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, I really don’t get your question. There are lots of people who’d never consider living in Manhattan no matter how much money they had. Some people actually dislike the city. That’s consistent with the (plausible) claim that lots of folks who live in Brooklyn would rather live in Manhattan. But there are lots of people who’d rather live just about anywhere other than Manhattan, and so it’s no surprise if some of them end up in Brooklyn.
As for the Clinton Hill resident who inquired about the impact of AY on property values, I don’t know what to say. It’s all over. We’re all going to bleed through the nose I’m afraid.
Survival is one thing. But why should some fat cat developer get to evict people from their homes and get subsidies to pay for it? This isn’t democracy. This isn’t what the boys are supposedly fighting for in Iraq folks. Yes, the Iraq argument is a long, complicated one. But let me tell you that your gradparents didn’t hang out in trenches fighting in WWII for the chance for some guy in a fancy suit to take away your home. That’s not what this country is all about. So we can only assume that your paid off arguments will take you so far. Politicians may be able to be bought. But the hearts and minds of ordinary tax paying citizens will know you Ratner as the evil man that you are. Absolute evil doesn’t care what others think perhaps. But let me tell you we will win because we are right. And you will lose. And your family will be shamed by their association with you.
This AY=Manhattan and people dont want Manhattan is the dumbest strawman argument ever. Because 1. AY (or other tall buildings) doesnt make Brooklyn=Manhattan and 2. People DO want Manhattan – not everyone – but more then want Brooklyn (price independent).
Some how neighborhoods across this city have managed to survive despite being near tall buildings, cultural institutions and large retail stores and I am sure that Ft Greene, Park Slope, Prospect Heights and Boreum Hill will survive too;
For what it’s worth, I think Ratner got his plan approved at the height of a nationwide housing bubble, when every real estate deal was “guaranteed” to turn a huge, huge profit. Now he’s going to start building at the beginning of a nationwide economic slowdown (resulting from the housing crash). Once he realizes that it’s not going to be profitable, do you really think this project is going to be finished?
I don’t think the lawsuits are going to stop this thing, but I do think they can delay the process long enough that the real estate realities in the city change and the whole thing gets scrapped.
Of course, in this scenario, no-one wins.
Nah, poster at 1:16 is a racist who has never actually been to these projects. They aren’t being maintained properly by the city (elevator service and the like) but the fact is that the area near them is absolutely fine. There is a lovely charter school in the local elem school and it really feels nice in this area. It will not feel nice in and around what Ratner is planning on building. There will be wind tunnels that make it impossible to sit outside near the large buildings and there won’t be enough outdoor space to accomodate the tens of thousands of new residents they propose to cram in like sardines in to their high rises. And the residents will certainly be locking their doors at night to keep out the drunken crowds from the 250 events per year at the arena. Here’s to you Bruce!
1:16 is an architectural determinist. For many years, the Fort Greene Houses (as Whitman and Ingersoll were known before divided into two projects) were not (assuming your characterization is correct “miniature slums that trap residents into a vicious cycle of poverty, crime, hopelessness and despair!” Way too many factors in play for you to blame it all on physical design.
At this point Bruce’s PR people have worked themselves in to such a lather of lies that I encourage the opponents of the AY project not to engage them directly on this blog because, well, it doesn’t really help anything, and to direct your attention to the developdontdestroy.org website where you can read information about our neighborhoods and the fight to not let ratner and his paid off city and state and bogus non-profit goons ruin our neighborhoods. Also please consider donating to the effort to fund the lawsuit to stop him from using eminent doman it take over private land for a developer’s financial gain.
Correction, most of the Brooklyn newbies chose to live in Brooklyn becasue they cannot afford to live in Manhattan.
I live in Brooklyn because I grew up here and love it. With all the money in the world, I would buy here, not in Manhattan. While I agree that many people live in BK (hello Williamsburg) because they can’t afford Manhattan, that’s not the case for everyone.