Spillover Crowds, Strong Words Mark AY Hearing
By all accounts, yesterday’s public hearing on the Atlantic Yards project was crowded, raucous and long. There’s ample coverage of the blow-by-blows on the links below. While The Times notes that the two sides of the issue appeared to have hardened, Norman Oder notes that more public figures are heading the opposite direction: There was…
By all accounts, yesterday’s public hearing on the Atlantic Yards project was crowded, raucous and long. There’s ample coverage of the blow-by-blows on the links below. While The Times notes that the two sides of the issue appeared to have hardened, Norman Oder notes that more public figures are heading the opposite direction:
There was some evidence of a push for compromise. Borough President Marty Markowitz, though vague, offered his most forceful words for a project scaledown. Assemblymembers Roger Green and Jim Brennan reminded the crowd of their effort to subsidize a 34 percent reduction in the project’s size. And Kenn Lowy, of Community Board 2’s Traffic and Transportation Committee, drew cheers from opponents when he declared that the project must be reduced by 60 percent.
Is compromise the inevitable course of action?
Raucous Meeting on Atlantic Yards [NY Times]
Hoop Dreams Draw a Foul [NY Post]
Sides Clash Over Atlantic Yards [NY Sun]
Supporters Out in Force, Opponents Go the Distance [AY Report]
AY: Brooklyn Deserves a Better Plan [Municipal Arts Society]
Everyone, that is, except those Brooklynites who support the project and the many who still love Marty!
Outside of the yuppified areas of Brooklyn (a small part of the borough), Marty is well-liked.
RATner, I agree completely with your remarks about Markowitz. He is now persona non grata so far as I am concerned. He has betrayed everyone in Brooklyn who ever placed their trust in him.
Four boorish teenagers out of hundreds of bona fide supporters hardly makes a difference.
I would like to know which group brought in the 4 teenagers sitting next to me. They started off the hearings with their shirts pulled over their heads trying to get some sleep. Then they got bored and started screaming over most everybody testifying (supporters and opponents), “No jobs means we WILL ROB!” Even the pro-AY construction workers sitting nearby seemed appalled. These boys were wearing some sort of Endeaver stickers on their sleaves. And a woman with a clipboard demanded nobody near them speak to them as they are, “clearly children and shouldn’t be spoken to by adults.” One of the boys got bored and asked me what the fuss was about anyway. When I told him they were talking about building a big project near Fort Greene in the midst of Prospect Heights he said he never heard about it before I brought it up. He said they came from Brownsville. It was theater of the absurd for the AY supporters as far as I’m concerned.
D-O-N-E-D-E-A-L!!!
Marty’s concerns about the scale of AY are too little, too late…and rather annoying since his support for AY was pivotal in landing us in this mess. His head should end up on a platter for what he’s done.
did you know, that when a community board member emailed ESDC to know when the doors would open, they replied it would be treated as a freedom of information act request? no joke. This whole thing was rigged by the Ratner people- busing in union guys and acorn people who:
“Hundreds of supporters were bused in by organizations that signed a Community Benefits Agreement with Ratner that promises affordable housing and jobs for Brooklynites. Union construction workers also showed up, many arriving earlier than the hundreds of opponents who wanted to voice concerns about the shadows of skyscrapers, the burdens of traffic and the loss of Brooklyn’s character. Both sides were rowdy.”
http://www.nolandgrab.org/archives/2006/08/late_edition_co.html
– – though i have to say the moderator did an excellent job of controlling the crowd.
The Municipal Arts Society issued an excellent critique of the Atlantic Yards project yesterday, suggesting that the current FCP proposal be amended in accordance with five urban design principles which they succinctly lay out. I think their suggestions make a lot of sense, and it seems to me that both proponents and opponents of the project could come to agreement around these principles. (Brownstoner: if you haven’t already, could you please provide a better link?)
http://www.mas.org/Resources/Issue3.cfm?ContID=1279&Full=Yes#Story_1279
I can only imagine the civility and decorum on display last night. I’m sure an example of NY sophistication at its best.
Let us be an example to the rest of USA and world. Perhaps we can lead the way to world peace.