CLUSTERF*CK ALERT
Again, as expected, the board of yet another of our New York State agencies, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), voted to approve another very sweet deal for Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner. This is after yesterday’s also unsurprising yet equally depressing decision of the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) to uncritically adopt a new “value engineered” project plan for whatever it is that Forest City Ratner is going to continue to do to my neighborhood.
Although it was widely considered that the board would rubber stamp whatever sheet of paper the developer put in front of them (just like the ESDC did yesterday), many of us had hoped that board members might thoughtfully consider the long-term ramifications of what they were about to do. Hope springs eternal, but sadly, it quickly evaporates in the the scorching desert of greed and back room dealings that has come to characterize big money development in New York City. I doubt there was anything anyone could have said to persuade either board from their likely pre-determined votes to approve.
The details of the two-day clusterf*ck will be parsed thoroughly, I’m sure, on Atlantic Yards Report, No Land Grab and elsewhere, so I will leave that onerous task to those best equipped to do it. However, I do want to note the following bombshell that’s getting scant attention in the mainstream media: at today’s MTA Board hearing, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn offered the MTA $120,000,000 for the 8-acre Vanderbilt rail yard. I’m certainly no expert on large real estate transactions, but I would think this offer would be something the MTA might want to explore, considering the dire financial straits in which it claims to be.
I’ve spent the past 3 days in MTA and ESDC boardrooms, voicing my concerns to a seemingly disinterested and begrudging group of board members. The Atlantic Yards supporters, primarily Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) signatories, union members and business owners, were rightfully concerned about securing jobs and affordable housing for those they represent, as well as stimulating the economy. My beef, at this time, is not with them. What has me most upset is the “process” by which all of this went down: a very valuable public asset, the 8-acre MTA Vanderbilt rail yard, in addition to private property which would be seized by New York State’s exercise of eminent domain, are almost literally being handed over to a private developer with the barest minimum of analysis, public over sight or guarantees of public benefits. That’s bad enough. What makes it worse is once FCR gains control of 22 acres in the heart of Brooklyn (directly across Atlantic Avenue from its Atlantic Terminal Mall and Atlantic Center Mall, both of which will most likely increase in value because of this decision), I and many others suspect that the developer will shelve the property until such time as the developer believes that it can maximize profits and then develop and/or sell a portion or all of the property. Meanwhile, the neighborhood, with dozens of buildings already demolished, their former sites ringed with chain-link fences, at best would be converted into large surface parking lots for arena fans, assuming the arena is ever built.
I suppose things could be worse. I’m not forced to deal directly with the embarrassing clusterf*ck going on right now in Albany.
June 30, 2009 at 11:56 pm
[...] after the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority … to keep the zombie proposal stumbling forward, the Court of Appeals may end up being the stake [...]