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More than 50 opponents of Atlantic Yards rallied on Monday morning in front of three buildings that Bruce Ratner plans to demolish this week, arguing that the developer should wait until pending litigation on the project is resolved before tearing them down.
Protesters gathered at 191 Flatbush Ave. to complain that the demolitions would create blight in and around Ratner’s proposed 16-tower, arena, residential and office complex — especially if the lawsuits are successful and the project is never built.
“We say to Gov. Spitzer, we need you now!” said Councilwoman Letitia James (D–Prospect Heights). “This community was forced to file lawsuits because [of the lack of] government oversight.”
The rally came three days after a federal judge ruled that Ratner could start knocking down buildings in the footprint, even as several cases percolate through the court system.
The demolitions were slated to start last week, but Ratner delayed them pending Justice Joan Madden’s ruling on a request to halt them until a May 3 hearing in one of the cases.
But on Friday afternoon, Madden decided not to issue the restraining order, clearing the way for Ratner to begin tearing down buildings that he owns. Up to 15 structures are slated to fall in the next few months, the first steps towards completing an arena for the Brooklyn-bound New Jersey Nets by Opening Day in the fall of 2009.
The developer did not return a request for comment from The Brooklyn Paper on Friday and again on Monday.
Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn spokesman Daniel Goldstein said Ratner’s decision to move ahead with the demolitions was “deeply troubling.”
“It has yet to be shown that [Ratner’s] Atlantic Yards project passes legal muster,” said Goldstein, whose group is one of 26 plaintiffs in the case.
“The demolitions are an affront to the community the developer purports to benefit,” he added in a statement issued after Madden’s ruling.
The request for a restraining order came as part of a lawsuit by DDDB and 25 civic organizations that charges that the state’s environmental review of the project was incomplete, and must be redone.
James and others are convening a community planning session on Saturday at the Hanson Place United Methodist Church to devise a new alternative to Atlantic Yards.
An alternative came out of similar planning sessions in 2004, but that scheme was rejected by state officials in what critics say was a rigged process that greased the wheels for Ratner.
“We’ll have to live with this development for years to come, so it should reflect our values, not the values of a developer with friends in high places,” James said.
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper
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