Renewed Anger Over Atlantic Yards Claims
The clip above, from the soon-to-be-released “Battle of Brooklyn” documentary, illustrates how pro-Atlantic Yards boosterism leaned heavily on the number of jobs the project would create—claims that were called into question with yesterday’s news that developer Forest City Ratner is considering building a prefabricated housing tower. While the clip mostly focuses on assertions about how…
The clip above, from the soon-to-be-released “Battle of Brooklyn” documentary, illustrates how pro-Atlantic Yards boosterism leaned heavily on the number of jobs the project would create—claims that were called into question with yesterday’s news that developer Forest City Ratner is considering building a prefabricated housing tower. While the clip mostly focuses on assertions about how many jobs the arena will create, articles in Patch, The New York Times, and The Eagle highlight how the developer’s possible use of modular construction has reignited debate about Atlantic Yards. In the Patch story, Richard Weiss, a spokesman for Construction & General Building Laborers’ Local 79, has the following to say: “The union supports projects based on one criteria only: are there jobs for our members in this project? If that’s not the case, then we’re not going to support it.” Meanwhile, Candace Carponter, the legal director of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, tells the The Times: “With Ratner’s selling out of the unions, shelving of any office space and the scarcity of subsidies for housing, the community is left with the arena as the primary benefit, if you believe a traffic-choking, noise-generating, taxpayer-money-losing white elephant is somehow beneficial.” And to round it out, Councilwoman Letitia James is quoted in the Eagle as saying the prospect of the modular build adds to “a long list of failed promises” regarding the project.
New Attention for Atlantic Yards Project [NY Times]
Unions Outraged Over Ratner’s Prefab Tower [PS Patch]
Hint of Old-Time Ratner Debate Surfaces Again [Eagle]
Bruce Bender (and Elected Officials) on Jobs [Vimeo]
Unions. So funny. See ya down in the coal mine. Whatever.
So, after they delivered the goods, Ratner threw his allies and his promises to them under the bus. Shocking.
Doesn’t make too much difference if this is a stadium (with not without a retractible roof) or an arena, it’s still ugly, a huge drain on our tight resources, and will likely be a regrettable financial mistake. But Ratner will get richer off of it and we will be shelling out/losing millions of dollars on it for years to come.
Hooray to FCR & Ratner for building this fine arena for the good colored folk of Brooklyn to enjoy some hoops! The area prior was a cesspool, now it’ll be filled with Wing joints, Burger Kings and places to watch basketball and see rap concerts. THis is great! My family is so excited
Once again, this is not a stadium, it is an Arena.
Does anyone have links to articles or studies on the bad experiences other cities have had with arenas?
I have seen plenty of ones showing the negatives of football/baseball stadiums, but not arenas.
Of the top of my head, I could probably name a dozen or more stadiums imploded in the last 15 years (3 in the NYC area along), but I can only think of one arena (Atlanta), and it was replaced by a new one on the exact same site.
AY will mostly be a multi-acre parking lot for years to come. I’m not sure how that will be an improvement upon the rail yards. You can try discount the bad experience many other cities have had with their sports stadiums, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that other cities have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build sports stadiums only to have the teams return time and again to the public trough for more handouts. The new stadium we’re getting will look like a real piece of crap, but still perhaps nicer than the manure Gehry designed. If Ratner is so ready to screw the unions who vociferously supported AY, what makes anyone think that he’s not looking to screw Brooklyn and all city taxpayers even more?
“did you type this with a straight face? Are you not familiar with the history of the BQE and how it literally destroyed and fragmented neighborhoods? This was Robert Moses’s “getting things done” at its finest.”
Right on, jelly donut. I was scratching my head at Acajou’s statment too. I’m not sure what world Acajou lives in, but apparently it is some weird parallel universe where the BQE is actually a positive for the surrounding communities.
The BQE was necessary for the broader regional transportation system, and I’m not going to pile on Moses (I actually think much of what he did was ultimately very positive for NYC metro region, and by extension NYC, although much of it was indeed catastrophic for surrounding communities), yet for Acajou to go so far as suggesting the BQE was/is somehow positive for neighboring communities is frankly ridiculous.
Funny that the BQE was the best analogy Acajou could come up with for the gaping hole that is the LIRR yards. And that was from someone who liked the yards!! Couldn’t write it better myself; haters, still want to make the case that the yards weren’t blight??
“Point remains, it was a hole in the ground before, and it will actually be something now (something more than the “organic” growth in the area would’ve been able to achieve in decades), and that’s improvement. Haters, please keep making your red herring arguments about traffic and how football stadiums are a bad economic deal (don’t you guys know that’s not the relevent comparison!?!). Instead of wasting our breath, the rest of us will actually enjoy the fact that world class sporting events will soon be witin a few minutes walk of our homes, which is a positive change.”
**
Thank you.
Ah yes, AY. Can always count on any mention of AY to get the same old debate ramped up again.
As Corey said, and as was frankly transparent all along, DDDB are simply NIMBY’s who don’t care one bit about anything but winning [maybe they should’ve hired Charlie Sheen as a consultant]. They’ll make any argument against the project, even if it is inconsitent with their prior statements or stated core belief. Yawn.
Point remains, it was a hole in the ground before, and it will actually be something now (something more than the “organic” growth in the area would’ve been able to achieve in decades), and that’s improvement. Haters, please keep making your red herring arguments about traffic and how football stadiums are a bad economic deal (don’t you guys know that’s not the relevent comparison!?!). Instead of wasting our breath, the rest of us will actually enjoy the fact that world class sporting events will soon be witin a few minutes walk of our homes, which is a positive change.