Brutally weird: in new book on Brooklyn, departed Stuckey spins for AY, sans rebuttal

On the heels of Marc Eliot’s awkward, not-quite-oral history, Song of Brooklyn, comes another from Florida-dwelling sports book author Peter Golenbock, In the Country of Brooklyn: Inspiration to the World, with another distorted view of Atlantic Yards, courtesy of former Forest City Ratner executive Jim Stuckey, whose self-serving statements go unrebutted.

For example, Stuckey claims that the developer has spent its own money on land acquistions and infrastructure that the city has paid for; he asserts that the "legislature" approved the project; and he suggests that New York will turn into Detroit unless the city "steps up" and helps projects like Atlantic Yards move forward.

And, in a master stroke reminiscent of his work spinning the New York Times, he claims that the critics, not the developer, are creating a deceptive picture.

...
While telling the story of Brooklyn is inevitably impossible, Golenbock pretty much punts on the present-day borough, telling the story of the 1980s through the 21st century via only nine people, two of them developers.

...
So that means that readers of this book get the Atlantic Yards story from Stuckey (right), once president of the Atlantic Yards Development Group, with an assist from Borough President Marty Markowitz and a mention from one project supporter.

...
The most brutally weird thing in the Atlantic Yards chapter is not that Golenbock relies solely on Stuckey. It’s not that the interview occurred just two weeks before Stuckey’s mysterious departure, which might have given the author some pause. It’s not that Stuckey, whose FCR bio deemed him "an accomplished musician, capable of playing ten instruments," doesn't mention his musical prowess.

And it’s not even that Stuckey, who like other interviewees supplied personal photos, agreed to share with the world a picture of his teenage self (and future wife) at his high school prom.

No, it's that Stuckey, famous for his November 2005 claim to a credulous New York Times reporter "It's Orwellian, ale most," regarding critics' charges of little transparency, claims, that “the opposition to this project hopes if they say something enough times, people will believe it.”

It’s Orwellian, almost.