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del.icio.usDuring a press conference on Tuesday, The Brooklyn Paper asked Mayor Bloomberg why the city’s plan for redeveloping the state-owned Hudson Rail Yards on the far west side of Manhattan is going through a distinctly different process than Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards development at and near the state-owned Vanderbilt Rail Yards in Prospect Heights.
The mayor’s answer was filled with inaccuracies — and you can hear it all right here:
The sound bite begins with Editor Gersh Kuntzman asking Hizzoner about the “different process” that the Hudson Yards redevelopment will undergo.
The mayor first says that “the Atlantic Yards was done by a private group and this [Hudson Yards] is a public entity, a public piece of land.” That’s not true. In both cases, the Metropolitan Transportation Administration — a public agency — owns the rail yards. That makes it “public land.”
In the case of Atlantic Yards, Bruce Ratner was awarded the development rights, but the state, not the city, oversaw the public review process. The Hudson Yards project is slated to go through the more-rigorous city land-use review process. Bloomberg described them “different pieces of land” as having “different owners — one is state, one is city.” That is not true.
Also, several development companies are expected to bid for the Hudson Yards site before a winner is chosen. In the case of Atlantic Yards, the MTA did indeed put the Vanderbilt Yards up for public bid — but more than a year after Ratner’s Atlantic Yards had been unveiled and backed by local and state elected officials.
In a second interview, Kuntzman asks Councilmember Bill DeBlasio (D–Park Slope) what he thought of the mayor’s answers — and DeBlasio, a strong supporter of Atlantic Yards, even admits that he does not (repeat, does not) have a time machine.
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper
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