By Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: Two organizations that have been meeting with Forest City Ratner officials
over a community benefits agreement tied to Atlantic Yards may be rewarded
with jobs if the basketball arena, office skyscraper and apartment high-rise
plan gains government approvals.
Comment.
By Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: Simon Liu has made a name for himself by producing high-end stretchers
— the wood frames upon which painting canvases are stretched —
for world-renowned painters.
Comment.
By Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: Five months after a city fiscal watchdog announced that it would analyze
the cost to taxpayers of developer Bruce Ratner’s proposed $2.5 billion
Atlantic Yards project work has yet to begin on the study.
Comment.
By Jotham Sederstrom
Atlantic Yards: Brooklynites, who have proven with the Cyclones single-A baseball team
that they can support professional sports, could be front and center for
high-scoring, fast-paced, action-packed basketball.
Comment.
By Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: As if opponents of Forest City Ratner’s “Atlantic Yards”
plan didn’t already have enough reasons to dislike him, a top official
of the development company has taken to labeling as “blighted”
the six square blocks of Prospect Heights that the project would subsume.
Comment.
By Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: A presentation of developer Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards plan hosted
by community boards 2, 6 and 8 turned into a shouting match Monday night.
Comment.
By Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: A competing developer’s plans for a portion of the Atlantic Yards
site could throw a monkey wrench into Bruce Ratner’s dream of building
a basketball arena, four office skyscrapers and 13 high-rise apartment
buildings in Prospect Heights, The Brooklyn Papers has learned.
Comment.
By Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: A group of anti-Atlantic Yards community activists have filed a complaint
with the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board charging that Community
Board 6 chairman Jerry Armer’s job with the Metrotech Business Improvement
District conflicts with his role as leader of the board in discussing
the plan for a basketball arena, office skyscrapers and 13 apartment buildings
in Prospect Heights.
Comment.
By Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: Aricka Westbrooks didn’t know when she opened her quirky fried turkey
business on Myrtle Avenue a year ago that Jive Turkey would be quickly
featured in the New York Times, Gourmet magazine and on the Food Network.
Comment.
By Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: Members of the community boards that encompass developer Bruce Ratner’s
planned Atlantic Yards complex condemned their respective chairpersons
Wednesday. They charged that, wittingly or not, the board chairs have
allowed the developer to co-opt the boards without having reviewed his
plans.
Comment.
Atlantic Yards: The Rev. Herbert Daughtry, an activist minister and leader of the House
of the Lord Church on Atlantic Avenue, is negotiating with Atlantic Yards
developer Bruce Ratner to get a house of worship built into the planned
basketball arena complex.
Comment.
By Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: Brooklyn ministers and community members announced Tuesday a planned boycott
of developer Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Terminal mall on the busiest
shopping day of the year.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski and Neil Sloane
Atlantic Yards: Members of Community Board 2 are set for a fight at the board’s monthly
meeting this Wednesday over the issue of board participation in negotiations
for a community benefits agreement with Atlantic Yards developer Bruce
Ratner.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: Despite boasts by Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner that he has purchased
an overwhelming majority of the private property needed to build a basketball
arena and office and apartment towers in Prospect Heights, The Brooklyn
Papers has learned that several of the largest property owners there have
not yet agreed to sell.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: While Bruce Ratner continues to lobby New York city and state officials
and community members to support the plan to build a 19,000-seat Brooklyn
arena for his New Jersey Nets, city officials in Newark are lauding the
successful procurement of funds and municipal approval to build an arena
for the New Jersey Devils hockey team.
Comment.
Atlantic Yards: The most prominent activist group to protest plans for Bruce Ratner’s
proposed Atlantic Yards development, Develop-Don’t Destroy Brooklyn,
is holding a fundraiser on Saturday, Nov. 6.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner now says he’d consider keeping his New Jersey Nets in
New Jersey if he failed to win approval for his contentious $2.5 billion
Atlantic Yards mega-development, which includes a new 19,000 seat basketball
arena.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: The question of what, if any, public review there will be of Bruce Ratner’s
Atlantic Yards mega-development remains as much a mystery today as it
did when the plan was unveiled more than a year ago.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: Former Knicks and Nets basketball star Bernard King, a key pointman in
Bruce Ratner’s campaign to win approval for the Atlantic Yards mega-development,
was arrested Saturday and charged with three counts of assault against
his wife of seven years.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: Community Board 2 committee members revolted against the board’s
chairwoman in two votes this week that called for the board to remove
itself from negotiations with Forest City Ratner on a local benefits agreement
for the planned Atlantic Yards project.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: A Pratt Institute study released this week revealed that 81.4 percent
of polled residents in the Prospect Heights neighborhood were either “very
concerned” or “concerned” about developer Bruce Ratner’s
proposed Atlantic Yards project.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: In response to pressure from community members, politicians and the press,
community boards 2, 6 and 8 publicly announced their involvement in negotiations
for a community benefits agreement with developer Bruce Ratner over his
planned Atlantic Yards basketball arena, office tower and housing complex.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: Over the past 10 weeks, while invited community members, community board
leaders and heads of community organizations worked with Bruce Ratner
to clandestinely forge a community benefits agreement for the Atlantic
Yards development, the question asked by local politicians, individuals,
neighborhood associations and opponents of the arena project has been,
“Who exactly is the community?”
Comment.
By
Vince DiMicelli
Atlantic Yards: THE ANSWERS to the city’s stadium problems lie at the corner of Flatbush
and Atlantic avenues. While real estate mogul Bruce Ratner continues to
push ahead with his Atlantic Yards project — featuring a basketball
arena for his Nets, 60-story office towers and a high-rise housing campus
— arguments for less obtrusive, more neighborhood-friendly developments
above the Long Island Rail Road storage yard continue to pop up.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: Borough President Marty Markowitz said this week that depending on the
results of a determination by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board,
his appointee to the City Planning Commission will either have to divest
of her interest in the New Jersey Nets or resign from the commission.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski and Neil Sloane
Atlantic Yards: Announcements of benefits agreements being forged between Forest City
Ratner and the “community” over the development company’s
plan to build a basketball arena, office towers and apartment buildings
in Prospect Heights left many residents, activists and elected officials
scratching their heads this week wondering, ‘Who is in this community
and who represents it?
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: When plans for a 360,000-square-foot Ikea furniture store passed unanimously
in a City Council subcommittee hearing on Tuesday — despite a large
turnout of project opponents — the plan appeared to be a shoo-in
success for the Sweden-based multinational corporation. Indeed, the next
day, the council’s Land Use committee followed suit, unanimously
approving the plan, with one abstention.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: Borough President Marty Markowitz subjected himself to questioning at
the Park Slope Food Co-op last Saturday, much of it dealing with developer
Bruce Ratner’s plan to build a basketball arena, apartment buildings
and office towers in Prospect Heights.
Comment.
Atlantic Yards: Calling it “The Brooklyn Dodge,” the anti-Nets arena group Develop-Don’t
Destroy Brooklyn is hosting a restaurant week to raise money for the fight
against developer Bruce Ratner’s planned Atlantic Yards project.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: Borough President Marty Markowitz invited leaders of a select few groups
and elected officials to a closed-door meeting Wednesday to “participate
in dialogue” about developer Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project,
leaving critics of the plan out in the cold.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: For the past two months, community board leaders, Borough Hall staffers
and members of select organizations have been attending closed-door meetings
with developer Bruce Ratner to negotiate a contract that would guarantee
certain benefits to the communities surrounding his Atlantic Yards site.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner and state and city agencies are close to signing a memorandum
of understanding that would get the ball rolling on the developer’s
proposed Atlantic Yards project, a Westchester daily newspaper reported
this week.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to settle a Connecticut land dispute
case that could have major implications for Forest City Ratner’s
proposed Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.
Comment.
By
Jess Wisloski
Atlantic Yards: It’s the largest Brooklyn development project in nearly three decades,
but Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards basketball arena, office tower
and housing project will not have to pass through city review.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Responding to the news that Brooklyn City Planning Commissioner Dolly
Williams is a co-owner of real estate mogul Bruce Ratner’s recently
purchased New Jersey Nets, a group opposed to the team’s move to
Downtown Brooklyn filed a grievance this week with the city.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Opponents of Bruce Ratner’s plan to build a basketball arena in Prospect
Heights joined forces with opponents of a planned football stadium on
Manhattan’s West Side this week.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Dolly Williams, the borough’s City Planning commissioner and a key
player in Brooklyn’s development and land use review, is among the
lengthy list of investors real estate magnate Bruce Ratner has secretly
put together to purchase the New Jersey Nets.
Comment.
Atlantic Yards: The
following list, obtained by The Brooklyn Papers, shows the names of those
with an interest in the New Jersey Nets, the sale of which was approved
by the National Basketball Association last week:
Comment.
By Jotham Sederstrom
Atlantic Yards: Sources say a proposal to build an amateur athletics facility in Coney
Island will be partially funded by one of the area’s native sons,
Knicks point-guard Stephon Marbury.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: The Independent Budget Office will conduct an economic study of Bruce
Ratner’s $2.5 billion Atlantic Yards development, the city-funded
fiscal watchdog agency announced this week.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Over the past several months, developer Bruce Ratner has been quietly
plowing his way through Prospect Heights, purchasing everything property
owners are willing to sell.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Developer Bruce Ratner received the final stamp of approval from the National
Basketball Association to purchase the New Jersey Nets, but elected officials
and opponents of the Atlantic Yards say the game is not over.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Mayor Michael Bloomberg this week officially linked the proposed Atlantic
Yards basketball arena to New York City’s 2012 Olympic bid.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Citing Metropolitan Transportation Authority cries of poverty, opponents
of the massive Atlantic Yards development project and mass transit advocates
are calling on the MTA to seek top dollar for its valuable land.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Could the end of “Poletown” put the breaks on developer Bruce
Ratner’s Atlantic Yards proposal?
Comment.
By Vince DiMiceli
Atlantic Yards: A subcommittee of owners of the National Basketball Association has unanimously
recommended the sale of the New Jersey Nets to developer Bruce Ratner,
paving the way for the league’s Board of Governors to seal the $300-million
deal some time next week, the NBA said Thursday.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: A bit of suburbia has come to downtown and Brooklynites can’t seem
to get enough of it.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: The lighting was unflattering and the margaritas overly sweet, but nobody
seemed to notice at the star-studded opening in Downtown Brooklyn of one
of the nation’s largest Target department stores.
Comment.
By Christina Rogers
Atlantic Yards: Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s announcement last week that the city will
expand the Brooklyn Navy Yard industrial park by 500,000 square feet came
as good news to local manufacturers.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: So just who is buying the New Jersey Nets?
Comment.
Atlantic Yards: Reacting to legislation proposed by the Democratic leader of the state Assembly
Monday that calls for city land use review of plans to build a Manhattan
stadium for the New York Jets, activists in Prospect Heights called for
the same consideration of developer Bruce Ratner’s plan to build a
basketball arena in their neighborhood.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner will not have to put his Atlantic Yards arena, office tower
and housing development plan through the city’s public review process.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: With competing studies alternately painting a picture of Bruce Ratner’s
Atlantic Yards basketball arena and high-rise project as a major boon
to city coffers and a $500 million drain of taxpayer money, Prospect Heights
Councilwoman Letitia James is calling for the city to conduct its own
study of the plan.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: An economic analysis released this week blasted deeloper Bruce Ratner’s
Atlantic Yards arena and high-rise plan as a money loser that would cost
the state and city more than half-a-billion dollars.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: It may one day be center court for the Brooklyn Nets, but over the weekend
the intersection of Pacific Street and Fifth Avenue was center stage for
a rally against Bruce Ratner’s massive arena, housing and office
development plan.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Saying the appointed state officials who will review Bruce Ratner’s
$2.5 billion Atlantic Yards arena, office tower and housing plan are not
accountable to the public, a government watchdog group is calling for
the plan to be put through city review.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: At a June 17 rally on the steps of Borough Hall to support the Atlantic
Yards project, the loudest cry came from labor.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: A Forest City Ratner executive said he expects most shoppers at the soon-to-open
Atlantic Terminal shopping mall will drive rather than take mass transit.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: First came the flier, then came the rally.
Comment.
By Christina Rogers
Atlantic Yards: Officials with Forest City Ratner, the company that plans to build a basketball
arena surrounded by office towers and a housing complex in Prospect Heights,
say they will relocate any apartment renters the plan displaces.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Call him the “great Jewish hope.”
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: While some residents have already walked away with wads of cash and a
vow of silence those left fighting the proposed Atlantic Yards development
in Prospect Heights will be taking their message to the streets on Saturday,
June 19, from 2 pm to 6 pm.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: The Williamsburgh Savings Bank building, the tallest in Brooklyn, noted
for its gold dome and density of dental offices, is on the auction block,
and experts believe the building will be converted to luxury condominium
apartments.
Comment.
By Chiara V. Cowan
Atlantic Yards: About a year ago, Dock Oscar of the band
Sweet William, got to thinking. He had music on his mind but
it was not the thrashing angst of rock, the catchy cheese of
pop, or the pounding bass of rap. No, Oscar was thinking about
the sweet, smooth sound of country music.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Support the Nets … and win a prize!
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: When Mayor Michael Bloomberg addressed a Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce
luncheon Thursday, he talked about Bruce Ratner’s Nets arena plan
as a done deal and said concerns from the local community about the Downtown
Brooklyn Plan had been resolved.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: A plan to build an Ikea store on the Red Hook waterfront moved a step
closer to city approval Thursday night when a Community Board 6 committee
recommended approving the plan.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: With homeowners in the path of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards arena,
office towers and housing project set to accept lucrative buyouts, a group
of residents who have been there the longest — and stand to lose
the most — are now banding together.
Comment.
By Jotham Sederstrom
Atlantic Yards: Brooklyn Republicans voted by a wide margin to support development of
Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards basketball arena, office towers and
housing complex this week. At the same time many raised concerns over
the use of the state’s power of eminent domain to condemn private
property.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Just how much will a Brooklyn basketball arena cost New York City taxpayers?
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Consumer advocate and potential presidential spoiler Ralph Nader is coming
to town this week to speak out against the proposed Brooklyn arena and
Westside Manhattan stadium projects.
Comment.
By Ed Weintrob, Paper founder
Weintrob: It’s not just the Nets, and it’s not just eminent
domain. Whether Bruce Ratner has his way with us, in transforming Brooklyn
from its status as a perpetually evolving multi-textured urban quilt into
a sterile Manhattanized version of cul-de-sac suburbia, will depend more
on our collective vision than on our individual pocketbooks.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Real estate developer Bruce Ratner is closing in on a $32 million deal
to buy out residents of a nine-story building standing at what would be
center court of his new Nets arena project.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: A plan to turn Downtown Brooklyn into a commercial and retail hub with
soaring office towers moved one step closer to reality this week.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: After battling to have their voices heard in an official public forum,
community members were left fuming this week when a City Council hearing
on the Atlantic Yards arena proposal left them waiting nearly five hours
to testify.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: A coalition of property owners who banded together to fight developer
Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards basketball arena, office tower and
housing proposal showed signs this week of crumbling.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: A sports economist hired by Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner to study
the financial feasibility of the basketball arena, office tower and housing
plan released his results this week to a great deal of criticism.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: It was targeted to be among the first to go, under the city’s massive
Downtown Brooklyn rezoning and redevelopment plan, but this week the Institute
of Design and Construction got a reprieve.
Comment.
By Ed Weintrob, Paper founder
Weintrob: The “developers” and their tagalongs have their
mantra down pat: Give them carte blanche to take whatever land they want,
build whatever they want whenever they want, take whatever government
subsidies they want, then rest assured — there will be jobs and prosperity
for all.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: If you can’t beat ’em, build ’em a new building.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Although the state will provide the only formal review of developer Bruce
Ratner’s Atlantic Yards basketball arena, office and housing plan
a Queens City Council member has scheduled a hearing to investigate whether
the plan provides the best deal for the city.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Every 10 years, community boards have the opportunity to request changes
to their district lines based on the census.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: A community garden on Flatbush Avenue has become the latest pawn in an
ongoing battle over developer Bruce Ratner’s plans to build a massive
basketball arena and office tower complex across the street in Prospect
Heights.
Comment.
By Jotham Sederstrom
Atlantic Yards: Eighty elementary-school athletes showed their mettle on the court this
week during a two-day basketball camp led by former Knicks star forward
Bernard King.
Comment.
By Jotham Sederstrom
Atlantic Yards: Developer Bruce Ratner has been floating the notion that he might build
a second sports facility — for amateur athletics — in addition
to a professional basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets, on the site
for the proposed Atlantic Yards development.
Comment.
By Jotham Sederstrom
Atlantic Yards: Chanting “No eminent domain for personal gain,” hundreds of
protesters gathered in Prospect Heights Sunday, within three-point range
of the site planned for a professional basketball arena that has been
mightily opposed since it was proposed by developer Bruce Ratner last
year.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Peter Kalikow said this
week he would seek “maximum value” for an 11-acre Long Island
Rail Road storage yards site in Prospect Heights — over which developer
Bruce Ratner is looking to build a colossal arena complex — but demurred
when asked if he would put the property through an open bidding process.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: A week after the City Planning Commission hosted a public hearing on the
Downtown Brooklyn Plan, it is considering making two major changes, according
to sources.
Comment.
By Jotham Sederstrom
Atlantic Yards: A sliver of land caught in the crosshairs of two separate but equally
far-reaching development plans may find itself home to Brooklyn’s
tallest structure — a 620-foot office tower — regardless of
what might happen to it as it courses through the city’s public review
process under the guise of a residential parcel.
Comment.
By Jotham Sederstrom
Atlantic Yards: City Councilwoman Letitia James is calling on the city to remove from
its massive rezoning plan for Downtown Brooklyn a small plot of land that
is also a key element in developer Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards
arena and office tower plan.
Comment.
Atlantic Yards: It’ll be a “Rally at the Railyards” Sunday, March 28, for
opponents of developer Bruce Ratner’s plan to build a basketball
arena, office towers and apartment buildings in Prospect Heights.
Comment.
By Jotham Sederstrom
Atlantic Yards: Faced with deciding the future of Downtown Brooklyn, the City Planning
Commission heard more than eight hours of often-passionate testimony on
Wednesday from both supporters and opponents of the city’s urban
renewal proposal.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
and Neil Sloane
Atlantic Yards: Speaking at a building trades conference in Manhattan Thursday, developer
Bruce Ratner thanked the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Gov.
George Pataki for backing his $2.5 billion Atlantic Yards project.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: The president of the group Brooklyn United for Innovative Development,
or BUILD, has stepped down, claiming the group he helped found has veered
from its initial goal of securing jobs for the community from developer
Bruce Ratner’s proposed Atlantic Yards development.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Amid rumors that developer Bruce Ratner and City Council Speaker Gifford
Miller were trying to nip in the bud his plan to hold a hearing on the
Atlantic Yards project, a Queens councilman said this week he will not
be stopped.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: For anyone who has ever walked past the barren Long Island Rail Road storage
yards along Atlantic Avenue and thought, ‘Hey, know what would look
great there?’ now’s your chance to vent those ideas to real-live
urban planners who want to listen.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: As a major Downtown Brooklyn rezoning plan wends its way though the city’s
land use review process, the community is invited to weigh in at a public
hearing this week.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Borough President Marty Markowitz gave his approval this week to the controversial
Downtown Brooklyn Plan, a city proposal that would use the state’s
power of eminent domain to condemn private property and rezone the area
to allow for taller buildings. The Downtown Plan’s advocates say
they envision a 24-7 commercial and residential hub with skyscraping office
and residential towers. The plan overlaps, but is separate from, developer
Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project that could include a profe
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Forest City Ratner is close to an agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority and the Empire State Development Corp. for development of the
Atlantic Yards arena, office and housing development in Prospect Heights.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: From the outside, the old Ward Bakery building at 800 Pacific St. looks
like just another city relic — an abandoned, six-story building with
cement filling the spaces that were once windows.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Standing outside the squat, three-story Institute of Design and Construction
at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and Willoughby Street on Wednesday,
the college’s president, Vincent Battista, squints in the midday
sun, surveying all that surrounds him and all that he may soon have to
leave.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Armed with wooden models, Los Angeles architects and a small pack of publicists,
Forest City Ratner officials told attendees of a Park Slope town hall
meeting Thursday night what they didn’t want to hear.
Comment.
By Jotham Sederstrom
Atlantic Yards: Lately it’s as if Brooklyn was the “straight guy” to the
city and state’s “queer eye.”
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: A public hearing on the rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn turned into a sing-along
at Borough Hall this week as a Prospect Heights resident strapped on a
guitar and headed to the microphone to croon her displeasure about the
looming changes.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Several hundred Brooklynites packed Borough Hall Wednesday night to tell
Borough President Marty Markowitz just what they think about a city plan
to convert Downtown Brooklyn into a mega-blocked, high-rise metropolis.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Noted civil liberties attorney Norman Siegel will help several hundred
Prospect Heights residents fight eviction at the hands of the state to
make way for a colossal, $2.5 billion arena, office tower and apartment
complex planned for the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: A Department of City Planning and Economic Development Corporation joint
public meeting to discuss the environmental impacts of the Downtown Brooklyn
Plan assuming the development of the Atlantic Yards arena plan, is scheduled
for Monday, Feb. 23, at 6 pm in Borough Hall.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Developer Bruce Ratner may have some competition for his planned Nets
arena site, a city councilwoman told Prospect Heights property owners
this week.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: A group of Prospect Heights residents fighting to save their homes from
condemnations that would make way for Bruce Ratner’s Nets arena development
have interviewed a noted civil liberties attorney to take up their cause.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Call it the “dribble-down” theory, the foundation of “Ratneromics.”
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: As the controversy heats up over the construction of a Frank Gehry-designed
village and professional basketball arena in Prospect Heights, there is
one group that apparently stands to benefit — property owners.
Comment.
By Jotham Sederstrom
Atlantic Yards: During his State of the Borough address Sunday Borough President Marty
Markowitz touted Brooklyn’s cultural renaissance and future as a
tourism hotspot while reminding an audience of about 500 that its schools
are among the city’s most crowded and its auto-insurance rates among
the nation’s highest.
Comment.
By Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Robin Weil is an artist who lives in a small studio apartment on a quiet
residential street in Prospect Heights.
Comment.
By Deborah
Kolben
Atlantic Yards: There are currently 38,574 homeless people living in New York City and
400 of them are at the center of a debate raging in Prospect Heights.
Comment.
By Deborah
Kolben
Atlantic Yards: The most complex rezoning plan in city history, which would convert Downtown
Brooklyn into a booming metropolis with soaring towers and require the
taking of seven acres of private land, is moving forward through the city
review process — without input from Community Board 2.
Comment.
By Neil Sloane
Atlantic Yards: Imagine it’s the Super Bowl. Your team is down by three points but
has the ball on the 1 yard line. Then the coach sends the quarterback
in … to take a knee.
Comment.
By Vince DiMiceli
Atlantic Yards: When it comes to construction, Brooklyn needs Bob Vila, not Bruce Ratner.
Comment.
Atlantic Yards: It’s the most
exciting Brooklyn news in five decades.
Comment.
By Deborah
Kolben
Atlantic Yards: As Brooklyn residents
and elected and appointed officials digest the news that developer Bruce
Ratner wants to build a colossal, $2.5 billion residential and commercial
complex at Atlantic Terminal that would house his newly acquired New Jersey
Nets, a far less publicized major rezoning plan that would pack Downtown
Brooklyn with sweeping skyscrapers is rolling full steam ahead.
Comment.
By Deborah
Kolben
Atlantic Yards: When real estate
developer Bruce Ratner pulled back the curtain on his colossal $2.5 billion
plan to convert a swath of Prospect Heights into a Frank Gehry-designed
neighborhood of apartments and offices centered around a professional
basketball arena, there wasn’t an empty seat in the house.
Comment.
By Deborah
Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Community Board 2
will vote on the Downtown Brooklyn Plan at a rescheduled meeting on Feb.
3 in the auditorium of Brooklyn Technical High School, on DeKalb Avenue
at Fort Greene Place, at 6 pm.
Comment.
By Jotham
Sederstrom
Atlantic Yards: Developer Bruce Ratner’s plan to bring the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn
could jeopardize plans to build a Coney Island amateur athletics arena,
known as Sportsplex, which had recently gained new life as a possible
venue for volleyball in the city’s bid to host the 2012 summer Olympics.
Comment.
By Deborah
Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Mike Leonardos has been serving hot coffee and two-egg specials at the
Silver Spoon diner on Flatbush Avenue for more than 20 years.
Comment.
By Deborah
Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Goodbye New Jersey.
Hello, Brooklyn.
Comment.
By Ed Weintrob, Paper founder
Weintrob: That the Nets are coming is beside the point. And that
is the real story, a story masterfully buried by developer Bruce Ratner
and his media shills. (When the New York Times is your real estate partner,
it’s amazing the story its pages will tell — more than three
pages featuring nine upbeat, luciously illustrated stories in Thursday’s
edition.)
Comment.
By
Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Developer Bruce Ratner is this close to bringing the New Jersey Nets to
Brooklyn, sources close to the negotiations said this week.
Comment.
By
Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: As temperatures dipped well below freezing, former Yankee all-star pitcher
Jim Bouton took to the streets of Prospect Heights Wednesday morning with
reporters and local residents in tow.
Comment.
By
Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: While developer Bruce Ratner is busy trying to promote a professional
basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets in the heart of Brooklyn, some
developers are crying foul.
Comment.
By
Deborah Kolben
Atlantic Yards: Jim Bouton is no rookie when it comes to telling it like it is.
Comment.