With Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project just days away from approval by the Empire State Development Corporation, anti-Yards City Councilwoman Letitia James courted Ratner’s politically connected Madison Square Garden rivals..
James (D-Prospect Heights) met Tuesday with a lobbyist for Charles and Jim Dolan, the father-son team that owns Cablevision, MSG, Radio City Music Hall and the Knicks — and was a key force behind blocking the West Side Jets stadium project last year and derailing the Moynihan train station last month.
Ratner opponents have hoped that the Dolan family would jump into the Atlantic Yards fight, given how Ratner’s proposed Nets basketball arena could cut into the clan’s business.
State planners are nervous about it.
Last week, ESDC Chairman Charles Gargano said he was “sure [the Dolans] are working in the background [to halt Atlantic Yards].”
Gargano said that he had no evidence to prove that the company was meddling again — except, of course, its track record of blocking the Jets stadium and the train station, both ESDC projects.
“Based on recent experience, I wouldn’t put it past them,” Gargano snapped.
The state’s development czar is still haunted by memories of the more than $10 million in ads, lobbying and legal work that the Dolans spent to kill the West Side stadium, a potential rival of “the World’s Most Famous Arena” just a few blocks to the east.
The company focused its lobbying effort on Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), whose daughter was hired by MSG during the showdown over the West Side stadium, according to the New York Post. (Then again, Ratner hired state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s son as a lobbyist in 2003, although he no longer works for the New Jersey Nets owner.)
In this context, James’s meeting with the Dolan lobbyist didn’t come out of nowhere. With the project about to be approved by the ESDC, it’s logical to reach out to the team that successfully defended its turf.
Neither party would comment on the content of the meeting, but Dolan representatives had previously told the Councilwoman that they planned to stay out of this fight, a source familiar with the discussions said.
“They don’t want to be seen as total monopolists,” the source said. “They must have seen that this one is not worth the risk.”
And this time, Silver doesn’t appear to be open to serving the Dolans’ interest at Atlantic Yards.
“We’ll look at [Atlantic Yards] in a very favorable light because development is necessary down there,” Silver said on WNBC’s “News Forum” on Nov. 19.
But that doesn’t mean he couldn’t resist a parting shot at Gargano, who will leave office when Gov. Pataki does on Dec. 31 and is hoping to make Atlantic Yards one of his boss’s legacies — rather than hand it off to incoming Gov. Spitzer.
“Take a look what he did to economic development in this state,” Silver said. “He has no credibility here. He has interests that obviously lie opposite the state of New York.”
