then their pay will inevitably rise and we will all pay more for there services, and if all services become way way expensive then people will leave NY and housing will come down, thereby relieving the problem that way.
In short your distopian future cannot come to pass.
if affordable housing is so important in Brooklyn – why don’t landlords in surrounding neighborhoods voluntarily charge less than market to maintain the “fabric of the neighborhood”
people of all income levels are constantly being priced out of neighborhoods. why is it only an issue when those people are low/lower middle income?
Babs – just an FYI (no snark) public financing doesn’t not necessarily mean public funding.