January 27, 2012
Delay in transportation plan for arena dismays residents, CM Levin; lack of info about area garages hampers efforts to reduce surface parking lot in residential neighborhood
Atlantic Yards Report
The delay in the release of the long-awaited Transportation Demand Management (TDM) plan, from once-promised December to now-promised May, has distinct real-world consequences, notably stalling the efforts of Prospect Heights residents to argue for a reduction in the size of the planned 1100-space parking lot on Block 1129, bounded by Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues and Dean and Pacific Streets.
The availability of parking garages elsewhere might buttress their case, but more than five years after the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) was completed, Forest City Ratner contractors are newly analyzing available spaces in parking garages near the project site.
During meetings yesterday of the Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet (made up of affected agencies and elected officials) and the Transportation Focus Group (including neighborhood and civic groups), representatives of Sam Schwartz Engineering (SSE) did not discuss the emerging plan in great detail, but described the research process (e.g., surveys of attendees), the plan to select a vendor to manage parking, and shared how incentives for mass transit, including marketing, had reduced the number of drivers at other sports facilities, such as the Prudential Center in Newark and CitiField in Queens.
The pre-sale of parking spaces in local garages, plus parking in remote garages (with free shuttle buses), is aimed to steer drivers away from residential streets.
However, several residents expressed qualms about the effect in neighborhoods around the Barclays Center, given the failure, for example, to establish residential permit parking (RPP), which would deter out-of-area drivers looking for free on-street spaces.
NoLandGrab: They've had more than eight years to work on this. Is it any wonder residents around the arena site have zero confidence in the efficacy of the "plan?"
Posted by eric at January 27, 2012 11:46 AM | Permalink
Atlantic Yards Update: No Left Turn on S. Oxford, State Says No to Resident Veto, More
Residents also learn that only 11 percent of apartments in first tower are slated to have two or more bedrooms, compared to the 50 percent promised.
Park Slope Patch
by Amy Sara Clark
Here are a few highlights from yesterday’s meeting of the Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet, a group of Ratner, state and elected officials that meets bi-monthly:
No Left Turn for S. Oxford
To the chagrin of anyone trying to get to Fort Greene when driving east on Atlantic, there will be no left turn on S. Oxford Street. However, there will be a left turn onto Carlton (once it re-opens) as well as onto Fort Greene Place.
The Department of Transportation has eliminated that turn lane in favor of a pedestrian “refuge” for those who can’t cross all the lanes in one light.
No Resident Veto Power on Traffic Plans:
Afraid of the traffic onslaught when Barclays Arena opens in the fall, neighborhood groups have asked for more input into the traffic management plan.
In response, the Empire State Development, the state agency overseeing the construction, set up a Transportation Focus Group that will give civic groups and block associations to give early input on the plan directly to ESDC and Ratner officials.
Skeptical that the input would have an impact, at last month’s meeting, the groups asked for veto power on the plan. The ESDC’s Arana Hankin said in December the agency would consider the request, but came back this morning with firm no.
Posted by eric at January 27, 2012 11:39 AM | Permalink
Transportation Demand Management plan for arena, originally due in December, then pushed to February, now expected in May; state official: "I think we're going to be OK"
Atlantic Yards Report
The long-awaited Transportation Demand Management plan for the Barclays Center arena has been pushed back a second time, marking a delay of at least five months, officials revealed today at the bimonthly Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meeting.
So the expected release in May leaves a much shorter window of opportunity for area residents and other stakeholders to offer constructive criticism before the arena opens in late September.
Arana Hankin, Director, Atlantic Yards Project, for Empire State Development, acknowledged that her agency, responding to a question at a public meeting last June about the TDM plan, "anticipated" that developer Forest City Ratner would present the plan "to the public for comment in about six months."
The plan involves incentives to reduce use of cars, free MetroCards, cross-marketing with local businesses, remote parking, and more.
...How worrisome is the delay, I asked Hankin.
She pointed out that staffers from consultant Sam Schwartz Engineering (SSE), the firm Forest City hired to work on the plan, had described how they put together a successful plan for the new arena in Newark, the Prudential Center, in ten weeks. "I think we’re going to be OK," she said.
NoLandGrab: As one-time NBA center Joe Barry Carroll once said, allegedly, to a referee who had whistled him for an infraction and, when Carroll protested, told him he thought he'd committed a foul: "don't be thinkin', be knowin'."
Posted by eric at January 27, 2012 11:28 AM | Permalink
Forest City Ratner: Carlton Avenue Bridge "projected completion" early September; arena on schedule (no mention of report on delays); facade company catching up after temporary closure
Atlantic Yards Report
At yesterday's Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meeting, held at Borough Hall, Forest City Ratner officials gave several assurances about the timetable for ongoing work--but also left some questions lingering.
Carlton Avenue Bridge
Construction chief Bob Sanna provided an update on the Carlton Avenue Bridge, which is supposed to be reconstructed before the arena opens in September, thus reopening a long-closed connection between Prospect Heights and Fort Greene.
"The bulk excavation is 95% complete, there’s an extensive storm retention system that’s below the tracks. We have two of the three detention tanks now complete," he said. "The north abutment is about 60% complete, we started working on the south abutments."
"We expect to be able to cut over the yard, transfer trains into the newly laid track in February, and cover the trains over in May," he said, "which will allow us to complete the bridge in the early part of September. So the projected completion of the bridge... is the early part of September.”
That doesn't give them a lot of slack, given that the arena is supposed to open September 28, following several pre-opening events. I wrote earlier this month about the possibility of the schedule slipping, and the non-punitive penalties--a stall on starting a new tower--facing Forest City.
Posted by eric at January 27, 2012 11:22 AM | Permalink
First residential tower now delayed until spring or summer; Forest City admits "goal" of including more larger units won't be met; CM James says developer's not meeting commitment
Atlantic Yards Report
Say what you will about creepy Jim Stuckey — he wasn't so nearly prone to ineffectual blathering as Jane Marshall.
For the umpteenth time, Forest City Ratner has pushed back the projected groundbreaking for the first Atlantic Yards residential tower, Building 2 (B2), at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street flanking the Barclays Center arena. Now the groundbreaking could be spring, as most recently projected, or summer.
Also, as acknowledged today at the Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meeting, Forest City will not meet its "goal"--purportedly guaranteed by the Community Benefits Agreement and long promoted by the developer--of ensuring that half of the subsidized "affordable housing" would be (in square footage) devoted to larger units of two and three bedrooms.
"It doesn’t dilute our desire to meet the commitment in the future," insisted Forest City executive Jane Marshall at the meeting, held at Borough Hall.
"I understand your desire," responded Council Member Letitia James, skeptically. "I desire to be thin, and young"--the audience chuckled--"but that’s not going to happen. The bottom line is that, there was a commitment, there was a promise. There’s a need in the neighborhood... I would hope you would honor your commitment to the community.”
Forest City Ratner's partner ACORN, or its successor, was supposed to hold the developer to its housing pledge, but Bertha Lewis, who promoted the project because of the pledge, has not yet questioned the commitment.
Click through for Norman Oder's timeline of Forest City's moving Building 2 "goal" posts — which have now been moved 10 times in a little more than two years.
NoLandGrab: Forest City's repeated delaying of housing construction sure helps our confidence in all their other promises — but surely they'll deliver with the Transportation Demand Management plan or the reopening of the Carlton Avenue bridge. Right?
Posted by eric at January 27, 2012 11:05 AM | Permalink
UPDATE: NYU Schack Dean James Stuckey Accused of Sexual Harassment, Again
NY Observer
by Daniel Edward Rosen
An NYU administrator is accusing the school for failing to honor her promotion after she claimed that then-New York University Schack Institute dean James Stuckey sexually harassed her in a 2011 incident, according to a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court.
Stephanie Bonadio, 34, alleges that Mr. Stuckey had “forcibly placed her hand on his crotch and his erect penis” while the two were discussing her recent promotion at a dinner at The Strip House on September 23, the suit says.
The Strip House? Sure, they serve steaks, but Stuckey must've been hoping the double entendre would help set the mood. According to the New York Magazine review: "Playing off the naughty name, David Rockwell's interior is done up in bordello shades of red and gold, with old burlesque photos on the wall."
The lawsuit, which was filed yesterday, is seeking punitive damages, lawyers fees, owed salary, and trial by jury, among other demands.
Mr. Stuckey made headlines years before when he abruptly resigned as head of the Atlantic Yards development during his time as an executive vice president of Forest City Ratner Cos.
His resignation was spurred on by internal complaints that Mr. Stuckey had acted improperly at a company Christmas party, where he had a number of female colleagues sit on his lap inside a private room in a club, The NY Post reported.
NoLandGrab: The full text of the lawsuit is worth a read. Best low, er, highlight:
"Stuckey moved many of the men out of his suite of offices at NYU and he filled it with young, attractive women, including Bonadio."
And here's some free advice to Ms. Bonadio's lawyer: you should investigate what NYU knew about Mr. Stuckey's history with female subordinates when they hired him, and whether his hiring was at the behest of Schack Institute Advisory Board member Bruce C. Ratner.
Related coverage...
NY Magazine, NYU Is Battling a Sexual-Harassment Scandal
Four years prior, Stuckey ditched the Atlantic Yards development firm Forest City Ratner Cos. after he allegedly "took all of his subordinates to a club and then called a number of women employees into a private room, where he had them sit on his lap as though he were Santa Claus." A source told the New York Post, "There’s a pattern of this behavior."
NYU Local, NYU Denies Firing Administrator After She Reported Sexual Harassment
Posted by eric at January 27, 2012 10:44 AM | Permalink
Eye on the Politics of the Atlantic Yards Project
Our Time Press
by Mary Alice Miller
What, OTP couldn't send crack(ed) reporter Stephen Witt to the presser?
For all the good that they do, occasionally, local elected officials do something that makes you want to say, “Hmmm?” Last Sunday, State Senator Eric Adams teamed with Assemblymen Hakeem Jeffries and Karim Camara to call “Foul” over “Failure of Barclay Arena Developer to Score on Community Givebacks.” Claiming that “many of the community benefits promised by the developers — including job creation, a public safety plan and the inclusion of affordable housing – have failed to materialize,” the trio announced “their plans to introduce legislation that establishes a subsidiary corporation for Atlantic Yards oversight and development.” The group calls on Kenneth Adams, president of the Empire State development Corporation, to “implement oversight changes in the Atlantic Yards development project” which “will ensure transparency and accountability to protect public resources invested in the project.”
State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, a staunch critic of the Atlantic Yards development as it was proposed and funded, was not invited to the presser. Neither were Assembly members James Brennan or Joan Millman. Montgomery is the Senate sponsor of the bill; Brennan and Millman are co-sponsors of the Assembly bill. Oddly, Adams has not yet co-sponsored the Senate bill.
Where was the concern expressed this week by Adams, Jeffries, and Camara during five years of displacements, eminent domain law suits, and skepticism from other elected officials and community members over Forest City Ratner’s inflated job and affordable housing estimates. Why is legislation calling for “changes in the governance of the Atlantic Yards Project, the development that includes Barclay Arena, future home of the New York Nets” being announced now?
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Who was missing from the press conference last Sunday? Sen. Montgomery and other Atlantic Yards critics
Mary Alice Miller, the Our Time Press reporter/columnist who bluntly asked three belated critics of Atlantic Yards "Where were y'all?" last Sunday, offers her take, in Eye on the Politics of the Atlantic Yards Project.
...Unrelated but intriguing was the news yesterday that the GOP-proposed Senate redistricting would pit two sitting Democratic Senators, as reported by City and State NY:
Brooklyn State Sens. Eric Adams and Velmanette Montgomery’s residences are now in the same Senate district, spokespersons for both the Senate Republicans and Democrats confirmed, potentially putting the two colleagues in the position of running against one another.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has promised a veto.
Posted by eric at January 27, 2012 10:28 AM | Permalink
January 26, 2012
Two-for-one: Bruce Ratner's wife matches campaign contributions to Cuomo, Senate Republicans, Camara
Atlantic Yards Report
I wrote today about how Pamela Lipkin, Bruce Ratner's wife, gave a $3000 contribution to the campaign of Assemblyman Karim Camara on the same March 2009 day her husband also gave to Camara.
That's not the only time Lipkin (list, reproduced below) has matched Ratner's contribution.
Notably, Lipkin gave $5000 to Andrew Cuomo's gubernatorial campaign in February 2009 and $7500 in May 2010, matching Ratner's contributions.
And she gave $7500 to the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee on the same November 2010 day Ratner also gave. (Remember, as architect Frank Gehry put it, "Bruce Ratner is politically my kind of guy, he's a do-gooder, liberal, we can talk.")
I mentioned Lipkin, then Ratner's girlfriend, in a 9/5/06 post, but she's made other contributions since then, including a $3100 October 2006 contribution to the uncontested Assembly campaign of Brooklyn Democratic Chair Vito Lopez, and a $5400 September 2006 contribution to the Senatorial campaign of Martin Connor.
The list (click to enlarge)
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Posted by eric at January 26, 2012 11:28 AM | Permalink
New Atlantic Yards critics Camara and Adams got Forest City Ratner-related campaign money in the past. Maybe now they don't think they need more.
Atlantic Yards Report
When covering the press conference last Sunday by three elected officials previously on-the-fence or supportive of Atlantic Yards, I didn't point out that two of three had received campaign contributions from people connected to Forest City Ratner and Atlantic Yards.
Such contributions, along with constituent feedback, might have nudged Assemblyman Karim Camara and state Senator Eric Adams toward their respective AY positions, supportive and near-the-fence.
My armchair analysis: Camara and Adams don't need such campaign money now, and they're more worried about constituents who haven't gotten expected/hoped-for jobs, contracts, and housing at the project.
While I had covered most of those contributions, I'd also missed some. In no case did the Atlantic Yards-related money represent a large percentage of the total, but the contributions were significant enough to be noticeable.
Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, who did not get Ratner-related contributions, probably is happy to distinguish himself from Rep. Ed Towns, an Atlantic Yards supporter whom he's challenging for Congress. In criticizing Atlantic Yards, Jeffries also might take some votes from those constituents sympathetic to the anti-AY stance of city Council Member Charles Barron, who's also in the race.
Posted by eric at January 26, 2012 11:23 AM | Permalink
Value of Nets rises 14% despite huge losses; the new arena/market must be key
Atlantic Yards Report
The numbers are stunning. The New Jersey Nets, soon to be Brooklyn Nets, have the third-highest debt to value ratio in the National Basketball Association, at 79%, according to Forbes. The team lost the third-most in the last season, $23.6 million.
Yet the value of the Nets rose 14%, from $312 million to $357 million, according to Forbes, vaulting the team from 21st (of 30) to 14th place.
In the 2011 rankings, the value had risen 16% on losses of $10.2 million, though with an astronomical 224% debt/value ratio.
The article does not go into the explanation, but the opening of a new arena in the new Brooklyn market, is surely key; it offers new revenue streams and sponsorships, and a more valuable TV deal.
Related content...
Forbes, NBA Team Values
Forbes, The NBA's Billionaires
A couple of years ago, the New Jersey Nets’ planned move to Brooklyn had that look of a pipe dream not ready to come true. Neighborhood activists had already been holding things up in legal bottlenecks. Once that hurdle was cleared, a severe recession made arena financing more complicated and costly for owner Bruce Ratner.
Solution: find some major capital, quickly. Ratner sold off 80% of the team and 45% of the Barclays Center project to Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who immediately became the NBA’s wealthiest owner, surpassing even Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The sale paved the way for the Brooklyn Nets to become a reality by next season.
Posted by eric at January 26, 2012 11:14 AM | Permalink
Florida Law Implemented in New York Would Actually Bring Housing to Atlantic Yards Site
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
New York ain't Florida but the following article reminds us of two things:
1. Bruce Ratner demolished a long-term homeless shelter scattering the most vulnerable amongst us all over the city in order to build a... long-term surface parking lot that will include parking for the Barclays Center of Brooklyn©.
2. If New York had this Florida law and implemented it at least Atlantic Yards would actually provide some form of housing, which it currently is not doing at all:
Florida law would turn its publicly funded ballparks and stadiums into homeless shelters
By 'Duk | Big League Stew | Yahoo! SportsCould the new Marlins ballpark or the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field serve as a homeless shelter for the 270 or so nights a year that they're not used for baseball?
If two Florida lawmakers have their way, they might. As reported by the Miami Herald, state legislators have unearthed an obscure law that has not been enforced since it was adopted in 1988. It states that any ballpark or stadium that receives taxpayer money shall serve as a homeless shelter on the dates that it is not in use.
Now, a new bill would punish owners of teams who play in publicly funded stadiums if they don't provide a haven for the homeless.
Posted by eric at January 26, 2012 11:01 AM | Permalink
NYU administrator Stephanie Bonadio says job vanished after her sex harassment complaint
She says James Stuckey, ex-dean of Schack Real Estate Institute, tried to make her perform sex act
NY Daily News
by Barbara Ross
Here's the NoLandGrab public service of the day:
Women — print this photo of former Atlantic Yards/Forest City Ratner honcho Jim Stuckey and keep it in your pocket. If you ever see this guy, immediately run in the other direction.
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A New York University administrator charged the school Wednesday with eliminating her job when she accused a dean of sexual harassment.
Stephanie Bonadio, 34, once a rising star in NYU’s Schack Institute for Real Estate, claims her career was ruined when she accused her boss of forcing himself on her.
In the Manhattan Supreme Court suit, Bonadio says she was having dinner at the Strip House restaurant on E. 12th St. with James Stuckey, then dean of the Schack Institute for Real Estate, when he tried to get her to perform a sex act.
As she asked about her pending promotion,“He grabbed her hand and ...without her consent, he forcibly placed her hand on his crotch and his erect penis,” the suit charges.
She said she told Stuckey “she was not that kind of girl.”
Soon after Bonadio reported the incident, Stuckey, a former executive with Forest City Ratner and ex-head of Mayor Bloomberg's commission on design, resigned “for health reasons,” the suit says.
Photo: Debbie Egan-Chin/NY Daily News
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Lawsuit against NYU alleges sexual harassment by former Forest City executive Stuckey
Remember that anonymously sourced New York Post article last October that alleged that former Forest City Ratner executive (and Atlantic Yards point man) Jim Stuckey had resigned suddenly from his job at New York University for alleged sexual harassment?
Well, now there's another piece of evidence.
...NYU denied to the Daily News that it had retaliated, and neither Stuckey nor Bonadio commented.
So it's murky. But Bonadio's allegations against Stuckey, if they go to court, might be backed up if she can find witnesses who can confirm, as the Post also reported, that Stuckey had left Forest City abruptly because of complaints filed by female employees.
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Alleged Sexual Harassment by Former Ratner SVP Jim Stuckey Leads to Lawsuit Against NYU
So, what did NYU know about Stuckey when they hired him and did Bruce Ratner's position on the Schack board have anything to do with the hiring? And what will this former NYU administrator, now suing the school, reveal about Stuckey's hiring in her legal briefs?
Is it any wonder at all that the man who felt so entitled to take an entire neighborhood would allegedly feel entitled to his work place subordinate?
Posted by eric at January 26, 2012 10:46 AM | Permalink
A couple of big Atlantic Yards meetings today
Atlantic Yards Report
The first meeting today (as I previously wrote) is the bimonthly Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meeting, is open to the public, at Borough Hall at 9:30 am. The expected topic is the long-awaited Transportation Demand Management plan.
The second, at Borough Hall at 6 pm, is an invite-only event regarding community groups' response to general traffic/transportation issues.
Posted by eric at January 26, 2012 10:40 AM | Permalink
January 25, 2012
Is Atlantic Yards Good for Brooklyn? A Public Call to Host a Town Hall Meeting With Michael Ratner
The Nation
by Dave Zirin
As reported by Michael O’Keeffe in yesterday’s New York Daily News, I have issued a formal request to Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights to co-host a film screening of the documentary Battle for Brooklyn. The documentary describes the efforts in Brooklyn to resist the Atlantic Yards basketball arena/housing development project, which will upturn twenty-two acres in the heart of the borough. That has meant protesting eminent domain evictions, sweetheart backroom deals, the prospect of accelerated gentrification, the tearing down of historic buildings and the use of taxpayer subsidies. Mr. Ratner is an investor in this project, spearheaded by his brother, Bruce Ratner, a high powered real estate magnate. Michael Ratner is also a hero of mine. His work opposing the Patriot Act, torture as policy, and the War Powers Act is an inspiration to anyone who cares about civil liberties and real freedom. In other words, not freedom the way Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich or Ron Paul talk about freedom—the freedom to destroy the environment, smash unions, or build a pipeline through your backyard—but the freedom to actually assemble, debate, discuss and live in an open society.
But Michael Ratner is also an investor in this incredibly controversial project. He has never commented publicly about the constitutionality of how eminent domain was used to remove people from their Brooklyn homes and businesses. He has never explained why someone of his sterling reputation would involve himself in a project that symbolizes for so many residents the profits of the few over the needs of the many. Maybe he believes that this kind of massive development project is completely constitutional. Maybe he thinks that it’s in the best interests of Brooklyn. Maybe he believes that the Ratner family will profit mightily from the project, which will in turn support the good works of the CCR. I have no idea. As a boy with Brooklyn roots, I’m certainly open to his arguments, but it would be good to actually hear them. Given Michael Ratner’s profile as a civil libertarian, I honestly believe he has an obligation to be public and transparent about his involvement.
That is why I am issuing the following offer to Mr. Ratner: let us co-host a showing of the documentary Battle for Brooklyn. The film, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award, is remarkably gripping and would provide a terrific basis for a townhall conversation about the merits of Atlantic Yards, the constitutionality of eminent domain for private benefit and whether sports arenas are answers to the vexing problems of urban development and job creation. I already have agreements secured from several movie theaters willing to host such an event as well as a commitment from Daniel Goldstein, the protagonist of Battle for Brooklyn, to attend. You and I can both make brief statements and then open it up to the crowd. To Mr. Ratner: I can be reached at dave@edgeofsports.com. Let’s hold this event soon, in a comradely amicable setting, that allows us all to clear the air and educate the public about whether Atlantic Yards is in the best interests of Brooklyn not to mention in accordance with the kind of free, open and just society you have spent a lifetime championing.
NoLandGrab: Michael Ratner: "OK, so long as I can bus in 500 construction workers and ACORN members and give them free sandwiches."
Related coverage...
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, David Zirin Publicly Invites Developer Bruce Ratner's Brother Michael to Discuss Atlantic Yards
Until now the media and icons on the left have stayd away from Michael Ratner's financial involvement in Atlantic Yards. No more.
Posted by eric at January 25, 2012 12:29 PM | Permalink
From Atlantic Yards Watch: "urina" trash on Pacific Street
Atlantic Yards Report
Eeew.
Neighborhood opposition to the expected cluster of bars and restaurants near the Barclays Center includes concern that inebriated patrons will use the neighborhood as a urinal. That generated unsurprising mocking response from the bravely pseudonymous contributors at NetsDaily.
However, as noted on Atlantic Yards Watch, a version of the "urina" is already in place. Construction workers have been discarding bottles of urine as neighborhood trash for months.
That bottle in the photo below, in a tree bed on Pacific Street between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues? Not apple juice. Maybe it would be less noticeable if the workers didn't park in a residential neighborhood.
.JPG) |
NoLandGrab: Classy, like everything else about this project.
Posted by eric at January 25, 2012 12:12 PM | Permalink
Federal agency overseeing EB-5 immigrant investment program confirms that it will continue to let states gerrymander districts of high unemployment
Atlantic Yards Report
I wrote 1/11/12 how a revised draft memo on EB-5 Adjudications Policy, issued that day by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), punted regarding the practice by states of gerrymandering maps to ensure projects aimed at immigrant investment were located in areas of high unemployment.
And that allows for a lower investment level, $500,000, rather than $1 million, for those seeking green cards and their families.
Last month, in a front-page article, the New York Times put the gerrymandering issue on the national agenda, forcing USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas to acknowledged concern about the spirit of the legal provision which aims to help high-unemployment districts.
The Times article, which focused on the odd maps approved for New York projects (including what I've dubbed the "Bed-Stuy Boomerang" involving Atlantic Yards), even generated an editorial chiding the federal agency.
But the memo issued earlier this month stated that the USCIS would continue to give deference to the lines drawn by the state.
NoLandGrab: We suppose it's too much to ask for that boomerang to come back and hit Bruce Ratner in the tuches.
Posted by eric at January 25, 2012 12:02 PM | Permalink
NY State Appeal of Atlantic Yards Sweetheart Deal Ruling in Court on Valentine's Day
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
Happy Valentine's day courtesy of the Empire State Development Corporation and Forest City Ratner.
Oral argument on NY State's and the developer's appeal of the ruling that went against them in DDDB et al. v. ESDC et al. has been scheduled for....Tuesday, February 14th at 2pm in the Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court (27 Madison Avenue in Manhattan.)
What better day to further discuss, in court, the sweetness of Bruce Ratner's sweetheart deal.
NoLandGrab: Will they be the Appellate of our eye?
Posted by eric at January 25, 2012 11:55 AM | Permalink
UPDATE: 'Battle For Brooklyn' Doesn't Make Oscar Cut
Park Slope Patch
by Paul Leonard
Update, 10:48 a.m.: We received the following from "Battle For Brooklyn" co-director Michael Galinsky on today's Oscar news:
"We are really pleased by the energy that being on the short list gave the film. It's been on screen in NY almost every week since June and it will continue to show ... We are very pleased to see that our friend Marsh Curry's film "If A Tree falls" was recognized. So many incredible films are being made right now. It's truly a golden age of documentary."
On Monday, the film will screen at the American Can Factory at Third Avenue and 3rd Street to bring attention to proposed zoning changes in Gowanus, according to Galinsky.
Posted by eric at January 25, 2012 11:37 AM | Permalink
Crime Report: More iPhones Swiped and One Allegedly Inept Thief
The Local [Fort Greene/Clinton Hill]
by Gersh Kuntzman
On the top of everyone's list of Things Not To Do should be "leave my bag unattended in one of Bruce Ratner's Brooklyn malls."
Forget Me Not
A thief swiped a bag from inside the Atlantic Terminal Mall after a shopper left it behind by accident on Jan. 15.
The shopper, 60, told cops that she was inside the Flatbush Avenue mall at around 4 p.m., then left without her shopping cart. She returned 20 minutes later to find the cart — and the various cards and cash — gone.
Posted by eric at January 25, 2012 11:31 AM | Permalink
January 24, 2012
'Battle For Brooklyn' Doesn't Make Oscar Cut
Announced this morning, list of nominees leaves out Atlantic Yards doc.
Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Patch
by Paul Leonard
Weeks after making a list of 15 Oscar hopefuls, it's official: The Clinton Hill filmmakers behind the Atlantic Yards documentary, "Battle For Brooklyn," won't be strolling down the Kodak Theater's Hollywood red carpet after all.
The film, which has been shown across the country to acclaim, was left off of the list of five nominations announced in Los Angeles Tuesday morning.
Among the docs that did make the cut was Wim Wender's 3-D "Pina," an ode to the director of an innovative dance company that continues its run at BAM Rose Cinemas through this week.
Other films on the list include "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory," a film tracking the aftermath of the Robin Hood Hills murders in Arkansas, and "If the Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front," which featured the story of one of ELF's members caught by police.
NoLandGrab: Paradise Lost 3, for one, was panned by The New York Times. We wuz robbed.
Posted by eric at January 24, 2012 11:00 AM | Permalink
How many subsidized apartments for low-income families in first Atlantic Yards tower? Just eight 2BRs, as Forest City Ratner reneges on promise to build half the affordable space as 2BR/3BR units
Atlantic Yards Report
Forest City Ratner maintains its unblemished record of not keeping any promises.
How many affordable apartments would there be for low-income families--families that need two bedrooms or more--in B2, the first planned Atlantic Yards tower?
Only eight.
And that's out of 350 total units.
The building, which has been delayed nearly two years and has not yet broken ground, would include 130 studios, 180 one-bedroom, and 40 two-bedrooms.
Of those latter 40 units, 20 would be subsidized. However, only eight of them would be low-income, with monthly rents at $701.75 and $902.25, at least under current income guidelines.
The other subsidized "affordable" two-bedroom units--four each--would cost $1604, $2406, and $3007. It makes you wonder how much the market-rate units would go for.
Reneging on the pledge
Why so few larger units? For the first building, Forest City Ratner has reneged on its long-promised "goal" to ensure than half the affordable housing--on a square foot basis--would be two- and three-bedroom apartments.
And that was a key selling point to struggling families hoping for better housing, as noted in the screenshot at [right], from the original AtlanticYards.com web site.
Note that the web site misleadingly implied that half the number of units--rather than square footage--would be larger units.
Yes, they even lie about their lies.
Posted by eric at January 24, 2012 10:52 AM | Permalink
Sports editor of 'The Nation' asks Michael Ratner, Bruce Ratner's brother, to screen 'Battle for Brooklyn'
NY Daily News Sports ITeam Blog
by Michael O'Keeffe
Michael Ratner, the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, is a hero to many people for his work for human rights and civil liberties.
He’s also an investor in brother Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards development, which includes an arena for the NBA’s Nets, which has prompted some former admirers to write him off as a phony and a limousine liberal, a hypocrite who speaks out when a government razes Palestinian homes but is silent when government seizes Brooklyn apartments.
...Progressive media – or at least one member of it – is finally calling out Ratner for an explanation.
Dave Zirin, the sports editor for The Nation, challenged Michael Ratner, via his Twitter account, to co-host a showing of the documentary “Battle for Brooklyn” and explain his support for the controversial project.
Posted by eric at January 24, 2012 10:36 AM | Permalink
January 23, 2012
Happy Bruce Day!
This Day ... In Jewish History
Time to dust off one of our favorite annual features (and time for This Day ... In Jewish History to update their citations)...
Appropriately, alternate-side parking was suspended today.
On this day in 1945:
Birthdate of Bruce Ratner. Appointed by Ed Koch to the position of Commissioners of Consumer Affairs for New York City in 1978, he became a real estate developer in 1982. He is now the owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, his net worth now several hundred million dollars. Ratner is the developer charged with building the New York Times Tower He is a member of the board of the Jewish Heritage Museum.
NoLandGrab: Happy Birthday, Bruce! We hope you might be charged with something else soon, too!
Posted by eric at January 23, 2012 6:56 PM | Permalink
Atlantic Yards Not Nearly As Brooklyn Job-Friendly As Claimed
Gothamist
by Garth Johnston
 |
You guys are never going to believe this, but remember when Forest City Ratner kept telling us that its Atlantic Yards Project would bring thousands of jobs and units of affordable housing to Brooklyn? They lied! Not only are there fewer (prefab) buildings going up than initially promised, but the steadily rising stadium, now known as the Barclay's center, has been a disappointment jobs-wise, too.
...None of this is actually new (remember those "interns" who sued Ratner when it reneged on a promise of jobs and a union card?) but its the response from the Ratner cake that is the icing on the camp. First off, they're all "Over 20% of all contract dollars to date have gone to [minority] firms, the highest percentage in the city"—which, fair enough—but then the company's spokesman goes on to say that litigation (*cough* Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn *cough*) and "the economy" have "impacted" the number of jobs created. So yeah, its not Forest City Ratner's fault they aren't doing what they promised they'd do—its Brooklyn's fault for complaining and holding the whole thing up.
Related coverage...
threecee via flickr, 2012 BrooklynSpeaks Atlantic Yards Governance Press Conference
Park Slope Patch, Pols Criticize Forest City Ratner's Promises at Rally
The Atlantic Yards website touts that the project would create “more than 16,000 union construction jobs plus over 8,000 permanent jobs,” but a report by Merritt & Harris said that as of November there were 645 construction workers on the job.
Posted by eric at January 23, 2012 6:19 PM | Permalink
Times Public Editor Brisbane gingerly moves to embrace more fact-checking, offers warnings; I suggest Atlantic Yards as a subject, offer examples of misleading coverage
Atlantic Yards Report
"He said, she said?" They'd both prefer truth to "news."
New York Times Public Editor Arthur Brisbane, fresh off his "Truth Vigilante" exploration, yesterday gingerly surveyed the new media world of dedicated fact-checking outlets/efforts. He pronounced himself somewhat chastened:
Newspaper journalism’s traditional way of dealing with spurious claims, meanwhile, isn’t satisfying readers. Often derided as the “he said, she said” approach, this method entails finding and quoting someone to counter a claim, thereby offering a form of balance but no resolution. This sufficed in the past, for many at least, but now many readers are asking for more aggressive rebuttals.
I heard this loud and clear last week when I asked readers on my blog whether they wanted more fact-checking in straight news articles and they said, resoundingly, yes.
James Fallows, author of “Breaking the News” and a national correspondent for The Atlantic, told me it is incumbent on reporters to correct falsehood, not just balance it.
...I posted a comment:
If the Times is going to do some non-political fact-checking, why not start with the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, where so many facts promulgated by elected officials and the developer are supremely questionable, and the newspaper too often acts as a stenographer?
Posted by eric at January 23, 2012 1:24 PM | Permalink
Dwight Howard Trade Rumors: New Jersey Nets Could Lose Him and Deron Williams
Bleacher Report
by Ian Sherwin
If [the Orlando Magic's Dwight] Howard is traded to another team besides the Nets before the trade deadline expires, apparently, the Nets will still have no interest in trading Deron Williams. This severely worries me. Yes, it would be awful to trade Williams away, and we would unlikely be able to reacquire the caliber of talent that we gave up in order to trade for him, but in my honest belief, we would need to cut our losses at that point.
But my absolutely biggest fear is that Howard does not come to NJ, and we do not trade away Williams (assuming, as stated previously, that we cannot sign him to a long-term extension). If this is the case, we will have given up a plethora of talent in the Williams trade, we'll have lost Williams and never obtained Howard, and will go into Brooklyn with a .200 level team.
NoLandGrab: Can you feel the excitement, Brooklyn? We didn't think so.
Related content...
Brooklyn Trolley Blogger, N.J./BKN Nets ~ Team Lacks a Head of State
Even the self-deluded faithful are wavering.
On the court, the Nets already have more problems than a math book. And now cracks seem to be appearing in their foundation. Their principle owner; Mikhail Prokhorov; for the moment at least, has better things to do. If his Russian political aspirations turn out favorably, he has announced he will indeed sell his team shares into a Blind Trust; which effectively takes him out of the picture, without having to relinquish ownership of the team.
While the Net owner's quest to be a benevolent modern day tsar is not new, his endeavours none-the-less detract from the organization's dwindling level of whatever cache they still have in light of their move to Brooklyn later this year.
NLG: Note to Yormark — try that on for a slogan: "Brooklyn Nets! Feel the dwindling level of whatever cache!"
Posted by eric at January 23, 2012 1:10 PM | Permalink
Brooklyn Arena Criticized on Hiring
The Wall Street Journal
by Heather Haddon
As the Barclays Center arena slowly progresses in Brooklyn, elected officials are calling for the developers to make good on the affordable housing units and thousands of jobs promised to accompany the development.
Nearly two years after it broke ground, the development has created less than a thousand jobs, fewer than the 1,500 slots a year developer Bruce Ratner had promised to bring to the area, elected officials said Sunday.
"The project was presented as a field of dreams but has turned into a cemetery of broken promises," said Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, who was joined by fellow Brooklyn Democrats Sen. Eric Adams and Assemblyman Karim Camara during a news conference on Sunday.
About 100 of the jobs created have gone to workers from the five Brooklyn neighborhoods surrounding the $5 billion sports arena and housing complex, but they have mostly been retail positions, not well-paying ones in construction, Mr. Jeffries said.
Related coverage...
Brownstoner, Press Conference Over ‘Broken Promises’ at Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards report has an extensive post about the press conference noting that three have had “nuanced and/or supportive positions toward Atlantic Yards” until now and that their about-face likely represents the fact that two are running for office at the moment, as well as representing how many of their constituents feel about the development at this point.
Posted by eric at January 23, 2012 1:04 PM | Permalink
Stack’s Stats: Q+A with Brett Yormark
The New Jersey Nets’ CEO discusses Barclays Center.
SLAM Online
Norman Oder covered this interview a couple days ago, but we couldn't resist.
SLAM: How do you want Barclays Center to be perceived by Nets fans and NBA fans, in general?
BY: Well, you know, Barclays Center is bigger than basketball. I want to answer that question more holistically. Our goal is to truly redefine the customer experience in this marketplace. Bruce Ratner often references going into Barclays Center as like going into your living room.
Actually, it's a lot more like going into Daniel Goldstein's living room, which used to be at about center court.
SLAM: What was your strategy in finding the corporate partners with whom you eventually aligned the Nets and Barclays Center?
BY: Initially, our goal was to educate the market on a new way of looking and considering sponsorship. We truly took the philosophy of less is more.
If only BY would apply that "philosophy" to his own BS.
We love the support we’re getting. Our players go into Brooklyn quite often, and they’re doing community engagement. People are honking their horns and saying ‘We love you, Nets’ and it’s a great feeling.
NoLandGrab: BY, those people honking their horns are not saying "we love you" — but it rhymes with it.
Posted by eric at January 23, 2012 12:41 PM | Permalink
Q&A with Kickstarter’s Yancey Strickler
Cinespect
by Alexandra Marvar
Kickstarter is an online pledge system for financing creative projects—a pioneer of the “crowdfunding” movement when it was founded two and a half years ago. In that time, thousands of projects from design to dance have come to life thanks to the website, but the most prominent and profitable category has been film. So far on Kickstarter, 4,500 film projects have run their course, and a fair share of those are finding real world success with help from the funds—and fans—they’ve rallied.
...Cinespect sat down with Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler to discuss the magic of Kickstarter’s collaboration with the Sundance Institute, how many dinners with Russian oligarchs it takes to fund an indie film, and how crowd-sourcing support for films is shaking up the industry.
I don’t have a film background, I’ve had to get a crash course this year, but I had always imagined that someone like Jim Jarmusch just sat in a castle somewhere and looked at camera lenses for twenty hours a day and was like, “That one.” And, that’s how a filmmaker spends their time. But, I realize now that as a filmmaker, you are a perma-fundraiser. You’re having weird dinners with oil barons from Oklahoma, and Russian oligarchs, to try to get 100,000 dollars out of them, and meanwhile you cast their, you know, second mistress in the lead or something in exchange… There’s a really dirty part involved in how you have to fund these things.
Russian oligarch-funding was a non-starter for Battle for Brooklyn. Good thing there was Kickstarter.
What are some stand-out examples of Kickstarter film successes?
There’ve been a number of films that have had real world success. There’s a film called “Resurrect Dead”—a really, really interesting documentary about these weird signs that are imprinted into the asphalt, and it’s a guy trying to figure out what that is. He got picked up by Focus, won best documentary director at Sundance… He was cleaning houses before that. And he was shooting this on nights and weekends when he had time for five years. And suddenly he’s a filmmaker. That one’s really neat.
Two of our very earliest documentaries are short-listed for the Best Documentary Academy Award right now. “Battle for Brooklyn” is a documentary about the Atlantic Yards Project. They raised $25,000 the first year of Kickstarter, which was by far the largest film we’d had at the time. Also up for Best Documentary is “The Loving Story,” another really early one—I backed both these projects—a documentary about Virginia vs. Loving, the Supreme Court Case that first legalized interracial marriage.
Posted by eric at January 23, 2012 12:31 PM | Permalink
Building New York: NYU 2031 Returns Controversy to Silver Towers
International Business Times
by Roland Li
NYU's Greenwich Village-eating development scheme has at least one thing going for it — it's not Atlantic Yards.
The opposition has been fierce. Local residents and preservation groups have long battled NYU's various development projects, which have involved demolition of existing buildings, including the former Palladium nightclub and St. Ann's Church. These new buildings, they argue, will overwhelm the neighborhood, first with noisy construction, and then by their sheer mass. They point out that the proposed 3 million square feet in new construction would be more mass than the Empire State Building. They call for the school to seek space in Lower Manhattan or elsewhere -- anywhere but the Village.
NYU has said that the plans will require no tenant displacement or eminent domain--in contrast to its northern neighbor Columbia's growth or the controversial genesis of Atlantic Yards, both of which led to various lawsuits.
Posted by eric at January 23, 2012 12:16 PM | Permalink
Prefab Towers at Atlantic Yards: Will They Look Good?
Forest City Ratner is going ahead with plans to create prefabricated buildings at Atlantic Yards, but can their design hold up amidst Brownstone Brooklyn?
Park Slope Patch
by Jamie Schuh
Forest City Ratner and architect house SHoP are still working to make prefabricated towers a cost-saving reality at Atlantic Yards, but critics question whether prefab buildings can save money while still looking good, according to The Real Deal.
...The Real Deal also believes that Brooklyn is too good for buildings that look like corners were cut in order to save money, adding, “value engineering is the besetting sin of architecture in the five boroughs.”
Design perspective notwithstanding, the idea of prefab buildings came under fire last March, when plans for modular construction at the Atlantic Yards site was announced, and local unions were livid at the loss of jobs on the site.
Posted by eric at January 23, 2012 11:11 AM | Permalink
January 22, 2012
Finally "fed up," Adams, Jeffries, Camara cite lack of Atlantic Yards jobs and housing, call for governance reform; a "litmus test" for Governor Cuomo
Atlantic Yards Report
At a press conference today, three local Democratic officials who've held nuanced and/or supportive positions toward Atlantic Yards adjusted their tune. They condemned the failure to deliver jobs and housing, and urged passage of a state bill to establish a new governance structure, with local input, for the project.
"We are truly concerned--we are outraged," declared state Senator Eric Adams (at podium in photo at left). Developer Forest City Ratner "thought we were going to have short memories and a long construction schedule."
Assemblymembers Hakeem Jeffries and Karim Camara, with the under-construction Barclays Center looming in the background, echoed similar sentiments.
"We have been extremely patient with this project," Adams said at one point. "I don't think that you can find three more elected officials who have attempted to be a voice of reason around this project. And if we're saying we're fed up, then clearly the developer had gone too far."
Their statements likely represented some measure of political calculation--two of the three are running for office--as well as a reflection that their constituents are frustrated.
The project, when initially passed in 2006, was supposed to take ten years to deliver 16 towers and an arena, with 15,000 construction jobs (in job-years) and thousands of permanent jobs. It also was to include 6430 apartments, among them 2250 subsidized "affordable" units.
The project, however, was delayed by the economic downturn, unrealistic plans, and litigation, and was revised in 2009, with contractual documents that allow a 25-year buildout. Only the arena is is under construction right now, and that, officials said, does not justify the subsidies and special benefits Forest City gained.
Posted by steve at January 22, 2012 11:36 PM | Permalink
Press conference on Atlantic Yards governance bill today at 2 pm: Jeffries, Adams, Camara
Atlantic Yards Report
A press release from BrooklynSpeaks:
State Legislators Call Foul Over Failure of Barclays Arena Developer to Score on Community Givebacks
New York State legislators Senator Eric Adams, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, and Assemblyman Karim Camara will hold a press conference to call for changes in the governance of the Atlantic Yards project, the development that includes the Barclay Arena, future home of the New York Nets.
Many of the community benefits promised by the developers – including job creation, a public safety plan and the inclusion of affordable housing – have failed to materialize. The group will call on Kenneth Adams, President of the Empire State Development Corporation, to implement oversight changes in the Atlantic Yards development project.
At the press conference, the elected officials will announce their plans to introduce legislation that establishes a subsidiary corporation for Atlantic Yards oversight and development. This new body will ensure transparency and accountability to protect public resources invested in the project.
Date: Sunday, January 22, 2012
Time: 2:00 PM
Location: Front of Barclays Center (Corner of Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue)
Presiding: Senator Eric Adams, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, Assemblyman Karim Camara
Posted by steve at January 22, 2012 11:33 PM | Permalink
Nets/Barclays CEO Yormark claims "all I’m seeing is support for this project" and every decision has "put Brooklyn first"
Atlantic Yards Report
SLAM magazine recently held a Q&A with Nets/Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark, who confirmed that he is truly looking through rose-colored glasses.
...
But I think this project, from Day One, has been about bringing sports entertainment back to Brooklyn. It’s been about Brooklyn, it’s been about job creation, it’s been about affordable housing. It’s been out doing what’s right for Brooklyn. There hasn’t been a decision that we’ve made that hasn’t put Brooklyn first and the people of Brooklyn first. If there are a few people out there who aren’t supportive, so be it. It is what it is.
...
Every decision has "put Brooklyn first"?
How about Bruce Ratner's acknowledgment that "the existing incentives for developments where half the units are priced for middle- and low-income tenants 'don't work for a high-rise building that's union built'" and that the announced and promoted ten-year timetable "was never supposed to be the time we were supposed to build them in.”
Posted by steve at January 22, 2012 11:27 PM | Permalink
