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.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, said any move to
go ahead with construction of the $1.4 billion West Side stadium should
be considered separately from plans to expand the adjacent Jacob Javits
Convention Center and be approved first by city planning officials.
Silver’s comments sparked cries from activists in Prospect Heights
who called on the Assembly speaker to apply the same reasoning to Ratner’s
plan for a basketball arena, office towers and apartment buildings emanating
from the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues.
“Mr. Silver has made it plain that [the city’s Uniform Land Use
Review Procedure] is a must for major projects. But Mr. Ratner is proposing
to build 7.7 million square feet at the Atlantic Yards site in Prospect
Heights, Brooklyn, with no public oversight whatsoever,” said Daniel
Goldstein, a founder of and spokesman for the anti-arena group Develop-Don’t
Destroy Brooklyn, in a press release.
Legislation from Republican Gov. George Pataki, not acted on by the Democratic-controlled
Assembly, had sought to link the Jets stadium and Javits Center expansion.
While all sides appear to be in favor of the $1.4 billion convention center
expansion — almost doubling its size — there has been stiff opposition
to the proposal to build a new stadium that would serve the Jets and possibly
the 2012 Summer Olympics should New York City win its bid for the games.
The Jets currently play home games at Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands.
Ratner, on the other hand, seeks to build a 19,000-seat arena as part of
a $2.5 billion project that would also include soaring office towers, more
than 2 million square feet of retail commercial space and 4,500 units of
housing on a site bounded by Dean Street and Flatbush, Atlantic and Vanderbilt
avenues.
He would bring his recently purchased New Jersey Nets to the arena but would
first have to negotiate to buy development rights over the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority’s Long Island Rail Road storage yards, which
comprise about a third of the site and is asking the state to use its power
of eminent domain to seize more than two square city blocks of private property
housing roughly 500 residents.
An economist hired by Ratner to perform an analysis of the site has said
it is the housing component that will make the entire Atlantic Yards project
a money maker, and not the arena.
Taxpayers will have to put up nearly $500 million to pay for the Brooklyn
development.
“Like the West Side Stadium,” Goldstein said, “Mr. Ratner’s
proposal requires hundreds of millions in state and city funding, and an
independent study has shown that taxpayers will lose half a billion dollars.
This project is a sinkhole for public money. It must be subject to city
oversight through [ULURP].”
“Moving Javits forward is a crucial and immediate need,” said
Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, a Westchester County Democrat who led Assembly
hearings on the issue. “The governor must stop holding Javits hostage
to a controversial football stadium.”
On July 9, Prospect Heights Councilwoman Letitia James delivered letters
to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Council Speaker Gifford Miller asking them
to ensure that the Ratner proposal be subject to ULURP. Her letter to Mayor
Bloomberg cited a statement he made last December: “We are not at a
time when we can use public funds to support an arena.”
“As Speaker Silver points out, ULURP is the only way to provide community
review and input, as well as legislative oversight for the city,” said
Goldstein.
“If Manhattan deserves ULURP,” he said, “Brooklyn deserves
to have it, too.”
— with Associated Press
