Atlantic Yards Development - Commercial, Residential, Retail, NBA Arena

Fighting Atlantic Yards

By Michael Clancy
amNewYork City Editor

February 5, 2007

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Developer Bruce Ratner is only a few courtroom victories away from realizing his vision of the Atlantic Yards project, a $4 billion mega-development that would build an arena for the Nets and 16 skyscrapers along a 22-acre tract in downtown Brooklyn.

On Wednesday, his lawyers will be in federal court arguing to dismiss a lawsuit -- one of several legal challenges pending -- brought by 12 plaintiffs who seek to prevent the government from taking their property and homes through the use of eminent domain.

About two dozen people -- including homeowners, a commercial property owner, Freddy's Bar on Dean Street and families and individuals who rent -- are arguing that use of eminent domain is unconstitutional.

"You have a Puerto Rican extended family, a Romanian immigrant, you have a Pakistani family with nine kids -- this is New York. This is Brooklyn," said plaintiff Daniel Goldstein, who helped organize the anti-arena group, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn.

The 8-million-square-foot project will create 6,400 housing units, including 2,250 units for low- and middle-income families. About 600 of those affordable apartments will be for sale. A spokesman for Forest CityRatner declined comment for this story.

Some of the plaintiffs agreed to explain why they signed onto the lawsuit.

Joe Pastore has lived in his one-room apartment on Dean Street for 40 years. A 62-year-old retiree, Pastore likes to fix radios and collect knickknacks. Though he is a plaintiff in the eminent domain case, he is actually a supporter of bringing the Nets to Brooklyn.

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62-year-old retiree Joe Pastore.

"I am not against the project," said Pastore, who retired from a city job working with juvenile defenders. "I am not against the arena. I am against what's going to happen to me and my neighbors. ... I don't think I should be put out and pay high rent because a developer that's a billionaire says I have to get out. It shouldn't be like a bully-style."


Maria Gonzalez, a 54-year-old homemaker, has rented her apartment on Pacific Street near Vanderbilt for 35 years. She's lived in the neighborhood her entire life and met her husband on Vanderbilt Avenue.

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Maria Gonzalez, a 54-year-old homemaker.

While she shares her apartment in the four-story brickwalkup with her husband and son, her two daughters also live in apartments in the building with her two granddaughters and grandson. She said she doesn't like her chances in the lawsuit, but feels it's her only recourse.

The residents of the building are like family, she said.

"We used to do barbecues with the kids, they ride bikes and the kids consider themselves not friends [but] cousins, aunts and all that.... I really don't want to get no more white hairs than I have but if it's God's will to be that way then let it be that way."


Out of all those who oppose the project, Daniel Goldstein, a 37-year-old graphic designer, has been one of the most vocal and tireless critics.

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Daniel Goldstein, a 37-year-old graphic designer.

He is also a person who the project's backers hold up as an example of nouveau Brooklynites who oppose a plan that will brings jobs, tax revenue and affordable housing. Goldstein, who is the last tenant in a condo building where the other owners sold to Ratner, is undaunted by criticism or the seemingly tough odds of prevailing.

"People just feel that viscerally it's wrong," said Goldstein, who has lived in his condo for nearly four years and in Brooklyn for 12. "People want to stay in their neighborhoods of choice. And stay in their homes of choice .... I think that everyone who has stayed here and is on this case is courageous to challenge what is a lot of political and financial power."


Freddy's Bar and Backroom has served as informal headquarters for those who oppose the project and the use of eminent domain. The no-nonsense watering hole has sat on the corner of Dean and Sixth Avenue since Prohibition. The backroom serves as an art gallery and music venue hosting free events most nights of the week, said manager Donald O'Finn.

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Freddy's Bar and Backroom manager Donald O'Finn.

"I really want people to understand who and what they were attempting to destroy here," said O'Finn, who gets visibly angry just talking about the loss of the bar. "It's a beautiful thing. It's not just a place where people come and drink. It's not just a bar. People don't come here to get laid. They come for other reasons."

Having worked at the bar for nine years, O'Finn said he has seen the neighborhood rebound in recent years as new buildings have gone up and the rents have too. "It was a blooming neighborhood when this whole arena project was initiated," O'Finn said.

"So blight is absolutely ridiculous, if they wanna say, 'We have money and you don't. We are throwing you out and you suck. We don't.' That's fine. But let's be honest about it. It's not blight."

Copyright 2007 AM New York

Anything that will block the view of this \/ should be built (the POS building, not Goldstein) ;) :

http://www.amny.com/media/photo/2007-02/27740261.jpg

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"Whether the Brooklyn Paper had highlighted the link to slavery or not, many of us involved in the reparations movement were aware of Barclays for a long time," he said.

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I agree with the reparations movement. But Atlantic Yards and reparations are two totally different issues, that should not mix.

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"I really want people to understand who and what they were attempting to destroy here," said O'Finn, who gets visibly angry just talking about the loss of the bar. "It's a beautiful thing. It's not just a place where people come and drink. It's not just a bar. People don't come here to get laid. They come for other reasons."

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I can understand people who enjoy the bar and hold nostalgia of its past. But the need of the few should be tempered with the needs of Brooklyn as a whole. Is the bar more valuable than 6,400 apartments, of which approximately 2,250 will be affordable, in light of a growing population, and over priced market starved for housing?

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Originally Posted by lofter1

Anything that will block the view of this \/ should be built (the POS building, not Goldstein) ;) :

http://www.amny.com/media/photo/2007-02/27740261.jpg

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On my browser its pointing to the Williamsburg Savings Bank, do you mean Atlantic Terminal?

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Originally Posted by antinimby

Fighting Atlantic Yards

"So blight is absolutely ridiculous, if they wanna say, 'We have money and you don't. We are throwing you out and you suck. We don't.' That's fine. But let's be honest about it. It's not blight."

Copyright 2007 AM New York

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I would define most of that area as "blighted", but that is nothing more than my opinion - that is part of the problem here, what exactly is blight.

I would like to have seen this entire area of Brooklyn develope in an more piece-meal (organic) fashion: this superbloc mega-project thing seems all wrong to me.

And besides, Ghery is way over rated.:D

P.S. I just found some information on "Brooklyn Matters", a documentary about the proposed Atlantic Yards project.
I lost the link you will have to find out yourself where the current screenings are held, from what I recall they are free and at variious locations in town.
The website explains: brooklynmatters.com (the website seems to be down now?)
No single event will have a more drastic and long-lasting impact on Brooklyn than the proposed Atlantic Yards development. This uncommon proposal, however, is mostly misunderstood. Brooklyn Matters is an insightful documentary that reveals the fuller truth about the Atlantic Yards proposal and highlights how a few powerful men are circumventing community participation and planning principles to try to push their own interests forward.

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Originally Posted by Stern

...do you mean Atlantic Terminal?

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But of course!

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I would like to have seen this entire area of Brooklyn develope in an more piece-meal (organic) fashion: this superbloc mega-project thing seems all wrong to me.

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It pretty much will be piece-meal because it will take 10 years to compete the entire project. So it won't go from nothing to superblock over night.

I cannot think of any scenario where a developer would pay a billion dollars to deck over a giant hole in the ground without a fully realized plan for how to make money from it.

So far no one has touched the Hudson Railyards until it has a deck.

The reason it's being developed as a superblock is because it started as a superblock. The core of the development, and IIRC the majority of the land involved is the LIRR railyard. That was not going to be developed piecemeal. So whatever went there was going to be a superblock. Atlantic Yards is just swallowing up some of the surrounding territory.

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Originally Posted by MikeW

The reason it's being developed as a superblock is because it started as a superblock. The core of the development, and IIRC the majority of the land involved is the LIRR railyard. That was not going to be developed piecemeal. So whatever went there was going to be a superblock. Atlantic Yards is just swallowing up some of the surrounding territory.

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O.k. Mike and Tino, so live and learn ..... i am on-board. :p

The murky description of the $205 million begs further explanation, so after the symposium on Robert Moses last Thursday, I asked Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Dan Doctoroff a couple of Atlantic Yards questions. I already covered the discussion of public dialogue and Community Benefits Agreements, but I also raised the funding issue: "You probably know there's a $205 billion capital plan for Atlantic Yards--

"Much of that," he intervened, "was stuff that was going to be done in the area regardless."

"Then why is it under the rubric of Atlantic Yards?" I asked.

"Because it happens to be in the area surrounding Atlantic Yards," he responded.

"Is that an artifact of the fact that it wasn't classified--"

"It's an artifact of the way in which we classify things in the capital budget," he said.

"Y'know, people look at the MOU and see $100 million; it looks like it's a doubling," I said.

"We don't believe it is. We believe that there's an infrastructure cost that affects the $100 million that in any event would have been spent in the Atlantic Yards area," he said.

"Is there a cap, ultimately, because there is 'extraordinary infrastructure' [spending possibility] in the MOU potential continued; do you have a sense of that?" I asked.

"There isn't a cap, but other than escalations of construction costs, I'm not anticipating anything else," he said, adding, "It's a big project; things change."

Mayor Mike Bloomberg, according to the Brooklyn Paper, attributed the higher allocation to the “rising cost of cement and steel.”

“We have a commitment to pay for infrastructure costs and we will meet that commitment,” the mayor said.

http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot....05m-story.html

This project is a joke, now you have more public money going to the project for "related costs" and what makes me laugh is the job numbers that are promised. The only jobs being made will be food vendors and security guards at the stadium and doormen at the building. The jobs created number for residential buildings always are full of themselves!!

The day this project starts is a sad sad day in Brooklyn and NY history!

^ Aren't you the same one who claimed downtown Manhattan would never recover? Don't cry wolf on this just yet.

Well one of the major complaints of AY opponents was that it would overwhelm Brooklyn's infrastructure. The city is spending money to deal with that problem. Doctoroff said many of these infrastructure improvements were needed anyway but are more imperative with AY.

All of these projects are going to be done by people who need to be paid: job creation.

I'll read my crystal ball and predict that the stadium and the three or four adjoining towers get built. After that, Ratner pleads poverty and sells off development rights. The public is left holding the bill and all those suckers screaming that it is all about housing still sit in their dumpy little rooms n public housing.

We'll see a stadium and Ms. Brooklyn, (i.e. Missed Opportunity Brooklyn). Look at the final renderings. Guaranteed we never see it built. Someone note this post somewhere. I'm channeling Sylvia Browne.

Unless we enter another great depression, I have no doubt that Ratner will make out like a bandit.