Federal Eminent Domain Lawsuit Rejected
Yesterday, a federal judge dismissed the eminent domain lawsuit that opponents of the Atlantic Yards project had seen as their best shot at derailing the current plan. In ruling in Goldstein v. Pataki, U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis said that even if the benefits of the project (jobs, housing, etc.) fall short of what…
Yesterday, a federal judge dismissed the eminent domain lawsuit that opponents of the Atlantic Yards project had seen as their best shot at derailing the current plan. In ruling in Goldstein v. Pataki, U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis said that even if the benefits of the project (jobs, housing, etc.) fall short of what has been promoted by Ratner and the State, no reasonable juror would have grounds to conclude that the “sole purpose’ of the Project is to confer a private benefit. The judge also ruled that any claim that the condemnations would not benefit the public were baseless. The 13 plaintiffs, a mix of owners and renters, plan to appeal the decision. Speaking afterwards, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Matthew Brinckerhoff, said he thought his clients had a good shot on appeal: “It’s undisputed that no other developer was considered to do this project, that the genesis was Forest City Ratner, that they identified my clients’ properties [for eminent domain], and that the government, broadly speaking, agreed to do exactly what [the developer] asked for.”
Judge Rejects Main Argument of Effort to Stop AY [NY Times]
Judge Dismisses Federal ED Lawsuit; Appeal Planned [AY Report]
Federal Court Ruling Clears AY Obstacle [NY Sun]
Atlantic Yards suit dismissed [Metro]
Photo by Flatbush Gardener
Me
Wake up.
There are lots of examples of anyone who disagrees with the DDDB crowd being called all those things and worse.
Take this message exchange. Here are some quotes:
Foreign: “Non-New Yorkers– which I suspect many of you are”
Stupid: “The other side benefit is it’s made a lot of retards realize what what a piece of propagandistic shit the Times is”
Corrupt: “Anyone know how much the judge was paid?”
This kind of thing makes me think your arguments can’t be very good because you so quickly descend to name-calling and paranoia.
umm 321 taking private property and giving it to a developer is bad. Eminent domain abuse is one of the most serious problems in America today and over 35 states have enacted legislation restricting it. NEw York is one of the worst abusers and with its dysfunctional, corrupt government won’t even consider reigning this in.
Parksloper hysterical and unpleasant how? Who has called you stupid, corrupt or (?) foreign? AY opponents have called gargano corrupt – he was – ratner – he is, and the process that led us here in the first place.
321: your’re being disingenuous, the MTA did not even CONSIDER higher bids that were lower density. UNITY and EXCEL both submitted low density plans that didn’t use eminent domain. Ratner is a well connected but amoral incompetent(just look at metrotech) crook whose greed knows no bounds. you might find that out for yourself oneday.
the ‘whole in the ground’ is another dishonest statement by you – that (the yards) is only about 30-40% of the ‘footprint.
I agree with 3:21 (I live near the site and have no axe to grind one way or another, by the way, before the anti- crowd start calling me stupid/corrupt/foreign.
I have found the DDDB tactics increasingly hysterial and unpleasant, and I’m sure I’m not the only one
12:06 nailed it: AY opponents did not honestly illustrate the problem or propose a viable solution. If a developer and the government reach an agreement to invest billions of dollars to build housing and an arena over a hole in the ground, then the reasonable response is to find a way to make it work. Instead, the opponents got AY all mixed up with that whole basket of fashionable “leftie” issues. The project was never bad, its just too big, and instead of adjusting the scale, they polarized the community and FCR got exactly what it wanted.
The real issue here is one of deep, pervasive corruption in nearly all aspects of New York State government, including Spitzer and his ‘new’ ESDC.
Even the most just laws are meaningless when corrupt people are in charge.
from a reason mag blog;
On a recent episode of the FX series The Riches, the sleazy developer who employs one of the main characters was able to fend off an eminent domain challenge by adding a skating rink to his project. Unfortunately, this is close enough to the current state of the law that I don’t think it counts as satire.
2:24 – Do you know anything about Judge Garaufis??? Do you know anything about our legal system????
While Judge Garaufis might not be the smartest judge on the Federal Bench, there really is no one who would say he is corrupt or dis-interested in the community.
The Judge had no choice but to rule this way, the controlling case is the recently decided Kelo case (have you read it), it has nearly identical facts to the AY issues.
His salary.
Anyone know how much the judge was paid?