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
Also, I think it’s worth observing how the Doctoroff impersonator presents him/herself. It is precisely this type of hysteria and exaggeration that alienates many would-be supporters of the AY oppostion. Playing hardball and being extreme might provide catharsis, but it doesn’t produce real-life results.
Except, 11:46, it’s not about what really caused the delay but what the public perceives as the cause of the delay. And they’ll credit the AY opponents, sorry.
The AY opposition strategy should go after Bloomberg. The AY opposition should emphasize how Bloomberg’s cronyism allowed ED abuse, and is giving away millons to Ratner. Trumpet it to the nation. Bloomberg aspires to run for President as an Independent. How do you think AY and its ED abuse would fly among his “base” the libertarian Republicans and the Independents? Not very well. Look at what their own newspaper, The NY Sun thought of it.
Actually what is wrong with the anti-AY group is exemplified in the above picture. Rather then projecting a reasonable view of the proposal, the future buildings are shown in one monolithic color, with no windows and from as unflattering an angel as possible.
Even the most primitive person knows that AY will not look like this and can see through this clear propaganda. And this of course turns off the people who might be oppossed to AY and press their politicians to oppose it. But the AY-oppossition just appears to be a bunch of ‘sky-is-falling’ NIMBYs to the 98% of Brooklyn that has jobs, lives and families that are their main priority – and are only going to get involved in something like this if they really ‘buy in’.
However, this court case is no suprise and anyone who thinks that it is, or that it represents the judiciary doing anything other then what is required is just delusional. The ED issue was already decided in Kelo and all this B.S. that Kelo (or Kennedy’s concurring) was a “victory” for anti-AY was ridiculous. Now you may not like the Kelo decision and think it is wrong but unfortunately for you it is DECIDED and no amount of spin, propaganda or protest is going to change that. AY opponents have ZERO chance on appeal and putting $ into an appeal is the equivalent of throwing $ down the toilet.
The only hope the AY opponents have with the courts is with nuisance suits over processes and form and to delay, delay, delay, until either the economic or political realities change – which don’t appear to be imminent.
If anti-AY folks were really serious about ED “abuse”, they’d be working harder to get state law changed to make ED use more difficult (too late for AY btw) and if they were really serious about the scale of AY, they’d concede phase 1 of the development and be working on the politicians to scale back phase 2 which is a decade away.
Unfortunately for the anti-AY folks – this fight was always led by an individual who was essentially and simply opposed to ANY arena at the site and who was also out for personal aggrandizement, and therefore could not take a strategic (as opposed to emotional) approach.
10:23,
Your flawed logic is typical of AY opponents desperate for anything remotely resembling a victory.
1. Ratner announced the project would be up and running in 2006.
2. It’s not up and running.
3. Therefore, this delay is due solely to our efforts.
A delay in and of itself is not proof that you are responsible for it. Correlation does not mean causation.
Losers.
The renderings of the project just break my heart. I love my city and AY is like watching a loved one brutally injured but not being able to do anything to stop it. Yeah, Brooklyn will survive and even thrive, but this project is going to go down in history as a textbook example of how not to do large scale development. You won’t be able to say you weren’t warned.
I think I’m going to hurl.
woohoo! grow Brooklyn!
Mr. Pathetic anonymous. Failed? In 2003 Ratner announced his project would include a functioning arena where the Nets would play starting in 2006. Here we are in 2007 and he doesn’t even own the property he needs to start consruction to build an arena by 2010.
Nice absurdist propaganda.
Let it be noted that alone among major media, only The New York Sun editorialized AGAINST this because of the asinine– & loathable– EMINENT DOMAIN ABUSE.
Ratner sycophants: why not take down the Atlantic Center Mall, already subsidized by the state & rebuild something better ** there **?
What this is is a swift kick in the nuts to the fake liberal reputation of NYC, NY State & also– ALSO– evidence that there the real estate cabal is wholly bankrupt of scruples.
That’s not a revelation, of course, but it IS sweet watching you motherfuckers try to justify this, or Kelso, etc etc. (The other side benefit is it’s made a lot of retards realize what what a piece of propagandistic shit the Times is; hello? it was BEFORE too, their city coverage has been a joke for almost 40 years.)
When the far (real) left AND the far (real) right agree… they’re usually correct.
Re: “pathetic” community opposition…
what the fuck do you PROPOSE would have been a better alternative?
The game was totally fixed, fucking Kelso went the bad way (THANKS TO THE FAKE ‘LIBERAL’ BLOC)… imperfect, yes, but very vey difficult, no thanks to yet another FAKE LIBERAL, grandstanding ego asswipe Spitzer.
Why do I even care? I just do. Some call me a dreamer, ya’ll can call me
Dan Doctoroff
NYC 2012