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
David: So you have no problem with big companies being subsidized by the government to drive out local retailers? You have no problem with eminent domain abuse, with out of scale development, ignoring zoning laws? other than money what do you care about?
This thread provides one example after another of the histrionic approach by AY opponents. Such hyperbole is a major reason why they have flopped. The above poster makes an excellent point about donating to DDDB. They are, indeed, useless at this point. Any $ donated will be wasted on a lawsuit that is doomed to fail.
David, you’re the same guy that said you couldn’t see any reason why all that empty land (forests) shouldn’t be developed as well. Not everything is measured in money and spread sheets David. According to your logic you would have no problem building high rise condos in Brooklyn Heights or Nantucket for that matter, right?
Actually I havent forgot the supply side – according to the US census Brooklyn has approx 1.5m housing units for a population of 2.4million and Manhattan has approx 1.3m housing units for a population of 1.5m – so at least on a macro view it would seem that Brooklyn has a greater supply shortage as well.
And yes the Atlantic Terminal has one of the highest grossing Target stores in North America.
to David 4:27 PM,
The current penn station is an economic asset for the City but still an armpit compared to the old Penn Station and what could have been developed there instead. That’s the folly of the proposed AY development. It is a huge missed ooportunity that has been managed in a godawful way.
children – lets drop the brooklyn manhattan thing and talk about NYCs future.
Are you incapable of telling the truth or are you so blinded by agenda that you cant see reality; This is the exhibit (at the museum of the city of NY – supported by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities.) you describe as rehabilitating Robert Moses as a “visionary who points the way to the future”:
Robert Moses and the Modern City: Remaking the Metropolis
January 27th – May 6th
New York
Cross Bronx Expressway at Night, 2006, Copyright Andrew Moore
Robert Moses and the Modern City: Remaking the Metropolis focuses on the extensive physical transformation of New York City guided by Robert Moses from 1934 to 1968. Believing that “the city must be saved,†Robert Moses built a network of roads and bridges, including the Triborough Bridge, to bring people to the city, initiated attractions such as Lincoln Center, and revitalized city parks, including Central Park. At the same time, his projects disrupted neighborhoods and increased the city’s dependence on the automobile. The exhibition explores the controversial vision of this important force in planning and development and considers his legacy in the context of the urban issues of his time. Documents, photographs, publicity brochures, and never before exhibited three dimensional models of Moses’ projects – both realized and failed – trace the complicated history of this controversial figure.
The exhibition will be complemented by concurrent exhibitions: Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Road to Recreation at the Queens Museum of Art and Robert Moses and the Modern City: Slum Clearance and the Superblock Solution at the Wallach Gallery of Columbia University. A related book co-edited by curator Hilary Ballon and Kenneth T. Jackson will be published by W.W. Norton.
Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue, New York
David — You must be f’ing kidding! Brooklynites are flocking to the Atlantic Terminal/Center malls in “record numbers”??? Wow, you completely discredited yourself with that one.
Your argument that people prefer to live in Manhattan rather than Brooklyn based on real estate prices doesn’t quite hold water, by the way. You seem to have forgotten about the supply part of that ole supply/demand thing.
If more people prefered to move to Brooklyn then Manhattan, the prices in Brooklyn would be higher than Manhattan (for the equivelant home), -they arent (by significant margin) hence it is a fact, more people desire to move to Manhattan.
It is also inconsisstent to say that AY will cause housing prices to fall and then say that AY will cause more gentrification.
Here is my prediction – in 10 yrs – AY will be exactly like Atlantic Terminal – a whole group of Brooklynites will bomoan its existence, say how ugly, cheap, and annoying it is at the same time they (and everyone else) frequents it in record numbers thereby making it an economic asset for the boro as a whole,