Learning to Oppose the Atlantic Yards Project
Even though he lives within a few blocks of where the Nets arena would be built if Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project gets the go-ahead, writer Chris Smith had been long in forming an opinion on the subject. Partly in denial and partly in the interest of maintaining some kind of journalistic neutrality, it was…
Even though he lives within a few blocks of where the Nets arena would be built if Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project gets the go-ahead, writer Chris Smith had been long in forming an opinion on the subject. Partly in denial and partly in the interest of maintaining some kind of journalistic neutrality, it was not until he jumped head-first into researching this article–and witnessing first hand Ratner’s “truly chilling” manipulation of the political process–that he found himself standing firmly in the opposition camp. It’s a long, personalized article with lots of color, but his Bertha Lewis encounter was arguably the most histrionic, providing the article’s money-shot of a race-baiting quote (equalled only by the class-baiting of Assemblyman Roger Green):
“You want to talk to me about traffic, you want to talk to me about density, you go right ahead,” she says, implying she considers it all a pretext. “Talk to me about what your resolution is to the resegregation of Brooklyn. Black and brown folks have been driven out of central Brooklyn!” Lewis ladles on the “street” theatrics as she warms up, shimmying in her chair and dropping her g’s. “We’re looking at the gentrification—I don’t see a lot of black and brown folks in the wave runnin’ up in here! The overwhelming folks who are opposed are white people and wealthier people and more secure people and people who just arrived. Come on! This is about the power dynamic of who in fact is going to be living in Downtown and central Brooklyn and where the power Âreally is going to be. And we’re down to get it on! We’re tired of being pushed out. If we can stop one iota of gentrification, we’re gonna do it!“
For what, 900 apartments for the $35K-and-under set? What about all the people who will be waiting longer on crowded subway platforms and whose children will see their public school class sizes balloon? Certainly many of them will be “black and brown,” no?
Battle for the Soul of Brooklyn [New York Magazine]
NY Mag Weighs in on Atlantic Yards Saga [Brooklyn Record]
crowded = better?
Schools are crowded because they are the better schools. This is often true, but the causation doesn’t work the other way — you can crowd a school and expect the extra students to make it better. The schools have to be good first. Adding all these kids to the existing pool of classrooms and teachers will be a strain and new classrooms will have to be added.
CrownHeightsProud,
Yes, I went to NYC public schools (go Jamaica High!)… but that’s another story. Based on my observations, there is a positive correlation between how crowded a school is and how good it is (i.e. more crowded = better). Basically, these are the effects of people playing the system by going to their non-zoned schools or moving to better districts.
As for traffic, people will not drive if they know they will stuck in traffic for hours.. that’s why JFK is losing out to LGA in terms of air-traffic, for example.
Right on, OE-from-WT!
Whoops – “parochial” good thing I got me an edjimication.
OE, you’ve got to be delusional. People will drive because they want to, and nobody is going to tell them they can’t. Everyone always thinks the other guy is not going to drive because it will be a mess, and then everyone is out on the road. Plenty of people drive to MSG, the difference is that the streets there are set up to handle more people and cars, and there are parking lots all over the place, or you could park 20 blocks away and walk, which plenty of people do. Midtown Manhattan is not the AY area.
As to your assertion that the schools can handle it, you obviously are not a product of NYC public schools, especially at the elementary levels. These are the schools that are going to be overcrowded, not necessarily the upper grades and high schools. If children can’t get a quality education from the beginning, if they are sitting in the halls trying to learn to read, they will never get the skills and disciplines necessary to propel them into good public schools, or even private and parocial schools. Without education, the odds of them doing better than their parents is almost nil.
That is not a price I would want just so I can go to a Nets game.
Regarding cars: we can argue about whether people should or shouldn’t have cars till the cows come home, but the reality is that cars and drivers are out there, and any sensible developer/city planner needs to plan for their existence. That means wide enough streets, traffic lights and parking. To not do so is like telling high school kids to just say no to sex, and not provide sex education. That plan didn’t work either.
Oh, and Prowd, your originality is staggering in its absence. If you want to be taken seriously, you’ve failed miserably.
Whatever you say then CrownHeightsProwd, keep up your secret covert psy-ops, looks like it’s helping you get your point across.
So this issue with AY is drunk people walking out after the game, and not imminent domain? Meanwhile major parts of NYC are turning into variations of Smith Street with drunks, outdoor cafes, etc, and people seem to be ok with that.
I still feel that the NYC public school system is well equipped to handle this so-called “influx”, and that traffic will be a non-issue because if it really is horrible to drive around there, people won’t. e.g. not too many people drive to MSG, but they do drive to the meadowlands.
They are not tearing down any brownstones, so nobody’s “social fabric” will be manhattan-ified. There are brownstones next to high-rises all over the city, and people seem to be ok with that too. In fact we even have thriving brownstone neighborhoods next to (gasp!) Flatbush ave, which is quite depressing in certain stretches.
Blabber – its not baseball so sounds like you haven’t been following it anyway.
My question is – at what point(size/# of apts) does it become this major disaster crowding schools, subways, overwhelming traffic, shadows from a low-impact, beneficial, ‘we will greet you with open arms project’? What is the magic number?
And to Trudylou – probably right, changes in market could have major impact on development, success of the undertaking. Of course talking a 10 year span – so you never know. But if doesn’t get going soon will be wasteland for another generation.