Ratner to Break Ground on March 11th
In the wake of yesterday’s ruling against the property owners in the footprint of the Barclay’s Center, the Daily News reported that Forest City Ratner will break ground on March 11. State officials said that the evictions would happen over the next several months. Reactions from those who stand to be displaced by eminent domain…
In the wake of yesterday’s ruling against the property owners in the footprint of the Barclay’s Center, the Daily News reported that Forest City Ratner will break ground on March 11. State officials said that the evictions would happen over the next several months. Reactions from those who stand to be displaced by eminent domain ranged from angry to belligerent. “It feels like I live in a state run by crooks,” said Daniel Goldstein. “There’s chains on the bar and a lot of people will be buying handcuffs,” said Steve de Seve of Freddy’s bar, which has served as a gathering spot for those opposed to the project.
Judge Gives Atlantic Yards Project the Green Light [NY Daily News]
The real tragedy in all this: what will the NIMBYs occupy their time with now??
“it’s the intersection of abandoned tracks and a mini ghetto and projects. bleech!”
winelover–while I agree that I would have taken the buyout and that this area is an eyesore and needs something to happen your description of it is highly inaccurate if not inflammatory. There are no projects or “ghettos” (whatever that means in this context) anywhere near there. Way to make a reasonable point really badly.
Johnny, I understand what you’re saying. Like i said, I wasn’t around Brooklyn when all this started. Since it has now gotten to the point where further litigation is, for all intents and purposes, fruitless, I think it’s time for everyone to move on.
“Among the saddest has been the history of personal attacks by project opponents”
Agreed – and frankly IMO one of the factors that significantly hurt the opposition – if not in actually killing the process then in definitly gaining a voice to put in meaningful input into what was actually built.
When you START (and yes it was from the very beginning) by calling your opponents (Ratner, Markowitz, anyone who supported AY) corrupt, sleazy, liars etc, etc, etc – you severly undercut your credibility in terms of 1. legitimate complaints and 2. being viewed as worthy of discussion in seeking compromises.
I really think the current healthcare debacle as being very comparable to the AY situation (and it is very ironic that I bet 99% of the AY opponents support the current Dem plan or one even more ‘liberal’ and cant understand the GOPs stubborness) – except in this case it is the AY opponents who are the GOP – they say anything, use extreme hyperbole, personal attacks and extreme recalcitrance in order to stop something they dont want – but they dont posses the requisite power to actually stop it, so what will likely end up happening (in both cases) is that legitimate issues cannot be addressed and what ends up getting done will be far from ideal because one side can only consider getting it going (delay=death) because the otherside has taken an all or nothing posture.
since the first moment i heard of this plan, i have been so psyched. it’s AMAZING! if i had a place there, i would have taken the buyout and moved the h out of the way. that area s*cks balls right now. do the opponents not get that? it’s the intersection of abandoned tracks and a mini ghetto and projects. bleech!
now, we’ll have the nets! the nets! a frickin national basketball team in brooklyn. brooklyn will go from a manhattan 2nd best to it’s own city the moment the first game is televised.
it’s a gigantic undertaking, so yes, the gov’t had to help, and yes we all have to contribute, but we’ll get it back in spades with increased property values.
plus! we’ll replace no man’s scary land with housing.
Big mistake by Ratner – he should have taken a page from Robert Moses and the minute he got the decision brought in massive equipment and started ripping stuff down or moving crap or whatever – anything to give the impression that everything has started and the battle is over – I would be absolutely shocked if DDDB doesnt file another lawsuit in the next week or so – now they may not get a restraining order to prevent work – but they might and starting work would help prevent it.
BTW in another Moses move, my guess is that the Marshalls will execute the warrant in the very early morning – when no one is around to chain themselves to bars or otherwise put on a show for the cameras (not that they wont come back to do it later)
I have known and worked with Abe Gerges for thirty years, first as a councilman and later as a judge, and if it is true that his decision was based on anything other than the law, that would not be consistent with the man I know.
This project and almost everything related to it have been an abomination. It is almost impossible, short of the several million words written Norman Oder, to list all of the awfulness. Among the saddest has been the history of personal attacks by project opponents.
I have a life DIBS. I work, and I pay taxes. A lot of which are going to build a stadium for the Nets for reasons that remain unclear.
Economic benefit – nowhere near as large as the cost, even by Ratner’s extremely flawed estimates
Jobs? A few jobs, a few hundred million in debt. We could be paying bank executives with what’s being siphoned to FCR.
Affordable housing? Y’know, the $50 mill seed money that was supposed to build affordable housing but instead Ratner used for PR and to buy land – haven’t seen a single unit. But the $50 mill’s definitely gone.
We’re not NIMBYs. We’ve just been robbed.
dear guvna:
it seems you haven’t been personally on the short end of the judicial stick in brooklyn. take a look at prior decisions and evaluate the pattern of activity.
as a judge there is at least one questionable activity…
http://www.transalt.org/newsroom/media/2370
declaring that because the activities have not been outed means a pass on scrutiny is foolish at best. i say be wary unless there has been scrutiny.
it appears that 2010 is gerge’s last year(manditory retirement) on the bench so he can pretty much do as he pleases with impunity. not sure which way this one goes, but we dont yet live in a society where the judiciary should be beyond review and criticism.