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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
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Scale Scam
People have been wondering what to make of statements from Borough President Marty
Markowitz at the August 23rd DEIS public hearing, and other statements, calling
for the scaling down of the "Atlantic Yards" proposal. Marty’s scale
comments, though, seemed fishy. We believed that the Borough President must have
been given some assurance by Forest City Ratner and/or the ESDC that such a scale
back was in the pipeline. This is what developers do. Today this is precisely what the New York Sun is
reporting:
PRESSURE
MOUNTS TO CURB THE SIZE OF ATLANTIC YARDS
‘They Shoot for the Sun So They Can Get the Moon,’ a Critic Says
By DAVID LOMBINO. NY Sun
The developer of the $4.2 billion Atlantic Yards project is coming under pressure
to downsize, The New York Sun has learned.
State officials have discussed with the developer, Forest City Ratner, a reduction
in the size of the project, a source said. The officials have said the downsizing
should come in the next few weeks, before September 22, the end of the public
comment period regarding the draft environmental impact statement, the source
said. As proposed, Atlantic Yards would be the largest development project in
Brooklyn’s history and create the densest census tract in America...
... A spokesman for Forest City Ratner told the New York Post last week that
it would consider the suggestions by Mr. Markowitz. The developer would not
comment yesterday.
If the developer reduces the project’s size, it should not expect instant community approval of the new plan.A spokesman for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, an umbrella organization of opposition groups, Daniel Goldstein, said a size reduction would not halt a legal challenge over the proposed use of eminent domain.
Mr. Goldstein said the organization would oppose the project until the developer changes the 22-acre project footprint, considers not building the basketball arena, and takes eminent domain off the table.He said he expected a size reduction as part of the developer’s strategy to seek approval.
“They shoot for the sun so they can get the moon.When they get the moon, they act like they have listened to the criticism and responded,” Mr. Goldstein said.
Mr. Goldstein said the latest proposal is about 700,000 square feet bigger than the 8 million square feet that was originally proposed in December 2003. Opponents contend that the developer increased the total square footage to about 9.1 million square feet last September, and then in March scaled back plans by about 5%, or 475,000 square feet, to its current total size of about 8.7 million square feet.
The developer has said that the size of the project,and its thousands of market
rate housing units, is necessary to subsidize the affordable units. Forest City
Ratner has not said how much it stands to profit from the project...
Don’t be fooled.
Developers have long padded the scale of proposed projects, and then sat back
while communities cried foul. Once the press has voiced the public’s concerns,
the developers, amidst massive fanfare and a show of magnanimity, role back the
project by 25% or less – removing the padding – and claiming responsiveness to
the people’s concerns.
That said, scale is but one issue.
The proposed location of the basketball arena is another.
(There
is a way out of that problem...)
The extreme
density is a third
The environmental
and socio-economic
impact is a fourth.
The abuse
of eminent domain is a fifth.
The undemocratic
process is a sixth.
These are just six of the deep-rooted concerns over the "Atlantic
Yards" proposal.
For a detailed understanding of the kind of development that Develop
Don't Destroy DOES support (joined by some 20 other neighborhood community organizations),
take a look at the “Principles
and Guidelines for Responsible Community Development at the Vanderbilt Yards”
developed by these groups (visit www.dddb.net/php/community/principles.php).
Those principles guided the proposal (and higher bid) submitted to the MTA by the Extell Development Company.
Posted: 8.29.06
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