Yes, but they will always be the New Jersey Nets to me. :)
Yes, but they will always be the New Jersey Nets to me. :)
December 22, 2006
Atlantic Yards Enters New Phase, and Faces Next Hurdle: Lawsuits
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
If all goes according to plan, work will begin within weeks on the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project near Downtown Brooklyn, which won final approval from a state oversight board on Wednesday after three years of furious debate.
But large development projects rarely go according to plan — even when they do not face multiple lawsuits, which the project, one of the biggest in the city’s history, already does. And months or years may pass before anyone will be able to divine the precise gap between the plan for Atlantic Yards and the reality of it.
On paper, the project’s developer, Forest City Ratner Companies, expects to begin construction sometime next month, though much of the early work will take place below street level, amid the Vanderbilt railyards along Atlantic Avenue. The plan calls for the eight-acre area to be rebuilt, then covered by a platform from which portions of the project would rise.
Forest City has privately purchased much of the property it needs to build the project. But it faces a federal lawsuit by some residents and business owners on the site, who refused to move or sell their properties to Forest City and now face condemnation from state officials.
Among the plaintiffs is Daniel Goldstein, the spokesman for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, a coalition of community organizations and elected officials opposed to the project. Mr. Goldstein’s apartment building, of which he is the sole remaining owner, would need to be torn down to make way for the arena.
City and state officials last year rebuffed alternative proposals that would not have required eminent domain, and now Mr. Goldstein and others say they are left with no choice but to fight in court.
“We’re confident we will win this lawsuit,” he said yesterday. “Our victory will force a reshaping of the project, while protecting owners and renters nationwide from abuses of eminent domain.”
A second lawsuit was filed two weeks ago by tenants of rent-stabilized apartments owned by Forest City on the project site. The lawsuit claims that the Empire State Development Corporation, which is overseeing the Atlantic Yards project, illegally approved the buildings’ condemnation without first obtaining permission from state housing officials to erase the tenants’ leases.
City and state officials are pushing to have both lawsuits dismissed. But George S. Locker, a lawyer for tenants in the second suit, said that was unlikely. “I’ve never seen cases that have such substantial legal issues, in such a variety of state and federal forums, with such enormous consequences, speed through in less than a year and a half,” he said.
By 2010, lawsuits notwithstanding, Forest City hopes to have completed most of the structures on the western portion of the 22-acre project site, near Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues. That includes the 18,000-seat basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets, which Forest City hopes to begin building next fall and open in time for the 2009-10 season.
In the same time frame, the developer also hopes to complete the project’s signal tower, called Miss Brooklyn, and more than 2,000 apartments, about 30 percent of which would be subsidized.
In the second phase, scheduled to end in 2016, Atlantic Yards would creep eastward toward Vanderbilt Avenue, adding the bulk of the project’s roughly 6,400 rental apartments and condominiums.
Forest City officials said it was possible that vacant buildings on the site that are already controlled by the company might have to be demolished in the coming months, but that it was unlikely they would move to demolish any of the buildings figuring in the lawsuits.
A broader group of elected officials and community and civic organizations, centered on the Brooklyn Speaks coalition, remains hopeful that it can force more changes to the project next year, after Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer takes office. Although the project has formally been approved, officials at the development corporation have signaled they are willing to entertain further alterations to the second phase.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
Maybe it's Ratner's way of "sticking" it to the people who complained about the tower being taller than the Williamsburgh. But it's a bad idea, and Ratner probably didn't have to do it to get Silver's support. The idea that the Williamsburgh should be Brooklyn's tallest forever is foolish. Magic should put flashing disco lights on top, annoying the hell out of everyone already complaining about the Atlantic Yards signage.Quote:
Originally Posted by lofter1
I know Nets fans who say they won't support the team when it leaves, but what are they gonna do? The NBA says the state cannot support a team, so another won't be coming. I say if you're already a fan, then you stick with it. But there's a whole new window opening in New York now. People who never figured to go to an NBA game, or had no interest in the Knicks may now find themselves wanting to check it out. And why wouldn't they? It's a brand new arena, in Brooklyn no less. We sometimes forget that we are just passing through, but there will be entire generations that grow up with the Brooklyn Nets. Things will be very different 20 or 30 years from now.Quote:
Originally Posted by JCMAN320
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYguy
Thw Williamsburgh Bank tower is hideous. The fact that Ratner wanted to build something taller than it, and possibly block the view of it, was the LEAST offensive aspect of his plan.
???Quote:
Originally Posted by BPC
NYGuy your absolutely right. I know people that are friends of my family that in their 50s and 60s that are still fans of the Giants and Dodgers, even though they moved couple thousand miles away, they are still fans because they were fans when they were young and rooted for the teams when they were in Manhattan and Brooklyn. It will be the same way with the Nets.Quote:
Originally Posted by NYguy
Loyal die hard New Jerseyans, like myself, may not like that New Jersey is loosing the Nets, but they will always be the Nets to us no matter where they play. They will always be the team we grew up to love. Just like there are millions fans of the from California that only know the Giants as the San Franciso Giants and the Dodgers as only the Los Angeles Dodgers, they're will be new generations fans who will know them as the Brooklyn Nets.
Still they're will always be long time fans like my self and millions of other who will forever remember the team as the New Jersey Nets and even the New York Nets of the ABA and even some that remember when they started as the New Jersey Americans back in the organizations first humble year in the ABA in 1967 at the Teaneck Armory.
Point is no matter where they go they will always be the Nets to me. N-E-T-S NETS NETS NETS!!!, LET'S GO NETS; LET'S GO NETS; LET'S GO NETS!!! :)
It may not be hideous, but there's no reason a 1920's tower should remain the tallest anywhere - its just nostalgia gone wrong. It's insane and I cannot believe they caved on this or that its even an issue.Quote:
Originally Posted by lofter1
Nice shot. The reality is something less. I've seen the building a 1000 times and never seen it all bathed in shiny red light like that. But even with the trick photography, it still ain't no beaut.
thats not photshop, thats sunset. matter of fact your insults of such a stunning building is unwarranted, and is merely your opinion.
All my posts (except for when I repost news articles and such) are "merely my opinion." And my opinion here is that building is fugly. Until now, I've never heard anyone claim otherwise. Rather, the argument has always been that it is a Brooklyn landmark, because: (a) it sits on the intersection of two major avenues; and (b) it's way taller than anything else around it. Both of those are undisputable facts. But I don't find them particularly compelling in the context of the whole Ratner debate.
For what it's worth (not much), I agree with BPC. The massing of this building is somewhat lacking, especially when compared to some of the other classic towers of its day...go ahead Ratner, make my day.
^ Base and tower are ill-matched on Williamsburgh; look like they come from buildings of differing size. This building is a clumsy and lovable relic. It doesn't deserve the elaborate kowtowing it gets.
Wow, this is news to me. Very disappointed to hear that Ratner caved to Marty and the heightophobiacs.
Another flattop "skyline" in the making: Table Mountain, Brooklyn.Quote:
Originally Posted by pianoman11686