Rally Round the Mega-Project
Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn and AY Report bring word of a rally Forest City Ratner is organizing at Borough Hall this Thursday afternoon to demonstrate support for Atlantic Yards. The event is called “Brooklyn Day,” and, as AY Report writes, it suggests FCR isn’t considering Atlantic Yards a “done deal.” The poster for Brooklyn Day…
Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn and AY Report bring word of a rally Forest City Ratner is organizing at Borough Hall this Thursday afternoon to demonstrate support for Atlantic Yards. The event is called “Brooklyn Day,” and, as AY Report writes, it suggests FCR isn’t considering Atlantic Yards a “done deal.” The poster for Brooklyn Day says it’s being held in honor of “Brooklyn’s renaissance; The progress of Atlantic Yards; Affordable housing, union jobs and community development; and The return of professional sports to the borough.” The event seems primarily pitched to construction workers (they got their own invitation separate from the poster above) and, aside from the promise of union jobs, the promo material emphasizes that AY will bring the Nets to Brooklyn. Per AY Report: “The rally poster suggests that the developer is de-emphasizing the promises of affordable housing—after all, the developer has 12+ years to build Phase 1, and no deadline for Phase 2—and returning to the old mantra of basketball. After all, the basketball motif dominates the poster and, at the top, ‘The Nets moving to Brooklyn!’ appears in larger type than ‘support the Atlantic Yards Project.’ Can the iconographic power of the flag and the Brooklyn Bridge nudge the stalled project forward?” Desperate times call for desperate rallies? It’ll be interesting to see how many legitimate supporters of Atlantic Yards the event draws and whether any anti-AY people show up for a counter-rally.
At Borough Hall on Thursday, Another FCR-Organized AY rally [AY Report]
Ratner Calls Rally In Support of…Ratner [DDDB]
One wonders why, if Forest City Ratner is so proud to call a rally in support of itself, why they make no mention of it on their website at:
http://www.atlanticyards.com
what’s up with that?
Whether anti-AY people want to recognize it or not – there is a big difference between a cash subsidy (approx $200M in this case – which includes the cost to upgrade and cover the railyards) and PILOTS (Payments in Lieu of taxes). In one case you have actual tax payer $ being used and in the other private money is being used to pay for the financing of construction – the only thing the ‘taxpayer’ is giving up is the right to collect taxes (for a time) on a property that if not for the development – would hardly be paying taxes anyway.
Sum – the taxpayers aren’t building the arena – private $ is – taxpayers (through their representatives) are just agreeing to back the bonds and not collect taxes for 30yrs.
-if you think having the Gov’t own, build and operate the arena would be cheaper – then you havent been in NY (or anywhere else) very long.
Bxgrl:
Well, I don’t like the hole in the ground that’s been at the site for my entire life, which is how long I’ve been in Brooklyn (45 years). I’m not exactly overjoyed that Ratner got big tax breaks to build, but if it gets SOMETHING built there, I will live with them. I don’t mind his use of eminent domain either, because I believe that the greater good IS served by turning the land over to a developer. If the development being built means closing Pacific Street, then close it. I’m sure everyone will adapt. The scale is, I think, appropriate for a major space adajacent to Brooklyn’s downtown, and is supported by mass transit. Ratner ENGAGED community groups in creating this project. Maybe you don’t like the agreements that resulted. That’s your right. But your claiming he “play[ed] the racism card to try to shove his project through” sounds like sour grapes, is inaccurate, and above all is rather insulting to minorities like myself. Would you rather he had ignored the community, as so many other developers have done? Like you, I’m a taxpayer and have a right to say that I support this project of my own free will. And I don’t work for Ratner, and nor am I on his payroll.
“Legitimate opponents are those whose taxes are building this mess.”
Johnny, I live in Prospect Heights and my tax dollars are going towards this project, but I am a proponent of it.
The difference being the amount of public funding that’s taking place with the Nets. An order of magnitude greater than the tax breaks we give other teams.
It would be far cheaper to simply buy them from Ratner than to build them a stadium that they’ll use for a few years.
One potential solution – Pro-AY folks invest in FCR and raise the roughly $1 billion for the stadium themselves. 1,000 investors with a million dollars each (or a million investors with a thousand bucks each!) and then let the free market dictate whether a stadium is worth the cost.
sorry 11:37- I didn’t quite respond to your point- but I agree about the dialogue needing to be healthy pros and cons. I do think the legitimate/illegitimate argument is ridiculous- if you support it you’re a legitimate supporter. But the venom is on both sides. Anti-AY get blasted as nimbys, luddites, backward-looking, Brooklyn-hating, ignorant, etc. Both sides want only the best for Brooklyn- now if we could only figure out what that really means.
I don’t think it’s bad either but that doesn’t mean I want a major league team badly enough to let Ratner build AY the way he wants. Too much taxpayer money is going into it, and I really abhor his threat to use eminent domain. I don’t like the lies, the closing of public streets (Pacific St) to give him courtyards in his expensive luxury project, I don’t like the scale or Frank Gehry’s crap design. Gehry could do a lot better- look at some of the new buildings he designed that are going up in Manhattan. And my biggest beef is how Ratner used community groups and played the racism card to try to shove his project through.
Which is definitely not to say that there should be no development- but if it’s to be good for Brooklyn, it should be a lot more intelligent than what he is doing now (and yes- as a taxpayer I have a right to say so).And frankly, as hard as I and my fellow taxpayers work for our money, I don’t see why ratner deserves it for luxury housing. Despite the promise of affordable housing, his agreement is not guaranteed. Now if you said affordable housing had to be the first thing built in AY in return for public money and perks, I might feel differently.
I’m the poster from 11:11. The point I was making is that if you are against Atlantic Yards, good for you. You are entitled to your opinion and this blog can serve as a medium for healthy dialouge on the pros and cons of the project. However, the tenor of this blog is such that views of Brooklynites (life long in my case) who support the project are somehow illegitimate. Regarding the Cyclones, they are great but they are not major league. Manhattan has the Knicks, the Bronx has the Yankees, Queens has the Mets…I don’t think it would be the worst thing in the world for Brooklyn (the largest borough and the 4th biggest city in America) to have a major league sports team as well.
Brooklyn Day, also known as Anniversary Day, is [was?] a local Protestant religious holiday to commemorate the founding of the Brooklyn Sunday School Union. I’m told that at one time children in Brooklyn and parts of Queens paraded on that day.
Despite my antipathy towards religion, I think local holidays are great. Anyone interested on reviving Evacuation Day (November 25th) ,an NYC holiday that was celebrated until 1917?