On Last Day of Public Comment, Objections to AY
With the 60-day period for public comment on the Atlantic Yards ending today, final objections are coming in from neighborhood groups in the affected area. Most notably, a report prepared by a team of financial engineers on behalf of the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods raises some serious criticisms but falls short of calling for a…
With the 60-day period for public comment on the Atlantic Yards ending today, final objections are coming in from neighborhood groups in the affected area. Most notably, a report prepared by a team of financial engineers on behalf of the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods raises some serious criticisms but falls short of calling for a stop to the project. The report finds that the environmental impact study contained errors [that] incorrectly describe the size and location of the proposed project. It also finds serious workmanship and/or methodological errors with FCR’s computer-generated photographic overlays used to sell the vision of what the project would look like built. Meanwhile, the new coalition group, Brooklyn Speaks, called for the project to shrink by between one-third and one-half while increasing the affordable housing component. Another neighborhood group, Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus, calls bullshit on FCR’s estimate of raw sewage flow to the canal from the addition of thousands of toilets.
More Find Fault With Atlantic Yards Review [NY Times]
CBN: Enviro Review Flawed, Should Not Be Approved [AY Report]
Bowing to Bruce [Brooklyn Papers]
I lived for a spell in Minneapolis and they did this EXACT SAME THING. They built the Target Center arena downtown, and with it a shopping mall cinema thing, and some highrise buildings. All to help “improve” downtown. Well, downtown got nicer but the only parts of downtown NOT improving are near this Target Center development. The tacky shopping/cinema place attracts the worst crowds, and drug dealers hang around there day and night. The traffic after games was INSANE. I lived a mere quarter mile from my office downtown, and on game days it took me 45 minutes to drive that distance. Meaning all those cars are sitting and spewing and belching pollution into the air for hours.
Anon 10:19,
You must work for DDDB and NoLandGrab!
Why don’t you guys get it? This is not about affordable housing and jobs. It’s all about gentrifying all of Brownstone Brooklyn and this project will further this endeavor. And guess what? The vast majority of us who live in the impact zone really don’t have a problem with this. Why would I be bothered if the medium income of families in the impact area went up another $30-$50k or that the area was engulfed with trendy restaurants, shops, boutiques and other first class amenities? No one is really being displaced but a few renters and a soon to be VERY RICH Dan Goldstein (a genius). The problem here is the arena and if it was not included in the development plans, the project would fly right through without any opposition. Why is the arena really the most significant issue? Because the arena will attract the colored and poor into our now pristine communities and many people on this board simply find this unacceptable (i.e., we’ve worked so hard to root them out and now Ratner wants to slow their departure or even worse bring them back). Moreover, folks in CH, PS, FG, PH, etc., don’t have any interest whatsoever in low income housing on this site for the same reason that they are against the arena. Both sides are using minorities and the poor, albeit in entirely different ways, to push forward their agenda.
IMHO, AY is a very good thing for Brooklyn, the City and those of us who are seriously interest in seeing this borough realize it’s true greatness. Atlantic Yards, the Downtown Development Plan, the BAMM Cultural District, Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Navy Yard and the Waterfront Development Project will bring us closer to to making Brooklyn designation #1 in NYC. I hope to see a skyline in downtown Brooklyn that rivals lower Manhattan, e.g., high density development and over a hundred high rises. The rest of the borough, including the historic communities, will remain intact and low scale. I don’t get it. Historic brownstone communities on the UWS, UES, Chelsea, Gramercy Park, Murray Hills, thrive right next door to high density development but for some strange reason FG, PH and PS will be destroyed. Sounds like a whole lot of BS to me…..
This is ridiculous. As usual the pro-AY forces (aka: the paid off) are arguing about how to destroy a neighborhood and replace it with towers that any urban planner will tell you are a horror show to live in or live near.
Why doesn’t NYC pay for decent affordable housing? Why don’t they do ANY urban planning? Bloomberg is content to eat out at restaurants in the outer boroughs and pretend he’s in touch with what’s happening and then allow his pal developers to get rich by destroying our neighborhoods. Remember this is a guy who is content to pretend he’s a liberal and really wants to be a dem, but just found the opportunity to run for office as a republican. How pathetic is he? And how pathetic are we as voters to allow him this charade? Sure Mussolini got the trains to run on time, but look at the horrible politics behind the effort. I think Bloomberg is also callous and self-obsessed and that shows in his lack of concern about his constituents.
I mean really, what mayor ever listens to the borough president. It’s all a scam. Markowitz didn’t do this, Pataki did and so did Bloomberg and they are happy to use Marty as a fall guy — plus he’s an idiot so it helps to keep him around as a punching bag for the press doesn’t it?
“Ratner will not build affordable housing, he will not provide jobs to the community…..”
Duh! Who cares? Ratner deserves all of the upside because he was the only major developer willing to take a risk on Brooklyn. More power to him! All of the alternative plans for the
AY site did not come to fruition until Ratner decided to step up to the plate! IMHO, Ratner will further gentrify Brownstone Brooklyn and make former fringe areas no longer “at risk” and the more established areas even more attractive (The MCI Center is the perfect example). The anti-development crowd is simply too stupid to understand this incontrovertible fact! If up to them, Brooklyn would still be a cow pasture! Let’s face the ulgy truth people and drop the useless academic excercise: Middle and upper-middle class white people need a place to live and Brooklyn is the logical choice. I’m seriously hoping and wishing for a serious downturn in the market because folks like me are looking to to clean up! Everyone with half a brain knows that Brooklyn is going to be the new Manhattan – for better or worst. Just invest for the long term and enjoy the ride!
And again, DG of DDDB fame, is going to be filthy rich once he cashes in and sells his rat hole of an apartment for $3mm to Ratner. As we all know, “last man standing wins!”
Latest housing stats not good for Brooklyn -inventory up, prices flat to down – all you anti-AY folks keeping up the fight -good for you – by the time he’s able to build, the market wont’ support his behemouths anymore.
Those of you who think that “growth” is a magical solution to poverty instead of a magical way to line the pockets of the few at the expense of many -you are being played for fools.
Anyone remember the promisise of the casino owners to spruce up the ghettoes of Atlantic city? Anyone who goes there and still sees the stark contrast between casino/crumbling houses on its borders knows who lost that gamble.
Ratner will not build affordable housing, he will not provide jobs to the community, he will not improve the neighborhood, and he will walk away in a heartbeat if the economics don’t look good -leaving guess what – real, honest to god blight– in his wake.
Transportation options to Atlantic Yards/Downtown Brooklyn (all within 5 minute walk to proposed Nets arena site): Subway Lines A, B, C, D, F, G, M, N, Q, R, 2, 3, 4, 5; LIRR; Bus Lines 25, 26, 37, 38, 41, 45, 52, 63, 65, 67, 103 (and numerous bus and train transfers thereto); and Car Routes – Belt Pkwy to Atlantic Ave, BQE to Atlantic, Flatbush or Kent Aves; Jackie Robinson Pkwy to Atlantic Ave; 495 to BQE; Midtown Tunnel to BQE; Brooklyn Bridge to Atlantic Ave; Manhattan Bridge to Flatbush Ave; Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to Hamilton Ave to Atlantic; Prospect Expwy to BQE to Atlantic; Eastern Pkwy to Flatbush; and Ocean Pkwy to Prospect PK SW. Also major thruways: 3rd and 4th Avenues and Empire Blvd. The options are innumerable. Please stop with the excuses. AY has great transportation and is convenient for almost everyone in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.
The other day the 4/5 trains going back into Brooklyn at rush hour at the end of the day were so packed full that I had to wait for 2 trains to go by before I finally crushed myself into a totally full car out of desperation. And as I did I saw a young mother on the platform burst into tears because she was having to wait for a train with enough space on it to fit her child and stroller, and after watching 3 trains go by she hadn’t succeeded yet. NICE. Yeah, what we really need is growth. There just aren’t enough people living in Brooklyn yet. Even though the borough if it were a city on its own would be the 3rd largest city in the country, and is so big that one out of every 114 people in the entire United States lives in Brooklyn. Right, more growth, yep that’s what we need for sure.
Anon at 9:01 — I think you post on a number of site re: AY, always with the same claim — “done deal”. Boring? That pretty much describes someone like yourself who makes simple minded assertions with nothing to back them up.