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]
Anon at 11:21 — I hope you realize that the project would have to be cut IN HALF to approach being a reasonable scale.
It’s easy to see why these discussions go nowhere. Each side retreats to positions defined by a few key phrases and ideas, and that’s it. I am not an AY proponent. I think it is destructive of the neighborhood and urban dynamics that make Brooklyn a great place to live, and I think it puts too much strain on an aging infrastructure that our short sighted public officials seem to have no thought to maintaining or even better, fixing. There has been no thought given to effects on fire, police or emergency services. All of which tells me we learned nothing from 9-11.
It is not going to become part of the surrounding neighborhoods, it’s going to be a high rise enclave that drains the surrounding areas as it cuts them apart. It will soak up public monies and streets while promising parks and affordable housing, while admitting that the second phase, whereby that affordable housing will be built, may never happen.
The so-called public review process- supposedly set by law- has been circumvented and anyone with 1/2 a brain can see (or smell) the cronyism, backslapping and money greasing palms as they push the project through.
they have concocted an elaborate pr structure that basically depends keeping their fingers crossed that it all works out, but as someone who remembers Robert Burns’ famous line about the best laid plans of mice and men, my fear is that when the house of cards they built comes crashing down to reality it’ll already be too late to fix.
Sorry for the double post above. And a few more points:
1. The so-called community organizations that support AY are being paid off by Ratner. One of them was even created out of whole cloth by FCR.
2. The supposedly “guaranteed” community benefits agreement is completely unenforceable.
3. The MTA could get more money for the rights over Atlantic Yards if it proceeded as it is now going to do with the Westside yards — engage in a bidding process!
4. The so-called “blight” that is the basis for invoking eminent domain, and forcing owners within the footprint of AY to sell to Ratner, has actually been CREATED by the developer. Projects are going up around the perimeter of the AY footprint, suggesting that the area is not in fact “blighted” but rather is valuable property. But the State would CONDEMN the neighborhood as blighted in order to transfer rights to the developer.
I’m not totally happy with the scale of the project and lack of planning with respect to infrastructure and traffice. I object to the use (or threat) of eminent domain by a private developer.
However, I’d rather see this built than not built if forced to choose.
That said, one thing that I find a bit odd is the rallying behind the “affordable housing” component of this project. I think it is a good thing that it is being included (putting aside the issue of whether it will a part of the project in reality since FCR has loopholes that permit them to not include the proposed affordable units). Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that the affordable units are built.
Those affordable units, for the most part, are going to middle class working families. That’s great imo. Overall, however, this project will result in what Letitia James has called “instant gentrification”. For the record, that is fine with me, my property values will just increase even more. What this project will NOT do is somehow prevent the entire area from going completely upscale. It will accelerate that process, which has been in motion for a good decade or more now.
Because of this, I find a lot of the pro-AY development arguments that claim this project will protect poor people and stem gentrification, as Bertha Lewis has said, to be truly ridiculous and short sighted. Yes, those who are able to get some of the subsidized units will benefit, and I think it is a good program and idea. But let’s not kid ourselves, ultimately, this will just make the area even more gentrified and upscale in the long term, which I am happy with. I just think it could be done in a better manner (no eminent domain, more reasonable scale, no arena).
Dear AY supporters, whoever you are, on this thread:
Are you aware that AY would be twice as dense as the densest housing tract in the entire United States?
Are you aware that AY would actually reduce the ratio of people per acre of open space in Prospect Heights, because of AY’s extreme density? Are you aware that the so-called open space that would be created will be completely encircled by high-rise towers? Are you aware that public streets will be privatized in order to create this quasi-public park? Are you aware that the “park” won’t actually be public at all, but will be under the private control of FCR?
Are you aware that AY involves massive public subsidies with a dubious return on that investment?
Are you aware that building the Nets arena on the site of Ratner’s failed Atlantic Center mall would cause fewer negative environmental impacts to the surrounding community? Are you aware that building the Nets arena in Coney Island or East New York would be viable alternatives to putting it at the intersection of three major traffic arteries?
Are you aware that much of the so-called affordable housing promised by AY will actually be too expensive for the people already living in the community? Are you aware that NONE of the so-called affordable housing is guaranteed? That so-called affordable housing will only be built if the sale of luxury condos are successful?
Are you aware that AY proposes to create 5,000 new parking spaces at the corner of the busiest intersection in the entire borough? Are you aware that the Draft Environmental Impact Statement didn’t even study the effect of AY on bridge and BQE traffic, even though the business model of the arena includes 20% of game goers traveling by car from New Jersey?
Are you aware that AY includes no plan for new schools, even though 16,000 people are projected to live there, and even though area schools have no additional capacity?
Are you at all aware of the negative impacts of projects Ratner has already built in Brooklyn — that Metro Tech and Atlantic Center have detracted from any kind of lively street life?
Are you aware that there are multiple alternative development proposed for the railyards, all of which provide a lot of housing and none of which have the extreme negative impacts of AY?
In short, do you actually know anything at all about AY???
That’s the problem 10:03, AY WILL sit on top of 3 roads, thereby making it impossible for the gazillions of commercial, mass transit and passenger vehicles to get anywhere in the area without massive delays and bottlenecked backups.
Oh, and it’s beginning to look like those “thousands of homes for New Yorkers” that Eryximachus, our resident anarchist speaks of with such fondness, will probably never get built. Unless his New Yorkers are all the upper crust “plantation owners” he accuses the rest of us of being.
Ratner didn’t get rich by accident. He is a canny player in the RE world, and he can see the handwriting on the wall. The luxury apt glut is certainly going to still be in full swing by the time AY is built, as this is not the only development in town – just look around. He’s built a nice legal loophole into his affordable housing clause, and it will be the first thing dumped when the bottom line is considered.
“Btw, have you ever heard of a logical fallacy? Guess what, yours is called an “argumentum ad hominem”! It’s one of the most common logical fallacies, maybe you should read up on it!
People who employ logical fallacies in discussions are either lazy, stupid, or both. Which applies to you? ”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem
An ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin, literally “argument against the person”) involves replying to an argument or assertion by attacking the person presenting the argument or assertion rather than the argument itself. It is a logical fallacy.
It’s hard to tell if Eryximachus tongue is firmly in cheek when asserting that people are lazy, stupid, or both, since attacking the person presenting the argument is what ‘ad hominem argument’ is all about.
well, if you’re gonna make this a pissing contest, i’m a 26 year brooklyn resident – since birth- and unlike the shortsighted, retrograde, entitled, nimbys who have only been here for 25 years or less, i would like to see the continuing evolution of brooklyn. so don’t go to staten island, go to colonial williamsburg, or seaside florida, of amish country.
woops,
i meant to say: Thank you Anonymous 10:12, why don’t you just sign your post DDDB PR
but it goes for 10:07 too.