Bruce Ratner has finalized a long-standing promise that his $3.5-billion
arena and residential project would be linked to 600-1,000 below-market-rate
condo units.
But the question is where.
Under Ratner’s agreement with the housing group ACORN, the units
can be built anywhere in Brooklyn — and that has opponents screaming
that the project would do nothing to solve the ghettoization of Brooklyn.
“We shouldn’t be segregating homeowners by class,” said
Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Prospect Heights).
ACORN says that as long as the developer comes through with his promise
to include 2,500 units of affordable rentals in the 8,300-unit Atlantic
Yards site, the organization won’t tell him where to put the low-cost
condos.
“No one is saying that they won’t be on-site,” said ACORN
spokesman Jonathan Rosen. “We have a preference, but in the end of
the day we want to insure a mix of families living together in Brooklyn.”
Advocates say that the moderately priced units should be built within
the development so that lower-income families could get a stable foothold
in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. Located elsewhere, the affordable
condos would still ease the borough’s shortage of affordable housing,
but not tackle the issue of segregation, whether by race or class.
“Homeownership is how to obtain wealth in New York,” said James.
“Affordable rentals are good, but leases expire and people are turned
out. Rentals can’t create stable, mixed neighborhoods.”
