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]
“anyone who thinks that ay will be good for this borough is sadly misinformed.”
This is a common response from the anti-AY crowd. Why is it so hard to believe that others can analyze the same facts and come up with different opinions? We’re moving to PH this year. We’re pretty smart and well-informed and did our homework on AY before making this move. We still think the development will be positive overall. Why can’t you accept that this is a reasonable conclusion to draw from the facts, even if you disagree with it?
Regardless of whether you are pro/against, if you look at past big projects in NYC, you’ll see many get delayed for years and years and don’t end up in the form they were originally concieved. Just look what happened to Ebbotts Field.. If the Dogers hadn’t left for LA you would all be living next door to a major baseball stadium!
Why are people paying more and more to live in the areas adjacent to AY (e.g., PH), then? At this point, everyone knows exactly what’s going on with the AY project, yet people still continue to pay higher and higher prices to get into the area. It’s an efficient and informed market. I don’t get these arguments that people are selling their FG and PH properties in order to “escape with their shirts.” Please. They may leave the area because they like less congestion, lower rises, etc. But that’s not the same as leaving because they’re scrared of property values decreasing. Is the thought that, once people realize that AY is really going to suck, property values will plummet? That seems very unlikely. Everyone knows what the project is already.
i have several neighbors in fg who have sold and moved further up the hill to bed stuy. we’re doing the same. that area is equally as beautiful, if not more, and won’t be consumed by trucks, jackhammers, etc for years to come. anyone who thinks that ay will be good for this borough is sadly misinformed.
9:39 – Great job summing it up. I agree. I am worried that the infrastructure won’t be taken care of properly but I think this will end up being great for the borough whether we like it or not.
hey everyone its a WORKING railyard!!!
I’m with 9:39.
10:03 – there are no fire sales going on for FG brownstones, so I’m not worrying about your two friends, and the good news is that the new buyers know exactly what they are in for, and are ok with it presumably.
The (so-far) inability of DDDB and others do stop or even impact design and scale of AY project could be for many reasons.
Certainly the political support in ALbany and City Hall is big part of it.
And I think opposition may have made tactical errors of their of own.
They overstated drama of what the project will mean to ‘Brooklyn’ . Vast majority of ‘Brooklyn’ is too far from the area (and probably not even quite sure where it is ) …. to be making the gradiose claim of negative effects on the borough, defining Brooklyn yadda yadda yadda.
Sounds hysterical. So I don’t believe they ever genereated groundswell of community opposition no matter how passionate the anti-AY group is.
But instead of talking about ‘Brooklyn’ should have concentrated on neighborhoods nearby.
And more importantly all NYC – more time exposing cost to taxpayers, subsidies and potential financial boondoggle if project is not successful. What if city or state end up funneling even more funds to private corp.
Because AY is both arena and vast housing complex, arguments for and againt get muddled. Perhaps if concentrated only on the total concentration of housing units instead of arena may have had better success.
I know two people now who’ve sold their relatively large, relatively well-to-do homes in order to escape AY. Both were in Ft. Greene, but I know this is happening in a lot of the surrounding nabes. They didn’t hold out for a big price, either. They just wanted to escape with their shirts.