The tortuously drawn out development of the Atlantic Yards project never fails to offend, amuse and plain old befuddle onlookers. This year was no exception for the 16-skyscraper-and-arena mini-city slated for Prospect Heights. Without further ado, here is our Atlantic Yards Year in Review as compiled by Dana Rubinstein:
January
Slap in the face: Bruce Ratner pulled a fast one on the very African-American constituents he had courted with his “Jobs, Hoops and Housing” plan, by signing a $400-million naming rights deal for the Nets arena with Barclays, a financial giant that has been linked to South Africa’s apartheid government, the Third Reich, and the slave trade.
Community, shammunity: The story breaks that community groups and schools will have to pay as much as $100,000 to rent Bruce Ratner’s Nets arena — an apparent pullback from the developer’s promise to make the arena available to local non-profit groups “at a reasonable rate.” Clearly, the meaning of the word “reasonable” depends on one’s tax bracket.
February
Opening the coffers: The city doubled its direct contribution to Atlantic Yards to a staggering $205 million — and Mayor Bloomberg admitted that there was no limit to how much the city could spend on “infrastructure improvements” in and around the developer’s 16-tower mini-city.
Baby steps: Demolition begins! It’s the first step in what was expected to be a 10-year construction project. “It brings us a step closer to making Atlantic Yards a reality for all of Brooklyn,” Ratner said.
Kvetch away: The developer, who famously skirted the city’s rigorous public-review process in favor of expedited state oversight, opened a “community liaison office” within the 22-acre Atlantic Yards footprint so that area residents could express their “questions or concerns” during the construction.
March
Averting cat-astrophe: Cat lovers worked around the clock to rescue a colony of feral felines who were about to lose their Vanderbilt Avenue abandoned-lot-cum-home to make room for the 16-tower mega-project. The cat ladies succeeded, relocating all 11 tabbies before the wrecking ball relocated them to kitty heaven.
Misinformation: Ratner now says that the Nets arena would open in 2010, a year later than promised — and that the rest of Atlantic Yards wouldn’t be done until 2022 — six years behind schedule, contradicting an earlier promise that the Nets would be playing in the arena by 2006 and the entire project would be done by 2016.
Misinformation: State officials admitted that when they approved Atlantic Yards last year they were relying on documents that were incomplete — and may have even been in violation of Ratner’s original pact with the state and city. Rubber stamp, anyone?
Divine intervention: Park Slope Rev. Daniel Meeter of Old First Reformed Church wrote on his blog that “the scale of [Atlantic Yards] is monstrous. It’s a moral issue,” offering a theological take on what had theretofore been a very worldly pursuit: making money.
April
Take three: A coalition of 26 Brooklyn civic groups that oppose Atlantic Yards filed a lawsuit to annul the state’s environmental review of the Prospect Heights Xanadu, charging that officials broke review laws in their rush to approve the project before Gov. Pataki left office. The lawsuit became the Ratner foes’ third highly complex (and probably futile) attempt to stop the residential, retail, office and arena mega-development.
May
Three-faced: The Empire State Development Corporation said it would create two new positions to oversee the project, in addition to an already created job of “environmental monitor.” The announcement came two weeks after a partial collapse of the Ratner-owned Ward Bakery on Pacific Street during preliminary demolition.
Innocent bagel man: The frustrated opponents of Atlantic Yards took out their aggression on a bagel store owner, who made the error of naming his new Fifth-Avenue shop, “Arena Bagels and Bialys.” Two months later, shopowner Ravi Aggarwal renamed it “A.R.E.A Bagels.”
June
Power hungry: We learned that when our electric bill goes up, we should put some of the blame on Atlantic Yards, according to Con Edison officials who testified at an Assembly hearing in Albany. Officials said Con Ed needed a 17-percent rate hike to boost an energy infrastructure that will be strained by developments like those planned at Atlantic Yards and the West Side railyards.
Cherry on top: Bruce Ratner’s sweetheart deal got a cherry on top after a state lawmaker slipped in a last-minute amendment to a housing reform bill that would shave $175 million off the developer’s costs.
October
Security concerns: Days after Newark residents learned that two streets around that city’s new glass-walled sports arena would be sealed off on game nights, residents near the Atlantic Yards footprint called on state officials to admit that the same frustrating scenario will likely happen in the heart of Brooklyn. That admission was, surprise, surprise, not forthcoming.
November
Cracking up: Massachusetts Institute of Technology sued Atlantic Yards architects Frank Gehry, claiming that his three-year-old building on the Cambridge campus is cracking apart. The MIT building’s ziggurat design is similar to Gehry’s plans for the “Miss Brooklyn” tower.
December
One promise fulfilled: Two hundred and three days after promising to appoint someone to oversee demolition and construction work at the Atlantic Yards project — and after three other people reportedly turned down the job — state officials have hired their long-awaited watchdog.
Too little, too late: Departing Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff took a parting shot at the Atlantic Yards mega-development, offering the stunning admission that if the city had to do it all over again, it would have demanded a proper public review of the project. Now, if he would just do something about the $4-billion boondoggle…
