PACB Gives Ratner What He Wants
After an Oscar-worthy head fake on Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, along with the two other members of the Public Authorities Control Board, George Pataki and Joseph Bruno, gave the thumbs up to Bruce Ratner’s vision for Atlantic Yards. “I am pleased the developer is committed to addressing numerous community concerns through several specific actions…
After an Oscar-worthy head fake on Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, along with the two other members of the Public Authorities Control Board, George Pataki and Joseph Bruno, gave the thumbs up to Bruce Ratner’s vision for Atlantic Yards. “I am pleased the developer is committed to addressing numerous community concerns through several specific actions that will result in significant neighborhood improvements,” said Silver. Last time we checked, traffic congestion, overcrowded schools and a surfeit of chain stores didn’t exactly qualify as improvements (though there were some last minute changes, including 200 more units of affordable housing and $3 million more for improvements to neighboring parks) but then again, pols who live upstate must have a better grasp of what’s better for Brooklyn than the four assembly members closest to the site. So where does this leave those who oppose the project? Eminent domain lawsuits, scale negotiations and a guy named Spitzer. From the beginning, the project has been a public-private partnership in which the public has not been represented, said Kent Barwick, president of the Municipal Art Society. The vote today reflected a process that simply did not allow New Yorkers to shape the project, and the result is a plan that will not work for Brooklyn.
State Approves Major Complex for Brooklyn [NY Times]
NY Board Approves Atlantic Yards Plan [Bloomberg]
The Nets Win! [NY Post]
Photo by f.trainer
I look forward to one day cheering the Nets while sitting in the stadium that used to be Dan Goldstein’s home. One person cannot stop progress.
this comment board is BLIGHTED!!
that slippery goldstein guy, using the whole community so he can get rich. what a scum that guy is.
but ratner, god LOVE him. not only does he use the whole community like that pipsqueak goldstein, but outdoes him and uses the government too so he can grab 22 acres in brooklyn’s real estate belt. what a tricky bastard bruce is.
Anon 3:43 provides a nice example of the defense mechanism called projection, whereby a person places his or her unacceptable feelings onto another. Ratner has nothing to fear. He is rich and powerful beyond everyone’s wildest dreams, whereas DDDB is comprised of inexperienced pipsqueaks who will be easily defeated. What else could you expect from people who can do little more than accuse anyone who disagrees with them of being a Ratner employee? Not exactly a cerebral response. Losers!!!!!!!!
“Shame on you DDDB for playing on the fears of the community simply to enrich Dan Goldstein and his attorney friends.”
Nice efforts by Forest City Ratner Employees to divert funding of this lawsuit. Rest assured, they are VERY afraid because they know if a judge grants discovery, it will prove, beyond a shadow of doubt this was a developer driven project. You can bet that Charlie Gargano & Co. are deleting emails and documents like mad now – but they have been too hasty, too sloppy.
I will say it again. Unless you’re a forest city stock holder, this whole process should disgust you. It’s an outright robbing of the public coffers to enrich bruce and his friends. I honestly hope enough damming evidence emerges to send Bruce to jail, where he belongs. He’s as low a scumbag as you can find.
Fat chance on Mr. Goldstein donating a penny of his windfall to charity. I predict that he’ll take the money, buy a fancy property far from New York, and return to work for the corporate world he purports to detest.
Oh B.S. why should the guy donate the only money that will allow him to buy another home, after he’s being forced out of his current one? He didn’t buy his apartment yesterday, but rather years ago, and there IS something called inflation.
Ratner employees please go away. Everyone knows who you are. It’s pathetic you keep coming back here pretending to be regular folk just posting your opinions.
So the moderate supporters and the moderate opponents of Ratner failed to get any concessions. I do like the MAS quote that this is a public-private partnership where the public had no input.
So, unfortunately, the only way the get any public input is through the courts. And that means going to DDDb.net and donating. Whether you like it or not, DDDb is the only group who was realistic enough to see that there is no transparency in this project.
I’m a DDDb partisan, and obviously I know DDDb has a reputation of being extreme. But go to the friggin website and judge for yourself.
If only the PACB debate were as spirited as this one.
this is such a tragedy. Ironic thing is that I just got a brochure (mass mailer) on AY yesterday from BrooklynSpeaks.net. It contained a tear out form/letter that was addressed to Spitzer and Silver. And I wondered, how much of an impact it might have made if we had all received the mass mailer earlier, maybe last week. By the time I got the brochure, it was a done-deal.
I’m partly to blame because I should have gotten out there and done something instead of watching the drama unfold passively from the sidelines.
To all those picketers who got spat upon for just voicing your dissent, my heart goes out for you.
All I can say is that this project has had a bad legacy from the start. Alls well that ends well.
I personally will not set foot within the confines of AY, neither will I support any of its establishments.