Correcting a couple of mythological whoppers highlighted by Ratner & Friends
at their arena groundtaking ceremony:
Ratner & Friends claimed
there were 34 lawsuits against his project.
There weren't.
There were eight against various abuses exhibited by the project, its process
and its involved agencies.
Ratner & Friends claimed
that Atlantic Yards would displace four commercial occupants and about 35 residents
occupying 15 apartments.
Wrong.
When Ratner announced his project in December 2003 it was immediate clear that
eminent domain would be used to remove all of thise businesses and residents.
and it was. At the time there were 33 businesses with 235 employees, 162 homes
with 334 residents, and a long term family homeless shelter housing close to
400 individuals. They all will all be gone eventually and eminent domain will
have been used to clear the site.
And the approval to use eminent domain to remove all of those citizens and their
businesses was made in a back room in July according to the 17-minute speech
Ratner gave at the groundtaking ceremony. Ratner
said, "And Mr. Mayor, in July 2003, I remember presenting this
project to you. After listening, you said, 'Let's get this done.'"
