 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
tel/fax:
718.362.4784
Please note our new postal address when sending
contributions to the legal fund:
121 5th Avenue, PMB #150
Brooklyn, New York 11217
About DDDB
Our coalition consists of 21 community organizations and
there are 51 community organizations formally
aligned in opposition to the Ratner plan.
DDDB is a volunteer-run organization. We have over 5,000
subscribers to our email newsletter, and 7,000 petition
signers. Over 800 volunteers have registered with DDDB
to form our various teams, task-forces and committees
and we have over 150 block captains. We have a 20 person
volunteer legal team of local lawyers supplementing our
retained attorneys.
We are funded entirely by individual donations from the community at large
and through various fundraising events we and supporters have organized.
We have the financial support of well over 3,500 individual
donors.
More about
DDDB...
|
|
|
|
 |
ARCHIVES:
By Date|
By Category|
Text Search
|
Atlantic Yards is the Sore Thumb
The NY Times's hard-headed editorial "Construction
and Hard Times" begins:
With the recent exhumation of a Red Sox jersey from the site of the
new Yankee Stadium, another sports arena will move forward jinx-free. If only
the rest of New York City’s grand development plans could get back on
track so easily. Work is slowing, stalling or stopped altogether on too many
of the projects we hoped would transform some of the bleakest sections of the
city.
The faltering economy is a big factor, but there is also a lack of leadership.
The leader of the Empire State Development Corporation quit along with Eliot
Spitzer, the disgraced former governor.
A committee of marquee name business leaders that was formed to find a replacement
has just begun its search, but it needs to act quickly. There are far too many
important projects in need of the support and direction of a top-flight developer
and negotiator...
...Atlantic Yards The Nets arena appears to be moving ahead, but the
centerpiece Miss Brooklyn building designed by Frank Gehry is likely to be delayed.
A strong state hand could ensure that the project — with adequate lower-income
housing — survives hard times...
("Bleakest?" Norman Oder comments
on that unfortunate phrase.)
Anyway, the editorial goes on to list 6 projects the Empire State Development
Corporation is overseeing. The six they list are:
> Penn Station
> Manhattan's West Side
> Calatrava's PATH station
> Atlantic Yards
> Pier 40
> Javits Convention Center
Which one of these things is not like the other? (Hint: it's bolded.)
Five of the six are projects initiated by government and driven by government.
Atlantic Yards, on the other hand, was initiated by Ratner and driven by Ratner.
The project has been Ratner's baby from conception and if the developer can't
make it happen, the state should use its "strong hand" to remove its
support and push forward worthy and necessary projects over the Vanderbilt
rail yards and elsewhere. (Here
is a place to start.)
The "leader" of the Atlantic Yards project is Bruce Ratner, not the
ESDC. The ESDC didn't even get into the back seat until years after Ratner
unveiled the proposal. The fact that The Times's editorialists lumps
all of these projects together, and can't see that one sticks out like a sore
thumb, explains a lot.
Posted: 4.18.08
|
|
|
|
