Number of comments: 0 The state Court of Appeals issued a list of decisions today, but the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case was not included. Stay tuned for tomorrow. [...]
Number of comments: 0 Blame Bruce (mostly), say sportswriters assessing the New Jersey Nets' 0-13 start, which has been exacerbated by injuries to key players.The Record's Al Iannazzone offers 13 reasons:1. Bruce Ratner: Nice man, but his interests were in real estate opportunities and buildings, not building a championship team. He bought a contender' [...]
Number of comments: 0 Yet another architecture critic has slammed the new design for the Atlantic Yards arena and offered some (misplaced) nostalgia for the forsaken Frank Gehry plan.Still, James S. Russell, the critic for Bloomberg, grasps a fundamental issue that has eluded too many observers: "[Developer Bruce] Ratner won’t keep any promises that" [...]
Number of comments: 0 At a meeting Tuesday, the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation (BALDC) surely will authorize arena bonds--which may not be sold immediately, pending the decision on the eminent domain case (which could come today, Tuesday, or next Tuesday).Meanwhile, it's worth noting some big difference between this process and the recent process [...]
Number of comments: 0 To Michael White's very interesting Noticing New York piece on Forest City Ratner's efforts to corner a monopoly on prime Brooklyn land, let me remind readers that Chuck Ratner, CEO of parent Forest City Enterprises, on 9/9/05 told investment analysts:"I will confess that it was less than two or three" [...]
Number of comments: 0 The new collection Hearts of the City: The Selected Writings of Herbert Muschamp memorializes the late New York Times architecture critic (who died in 2007) in 912 pages.Guess what: his error-filled, cheerleading 12/11/03 appraisal of Atlantic Yards, headlined Courtside Seats to an Urban Garden, is not included.Credit the book's editors, [...]
Number of comments: 0 From Gib Veconi's affidavit in the case filed by BrooklynSpeaks and allies challenging the Empire State Development Corporation's approval of Atlantic Yards.All organizations participating in the [Community Benefits Agreement] were to receive compensation from [developer Forest City Ratner] to provide various services as a function of the Project. In addition, [...]
Number of comments: 0 Once upon a time, in the magical world of Atlantic Yards, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis and Republican State Senator Marty Golden found common cause, with Golden saluting “ACORN, the premier low-income housing organization.” (He had to overlook their divergent stances on housing policy in general.)On health care, though, they look [...]
Number of comments: 0 In a Streetsblog piece headlined In Third Term, Bloomberg Must Align All Agencies With PlaNYC, veteran community planner (and DDDB board member) Ron Shiffman points to Atlantic Yards:Together with private developers, the city's Economic Development Corporation and other quasi-government entities, the planning department has embraced outmoded redevelopment plans for Willets [...]
Number of comments: 0 Though most news reports--and even Forest City Ratner, which erroneously claimed that "opponents who pledged to sue early and often are still suing"--treated yesterday's lawsuit filed by BrooklynSpeaks and allies as more of the same, the biggest news, as I pointed out, was the simple fact of the lawsuit: the [...]
Number of comments: 0 As he did during last month's radio appearance, Newark Mayor Cory Booker last night steered clear of any prognostication about a permanent move of the Nets to Newark but focused on a temporary one.He spoke during his monthly Newark Today with Cory Booker show on WBGO. The discussion (starting about' [...]
Number of comments: 0 Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) has sent a letter to State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, State Senator Bill Perkins, and Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (chairs of the respective committees on public authorities) arguing that the Public Authorities Control Board (PACB) needs to convene and vote on whether to approve the Atlantic Yards [...]
Number of comments: 0 I'll have much more tomorrow (including video) on the new lawsuit filed by BrooklynSpeaks and allies, but the fact of the lawsuit--BrooklynSpeaks' growing opposition--may be just as important as its contents.The suit in many ways echoes the previous lawsuit filed by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) and allies aiming to' [...]
Number of comments: 0 A caption from Crain's New York Business attached to the image below (click to enlarge):The Nets' new Barclays Center sports complex is an anchor to the planned Atlantic Yards development.Well, how can you anchor "vaportecture"?' [...]
Number of comments: 0 In a post headlined Eminent Domain Ruling Expected Soon...What Will it Mean?, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn is trying to manage expectations ahead of the anticipated ruling--it could be as early as today, next Monday or Tuesday--by the Court of Appeals in the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case.From DDDB:We expect the' [...]
Number of comments: 0 In today's New York Daily News, a follow-up on the news that Atlantic Yards opponent and eminent domain lead plaintiff Daniel Goldstein received a low-ball $510,000 pre-condemnation offer from the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC):A real-estate broker says "That's way low."Peter Williams said he was offered $432,000 for a one-story [...]
Number of comments: 0 In July 2006, Forest City Ratner projected that the most expensive "affordable" studios in the Atlantic Yards project would rent for $1861 a month.That was over market-rate then--and it still is. Forest City Ratner's new 80 DeKalb building in Fort Greene will offer studios at $1795 a month, according to' [...]
Number of comments: 0 The slogan "the right to the city," formulated in 1968 by the French Marxist Henri Lefebvre to imply a right to housing and other elements of urban life, has lived on in several ways, including a controversial effort to turn empty luxury condos into subsidized housing.The Right to the City-NYC [...]
Number of comments: 0 Groups in the BrooklynSpeaks coalition–originally following a “mend-it-don’t-end-it policy”–today will file their first lawsuit, word of which first emerged last month.It will be interesting to see how much this case, which challenges the Empire State Development Corporation's approval of the Modified General Project Plan and failure to pursue a Supplemental [...]
Number of comments: 0 Photographer Tracy Collins went out to the Vanderbilt Yard today and reports: "It appears that the MTA is at least testing the new 'temporary' rail yard that's being constructed for the proposed Atlantic Yards development."The railyard is in the eastern third of the Vanderbilt Yard, between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues [...]
Number of comments: 0 The New York Observer reports that Assemblyman Richard Brodsky and state Senator Bill Perkins have achieved success in their effort to reform public authorities, with apparently only modest pushback from Mayor Mike Bloomberg and others resisting the changes:Brodsky said that the original bill will be signed, and that both legislative [...]
Number of comments: 0 New York Times sports reporter Ken Belson November 16:Whether the Nets beat Indiana (4-3) is an open question. But the promotion has prompted some fans to act. The team has sold 700 $10 seats so far and expects as many as 15,000 fans to show up for Tuesday’s game, around [...]
Number of comments: 0 The Empire State Development Corporation does have a board meeting tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. Atlantic Yards is not on the wide-ranging agenda, but the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership is expected to get $50,000 (via the Assembly) and use it for a marketing campaign of some sort.The authorization for arena bonds, however, [...]
Number of comments: 0 The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) subsidiary Brooklyn Arena Development Corporation (BALDC) will meet on Tuesday, November 24, and authorize arena bonds. (It will also take "related actions," which will be worth a look.)Either the ESDC knows that a favorable decision on the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case will come [...]
Number of comments: 0 With a decision from the New York State Court of Appeals in the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case anticipated anytime within the next week or three--the next possible date is Thursday--you have to wonder: Do the judges read the papers?Do they know the aftermath of the Kelo vs. New London [...]
Number of comments: 0 I wrote yesterday how the 2003 book Mega-Projects: The Changing Politics of Urban Public Investment, authored by Alan Altshuler and David Luberoff, implicitly criticized Atlantic Yards in advising that overrides of local decision making are "very rarely justified" for sports facilities, since they don't serve "urgent regional needs."There's much more' [...]
Number of comments: 0 From the New York Times, before the Nets played the Indiana Pacers at the Izod Center tonight:But the promotion has prompted some fans to act. The team has sold 700 $10 seats so far and expects as many as 15,000 fans to show up for Tuesday’s game, around the season [...]
Number of comments: 1 At a panel on megaprojects November 7, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer suggested a need to prioritize, given that not all projects could go forward. And he also pointed out that many projects have regional importance.No one tried to prioritize, but I found some guidance--implicitly critical of Atlantic Yards--in the [...]
Number of comments: 0 The Fall 2009 issue of Brooklyn!!, Borough President Marty Markowitz's promotional publication, appeared in my mailbox yesterday, even as we're nearly two-thirds of the way into the season.Likely Markowitz wanted to wait until the results of the November 3 election so he could salute three new Council Members, humbly thank' [...]
Number of comments: 0 OK, last week I reported that the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) might not put Atlantic Yards arena bonds on the agenda until mid-December. The New York Observer's Eliot Brown reported that "the project is running into trouble at the ratings agencies."Now Reuters quotes the ESDC (likely the same source [...]
Number of comments: 0 Like a lot of people who've bought Nets tickets, I got this email today offering discounts. But I think the only people who can really call a team their own are in Green Bay. (Click on graphic to enlarge.)' [...]
Number of comments: 0 Last week, Seth Pinsky, the president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC), answered questions from readers of the New York Times's CityRoom blog about citywide entrepreneurship.Given the circumscribed topic, it's unsurprising that, in his answers (Round 1, Round 2), Pinksy bypassed hard questions on development issues. [...]
Number of comments: 0 The proposed purchase of a majority interest in the Nets by Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia's richest man (at a reported $9.5 billion) may seem to be a toy (as per the New York Times) for the oligarch.After all, it would cost him just $200 million down (all borrowed) plus a willingness [...]
Number of comments: 0 It was front-page news in yesterday's New York Times. The article, headlined In House, Many Spoke With One Voice: Lobbyists’, described how the official record of the House of Representatives's debate on health care contains similar-sounding speeches by many legislators, ghostwritten by lobbyists.A not dissimilar effort in 2005 orchestrated by [...]
Number of comments: 0 It would be tough enough to fill seats at the Izod Center for a midweek game against a non-marquee opponent, but the New Jersey Nets are also winless, at 0-10 (albeit coming quite close a couple of times).So Nets CEO Brett Yormark (aka "Yormarketing genius") has devised a "10 is" [...]
Number of comments: 0 At a meeting October 22 of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, as I reported the next day, a resident at Newswalk (700 Pacific Street, adjacent to the Vanderbilt Yard) raised questions about disruptive work late at the yard.That resident the next day told me that on the previous Wednesday [...]
Number of comments: 0 Two more commentators have joined the online New York Times discussion (previous coverage) regarding Pfizer's pullout from New London and the aftermath of the Kelo vs. New London eminent domain case.Yale Law School professor Thomas Merrill, a supporter of eminent domain, writes:I do not believe that this sad episode means [...]
Number of comments: 0 Given that the justification for eminent domain in the Atlantic Yards case is blight, rather than economic development (as in the Supreme Court's controversial Kelo vs. New London decision, now back in the news), Nicole Gelinas's op-ed in tomorrow's Wall Street Journal is especially timely.It's headlined The Empire State and [...]
Number of comments: 0 Following up a previous mention, ESPN.com's Marc Stein writes:It is unquestionably true that Mikhail Prokhorov's deal to buy the Nets includes a very crucial clause that enables him to walk away if the Nets' move to Brooklyn falls through. What we've heard, though, is that he's so geeked about the [...]
Number of comments: 0 Yesterday, I pointed out that Bruce Ratner predicted to the New York Observer that bonds for the arena would be rated and sold in mid-October. Now, the Observer's Eliot Brown reminds us that Ratner first predicted an end-of-September date.In today's piece, headlined New Doubts About Atlantic Yards Financing as Deadline [...]
Number of comments: 0 The Kelo vs. New London case is experiencing some serious blowback, now that the entire rationale for eminent domain there has unraveled.While the commentary does not directly address Atlantic Yards--where the justification for eminent domain is the removal of blight, not the pursuit of economic development--the experience in New London [...]
Number of comments: 0 In a post on the conservative site Big Government, John M. O'Hara connects the dots between Bruce Ratner's Democratic campaign contributions, the Forest City Ratner bailout of ACORN, the FCR lobbying for stimulus funds, and the job of Ratner's nephew at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), concluding that this' [...]
Number of comments: 0 So, Atlantic Yards has been analyzed through many lenses, but environmental justice is a new one. This spring, an article published in the Journal of Sport & Social Issues bore the title Sports and Environmental Justice: "Games" of Race, Place, Nostalgia, and Power in Neoliberal New York City and, while [...]
Number of comments: 0 It looks like the sale of tax-exempt bonds for the Atlantic Yards arena would occur, at the earliest, in mid-December, two months after the date once predicted by developer Bruce Ratner.A press release (bottom) from the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) today announced a meeting November 16 of the ESDC's' [...]
Number of comments: 0 I think New York Times op-ed columnist Gail Collins does a generally excellent job, but she unleashed a brutally weird claim in today's column:I work for a paper that rends its garments and apologizes endlessly whenever we make an error. Not. At. All. [...]
Number of comments: 0 In a soft feature today headlined A Net Reaches Out to Fans, Wherever They Are, New York Times sports business writer Richard Sandomir writes about the unusual willingness of guard Devin Harris to meet with fans (in this case in Newark).Easy story. (It also omitted disclosure of the ties between [...]
Number of comments: 0 An altercation spilling out of the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in the Atlantic Terminal (not Center) Mall Tuesday night led to a shooting--and another piece of evidence that high crime in Sector E of the 88th Precinct is related to the malls, not the much-emptier Atlantic Yards footprint.So consultant AKRF, [...]
Number of comments: 0 Just in case you're wondering how so many people commented in favor of Atlantic Yards to the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) before the most recent approval in September, well, it didn't happen spontaneously.As the screenshot at right suggests, the Rev. Cecil Henry of Calvary Community Church made sure to [...]
Number of comments: 0 Those testifying in favor of Atlantic Yards don't necessarily spring up spontaneously.Pastor Guillermo Martino of the Tabernacle of God's Glory Church in Crown Heights, who testified not so coherently on June 22 before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Finance Committee in favor of the Atlantic Yards plan (video below), has a' [...]
Number of comments: 2 A Crain's New York Business profile of developer Bruce Ratner that emerged Sunday was headlined "Tenacious B," a moniker that drew some criticism and scorn (see AYR, DDDB, Curbed).Now, as the second item indicates, the headline's been changed, and Ratner no longer sounds like a rapper (or comedic rock band). [...]
Number of comments: 0 The future of hyperlocal news--and the business models behind it--was the subject of a most interesting conference held today at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in New York City. (See coverage on Twitter.)One factoid, however, deserves a big footnote. Introducing the hyperlocal landscape, CUNY's Jeff Jarvis said there are [...]
Number of comments: 0 While New York City's plans for the Coney Island amusement area are not directly comparable with developer Forest City Ratner's plans for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Vanderbilt Yard, it's certainly intriguing to learn that the value of land for the former has gone up while the latter has (effectively) gone [...]
Number of comments: 1 A New York Daily News article today, headlined Borough President Marty Markowitz still has a few tricks up his sleeve, woos big companies, highlights Markowitz's efforts to woo Queens-based airline JetBlue, to lure a big overseas manufacturer like Korean electronics giant LG (he says manufacturing would be cheaper here, because [...]
Number of comments: 2 Last week’s opportunity to have Bruce Berg, a Fordham University professor of political science, answer questions from readers on the New York Times’s CityRoom blog, sent me to Berg’s January 2008 book New York City Politics: Governing Gotham, a book that treats the West Side Stadium and Atlantic Yards as [...]
Number of comments: 0 New York Times sports columnist George Vecsey, in a column today headlined Memo: Things Aren’t That Great Here, observes that a lot of New York sports teams aren't doing too well.Perhaps the signal example plays hoops in New Jersey:The Nets are trapped in the most dismal sports location in the' [...]
Number of comments: 1 Way back in March 2007, I wrote that Forest City Ratner planned demolition of 475 Dean Street, a former garment factory turned into artists' lofts. Now, as announced in the latest Atlantic Yards Construction Update, workers are planning to remove asbestos on the roof in anticipation of demolition.Photographer Tracy Collins' [...]
Number of comments: 0 Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn is making a big deal over Bruce Ratner's statement to Crain's New York Business that there's no reason to share project plans--which, of course, the developer did regularly before dumping Frank Gehry--because "[t]his isn't a public project."But what exactly is Atlantic Yards? A public project? A [...]
Number of comments: 1 The Barclays Center Showroom has been re-launched to sell suites and "to further celebrate Brooklyn and the heritage of the NETS basketball team." Among the features: "new floor-to-ceiling graphics evoking Brooklyn and its rich culture, history, and recent resurgence" plus "a historical timeline of sports and entertainment milestones in Brooklyn."And, [...]
Number of comments: 0 So, is Atlantic Yards the right kind of megaproject? AY came up only glancingly during a panel on Saturday during the Institute for Urban Design's conference Arrested Development: Do Megaprojects Have a Future?, but panelists' comments, in general, offered much implicit skepticism--though some indirect support--for Brooklyn's most controversial project.Notably, they' [...]
Number of comments: 0 The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) has never produced a real cost-benefit analysis for the Atlantic Yards project, because it never bothered to consider costs beyond the direct subsidies.And it never produced an honest "economic impact analysis" or (most recently) "economic benefit analysis" because the analysis was premised on a [...]
Number of comments: 0 Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica takes a shot at the owner (for now) of the Nets:[NBA Commissioner] David Stern must be awfully proud of the job Bruce Ratner has done with the Nets.You know who Ratner really is?Donald Sterling of the Clips on training wheels.Snap. He's said it before. [...]
Number of comments: 2 A Crain's New York Business profile, headlined Tenacious B: Bruce Ratner must clear yet more do-or-die hurdles at Atlantic Yards, offers a mostly admiring portrait of Forest City Ratner's CEO:The annals of developing large projects in New York City are crammed with tales of the lengthy, torturous paths to completion. [...]
Number of comments: 0 I long wished someone had videotaped the Empire State Development Corporation's 12/8/06 board meeting to approve Atlantic Yards and, thanks to the producers behind the Battle of Brooklyn documentary, we now get to see some video. (They're still raising money for the film.)Yes, we know it was rubberstamped, as I' [...]
Number of comments: 0 Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, wrote a column in the 10/26/09 New York Law Journal on the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case, headlined Public Use, Robert Moses and the Fight Over Atlantic Yards.It was apparently written, though not published, before the 10/14/09 oral [...]
Number of comments: 2 From photographer Tracy Collins:Flatbush Avenue at Dean StreetProspect HeightsBrooklyn, New YorkUtility upgrade work continues in preparation for the proposed Forest City Ratner Atlantic Yards development, although it's still uncertain if/when Atlantic Yards would be built.The three buildings in the foreground (left to right: 636 Pacific, 475 Dean, 473 Dean) would [...]
Number of comments: 1 I suggested two weeks ago that, though a longshot, prospective owner Mikhail Prokhorov might want the Nets even if the Brooklyn move falls through.Mark Stein on ESPN.com discovers a similar sentiment:While it is widely assumed (as noted in Box 1) that the Nets have to end up in Brooklyn to [...]
Number of comments: 1 The Nets' marketing efforts, which include advertising on practice jerseys and a reversible jersey promotion, have gotten a bit more desperate, which is not surprising, given that they're the National Basketball Association's only winless team and playing in an inaccessible, lame-duck arena.From Julian Garcia in the New York Daily News's' [...]
Number of comments: 0 A Brooklyn Paper editorial about Mayor Mike Bloomberg's challenges headlined Mike — fix this already, lists several issues for Brooklyn, which Democratic challenger Bill Thompson won.It cites the Gowanus Canal and then Coney Island, "Bloomberg’s other main Brooklyn re-development plan," which is something of a fudge. While Atlantic Yards may [...]
Number of comments: 0 New York City Comptroller-elect John Liu was on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show this morning, and he gave a somewhat vague answer when asked about Atlantic Yards by "Lenore in Brooklyn." The action begins at about 10:20."In these difficult times, how are you going to use your office regarding Atlantic Yards" [...]
Number of comments: 1 A Real Deal article, headlined Forest City goes one for two with Gehry: As Atlantic Yards stalls, Beekman Tower skyscraper sprouts, quotes a former Forest City Ratner official as saying, not unreasonably, that residences in buildings designed by starchitect Frank Gehry should command a premium.The article states:Gehry's imprimatur -- which [...]
Number of comments: 2 So, what might happen if the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) prevails in the pending eminent domain case--decision expected around Thanksgiving, but who knows--and pursues condemnation of properties in the Atlantic Yards footprint.In previous coverage of the ESDC's July 22 community information session, ESDC counsel Joe Petillo offered an outline, [...]
Number of comments: 1 Governor David Paterson has called an extraordinary session of the Legislature to begin next Tuesday, November 10, addressing:a deficit reduction plan capping the growth of State government spending providing property tax relief eliminating a statutory inconsistency regarding paroleallowing same-sex civil marriage (the focus of the Times's coverage)enhancing penalties for driving [...]
Number of comments: 1 In my coverage of the July 22 community information session sponsored by the Empire State Development Corporation, I did not report on Forest City Ratner executive MaryAnne Gilmartin's explanation that interim surface parking--including 1044 spaces on the southeast block of the project site--would be extended well beyond arena-goers.Moderator Craig Hammerman [...]
Number of comments: 0 Both developer Forest City Ratner and the Empire State Development Corporation, in public statements, have treated December 31 as the final deadline to have bonds issued for the Atlantic Yards arena, which is why we should see a flurry of activity in the coming weeks.That's based on Internal Revenue Service [...]
Number of comments: 0 Well, like some other people, I'm still trying to figure out for what Forest City Enterprises got $55 million in federal tax credits, if it wasn't for Atlantic Yards.The New York Daily News today advanced (and muddied) the story today, with an article headlined Forest City Enterprises could get $55M [...]
Number of comments: 0 While Brooklyn Borough President Marty "can’t wait to get the shovel in the ground" for the Atlantic Yards arena, according to the Courier-Life, he disavows it as his legacy:When asked about his legacy, Markowitz turned reflective, saying there is no legacy and he has no children.“When the lord calls me, [...]
Number of comments: 0 In a column today headlined What to Make of a Big Deal Gone Sour, New York Times columnist Jim Dwyer finds residents of Stuyvesant Town angry at Mayor Mike Bloomberg for his blase, let-the-market-work attitude toward residents vulnerable to loss of their apartments under new owner Tishman Speyer, whose principal [...]
Number of comments: 0 Not that this will change the mind of Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who looked into the dubious financing scheme for Yankee Stadium after the fact but hasn't seen fit to look into the Atlantic Yards arena before it goes forward, but DDDB's Daniel Goldstein sums up the case for doing so.' [...]
Number of comments: 1 Peter Krashes, former president of the Dean Street Block Association, encountered Mayor Mike Bloomberg on the campaign trail two Saturdays ago at the Grand Army Plaza Farmers Market.Krashes told the mayor that neighbors near the Atlantic Yards footprint had problems with ongoing construction activities. Bloomberg responded that there wasn't much' [...]
Number of comments: 0 The Nets are trying figure out how much (and for whom) the Prudential Center in Newark is easier to get to than the Izod Center in the Meadowlands, and thus worth an interim (at least) move for the team.So they sent a survey to people who went to exhibition games [...]
Number of comments: 0 So the $55 million in federal tax credits going to an affiliate of Forest City Enterprises, as reported Friday, will not in fact be for the arena bonds, as an Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) spokeswoman initially confirmed.The ESDC's Elizabeth Mitchell offers a correction:ESDC is making $55M worth of bond [...]
Number of comments: 0 In the race between incumbent 36th District Council Member Al Vann, who won an eight-person Democratic primary by a slim margin, and challenger Mark Winston Griffith, who came in second and is running on the Working Families Party line, you'd think 35th District Council Member Letitia James might endorse the' [...]
Number of comments: 1 "Money is fungible, Judge Robert Smith declared during the oral argument on the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case October 14 at the Court of Appeals in Albany.His point was that $100 million in state subsidies for arena infrastructure made it easier for Forest City Ratner to build the rest of" [...]
Number of comments: 0 Remember, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, thanks to the override of term limits, is running (virtually) unopposed for a third-term, given that there was no challenger in the Democratic primary.Brooklynites this weekend got a mailer reminding us to vote for Markowitz, with the essential argument that the job of Borough [...]
Number of comments: 0 From a New York Times article today, headlined In Mayoral Race, a Blitz of Truth-Stretching Ads:As the New York City mayor’s race enters its final, combative stretch, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his opponent, Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr., have unleashed a flood of advertisements that contain distorted, misleading and, [...]
Number of comments: 4 New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt writes today about cuts at the paper, in a piece headlined Recession, Revolution and a Leaner Times:William Schmidt, the deputy managing editor in charge of the newsroom budget, said editors are focused on preserving core coverage: national, foreign, business, and culture and arts. [...]
Number of comments: 0 From Kickstarter, an effort to crowdsource creative projects, an effort to raise $25,000 by December 1 to finish Battle of Brooklyn, a documentary about Atlantic Yards and especially Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn:As you know, for the past 6 years we've been shooting our film, "Battle of Brooklyn," [...]
Number of comments: 0 Released last December and again in March, One City/One Future, subtitled A Blueprint for Growth That Works for All New Yorkers, deserves a lot more attention for a thorough and provocative set of policy proposals to create a more equitable city.There are two strikes against it, however. Though it was [...]
Number of comments: 1 WNYC radio this week reported on a curious phenomenon: how the new Yankee Stadium gets Yankee fans to spend more money inside the ballpark rather than on the streets around it.Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn suggests that's a cautionary tale for boosters of the Atlantic Yards arena.Is it? Surely in part.' [...]
Number of comments: 0 Most of Eminent Decision for Brooklyn, the 25-minute episode of Freddy's Brooklyn Roundhouse concerning the October 14 Court of Appeals hearing in the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case, consists of plaintiffs and supporters speaking at a press conference.But the producers have deftly chosen some of the most telling exchanges from [...]
Number of comments: 0 Forest City Community Development Entity, LLC, a Brooklyn-based subsidiary of Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises, has been awarded $55 million in federal tax credits for "real estate retail development projects located in highly distressed low-income communities." (See pages 7 and 72 of this PDF.)Do the tax credits "seem to be for" [...]
Number of comments: 0 A Reuters article yesterday suggested they might. A Bond Buyer article today says it's up in the air.And Michael White is very, very skeptical.' [...]
Number of comments: 0 David Pechefsky (right), the Green Party candidate for the 39th City Council District, may be a long-shot, but he's run a lively campaign, most notably challenging Democratic frontrunner Brad Lander (below, left) on the role of the Council and, secondarily, on Atlantic Yards.Indeed, while Pechefsky critiques Lander for not having [...]
Number of comments: 2 If you go by what the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) offered Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn spokesman Daniel Goldstein for his condo in the Atlantic Yards footprint, and compare that to the values projected by ESDC consultant KPMG, you might suffer some vertigo.After all, KMPG agrees that Forest City Ratner' [...]
Number of comments: 0 Village Voice columnist Tom Robbins, in a piece headlined The Mayor's Press Pass, provides some context about Mayor Mike Bloomberg and, I'd suggest, Atlantic Yards:One reason for the remarkably charmed life of Mike Bloomberg's administration as he sails toward re-election has been the waning of the city's news business.... When' [...]
Number of comments: 0 Remember--today was supposed to be opening day for the Atlantic Yards arena, at least according to the construction schedule attached to the December 2006 approvals of the project by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC)(Click to enlarge)The headline on my 4/30/07 post was:Reference or fantasy? The (projected) ten-year Atlantic Yards [...]
Number of comments: 1 Not only is the next Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) meeting on November 19, the week of November 16 is when the ESDC will be issuing bonds, including (apparently) bonds for the Atlantic Yards arena, Reuters reports:Frances Walton, chief financial officer of the Empire State Development Corporation, told reporters after [...]
Number of comments: 1 Just about two years ago, Nets CEO Brett Yormark told an interviewer that, while "Brooklyn Nets” is the team's "working title," and “most people assume it’s going to be the Brooklyn Nets," owners still must "validate that” with some "research in the field."Now reports NetsDaily's NetIncome, a consultant for presumptive" [...]
Number of comments: 1 Following in the footsteps of, oh, Brownstoner (sort of) and the New York Times's blog The Local, a new blog, My Little O, has launched to cover (and network) the vastly ignored neighborhoods of Fort Greene & Clinton Hill.As The Local reported in August:Because he is not a journalist himself, [...]
