Court of Appeals Will Hear AY Eminent Domain Case

Big Jugs: Have you considered the possibility that people would move into Dan’s building. There are signs of life coming from the building located at 6th and Pacific. Hmmm…buildings were condos were selling north of $500,000 before Ratner started all of this foolishness.

Woo hoo! I am very satisfied — that “hole in the ground” is by no means new, and is actually the LIRR’s Vanderbilt Yards. Yes, it would have been nice and is certainly more aesthetically pleasing an idea to have all that underground, but not nice enough to warrant the nightmare proposed by Ratner financed mostly at taxpayer expense.

And the most recent proposal would even have reduced the LIRR’s capacity at this site, making life even more hellish for commuters and local users of the Atlantic Avenue terminal.

Off to DDDB’s website for a celebratory donation!

Kinickerbocker is correct, there are several parallels between Westway and AY: terrible communication and a complete lack of transparency between planners and the community being the key. The spectre of Robert Moses was too great for Westway — after all, this was the guy who wanted to run a 6-lane highlight across lower Manhattan (right through SoHo and the West Village). Similarly after the disappointments of Metrotech, many Brooklynites don’t trust Ratner. And then there’s Frank Gehry who (whether you think his work is brilliant or not) has a lousy reputation for designing out-of-context developments.

But AY has always been a farce. Too big, too expensive, too dependent on taxpayer subsidies. The affordable housing was the worst lie. Never really affordable (maybe 10% under market rate when rents were at their peak, now it’s probably par) and even included minimum income level exclusions, ie. if you earned too little, you wouldn’t qualify! Also there was never any obligation to build it at the site. The affordable housing component could have been constructed anywhere in the borough. The agreement with ACORN — heralded as a big deal — stipulated that if Ratner didn’t follow through on the affordable housing (and there was no timeline specified), he would have to pay a penalty of $500,000. BFD!

We are better off w/o this nightmare. Though I’m sad the organic redevelopment and reuse of buildings that was once so active in our neighborhood has been halted by FCR’s absurd ambitions. Losing the Ward Bakery is especially hard to take. Built in the same style as BAM and the Audubon Boat House, it’s original grandeur could have been restored and there were plans for that to happen before FCR bought the property and knocked it down to create “conditions on the ground.”

westernnygirl: While I agree with you, the spectre of Robert Moses still haunts all development/NIMBY issues in NYC.

However – the missing fight here is that Rater is not the problem – its the MTA.

Ratner wants to make $$ -that’s all. He will do anything to get $$, including cut as many corners as legally possible. That is also par for the course.

But the MTA continually ignores its obligation to accept the highest bidder. The Extell plan would have been fine, but too many politicians got sweaty hands while waiting to stick their hand in the cookie jar – so FCRC’s bid was rigged.

I am not happy with the hole in the ground, but also hated the original Gerhy design.

Had the MTA complied with its directives, this would have worked, but the fix was in way too soon, and DDDB is not wrong to call out FCRC and the MTA on their complicity.