Peyser Finds Ratner's Ass, Inserts Nose
We didn’t see Post columnist Andrea Peyer’s article until late in the day yesterday. Given the extreme hyperbole and brash tone, it’s amazing it wasn’t clearly labeled more clearly as an opinion piece. But whatever. Here’s a taste of what she wrote: It’s about freaking time. Three long and frustrating years have passed since I…
We didn’t see Post columnist Andrea Peyer‘s article until late in the day yesterday. Given the extreme hyperbole and brash tone, it’s amazing it wasn’t clearly labeled more clearly as an opinion piece. But whatever. Here’s a taste of what she wrote:
It’s about freaking time. Three long and frustrating years have passed since I walked with developer Bruce Ratner along Brooklyn’s horrendously blighted Atlantic Yards – and we were greeted by a pile of seven discarded hypodermic syringes…After navigating miles of red tape and enduring fierce protests led by dilettante celebrities who don’t give a rat’s rump about the borough of Brooklyn, construction has started.
Now, it’s one thing to disagree with the anti-Yards contingent about whether this will be a good thing for Brooklyn, but to cast them collectively as not caring about the borough is plain silly. Peyser’s tough-gal prose (all the more annoying in contrast to her starry-eyed depiction of Ratner) is just another example of the class warfare PR campaign that Ratner has managed to wage. All those syringes she mentions seeing on the ground could have been equally well removed by builders developing this area organically without the crutch of eminent domain.
Score One For The Good Guys [NY Post]
Re: Score One For The Good Guys [No Land Grab]
Andrea Peyser Spies a Rat [AY Report]
Andrea might REALLY ask
Where have the garbage cans gone on that street?
Who is dumping the garbage there?
Why has the MTA and State purposely NOT CLEANED that area in nearly 40 years?
To suggest that the “blight” is an evolution of the people living there, is just about as snooty as Andrea Peyser pretends not to be.
She is so misguided. Your title is great.
As for the usual “crazies” as someone stated up there… life in the clouds must be nice, but if you think people who question the corrupt government are crazies, then bring it freakin on.
The continuation of business as usual in this country rests on the obivious notions of people like you. Ignorance IS bliss!
AY is only one project among the large number of projects along Flatbush Avenue that will improve the quality of life along its length.
andrea peyser is walking crap.
and representative of the so called publication she works for.
A brownsoner 1st: two posters agreeing.
Although I do now see that your intentions on the subject were different than I first read into it, and that we’re actually in agreement on the larger issues present, so ignore my last post, it was ill-informed.
Anonymous 2:45pm,
I was not the one using the term “blight,” you were.
I was debunking your use of the term “blight,” as if it attempted to say “well, if they really want to see blight, go a few blocks west.
My whole point is that I don’t support any of that argument, least of all passing it to someone else’s backyard.
doh,
UMMM, isn’t the planned use for Atlantic Yards area – used for transporation now and being re-zoned for residential + other commercial uses?
My point is if you’re looking for “blight” you’re going to see the real thing around areas like Nevins & 3rd vs. a twisting of the word at Atlantic + Flatbush.
My second point is the the State & City are spending money to revitalize an area that has already self revitalized. They are about 10 years too late for that party. At the same time, areas like that around Wykoff Gardens could use some real reviatlization, so that maybe residents there could be surrounded by things like parks and and a decent supermarket instead of things like dumpsters, piles of old tires and barrels of industrial goo.
Boerum Hill resident at 1:19pm,
Nevins and 3rd / Wyckoff Gardens area isn’t blighted.
It exists precisely as it was always zoned to be.
For businesses…
1) that pay their taxes (presumably…)
2) that provide jobs to individuals
3) that provide needed services or light manufacturing and industrial functions to the community at large
It’s not meant to be residential, luxury retail or even mid-level retail.
It’s zoned for a particular purpose (light industry, services etc.), and serves it.
The city community has great need for garages, repair shops, grocery/dairy depots, printing houses, welding shops, plumbers, supply warehouses etc. to support the very retail and residential functions you mention.
Some empty/for-lease buildings aside, are not most such properties in the area housing functional businesses use as described above, as per actual zoning for the area?
Boerum Hill resident here.
When I walk around the nieghborhood, to the west of the AY Arena, I see nothing but new construction going on (i.e. seemingly all of State St., good portions of Atlantic + fits & spurts on 4th). If the MTA made the yards land available in small pieces, the same thing would happen there.
If the City wants to get rid of blight, it should try helping out with the areas between Nevins and 3rd. Wyckoff Gardens residents have to live surrounded by auto body shops + pell mell light manufacturing sites. There are hardly any parks or qulatiy retail. The city couldn’t have deisgned a more bleak environment to put public housing in. Why doesn;t the City + State do something to spruce up that area and bring in better parks + retail etc?
The answer is that they’re not out to get rid of blight. They’re out to get paid off by this developer.