One Good Thing About The Economic Meltdown

Countless lives are being devastated by the mess on Wall Street as the shockwaves are being felt across the world. The impact is incredibly great here in New York City, since as we all know, Wall Street is in Lower Manhattan. A quick trip on the 4/5 can get you over to Brooklyn and a massive disaster that is the Atlantic Yards project, and that is giving its greatest news since Bruce Ratner decided to develop destroy a large chunk of Downtown Brooklyn.

From The Gothamist:

The Associated Press is responsible for the latest skeptical report on the future of developer Bruce Ratner's embattled $4 billion plan to build a Nets arena, office towers and thousands of apartments in Brooklyn. The article paints a bleak picture of the project, noting that in addition to the two ongoing lawsuits Ratner has been fighting off for years, the Wall Street bust has made investors just a wee bit apprehensive. The arena's groundbreaking was recently pushed back again, and the stadium—if it's ever built—will cost more than triple what Ratner paid for the entire franchise. "It's got more of an economic stall than a political or a legal stall," says Michael Rowe, former president of the Nets. "I think he missed the curve on when that project was financially viable and now he has to wait for it to come back." Longtime opponent Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn puts it more bluntly: "This is just merely a fantasy that they're going to build this project. Yet they're moving forward as if everything's fine."

So Ratner can talk all he wants about how great things are the reality is far different. The credit market is terrible for all of us and Ratner is no exception. So while we all collectively suffer, keep in mind the man that wanted to take away people's homes via eminent domain; just so he could build a basketball arena with expensive shops and condos is becoming more a wistful dream of his and less of a nightmare for those he wanted to kick out of the neighborhood.