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tel/fax:
718.362.4784
Please note our new postal address when sending
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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
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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.
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ESDC 2004 on Atlantic Yards: "We don't care about the arena."
They Sure Care About the Arena Now; Heck That's
All They Appear to Care About
A golden oldie. From the Aug 23, 2004 NY
Sun interview
with former Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) chairman Charles "The
Ambassador" Gargano:
Q: There seems to be an explosion in the number
of stadiums New Yorkers may soon see built, including for the Jets on the West
Side, the Nets in Brooklyn, and now possibly the Yankees and the Mets. What
will this mean for New York taxpayers?
A: The governor and I have made it clear for nine-plus
years that no taxpayer money will go to build a sports arena.We will
consider helping with infrastructure improvements, like a platform over the
rail yards on the West Side or new subway stations, which helps the public at
large. The Yankees are now taking that road, which I am very happy about because
they are a great ball club that brings a lot of revenue to the city and their
stadium is too old. They are offering $700 million to build a new stadium, with
the state and city pitching in to improve roads and other infrastructure. Similarly,
the Jets have agreed to build the Sports and Convention Center and we will build
a platform and the retractable roof. This discussion of sports arenas is not
out of the blue. The fact is, they have been talked about for a long time, but
after September 11 these ideas were shelved. Now, almost three years after that
terrible day, they are starting to think about this once again.
That was mimicked by Bruce Ratner himself when
he said that Atlantic Yards would “not touch the existing tax base."
Too bad the statements were and are untrue. See this Atlantic Yards accounting
by the NY
Post. Also the Yankees and Mets are going
back for more. While Forest City Enterprises chief Chuck
Ratner famously said "we still need more" subsidy.
The interview continued:
Q: Your agency is putting in a lot of money to develop Downtown [sic]
Brooklyn. How important is the stadium in this area’s development?
A*: The Brooklyn development has 2.1 million square feet of commercial space,
300,000 square feet of retail space,and 4.4 million square feet of residential.
It is a $2.1 billion project, and only $500 million is for the arena. Our support
is primarily for the commercial, retail, and residential development —
not the arena. We don’t care about the arena.
We aren’t opposed to it, but our assistance is primarily to provide support
for the other parts of the plan.
(Full color emphasis added)
Now of course Pataki and his benefactor Gargano are long gone. And it has all
flipped, the focus by the state and Ratner is on the arena (when times are hard
give them bread and circuses) with the so-called "affordable" housing
not even on the burner. The arena is also the one thing Ratner is willing to be
confident about, but his luxury
arena skyboxes won't house anyone...
March
21, 2008, NY Times:
“It [the slowing economy] may hold up the office
building,” the developer, Bruce C. Ratner, said in a recent interview.
“And the bond market may slow the pace of the residential buildings.”...
The developer did say he was confident about starting construction on
a $950 million basketball arena for the Nets by the end of the year.
And the ESDC has given Rartner 6+
years just to build the arena, with no timeline whatsoever for at
least 70% of the so-called "affordable, and market housing, and there is
no anchor tenant for the office tower, a requirement to build it.
And finally, the City's funding agreement with the ESDC for Atlantic Yards requires
larger penalties for a delayed arena than a delayed Phase 1, suggesting--the Atlantic
Yards Report's Norman
Oder has written--that the arena is more of a priority.
*Updates: it is now at least a $4 billion project and the arena
is $950 million and rising, 6.36 million sq. feet residential,
336,000 sq. feet of office, and 247,000 sq. feet of retail.
Posted: 6.26.08
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