Egan: Apathy and Resignation To Blame in AY Fight
In her NY Times op-ed piece this weekend, author, Fort Greene resident and DDDB board member Jennifer Egan contrasts the wily public relations machinations of Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner with the relative apathy and inaction of those who claim to oppose the project that would indelibly change the landscape and character of the borough….
In her NY Times op-ed piece this weekend, author, Fort Greene resident and DDDB board member Jennifer Egan contrasts the wily public relations machinations of Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner with the relative apathy and inaction of those who claim to oppose the project that would indelibly change the landscape and character of the borough. The combination of presenting the project as a fait accompli from day one and casting himself as the champion of the working class was, she opines, effective in a race-baiting sort of way. In the end, she laments the passive role it has placed the borough in, to be molded and shaped by profit-seeking developers, not the people who live here.
What was mostly lost in this caustic debate was the biggest question of all: what do we Brooklynites — a diverse and even divided collective — want our borough to be? Do we want it transformed from a sunny, low-lying place into knots of vertical superblocks? Are we content to let our borough’s future be imposed on us by developers and politicians? A strong girding of power and ideas is our best defense against developers who might wish to control the process. And an active and vocal public will send a healthy warning to elected officials who might consider placing these developers’ interests above our own.
What surprised us most was the tone of resignation that underlay the essay, playing right into Ratner “formidable spin machine “.
A Developing Story [NY Times]
One of the points she made in the article was the lack of a single powerful corporate opponent to the project in contrast to other mega projects which got voted down. Another issue is that this was a very powerful, well connected entity which skillfully wended its way through the politics of approval. Imagine Joe Q. Citizen ripping through the Environmental Impact study (a monster document about 10 inches deep) in the 30 day time frame allotted for public review.
uh 1:31 actually.
pretty silly 11:31. some new yorkers do love that stuff which is why those chain can stay in business in brooklyn and all over manhattan for that matter. businesses close when there is no demand for their products. apparently its there.
Kudos to Egan for expressing so eloquently the democratic deficit in this whole mess. Even if you can somehow bring yourself to love and desire this taxpayer handout to Ratner’s ego-dream, you must be able to question the way in which this was railroaded through with no meaningful transparent oversite. If the project goes forward, it will be a tremendous missed opportunity for appropriate development that organically supports and emerges from the needs of a growing diverse community, rather than siphoning off public resources to enrich a large developer.
the first thing i’m gonna do is go get a big hamburger at Chuck-E-Cheese, then i’m gonna get a bacon salad at the new AY TIGF and after that i’ll get desert at the AY Dunkin’ Doughnuts. boy do i love New York!
11:29
You don’t get it. The density issue per square mile doesn’t mean shit, unless you are analyzing them on a per square mile basis!
The census tract that includes AY is currently very large, because it consists of the actual train yard!
When you analyze population denisty by zip code, you will find that the surrounding area will still in no way approach many parts of Manhattan.
oh yes and the Atlantic Center is such a lovely, well-designed retail complex. What a boon for the surrounding community…
Why are people upset? This developer has such an excellent reputation for building character laden, neighborhood enhancing developments. I wish my office was in Metro Tech and that all the retail in Brooklyn looked like Atlantic Terminal. Thank goodness someone is bringing in all these chain restaurants that we all like so much.
Anon at 9:57 asks:
“Someone please explain how AY could possibly be MORE dense than the densest housing tract in America. What is the densest housing tract in America? I may not have a good hold of the facts, but at least I’m not creating ‘facts’ out of whole cloth…”
You can read about the density issue below.
http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2006/05/extreme-density-atlantic-yards-plan.html
or here:
http://therealestate.observer.com/2006/07/prisoner-of-atlantic-avenue.html
“The densest census tract in the country is located in West Harlem, where a 1,190-unit former Mitchell-Lama building stands surrounded by numerous tenements (below). The two-block area has, according to the 2000 Census, a density equivalent to 229,713 inhabitants per square mile.
Sounds positively suburban next to the density envisioned by Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn (below): between 436,363 and 523,636 inhabitants per square mile (based on estimated population of between 15,000 and 18,000 residents over 22 acres). That is the density for the whole footprint, including the open space, the arena, and the office towers.”