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Atlantic Yards
Marty’s humble opinion
Beep sits down with The Papers, says we’re biased
Atlantic Yards: (Click here to download the unedited audio [13.8 MB].) Comment.
Ad-nauseam!
Atlantic Yards: The Atlantic Yards project is a threat to one of America’s national treasures — Brooklyn’s brownstone blocks — two preservation groups charged this week, citing new state renderings that show 15-story illuminated advertising billboards on either side of the development’s main building. Comment.
Covering Atlantic Yards
Editorial: Over the last 12 months, no story has been as important to Brooklyn — and, as a result, to this newspaper — as Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development. Comment.
Year in Yards
Atlantic Yards: The biggest real-estate project in the history of Brooklyn went from being a dream of a few politicians and a developer to a state-ordained reality this year. And every week, Bruce Ratner’s plan for a mini-city of 16 towers and an arena for the New Jersey Nets was in The Papers. Here’s a refresher course. Comment.
2006: The Year in Review
Atlantic Yards: From the first fireworks of New Year’s Day to the state’s end-of-year approval of Bruce Ratner’s plans to transform a rail yard into a mini-Times Square, this year had it all. Here’s our highly subjective overview. Comment.
State pleads Yards’ case
Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner’s boosters in Albany spent most of Tuesday trying to convince Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D–Manhattan) of the benefits of his Atlantic Yards project. Comment.
APPROVED
Atlantic Yards: The political battle over the biggest real-estate development in Brooklyn’s history is over — and Bruce Ratner has won. Comment.
The steal of the century
Editorial: Bruce Ratner won ugly. Comment.
Crying in their beers
Atlantic Yards: Resignation — a little bitter, but mostly cynical — swept through Freddy’s Bar in Prospect Heights, the drinking hole of choice for anti-Atlantic Yards activists, who saw their last, best hopes dashed by Wednesday’s Public Authorities Control Board approval of the mega-project. Comment.
Atlantic Yards scorecard
Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner: He’s won the right to build his $4-billion arena, hotel, office space and residential Xanadu — and he’s gotten his pals in Albany to underwrite it with billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies. Nice work if you have the connections to get it. Comment.
Atlantic Yards moves forward
Atlantic Yards: The fate of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project is now in the hands of the three men in the room. Comment.
A Major party for Owens
Atlantic Yards: We attended Sunday night’s farewell gala for Rep. Major Owens (D–Crown Heights), who chose not to run for a 13th term and will leave office on Dec. 31. As we sipped cocktails and downed the delicious oxtail stew at the Grand Prospect Hall, we asked Owens’s biggest supporters a simple question: What is Major Owens’s legacy? Comment.
Ratner’s $500M slip is showing
Atlantic Yards: The Atlantic Yards project approved last week by state officials would generate almost $500 million less in tax revenues than its developer and its Albany boosters promised just five months ago. Comment.
State to holdouts: What’s yours is ours
Atlantic Yards: Dear interested party: Bruce Ratner is taking your home. Comment.
Atlantic Yards a losing bet
Editorial: If there was any doubt that Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development would be a bad investment of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, it was wiped away this week by new revelations that the project will generate far less tax revenue than promised just five months ago. Comment.
Ratner to pony-up rent
Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner is paying the rent. Comment.
Ratner stoop really blows
Atlantic Yards: Architect Frank Gehry has said the “front stoop” at the foot of his “Miss Brooklyn” tower will be a great place to hang out and read the paper or eat a sandwich at an outdoor bistro table. Comment.
Inside the orbit of Shelly Silver
Atlantic Yards: After the Empire State Development Corporation approves Atlantic Yards — as it is expected to do imminently — the project will be weighed by the state’s Public Authorities Control Board, whose membership is limited to New York’s three most-powerful men: Gov. Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Rensselaer) and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan). Comment.
A PERFECT MATCH
Atlantic Yards: The Brooklyn skyline has been changing
for years, but now everyone is taking notice. Comment.
GO FISH!
Atlantic Yards: State lawyers this week slammed a suit seeking to block the Atlantic Yards mega-development as nothing but a “fishing expedition” designed to delay the imminent approval of the $4.2-billion project. Comment.
March for Flatbush Ave traffix
Atlantic Yards: While thousands of Brooklynites took advantage of the day after Thanksgiving to shop, more than a dozen Atlantic Yards protesters used “Black Friday” to highlight the gridlock that even supporters of the project say cannot be remedied. Comment.
Shelly gets one right
Editorial: We’ve certainly had our disagreements with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, but the Manhattan Democrat earned our Hero of the Week award for his righteous broadside against state development czar Charles Gargano on Sunday. Comment.
Tish courts MSG on Yards
Atlantic Yards: With Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project just days away from approval by the Empire State Development Corporation, anti-Yards City Councilwoman Letitia James courted Ratner’s politically connected Madison Square Garden rivals.. Comment.
He stopped Ratner … for a bit
Atlantic Yards: He didn’t do it with a lawsuit. He didn’t do it with a rally. He didn’t do it by lobbying. In fact, he didn’t do anything at all — but Prospect Heights resident Raul Rothblatt managed to grind Bruce Ratner’s $4.2-billion Atlantic Yards mega-project to a halt this week because the state forgot to include his testimony in its final review of the development. Comment.
State OKs Ratner’s ‘impact’
Atlantic Yards: Racing to give their approval to Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development before Gov. George Pataki leaves office Dec. 31, state officials have certified the project’s final environmental impact statement. There must be ten days between the certification and the final approval vote by the Empire State Development Corporation. Comment.
Ratner jobs fall short
Atlantic Yards: The number of retail jobs that state officials say will be created by Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development ignores the reality of his two existing shopping malls directly across the street, where job performance has fallen short, according to Ratner’s own data. Comment.
No ‘Wonder’ about these hoopsters
Atlantic Yards: Brooklyn has its own professional basketball team, and Bruce Ratner had nothing to do it. Comment.
Bond bombshell
Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner’s sweetheart deal may be about to turn sour — thanks to the IRS. Comment.
Election day smackdown mania
Atlantic Yards: 1. Terrorism: Over the past two years, I have supported the Terrorist Surveillance Program, which stopped an al-Qaeda plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge. Comment.
‘Eminent’ suit on Yards called a longshot
Atlantic Yards: A lawsuit against Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner and the state and city officials who allegedly conspired with him has little chance of success, said legal experts — including the lawyer who sued Ratner over his Metrotech project two decades ago. Comment.
Lawsuit targets Ratner’s ‘domain’
Breaking news
Atlantic Yards: A long-anticipated war against the state’s condemnation of private property for Atlantic Yards begins today. Comment.
‘Whole’ lot of parking
Atlantic Yards: Plans for Brooklyn first Whole Foods supermarket are getting bigger — and the gridlock won’t just be in the grocery aisles. Comment.
Atlantic Yards foes walk against Bruce
Atlantic Yards: Several hundred walkers participating in the second-annual Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn “walkathon” raised enough to cover plenty of billable hours in the group’s legal battle against the Atlantic Yards mega-development. Comment.
Bloomy attacks state board set to approve Yards
Atlantic Yards: Without mentioning Atlantic Yards by name, Mayor Bloomberg signaled last week that he’ll side with opponents of Bruce Ratner’s mega-development in a coming legal battle against the “undemocratic” process that is pushing the project to its likely approval later this year. Comment.
Camera shy
Atlantic Yards: One of the remaining property owners in the footprint of the proposed Atlantic Yards project is suing developer Bruce Ratner for mounting a surveillance camera in his building, and then having him arrested for taking it down. Comment.
New Yorker critic slams Gehry
Atlantic Yards: A card-carrying member of the Manhattan establishment has turned on Bruce Ratner’s starchitect, Frank Gehry, calling his design for the Atlantic Yards project “a large part of the problem.” Comment.
DDDB walks for buck$
Atlantic Yards: Raising money to fight Bruce Ratner has never been as healthy, delicious or entertaining as it will be next week. Comment.
Lawmaker: Give us Atlantic Yards info!
Atlantic Yards: Journalists and opponents of the Atlantic Yards aren’t the only ones complaining that the mega-project’s lead state agency is withholding public information — now a local state legislator is making the same claim. Comment.
Follow the Yards money
Editorial: All of Brooklyn owes a debt of gratitude to an umbrella coalition called the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods — not only because the group has put out the most detailed study of the state’s analysis of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project, but, in doing so, has shown once again the value of independent experts operating outside of Albany’s closed-door meetings and smoke-filled rooms. Comment.
Many problems with Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards: The 73-day public comment period for Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project ended after we went to press last week — and the Sept. 29 deadline brought about a flurry of reports, analyses and submissions from project opponents and supporters. Comment.
Clarifying last week’s Atlantic Yards coverage
Atlantic Yards: One of last week’s front page stories, Council of Nabes: Yards not so bad, reported that the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, a coalition of more than three dozen community groups, had found flaws with the state’s draft environmental impact statement for the Atlantic Yards project, yet not so many flaws that the DEIS needed to be scrapped. Comment.
Bowing to Bruce
Council of Nabes: Yards not so bad
Atlantic Yards: Update: See breaking story. Comment.
City follows Ratner lead
Atlantic Yards: Just weeks after Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner floated a plan to trim the size of his 8.65-million-square-foot mega-project by 6- to 8 percent, the City Planning Commission rubberstamped that notion on Wednesday. Comment.
Will anti-Yards fight go on?
Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards appears headed for approval later this fall, but opponents say they’ll just take their fight to the courtroom. Here are two legal strategies. Comment.
Atlantic Yards Countdown
Atlantic Yards: The Empire State Development Corporation invited Brooklynites to comment on the agency’s draft environmental impact statement for the Atlantic Yards project by the end of the public-comment period on Sept. 29. We asked our readers to send copies of their testimony to newsroom@ brooklynpapers.com. Here is this week’s response. Comment.
Our invitation to Ratner
Editorial: We ran into Forest City Ratner Vice President Bruce Bender in front of Park Slope’s PS 321 the other day. We’ve known Bender for a long time and we like talking with him — even though he goes to town on us like we were a Peter Luger porterhouse. Comment.
Brooklyn nabes to state: Scrap Yards study
Atlantic Yards: Just hours before the close of the public comment period for the Atlantic Yards draft environmental impact statement, leaders of 28 Brooklyn neighborhood groups went to the Manhattan headquarters of the Empire State Development Corporation and demanded the state agency scrap its flawed DEIS of Bruce Ratner’s $4.2-billion mega-project. Comment.
REJECTED
Atlantic Yards: Atlantic Yards will cause “irreparable damage to the quality of life in the borough of Brooklyn,” members of Community Board 6 decreed last week, calling for Bruce Ratner’s mega-development to be redrawn before it is approved by state authorities. Comment.
Ratner to build City Tech tower
Atlantic Yards: City University of New York has picked Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner to build a skyscraper for New York City College of Technology’s Downtown campus — a $186-million Renzo Piano-designed facility that will include classrooms and hundreds of luxury units controlled by the developer, The Brooklyn Papers has learned. Comment.
New deal lets Nets escape to Queens
Atlantic Yards: Is there a super-secret plan to move the New Jersey Nets to Queens instead of Kings? Comment.
Atlantic Yards countdown:
Atlantic Yards: The Empire State Development Corporation invited Brooklynites to comment on the agency’s draft environmental impact statement for the Atlantic Yards project by sending letters to ESDC’s Maria Mooney, 633 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 or e-mailing atlanticyards@empire.state.ny.us by 5:30 pm on Sept. 29. Comment.
Activist Evelyn Ortner dies at 82
Atlantic Yards: Evelyn Ortner, whose four decades of preserving Brooklyn’s unique character started with a single brownstone on Berkeley Place in Park Slope and ended with her opposition to Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project, died Tuesday. She was 82. Comment.
Low turnout at Ratner hearing
Atlantic Yards: One group of Atlantic Yards opponents boycotted, and another group of over-eager public speakers — elected officials — was otherwise detained, thanks to the Primary Election, so this week’s public hearing on the Atlantic Yards mega-development gave some real people a chance to be heard. Comment.
Big win sends Hakeem to Assembly
Atlantic Yards: The race for an Assembly seat in Prospect Heights — the epicenter of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development — was won in a landslide by a supporter of the project. Comment.
Montgomery beats phantom opponent
Atlantic Yards: Hot on the heels of a two-to-one primary victory, state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery (D–Fort Greene) was happy to drill into the mysterious “campaign” of her Atlantic Yards–loving challenger Tracy Boyland, Comment.
It’s Clarke!
Atlantic Yards: City Councilwoman Yvette Clarke trounced Councilman David Yassky and two other rivals on Tuesday to win a promotion to Congress in an often-bitter campaign that exposed rifts between Brooklyn’s African-American, Caribbean-American and white communities. Comment.
Paying off Ratner
Atlantic Yards: If Atlantic Yards shrinks, the public will pay more. Comments (2).
In other races…
Editorial: The Papers makes these endorsements. Comment.
25th Senate District
Atlantic Yards: 1. I will bring reform to Albany … The New York Times supports my campaign based largely on my ability to be a strong proponent of change. Comment.
Climax in Fightin’ 11th: Donut hurled at Yassky
Atlantic Yards: Still facing criticism that his white skin makes him an inappropriate choice to represent a predominantly black congressional district, City Councilman David Yassky had a donut hurled in his direction in a racially charged press conference with Mayor Bloomberg at the very housing project where he launched his campaign in May. Comment.
57th Assembly District
Atlantic Yards: 1. My 20-year record of working in and with the community on tenant organizing, labor organizing. Comment.
18th Senate District
Atlantic Yards: Note: Despite repeated requests, candidate Tracy Boyland did not fill out our questionnaire. She also did not return repeated calls from The Brooklyn Papers. Comment.
20th Senate District
Atlantic Yards: Note: A third candidate, Anthony Alexis, declined repeated requests to participate in this valuable survey. Guillermo E. Philpotts did not provide a picture. Comment.
46th Assembly District
Atlantic Yards: 1. I have spent close to two decades working with neighbors, labor leaders, local activists and elected officials to help solve the problems affecting our community. Comment.
Welcome back to reality
Atlantic Yards: Nostalgic for summer already? Have you already forgotten that summer is a mixed bag, filled with balmy evening cocktails at Gowanus Yacht Club and mid-afternoon brunches on Alma’s rooftop — yet punctuated by heat waves, brownouts and the smells wafting across the Narrows? Comment.
Size matters
Atlantic Yards: State officials moved swiftly last week to deny they were negotiating behind the scenes with Bruce Ratner to decrease the size of his Atlantic Yards mega-development. Comment.
Two more chances to vent
Atlantic Yards: Stung by criticism that it hasn’t done enough to solicit public opinion on the Atlantic Yards project, the Empire State Development Corporation has set up another hearing on the mega-development. Comment.
City kicks in more Ratner cash
Atlantic Yards: The city will kick in another $29 million towards Bruce Ratner’s proposed Atlantic Yards, The Brooklyn Papers has learned. Comment.
Bruce to the rescue?
Atlantic Yards: Big shots at the Brooklyn Public Library are eying developer Bruce Ratner as the key “partner” they need to jump start their long-delayed Visual and Performing Arts Library just two blocks from his proposed Atlantic Yards project. Comment.
For the Fightin’ Eleventh, David Yassky
Editorial: The retirement after 24 years of Rep. Major Owens has prompted a free-for-all for a rare open seat in Brooklyn. Residents of the 11th Congressional District — which spans from Brooklyn Heights to East New York and includes parts of Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Windsor Terrace, Prospect Heights and East Flatbush — are fortunate to have an actual debate over who would best serve them, rather than the usual choice between an unaccomplished incumbent and an unqualified opponent. Comment.
As we went to press… Public comment period extended!
Atlantic Yards: Thursday afternoon, the Empire State Development Corporation announced that it had extended the public comment period on the Atlantic Yards draft environmental impact statement by one week. Comment.
Owens writes a new tune, but rivals have reasons to sing
Atlantic Yards: Chris Owens wants to take after his father in more ways than one. Comment.
Atlantic Yards hearing pits pro vs. con in historic battle for Brooklyn
2,000 show up, only 100 get a chance to speak
Atlantic Yards: Supporters and opponents of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development clashed loudly and repeatedly during Wednesday’s state hearing on the project — and in doing so put forward two distinct visions of Brooklyn’s future. Comment.
Hepcat gets the old farm blues
Smartmom: What did Smartmom and family do on their summer vacation? She and the kids swam in a brand new swimming pool and Hepcat had to confront his past and accept change. That’s a tall order for anyone, but especially for Hepcat, who’s a stickler for times gone by. Comment.
Ratner’s bussed-in lovefest
Atlantic Yards: Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner bussed in basketball-loving kids, senior citizens and even a few of his New Jersey Nets stars for a pep rally minutes before Wednesday’s public hearing on his mega-development. Comment.
Some don’t get a say
Atlantic Yards: Scores of people hoping to testify about Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project never got their three-minutes of fame, despite signing up before Wednesday’s hearing even got under way at 4:30 pm. Comment.
Brooklyn, 2016
Atlantic Yards: Here’s what the area around Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development will look like if the 16-tower, arena, residential, office and hotel complex is built, according to new renderings created by a Brooklyn photographer. Comment.
Towns, Barron speak on Yards
Atlantic Yards: Two candidates for the 10th congressional district stopped by the offices of The Brooklyn Papers this week. Here is what they said about Atlantic Yards. Comment.
Fightin’ Eleventh candidates weigh in on Yards
Atlantic Yards: Two candidates for the 11th congressional district — which includes parts of Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill, Park Slope and Prospect Heights — support Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yard mega-development, two oppose it. Here’s what they said in a debate last week in the offices of The Brooklyn Papers. Comments (1).
Sham choice, process
Editorial: If you judge only by the state’s seven-hour public hearing on Wednesday night, there are just two sides in the battle over Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development: thugs and nerds. Comments (1).
State’s only Atlantic yards public hearing set for Wednesday
Atlantic Yards: The state’s only public hearing on the Atlantic Yards arena, office and housing mega-development will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 23. Comments (1).
Fourth-to-Flatbush two-step proposed as Yards traffic fix
Atlantic Yards: Call it the “Fourth-to-Flatbush Two-Step.” Comment.
4 hours seal Brooklyn’s fate
Editorial: Wednesday marks the first day of the rest of Brooklyn’s life. Comment.
More groups want more time
Atlantic Yards: Dozens of elected officials, activists, Brooklyn residents, community board members and even some Atlantic Yards supporters called this week for an extension of the public comment period on Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project — but the state agency overseeing the project said the approval process is moving full steam ahead. Comment.
White flight … to Brooklyn
Atlantic Yards: Brooklyn is getting whiter, the Census Bureau reported last week, confirming many residents’ unscientific observations. Comment.
SERVE! SET! SPIKE!
Atlantic Yards: Get ready, volleyball fans and beachgoers.
The Association of Volleyball Professionals league is making
its first-ever tournament stop in New York, coming to Coney Island
from Thursday, Aug. 17 through Sunday, Aug. 20. Comment.
Times in Bruce’s corner
Editorial: The New York Times, which is working with Bruce Ratner to build a new Times headquarters in Manhattan, continues to trumpet its enthusiastic view of its partner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development. In a City section editorial that capped a string of upbeat “news” articles and unreported stories, Times writers seemed to be working off a Ratner press release. As a service to our readers, some of whom may also occasionally read the Times, we present a more nuanced view. Comment.
On hot night, public vents about Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards: Three community boards surrounding Bruce Ratner’s proposed Atlantic Yards mega-development held hastily scheduled, little-publicized and legally irrelevant public hearings last week to give Brooklynites a chance to vent. Comment.
Atlantic Yards: A new Battle of Brooklyn
Atlantic Yards: On Aug. 27, 1776, the Battle of Brooklyn, the first and largest in the War of Independence, was fought right here in what are now the streets of Gowanus, Prospect Park and Green-Wood Cemetery. Comment.
Ratner’s Ohio family chips in
Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner has called in the big guns — his cousins Charles and Albert — for a cash infusion just as his Atlantic Yards development nears state approval. Comment.
‘Little’ developer slaps ‘big boys’ for collusion
Atlantic Yards: A self-admitted “unsympathetic” developer is battling the two titans of Brooklyn real estate — Bruce Ratner and Shaya Boymelgreen — whom he claims colluded to cheat him out of millions of dollars. Comment.
The survey says!
Atlantic Yards: In what is being billed as the “first comprehensive survey of local opinion” on the Atlantic Yards project, nearly 90 percent of residents of three Prospect Heights blocks oppose Bruce Ratner’s mega-development. Comment.
Ratner renter revolt
Atlantic Yards: Rent-stabilized tenants living in buildings owned by Atlantic Yards mega-developer Bruce Ratner say they’ll sue the state to block the condemnation of their homes to make way for the project. Comment.
Spitzer: Let’s weigh Yards pros, cons
Atlantic Yards: Gubernatorial front-runner Eliot Spitzer — who said last year that Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development should be built “immediately” — is now calling for a delay to allow the public to more fully weigh the project’s significant environmental impacts. Comment.
Civic group robbed in apparent inside job
Atlantic Yards: The Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation, best known for its annual Atlantic Antic street fair every September, was robbed of more than $8,000 by an employee who took checks from the office and then made them out to a friend, cops said. Comment.
Atlantic Antic takes Ratner cash
Atlantic Yards: Atlantic Avenue merchants are blasting organizers of the annual Atlantic Antic for accepting developer Bruce Ratner’s sponsorship, especially after the state acknowledged the significant negative impacts that Ratner’s proposed Atlantic Yards would have on the avenue. Comment.
Affected community boards to hold public meetings on Atlantic Yards project Aug. 3
Atlantic Yards: The three community boards that converge where Bruce Ratner wants to build Atlantic Yards are mad as hell at being cut out of the public review process of the largest development in Brooklyn history — and they’re going to host a public hearing about it. Comment.
Flawed from the get-go
Editorial: While many Brooklynites have spent the past two weeks complaining that the Empire State Development Corporation ruined everyone’s vacations by releasing its 2,000-page Atlantic Yards draft environmental impact statement during the summer, some people have actually rolled up their sleeves and started analyzing the flawed document. Comment.
Roger Green must drop out
Editorial: Assemblyman Roger Green must stop dodging City Councilman Charles Barron’s call. Both Barron (D–Canarsie) and Green (D–Fort Greene) are hoping to retire longtime Rep. Ed Towns this fall. Comments (1).
Brooklyn’s Inn
Atlantic Yards: The same hotel mini-mogul set to open a 115-room Holiday Inn Express on the Park Slope side of the Gowanus Canal is putting the finishing touches on a second hotel just three blocks away. Comment.
Things looking up in Brooklyn, if you’re a skyscraper
Brooklyn Angle: “We are a city of skyscrapers. We are a city of towers.” That’s what Empire State Development Corporation Chairman Charles Gargano said last week, casting Brooklyn as the new Manhattan — a vision for the borough that many longtime residents and the newer Manhattan exiles simply do not share. Comment.
Yards protest rallies 2,000
Atlantic Yards: More than 2,000 people — all hot and bothered by Bruce Ratner’s plan to build 16 skyscrapers and an 18,000-seat basketball arena in Prospect Heights — assembled Sunday at Grand Army Plaza in the largest opposition rally since Ratner’s Atlantic Yards proposal was unveiled three years ago. Comment.
State big to Brooklyn: You’re Manhattan now
Atlantic Yards: Atlantic Yards will cost more to build and benefit the public less than Bruce Ratner said it would — and carry with it environmental impacts that can not be mitigated, a state analysis disclosed this week. Comment.
Inside Ratner’s Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development would “transform a blighted area into a vibrant mixed-use community,” with affordable housing, a basketball arena and seven new acres of greenspace, according to a new state study — but the $4.2-billion, 16-skyscraper, hotel, residential and office space complex would also put a significant strain on the public school system, already-choked intersections, aging sewers and hundreds of residents who just want to see the sun. Comment.
Gargano to B’klyn: Get big
Editorial: The Manhattanization of Brooklyn is now official state policy. That’s what Empire State Development Corporation Chairman Charles Gargano said this week, as his agency released a disheartening draft environmental impact statement for Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project. Comment.
Rally on!
Atlantic Yards: Thousands gathered at Grand Army Plaza on Sunday to protest Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project. Speeches were lengthy, so we thought it best to provide excerpts of the more-moving moments. Comment.
On the cheap
Atlantic Yards: More than 2,000 New Yorkers lined up this week hoping for a shot at a cheap rental within Bruce Ratner’s proposed $3.5-billion Atlantic Yards development — but many left the developer’s affordable housing presentation disappointed by the harsher reality. Comment.
Zanes leads Sunday Ratner rant
Atlantic Yards: Kiddie rocker Dan Zanes will headline this weekend’s big rally against an even bigger development — Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project. Comment.
A dog-and-pony show
Editorial: The timing could not have been more suspect. On the eve of a massive protest rally at Grand Army Plaza this Sunday and weeks before he will release an environmental impact statement, Bruce Ratner and his public-relations minions set up a dog-and-pony show to highlight the lone element of his mammoth $3.5-billion Atlantic Yards mega-development that could arguably be viewed in a positive light: 2,250 “affordable” rental units. Comment.
OUTSPOKEN ART
Soapbox Gallery opens in Ratner’s shadow Friday
Atlantic Yards: Where the female’s torso would be, there
is a zigzag cutout, reminiscent of a puzzle piece, or maybe half
a bear trap. The claw-like shape rests on curvaceous legs, twisted
in a half crouch and flexing a naked derriere. Beneath the imposing
posterior lies another cutout: the smaller, missing half of the
puzzle/trap, from which a male hand reaches upward, yearning
toward the towering bronze buttocks above. Comment.
ROOM$ WITH A VIEW
Atlantic Yards: How much would you pay to see this view out your window? Too late: Someone already paid $2.4 million for it. Comment.
The madness of Kings
Editorial: Brooklyn’s real-estate market — already red hot for the last 20 years — has gone truly insane. Here’s the latest evidence. Comment.
Manhattan is a fightin’ word along these Boerum Hill blocks
Atlantic Yards: All Joe Chan wanted to do was bring a “Manhattan-style” condo tower to a run-down block in Boerum Hill. Comments (2).
Grand Army Plaza madness
Atlantic Yards: Grand Army Plaza is such a tangled mess of cars, pedestrians, busses, monuments and trees that it’s going to take a European to fix it. Comment.
Red Hook rethinking the big tourist push
Atlantic Yards: Be careful what you wish for. Red Hook certainly is. Comment.
More charges hit architect
Atlantic Yards: The city has expanded its investigation of prolific Brooklyn architect Robert Scarano to include a charge of negligence involving the death of a construction worker last year. Comment.
Court OKs Ratner demolition after the fact
Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner has won the right to tear down buildings that he’s already demolished in the footprint of his proposed Atlantic Yards project. Comment.
Brennan’s bonehead bill
Atlantic Yards: Assemblyman Jim Brennan certainly
picked an odd time to become engaged on the topic of Bruce Ratner’s
Atlantic Yards mega-development. Comment.
Bill: State should pay Bruce to build less at Atlantic Yards site
Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner would get hundreds
of millions of dollars in state funds if he builds less at Atlantic Yards,
under a new state Assembly bill. Comment.
Ratner $$ can’t buy love
Smartmom: Smartmom forgot
that parents were supposed to dress up 1960s-style for the PS 321 Auction
and Dance Friday night at the Brooklyn Museum. Comment.
Marty snubs Ratner foes
Atlantic Yards: A petty snub by the borough president or a show of respect for his mother
— you decide. Comment.
Going Yard on Bruce
Atlantic Yards: Develop Don’t
Destroy Brooklyn unveiled a star-studded advisory board this week featuring
some impressive names (unless you’re Andrea Peyser of the New York
Post, that is). Several members of the board shared their reasons for
opposing Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project with The Brooklyn
Papers.
Michelle Williams, actress, Boerum Hill
“His vision will increase traffic, pollution and asthma. If Mr. Ratner
l Comment.
Ratner’s poster girl is unhappy
Brooklyn Angle: Sahara Meer
is still angry. Place a copy of Bruce Ratner’s recent Atlantic
Yards mailing on the table, and she’ll put her handbag over it.
Show her the pictures of happy Brooklynites smiling for Ratner’s
cameras and she’ll cringe. Comment.
Ratner hires rival’s chief
Atlantic Yards: Touche, Tish! Comment.
Toddler troubadour sings against Ratner
Atlantic Yards: If you’re under
10, this is your Woodstock: Children’s folk singer Dan Zanes —
the Bob Dylan of the pre-school set — has joined the opposition to
Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project and will headline an anti-project
concert next month. Comment.
Blacks blast Bruce
Atlantic Yards: Is Bruce Ratner’s basketball card a race card? Comments (1).
Ratner’s glossy fantasyland
Brooklyn Angle: You never know
what you’re going to get in the morning mail: a glossy catalogue,
a piece of political literature, some junk mail. Comment.
’EGO’-TRIPPING
Bumped by Ratner, Harriet’s Alter Ego brings its fresh fashion to Flatbush Avenue
Atlantic Yards: Fashionistas had been holding their breaths
ever since Harriet’s Alter Ego co-owners Ngozi Odita and Hekima
Hapa were forced to relocate to make room for Bruce Ratner’s
Atlantic Yards mega-project. Comment.
EXCLUSIVE - ONLINE SPECIAL
Atlantic Yards: Touche, Tish! Comment.
Ratner’s new Web site o’lies
Atlantic Yards: There are lies, damn lies and then there’s Bruce Ratner’s new
Web site. Comment.
RATNER’S RICHES
Atlantic Yards: In the wake of $66 million in public subsidies approved by the state legislature
for Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner, Gov. Pataki promised this week
to make it a cool $100 million — even if he doesn’t know how. Comment.
A Ratner Haggadah
Atlantic Yards: Jews all over the world
sat down for their Passover Seders Wednesday night — but it’s
safe to say none celebrated the way Atlantic Yards opponents did. Comment.
Nets new rap says Ratner’s the man
Atlantic Yards: A contest to pick a rap theme song for the New Jersey Nets was won by
an aspiring rapper who — surprise surprise — mentioned what
a great job owner Bruce Ratner is doing with the Atlantic-Division-leading
franchise. Comment.
Ratner’s assembly buddies
Atlantic Yards: One week ago, the state Assembly approved a $33-million subsidy for Bruce
Ratner’s still-unapproved Atlantic Yards project. The allocation,
stuffed as a line item inside the 2006-2007 budget for Education, Family
Assistance and Labor, passed unanimously — and seven of 21 Brooklyn
delegates further supported Ratner by contacting Speaker Sheldon Silver
on his behalf. Here are what some Brooklyn delegates said about their
vote. Comment.
Brooklyn brew out at Freddy’s
Atlantic Yards: Woe, Canada — Freddy’s Bar has joined the boycott of Brooklyn
Brewery beer and has replaced the hometown suds with Labatt Blue. Comments (1).
Free parking for Forest City Ratner crew
Atlantic Yards: State officials will allow Forest City Ratner to use land along a two-block
stretch of Atlantic Avenue for a massive above-ground parking lot. Comment.
Bruce reamed over Yards ‘concession’
Atlantic Yards: Developer Bruce Ratner said last week that he would shave 450 condos from
the most-recent version of the Atlantic Yards mega-development —
but the project is still one million square feet larger than the plan
he first unveiled to considerable opposition in 2003. Comment.
Lousy Labatt is new Bud
Brooklyn Angle: Full disclosure:
I drank the first pint of Labatt’s at Freddy’s this week. Comment.
EXCLUSIVE - ONLINE SPECIAL
Atlantic Yards: Woe, Canada — Freddy’s Bar has joined the boycott of Brooklyn
Brewery beer and is replacing the hometown suds with Labatt Blue. Comment.
Ratner’s rubberstampers
Atlantic Yards: We like the mythical
image of our lawmakers in Albany gathering daily in their oak-lined legislative
chambers to heartily debate the weighty issues of the day.
We prefer that to the stark reality — that most of our assemblymembers
and state senators do little but rubber-stamp decisions made by their
chamber’s leadership.
This week, our representatives didn’t even chat before awarding $33-million
in public subs Comment.
State finds new lawyer
Atlantic Yards: They swore in court that it couldn’t be done, but the state agency
reviewing Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project has landed a new
lawyer. Comment.
Jersey swamp people ready for Brooklyn invasion
Atlantic Yards: Here’s an unanticipated downside to the New Jersey Nets’ plan
to relocate to Brooklyn: Wave after wave of Garden Staters will come,
too. Comment.
BRUCE: I WILL BUILD ARENA
Atlantic Yards: Despite months of delays and false starts in realizing his vision of building
a Brooklyn arena for his New Jersey Nets, Bruce Ratner remains convinced
that everything is going according to plan. Comment.
State gives Ratner $33M
Atlantic Yards: Legislators in Albany have handed developer Bruce Ratner his first public
subsidy for his Atlantic Yards project, allocating $33 million for the
still-unapproved mega-development. Comment.
Spam-a-little
Tracking the fake Ratner emails
Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner is suing
10 anonymous hackers for sending mean emails in his name to supporters
of his Atlantic Yards project. According to Ratner’s court papers,
10 computer-savvy John Does sent insulting mail from a fraudulent Forest
City Ratner address to “business, community and political leaders
in Brooklyn who have endorsed the Atlantic Yards project.” The suit
says the intention of the spammers was to inspire mistrust and weaken
Ratner Comment.
RATNER: I WANT A QUARTER BACK
Atlantic Yards: The Brooklyn-bound New Jersey Nets need cash. Comment.
Demolition begins for Nets arena
Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner’s demolition of buildings within the Atlantic Yards
footprint has begun — albeit one brick at a time. Comment.
Ratner seeks blacks, women
Atlantic Yards: t’s a dirty job, but somebody — preferably a minority or a woman
— has to do it. Comment.
Study:Yards feces to canal; Buddy: Developers’ poop stinks
Atlantic Yards: Tens of millions of gallons of raw sewage will flow into an already stinky
Gowanus Canal if Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project is built,
borough officials were told this week. Comment.
RACE WAR ON YARDS
Atlantic Yards: A public meeting to discuss the Atlantic Yards project degenerated into
a shouting match that reopened Brooklyn’s class and race scars. Comment.
Jay-Z is looking for Brooklyn’s best Nets rap
Atlantic Yards: The Swamp Rats need a swamp rap. Comment.
UNION RATS
Atlantic Yards: While some New Yorkers still follow the jingle’s advice and “look
for the union label,” you won’t find one affixed to Brooklyn’s
construction boom. Comments (2).
FULL COURT PRESS
Atlantic Yards: A partial court victory by opponents of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards
project may end up doing the impossible: sinking the mega-development
before it even gets off the ground. Comment.
Raise a glass to Hindy
Atlantic Yards: Several members of
our hard-working staff were actually enjoying a Brooklyn Lager the other
night when they heard a bit of disquieting news: Opponents of Bruce Ratner’s
Atlantic Yards mega-development are calling for a boycott
of this most drinkable beverage because of the brewery owner’s allegedly
cozy relationship with the developer.
And so they ordered another beer to ponder the situation. Comment.
Ratner’s Yards pretty dense
Atlantic Yards: A new analysis by a noted Brooklyn architect indicates that the Atlantic
Yards project is just as bulky as the state’s plans for Ground Zero. Comments (1).
Nets seek to extend NJ lease
Atlantic Yards: Plans to relocate the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn in 2008 will be delayed. Comments (1).
WRECKING CREW
Atlantic Yards: Bruce Ratner’s wrecking ball could start swinging as early as next
week, thanks to a state Supreme Court ruling Tuesday that cleared the
way for the developer to demolish five buildings that are part of his
Atlantic Yards mega-development. Comment.
Ratner’s adviser will advise MTA
Atlantic Yards: The biggest city in the country is really just a small town — for
the developer of the Atlantic Yards project, that is. Comment.
Pacific paved
Atlantic Yards: Why did the city repave part of Pacific Street that Bruce Ratner plans
to eliminate? Hey, you never know. Comment.
BOOMIN’
Atlantic Yards: Real-estate prices in Brooklyn are surging at Manhattan-like rates, with
the borough’s average apartment going up by 35 percent last year,
and units in some neighborhoods jumping by more than 80 percent. Comment.
Ratner paid for state’s lawyers
Atlantic Yards: Take my lawyer, please. Comment.
Ratner demolition goes to court Yards’ foes sue
Atlantic Yards: The fight to stop the Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-development
has moved to the courts. Comment.
Ratner’s plan kills 1,100 parking spaces
Atlantic Yards: Where will all the cars go? Comments (1).
Residents on Carroll Gardens:
Atlantic Yards: Carroll Gardens is the latest community that wants to restrict the size
of “ugly” new buildings. Comment.
Gas station owner stuck in neutral Fears Ratner buyout off the table
Atlantic Yards: John Tsao may be out of gas. Comment.
The new Brooklyn Public Library:
Atlantic Yards: The building is clear, but who will pay for it remains murky. Comment.
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