Build, Bruce, build: Developer Ratner presses ahead on Atlantic YardsSaturday, June 27th 2009, 4:00 AM
Bully to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for making a deal that keeps the Atlantic Yards development alive in Brooklyn. And bully to builder Bruce Ratner for hanging in there to get the project done.
Bully? More like bullshit. The guy came in with a lower bid that for some strange reason was accepted by the MTA and is now scaling back every aspect of what he promised while the MTA is currently up shit's creek and forcing riders to pony up more money at the turnstile.
After five years, the defeat of 23 lawsuits and an economic meltdown, he is pushing to start the $4 billion development's first component: an 18,000-seat arena, home to the Nets and a major entertainment venue.
The lawsuits aren't over yet. And the city needs this like we need a hole in our heads.
The plan then envisions construction of 6,400 apartments (35% of them deemed affordable), a school and a health care center, amid 8 acres of open space. This good stuff would be located primarily on land that has been vacant for decades, including a Long Island Rail Road yard.
Huh? They do realize that much of that 8 acres of open space was bulldozed and that there are still several buildings in the footprint of the planned development, right? Here's a map of a walking tour of the area. And the rest of the space is and always has been an active railyard... Vacant?
But financing is not as available as it was a few years ago. The MTA board wisely voted to let Ratner pay $100 million over time for the rights to build above the yards, rather than demand a lump sum. With interest, the agency comes out whole.
Does anyone not smoking crack seriously believe that? Especially when Bruce asks for more money every time you turn around and this very paper reported that the arena would be a big money loser?
Ratner will now seek private financing for the arena. His bankers hope to raise the money by the end of the year. Wouldn't that be nice for Brooklyn?
No, it wouldn't. The plan calls for eminent domain abuse, would put some parts of Brooklyn in 24-hour darkness, create a clusterfuck of traffic, and build an entire new neighborhood full of "superblocks" in the middle of low-rise areas. And those are just the things I can think of at 6am off the top of my head.
When will the press in this city stop acting like Bloomberg's mistress and start questioning what he's doing to kill the place we love?
Lumi from No Land Grab wrote to yours truly:
"Liar, liar:
* There haven't been 23 lawsuits filed;
* 35% of the housing has certainly been "deemed affordable," whether or not it really might be depends on the definition of "affordable";
* Ratner never promised a school, only offered the possibility that the city pay him to build one; and
* the railyard is only eight acres of a 22-acre project, the DN's fantasy list of purported benefits would be "located primarily" on private property and permanently-closed city streets."
And Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report weighs in too.
What would we do without citizen journalists, especially now that the press has been bought by a megalomaniacal billionaire and his developer friends?
Graphic from No Land Grab
16 comments:
I wonder if Bruce "the rat" is getting any federal stimulus money for this uneeded BS project?
I'll give him some "stimulus"...a good dose of castor oil!
And Mayor Mike could benefit greatly from the same...that constipated micro-managing megalomaniac!
Please don't forget Columbia University that is abusing eminent domain and they are also looking in to getting stimulus money. Also real estate magnates
NYU that doesn't have to abuse eminent domain to get the job done. NYU mega dormed the East Village to death and so many other Universities followed their example in the East Village where The New School, SVA, NY Law and Cooper Union all have joined NYU in confusing the EV with dorm fodder and not a community.
The only thing John Sexton, best friends with every power broker possible, Mike Bloomberg and the wicked witch of the East Village haven not done is provide buses, NYU trolleys and trains to move us out to make room for these greedy evil real estate magnates that use their not for profit status as a tax shelter.
The division that handles anti-trust at the State Attorney General's office should be investigating these land grabs and abuse by NYU and Cooper Union because they are playing Monopoly and only this greedy administration that favors developers would allow this to happen.
Even Guiliani's city planner said "No" to the evil exploitive real estate magnate Cooper Union when they asked if they could supersize their little yellow Science building, supersize it and lease it for 99 years. I am told he responded "It is a shell game."
But Amanda Burden let them do this twice. Cooper Union is about to tear down the yellow building by the black cube and on the other side the sky piercing mirrored half empty condo building that reflects a history destroyed & a community no longer welcome I am told -- the land is owned by Cooper Union and they lease it. Ha Ha by a condo for 5 million dollars and know you are buying a leased property.
Around the corner Cooper Union just supersized it's old historic studio and it looks like a hideous ugly fractured aquarium that belongs on a Hollywood set of a bad B movie and not the Bowery.
After zone busters NYU and Cooper Union supersized down Third Avenue than came condo and hotel developers that were able to do so as well with the wicked witch mega millionaire socialite city planner's blessing.
Do you think you will read about this in The New York eminent domain Times -- no or just glowing lies and as much as I like the NY Daily News - Mort Zuckerman may have the same money manger Steve Rattner -- and they did a dishonest public relations piece for the socialite mega millionaire city planner saying she preserved the East Village when thanks to her stupidity and greed shared with all these developers they have destroyed the heart and soul and community of the East Village and Lower East Side. The Bowery looks like space ships landed on it and are illegally parked.
Burden and Bloomberg want the area to be an extension of Wall Street with a few token buildings.
The evil landlords at 47 East 3rd Street did a mass eviction for their greed so it just is in vogue right now.
Thank you,
Suzannah B. Troy
Seldom right and wrong again Crapper. The real villians here are the selfish NIMBYs that delayed this development with shameful lawsuits. Most of this area was just dead space of railyards. All around it is an active urban environment. Now because of the yahoos who fought this, instead of the originally planned world-class buildings, with all the apartments, business and professional sports, it will get a scaled-down, less expensive version. Development will still happen, but it will not be as great as it could of been, all because of the few loudmouth troublemakers that did not represent the majority here.
Crapper, your rhetoric has gotten tired long ago. Blah blah, traffic, blah blah, big buildings, blah blah. This site is in the middle of downtown Brooklyn. Right at major thoroughfares, public transportation, the LIRR. Downtown Brooklyn, in New York City, has lots of big buildings.
Thankfully less and less people are listening to this NIMBY nonsense.
So you believe the blight caused by the MTA and the developer himself should give him the right to take private property that's not blighted in an area you yourself just called "an active urban environment"?
Do you believe people threatened with eminent domain for private gain should just roll over? Are you ok with the MTA taking a bid that was much lower (by $50M) than the one which called for development in scale with the surrounding communities and would not have used eminent domain?
Can you refute anything that No Land Grab, Atlantic Yards Report, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, or Noticing New York has stated with regards to this project?
No, of course you can't. So just call them NIMBYs. You have no credibility whatsoever.
Just about every local elected official other than Markowitz opposes AY. I guess the NIMBYism isn't just by a handful of locals or you would see a much different response by pols.
I hope the same thing happens at Willets Point.
Why didn't Ratner factor a protracted court fight into his project? We're talking eminent domain in a progressive thinking community. Did he think he would just walk over them?
Thankfully less and less people are listening to this NIMBY nonsense.
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Actually, you are WRONG!
With the advent of blogs and the internet, autocratic regimes around the world are under pressure like they never faced before by young people demanding their voice be heard and accountablity.
In this regard, however, NY is far to the back of the pack.
Our young people in this city dutifully take down their marching orders and look uncomfortable when they are expected to think.
("Bike lanes instead of hospitals - Ohh the horror, dont make me think about that.
You are like Tony Avella, you are being difficult when you say those unpleasant things)"
Until we resolve this, we are a bit like that Mars lander - stuck with spinning wheels.
Cant be any worse than that front page bullshit in the Queens Courier saying how 50,000 people a a little bit of land in the middle of the East River - a half mile from transportation or just about anything is a swell idea....
According to New York magazine a few years back, the projected population density of the square mile surrounding the (now DOA) "Miss Williamsburg" building/centerpiece of the Atlantic Yards boondoggle would have been TWICE that of the city's current biggest, centered in East Earlem, at 250,000 people. Someday, somone's gonna have to explain how dropping a major city into the heart of Brooklyn was not going to destroy the infrastructure of schools, roads, sewers, etc.
Also, did "Beggar Bruce" trade Vince Carter in a Yards-necessary salary dump?
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/04/23/2009-04-23_out_of_control_dinapoli_and_thompson_waited_too_long_to_tackle_spreading_pension.html
It is amazing this piece to the above link got published at all and ditto for The New York Times.
I don't have proof just a rumor that Steve Rattner -- two" tt"s not one like Bruce is the money manager for Mike Bloomberg and the rumor is Mort Zuckerman as well. There is link on the nydaily news piece to Mike Bloomberg being interviewed and stating Steve Rattner should not have to step down...kind of like City Council members being investigated and their staff being arrested but not them....
Again amazing the new york times reported this because I am told Steve Rattner is best friends with the owner of the new york eminent domain times...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/business/22quadrangle.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion
okay and here is the link to the new york daily news article that quotes Mike on Steve and a photo of both of them....
Everyone seems to be "in bed together" so it is amazing we get any news reported at all and why we turn to blogs....
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/04/23/2009-04-23_mayor_bloomberg_defends_friend_car_czar_steven_ratner_amid_pension_scandal_probe.html
Also it doesn't make Bill Thompson look good either.....
It is horrible what has been going on and how the newspapers at times appear to aid and abett but either not reporting the news or appearing as you say "on crack".
thanks,
Suzannah B. Troy
NYU mega dormed the East Village to death...
Huh? The East Village has been "dead" for decades. The fact that you refer to it as East Village instead of including it in the Lower East Side is telling...
Why?
Because someone doesn't conform to the neighborhood names that realtors came up with?
And it will always be Alphabet City to me.
Why?
Because someone doesn't conform to the neighborhood names that realtors came up with?
Was that supposed to make sense?
That area was historically part of the LES.
The "East Village" is a real estate concoction to separate the "hip" (formerly "hippie") northern section from the dangerous and immigrant southern.
You kids crack me up. It's like you think you discovered New York or something.
Actually, the East Village has always been separate from the "Lower East Side" next to Greenwich Village. Realtors tried to cash in on the name by extending "East Village" all the way to the river.
Hey why not call it Corlear's Hook or Kleindeutscheland?
Some of you folks need to stay on topic. This post is about Atlantic Yards, and you want to turn it into a post about Manhattan neighborhood names.
Now I am ready to do my breakfast, later than having
my breakfast coming over again to read other news.
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