Stunner: Goldstein Takes $3 Million Buyout
Our hand-wringing yesterday over the financial fate of Dan Goldstein looks pretty silly now! As most readers have probably heard already, Goldstein, the last remaining resident in the footprint of the Atlantic Yards project and the biggest thorn in developer Bruce Ratner’s side over the past several years, took a last-minute buyout of $3 million…
Our hand-wringing yesterday over the financial fate of Dan Goldstein looks pretty silly now! As most readers have probably heard already, Goldstein, the last remaining resident in the footprint of the Atlantic Yards project and the biggest thorn in developer Bruce Ratner’s side over the past several years, took a last-minute buyout of $3 million yesterday after mediation session led by Judge Gerges. (As Atlantic Yards Report reveals, after the lawyer’s cut and subtracting the market value of his apartment, this comes out to about $150,000 a year for his activism work. AYR also notes that the seven renters received an average of $85,000 each earlier this week.) “What I did today was hopefully protect my family and end up on my feet after fighting like heck for seven years not for to reach this day, but not to reach this day,” Goldstein said. While Goldstein agreed to resign from his leadership role at Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn and not to “actively oppose the project” as part of his deal, he managed to get this quote off to NY1: “Atlantic Yards is an illegitimate project that got where it is today through an illegitimate process — a breakdown of democracy.” It’s tough not to have mixed emotions about Goldstein’s decision. On the one hand, he was going to be evicted in less than a month, so who can blame him for taking as much dough as he could get. On the other hand, the amount is so much that it threatens, at least from a PR standpoint, to throw into question the motives behind his activism; not only that, but AYR points out that it’s not quite true that there was nothing left he could do. We don’t in the slightest bit doubt the sincerity with which Goldstein devoted himself to opposing the project nor can we blame him for his final move in the giant poker game given the options, but it’s hard not to have some feelings of ambivalence about the way it all ended. After all, it was never supposed to be about the money.
A statement released this morning by Goldstein, and posted in full on the jump, helps explain the play-by-play and how he views yesterday’s news.
Daniel Goldstein Leaves for $3 Million [NY Times]
Last Atlantic Yards Hold-out Daniel Goldstein Folds [NY Daily News]
Last Atlantic Yards Holdout Cuts $3M deal to Go [NY Post]
DDDB’s Goldstein settles for $3M [AYR]
Ratner Pays Millions To Have Yards Residents Relocate [NY1]
Last Holdout Accepts Ratner’s $3M! [Brooklyn Paper]
Last Pure Man in Brooklyn Sells Out [Gawker]
As has been widely reported (see the invaluable NoLandGrab for full coverage), I reached a financial settlement with the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), tool of Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner, to move out of my home—which the ESDC took ownership of on March 1st—by May 7th.
I did not know, when Wednesday started, that a settlement was in store. It was nothing that I expected to happen. I only knew that I had to defend myself against eviction by New York State.
My day started at 9:30 in State Supreme Court where my attorney (not DDDB’s) argued against ESDC’s effort to get Judge Abraham Gerges to evict my family from our home on May 17th. I did not expect that this argument would then lead to a settlement, so I did not have a press release prepared when an agreement was reached around 3pm. I did not even think of the press implications because I was thinking about my personal situation and my family, not the press. I should have known better because clearly Forest City Ratner saw it as a big press event and sent out a press release immediately. This has led to some misreporting. I send this statement to clarify what has actually occurred. There is a lot to say, so I hope you’ll forgive the length, and my apologies for not getting this message out sooner.
Contrary to press reports I have not given up my First Amendment rights or my involvement with Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. (Ratner, though he tried to hide it, did require this of nearly all those who sold their homes to him years ago, and they agreed to it.) Ratner and ESDC tried very hard to force me to agree to give up those rights and the work I do with the organization I helped found. It wasn’t enough, I guess, for Ratner to decimate my neighborhood, take my home, and kick me out, they also felt they had to cut out my tongue. For nearly 3 hours of talks mediated by Judge Gerges I refused to accept any kind of gag order. I would not have taken any amount of money to do that, and I did not.
I did agree to give up my title as “DDDB spokesman”, but that’s just a title. And I did agree to remove my name from one outstanding lawsuit which remains in court despite that. Otherwise I can do and say whatever else I want, and my agreement explicitly states that I have maintained my First Amendment rights. So they have not succeeded in silencing me and I am free to criticize and speak about the project, the developer and the ESDC as much as I want. I intend to do that whenever the need arises.
For seven years my wife Shabnam Merchant (who I met as a fellow activist against Atlantic Yards) and I have worked and fought day after day—giving up an income for many of those years—in an effort to help bring community-based, democratic development to Central Brooklyn. This meant, obviously, opposing Ratner’s corrupt, developer-driven, undemocratic project.
As a co-founder of DDDB I will continue that work to the best of my ability and as time allows. I’ve not been silenced, and I am not leaving DDDB as it transitions into a new phase of fighting Atlantic Yards, exposing its corruption and false promises, and advocating for changing the State’s abusive eminent domain laws and the way development is done in New York. And should Atlantic Yards falter, and the land return to its contested state, DDDB will be prepared to jump in.
Impact on the Fight Against Atlantic Yards
On March 1st, after years of litigation, ESDC took title ownership of my home. From that day on, I no longer owned my apartment but instead became a tenant of the State.
At that time, with that action on Ratner’s behalf, there was nothing I could any longer personally do with my home that would stop or impact the project. Staying in my home until the sheriff came to evict my wife, child and I would have accomplished nothing at all for the fight but would have severely harmed us.
After March 1st, it was inevitable that we would be forced out; it was just a matter of when.
On April 9th ESDC filed papers requesting that the court evict me on May 17th. Wednesday morning my attorney argued that the court should not grant that eviction. After the argument, Judge Gerges made it crystal clear that he wanted resolution between me and ESDC/Ratner—that day—as to when I’d leave my home.
So instead of being evicted in about 27 days and then being forced to go to court to hope to get close to fair market value for my home (as opposed to the extremely lowball “just compensation” offered to me by New York State, which was nowhere near fair market value), I agreed to leave in about 17 days. That agreement to leave ten days sooner avoids further litigation over “just compensation,” which would have cost me more time and money while accomplishing nothing for the fight against the project.
I did not sell my home today. I had no home to sell as the state took my home on March 1st. Contrary to what Ratner and ESDC might want people to believe, eminent domain was used on me and many others. My home was seized by the government to give to a private developer.
What I did do was agree to leave my home rather quickly in return for a payment. What I did do was what I needed to do as a responsible husband and father to make sure that my family could make an orderly transition to a new home in Brooklyn. I was left with no good choice by the ESDC or Judge Gerges.
I have always promised that once the legal options to save my home and the homes and businesses of my neighbors were extinguished, I would have to turn my attention to what was best for my family, after years of neglecting our interests. That is what I did on Wednesday.
DDDB
Speaking as the “former” spokesman of DDDB I have this to say.
The fight we have waged as a community has been heroic and crucially important to literally millions around the City and the country. We have all exposed the project and the process as fatally corrupt. We have convinced nearly all good people of good will that the project is a sham and a poster child for the wrong way to develop cities. We shined a bright light on the way eminent domain is abused in New York State to the point where there is now a legislative effort led by Senator Perkins to reform the state’s laws.
We have fought every lie, exaggeration, fudge, false promise, abuse, and misinformation campaign tooth and nail. The project that Ratner wanted to build will never be built. And we know that his promises, many already broken, will continue to be broken—especially his promise to build 2,250 units of affordable housing in ten years. It is shameful, and it is shameful that so many politicians remained silent, and still do to this day.
And we, as a community, as DDDB and so many other community groups, will continue to expose the project’s problems and abuses.
Through the relationships and alliances amongst community groups and individuals I am certain that it will be impossible for developers and their government cronies to ram this kind of project down another community’s throat ever again in New York City.
They didn’t ram it down ours.
While we didn’t stop the groundbreaking, our voice of protest was heard loud and clear for years before that day, and on that day. On Ratner’s day of celebration, the overwhelming media coverage (besides Beyonce and Jay-Z of course) was of the protest of that travesty.
A legacy of this fight will be that we have proven that all that we have found wrong with Atlantic Yardsngal has been shown to be legal in the view of the courts and most legislators. The abusive laws, which favor the most powerful and entrenched interests, must be changed.
Finally, please remember that DDDB, this community and the fight against Atlantic Yards was never about a single person or a single apartment—or even about a single borough. It has been, and still is, about one of the biggest failures of government and democracy in this City’s history, and its impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the great borough of Brooklyn. Our fight has—and this is one of the victories—given hope, inspiration and encouragement to innumerable people that a community united can fight principled fights worth fighting, regardless of the outcome. These are fights that have to be fought if we are to find a way to become a working democracy, which treats individuals and communities fairly, rather than disenfranchising and disempowering them.
See you at the next meeting (once I find a new Brooklyn home). And please be in touch with DDDB.
With my great respect for all the civic minded people who have engaged in the resistance to Atlantic Yards, to any degree at all, throughout the years. You are heroes and YOU have the power.
Daniel Goldstein
Co-founder of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn
PS. It will be interesting to see what Congressman Pascrell accomplishes with his effort to get a Treasury Department investigation into Mikhail Prokorov’s business deallings in Zimbabwe.
>>Really, be rude? He did that for seven years so he could get $3 mil (before expenses & taxes)?
No, Chicken, that’s not what I’m saying.
(though your statement is a bit odd compared with your other post a few minutes later where you begin to question whether DG got compensation … if he was paid by DDDB for 5-6 of the 7 years _and_ got $3 mil at the end, well, not so far fetched, is it?? Again, though, that’s NOT the argument I’m making…)
The folks who saw through DG from the very beginning simply said was that he’s in this for himself, and was merely co-opting the facade of worthier causes (sloppily, nonetheless) to seem more palatable.
Did we think in the end he was after a $3 mil payoff, no, not necessarily (though it’s not far fetched to believe that, in the back of his mind, the worst case was some sort of payoff at the end…). He did this initially because he didn’t want to move. He was a NIMBY, he didn’t care about ED abuse or gov’t corruption, he just didn’t want to move. He likely stayed in it for seven years for the same NIMBY reasons, coupled with some thirst for the spotlight his little movement gave him. In the end, though, the point is DG was always in it for DG.
It is another sad day for Brooklyn, not because Goldstein took the money – CMU, Joe from Brooklyn, Bob Marvin and GoGoMrPoPo pretty much covered my thoughts on that issue – but because we get to see more of the Ratner spin promulgated through the media – especially the NYTimes, which never even came close to biting the hand that fed it.
And it does seem that most of the pro and anti AY folks are lining up in our usual manner.
I can’t help but think that the Goldstein is a sellout bashers are people who have never been in the unhappy position of being involved in a long and difficult lawsuit where, at some point, it just becomes clear that you are not going to “win” – it’s wretched, but there comes a point where you have to think about issues like the rest of your life and your family and cut your losses.
Traditionalmod’s armchair quarterbacking speaks to what appears to be a lack of first hand experience with community organizing, as well as a cursory attempt to understand the scope of opposition to AY:
“I think a more well organized effort that first got great advisers (that were actually listened to, which I heard Goldstein wasn’t good at doing) before starting to just call people and make noise was essential. And determine with a lot more clarity what the goals were. I never understood if they wanted nothing built there, or if they were okay with developing that spot in some way but smaller, or if they just didn’t want Ratner to build it, or what. The voices coming from his side were all over the place. You always need to organize your supporters and clarify the mission.”
There were a number of community forums where ideas for development over the AY area were discussed – and models were built of those plans, which were far easier to build and could have been underway by now – and allied groups like Brooklyn Speaks sure had a lot of expert involvement and was very clear about their mission. With respect to “voices all over the place”, well, that’s true – lots of people were against AY for many different reasons and in a democracy (or what is left of it)you can’t simply muzzle less articulate speakers.
We do need to learn from the AY experience (which I bet will go down in urban planning studies as one of the worst developments ever, in terms of design and process)- but the big question for me is how to influence a project when so many politicians, state agencies, big buck corporations are in on the fix – and where the media (with very, very few exceptions) doesn’t ask hard questions or air opposition views.
DDDB was an ad hoc, grassroots effort and not the work of a professional advocacy organization. The 20-20 hindsight on DDDB’s mistakes sounds impressive now but the same failed results could have easily been secured by professional organizers. In the end, you had a trio of unscrupulous billionaires — an infamous developer, a Russian entrepreneur and a _____ mayor who all collaborated in a sham bidding process on an oversized, unaffordable development scheme, grabbing a chunk of public land, displacing the residents who were living there, hiring and firing a starchitect and buying a losing bball team . . . for what? To make more money of course! Given all that it took to push that garbage through the City Council, Albany, the Courts and the minds of some Brownstoners, I’m not convinced that well-paid, mistake-free professional organizers and advocates would be singing a much different story today than DDDB.
So, it seems that DG is not a hero afterall. If he was that principalled, he would have been the captain of the ship leaving it last and watching it sink (or sinking with it).
Instead, we have some shmoe who got a nice chunk of change, the arena is still going up, and the money wasted to fight “the good fight” was also tax-payers money – who do you think payed for all those trials?
“FCR had the money to pay its Nets players and to buy turkeys for them to distribute at Thanksgiving in the poorer communities of Bed Stuy and ..”
Lots of people are feeling like turkeys now
Anyone have a link to the actual video of Goldstein’s statement to the press after the settlement was reached?
Bruce Ratner is lucky to have friends like you, wine lover. He has to pay most of his friends.
traditionalmod, those who weren’t swayed by DDDB were swayed by the Ratner’s $$$$ and false promises. Obviously DDDB never had FCR’s resources – FCR invented fake companies (BUILD), funded charitable organizations (ACORN), and just plain paid off politicians and church leaders via donations so they’d all support its cause.
FCR had the money to bus in crowds of school kids from Bed-Stuy to testfiy about how important this basketball arena featuring luxury skyboxes and gourmet food was to them – in return for sandwiches, basketball uniforms, and sneakers. I was there and heard them discussing it – they had no idea why they were there, but the swag was certianly cool and who doesn’t like basketball.
FCR had the money to hire union members and pay them overtime wages to disrupt each and every public hearing ever held on this subject, as well as private protests. Again, I was there and saw and heard all of this.
FCR had the money to buy out area residents at multiples of what they’d paid for their apartments, in return for the written promise that not only would they never say a bad word about Bruce Ratner, FCR, or Atlantic Yards, but that they would work actively to persuade their neighbors to take the same deal.
FCR had the money to pay its Nets players and to buy turkeys for them to distribute at Thanksgiving in the poorer communities of Bed Stuy and Crown Heights, reminding residents how much better their lives were going to be once there was a professional basketball team in Brooklyn.
Learn from those who weren’t swayed? Puh-lease.
chicken – YES – goldstein is a giant fat turd POS and the enemy to many. horrible horrible human being.
stood in the way of progress, of jobs, of clean up of a foul area, entirely for his own gain.
despicable, and saw through him from the beginning.