M.T.A. And Ratner's Deal Breaks The Law

The M.T.A. has no problem raising the fare for straphangers in their attempt to make ends meet. Yet when it comes to the rich and powerful, they have no problem making deals with people like Bruce Ratner in his attempt to build part of his Atlantic Yards site. The only problem though with saving Ratner some money is that the M.T.A. violated the law in doing so.

From Hot Indie News:

Brennan said the failure to include an independent appraisal prior to voting on the proposal violated the Public Authorities Accountability Act of 2005, which specifically requires that a public authority like the MTA conduct an independent appraisal prior to disposing of its property to assure fair market value to be paid for assets of public authorities.

Brennan said the purpose of the statute was to prevent public authorities from squandering assets in giveaways to the private sector.

Brennan said it was likely the MTA was squandering its assets to the detriment of the mass transit system, since in 2005 another bidder on the arena site and rail yards, the Extell Corporation, had already offered the MTA more money than what became the agreement between Forest City Ratner and the MTA at that time.

Brennan said the likelihood that the arena project was a boondoggle was substantial, since the New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO) has already testified at a hearing of the State Senate Corporations Committee on May 29^th that a preliminary updated review of the costs and benefits of the arena showed that city and state outlays for the project would exceed positive tax revenues from the project even over a 30-year period.

I would say there is more than a substantial likelihood that this is a boondoggle, because it is definitely a boondoggle. Assemblyman Brennan knows that and so does everyone else in Brooklyn, including the principals who are orchestrating this deal. Forest City Ratner may think their legal troubles are over, but they've got another thing coming. There's a reason why laws like this one is written, and it is to stop shady pro-corporate, anti-community projects like Atlantic Yards

Atlantic Yards Continues To Be A Debacle

This past Friday state lawmakers tried to have a discussion about the controversial Atlantic Yards development. Ratner's supporters however, decided that they'd rather create a ruckus than anything that resembled a civil discourse. However, there were a few important things to note and Atlantic Yards Report gleams the information.

From AY Report:

• the Independent Budget Office (IBO), recalculating its 2005 cost-benefit analysis, concluded the arena would be a money-loser
  
• the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is willing to compromise with Forest City Ratner on the timetable (and perhaps the total) for the $100 million owed, as well as the quality of the new Vanderbilt Yard
  
• neither the state nor the city have updated their analysis of new revenue--already deeply flawed, because it excludes costs--to acknowledge current conditions
  
• that the New York City Housing Development Corporation is waiting for Forest City Ratner and ACORN (which is in hock to the developer) renegotiate the configuration of the affordable housing
• the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) likely will produce a revision of the Modified General Project Plan (GPP) in the next month or two, which will trigger a new public hearing

Basically the government agencies involved do not have their act together and that they are willing to bend as far as possible to make Ratner happy. Claims of eminent domain that would actually benefit the community and the common good was false and the degree of that falsity is still undetermined. And then there are the unanswered questions posed by Atlantic Yards Report, which only seem to reinforce the bad things we have learned above, such as:

• how long the project might take
  
• when construction might begin
  
• when affordable housing might begin
  
• whether there are enough bonds for affordable housing
  
• how the per-unit cost of affordable housing compares to other projects
• whether architect Frank Gehry is on the project
  
• whether officials realized FCR decided to seek more subsidies well before the economic downturn
  
• why the ESDC lets private companies benefit from naming rights to public buildings

The entire post is well worth your time and is a great snap shot of the current mess in and around the Atlantic Yards. It shows how our local and state government (along with certain non-profits) have failed the community so that they could appease a rich developer so that they can get their dirty hands in the cookie jar.

Atlantic Yards Exacerbates Blight Problem It Claimed To Fix

Irony is a funny thing. At some level the situation it describes is both funny and tragic. In the case of the Atlantic Yards monstrosity development, it is hard to find humor when you have been forced to sell your house and/or see your neighborhood ripped up in front of you for a greedy developer. Bruce Ratner and his partners had claimed that it was necessary to clean the area up and make it Gehry-ified but now it turns out it was Ratner that blighted the area.

From The Gothamist:

Government officials and developer Bruce Ratner have for years tried to seize private property in Prospect Heights to build an arena, office towers and apartments, arguing that the neighborhood was the epitome of urban blight. Opponents, meanwhile, countered that the developer was swooping in just as Prospect Heights was experiencing its first revitalization in decades.

Now, after years of demolition but no construction, the project has brought about the very blighted conditions officials ostensibly sought to remedy. Ironic, huh? Sadly, it's not the fashionable Napoleon Dynamite-type irony; more like the old fashioned irony that led Oedipus to gouge his eyes out after he realized what the hell happened. And with the development foundering, residents fear an increasingly desolate future.

Well it may not be as bad as what happened with Oedipus, but what Ratner has done to the area is extremely tragic to say the least. It should be criminal for what they are doing to this neighborhood, but unfortunately the politicians are all too happy to be supportive of the developers in exchange for campaign contributions and not sticking up for what is best for the people of Brooklyn.

Gehry Proclaims Atlantic Yards Dead

In what may be one of the worst pieces of news for the embattled Bruce Ratner, his star-architect (or starchitect) Frank Gehry said that the controversial Atlantic Yards development is kaput. Well, he didn't say "kaput" but the answer was just as bad.

From The NY Daily News:

Asked by a trade paper about "unrealized commissions" he most wishes had been built, famed 80-year-old architect Frank Gehry brought up Atlantic Yards.

"I don't think it's going to happen," he told the Architect's Newspaper in an interview published online.

The comment suggests the troubled relationship between Gehry and developer Bruce Ratner is over.

"While Ratner's project is a big question mark, it appears to be clear that his star architect - a key selling point for the project, its sponsors and Barclays bank - is no longer working on the project," said Daniel Goldstein, a member of the anti-Yards group Develop Don't Destroy.

Atlantic Yards probablity of being built has diminished for the last year or so and the current state of the economy has helped drive it into the ground for good. Credit is tight, construction costs have risen, but most importantly, the controversy of the development helped keep the project in question just long enough to help quash Ratner's dreams. Now he'll try to build something a lot smaller and less grand, but this is where a competent city government would come in and restore some order. Of course, as long as Marty Markowitz is around that possibility is quite slim.

M.T.A. Tells Ratner To Stay Away From Their Stimulus Money

It has already been mentioned that community destroyer developer Bruce Ratner is looking for a chunk of that economic stimulus money to build his offices, apartments and basketball arena. However, the opposition to that has been fierce and people are noticing. First of all it wasn't written anywhere in the bill (probably because H.R. 1 was about stimulus and not earmarks) and now the M.T.A. is telling Ratner to scat as well.

From The Gothamist:

Atlantic Yards opponents have expressed considerable outrage over developer Bruce Ratner's attempt to get a taste of the federal stimulus package for his embattled stadium, office, and residential project in Brooklyn. Last week it came to light that former Senator Alfonse D’Amato’s lobbying firm, Park Strategies, was working behind the scenes to secure a cut of the stimulus for Ratner. But they can forget about getting any of the loot earmarked for the MTA; a transit official tells the Post that the stalled development is "not on any of our lists [of projects]." However, Ratner is still lobbying for some of the stimulus money outside of the MTA's purview; there's some $3.9 billion for "infrastructure and energy assistance" which will soon be at Governor Paterson's disposal. A spokeswoman for the governor says they're "examining whether the project warrants stimulus funds," and notes that "there's a lot of competition."

Damn, not even a lobbying effort could get AY a dime (though I'm sure D'Amato didn't come for free, heh). Now as for Paterson's discretionary $3.9 billion, if he even thinks twice about giving Ratner money, he can kiss Brooklyn's vote in next year's primary race goodbye.

Ratner Shouldn't See A Dime Of Stimulus Money

With so much money at stake in the stimulus, there is no shortage of people looking not only to get work to feed their families but to enrich themselves at the expense of the public. Senate Republicans have already reduced the amount of funds to build infrastructure in the name of tax cuts for the rich. If the Senate bill was signed by Obama as is, 42% of that stimulus would be tax cuts and mostly helping those who are on the wealthier end of the spectrum. With that, the remaining funds need to be protected from greedy developers such as Bruce Ratner. While Ratner lobbies for his own ends, the community must fight back.

From NY1:

Brooklyn advocates and officials are speaking out about reports that a city developer is asking congress to help fund construction at the Atlantic Yards site.

Borough President Marty Markowitz is welcoming news that Bruce Ratner is lobbying for a portion of the stimulus package to jumpstart the $4 billion project.

The plan to build an NBA arena and more than a dozen apartments and office towers has reportedly been scaled back due to the stagnant economy.

"It has all the earmarks of exactly all the kinds of projects that Congress is looking for and President Obama is looking for. It will put people to work immediately and it will benefit the community at large," said Markowitz.

"Earmarks" is exactly the wrong word here Mr. Markowitz. These projects aren't just stuck into a bill without careful review. Perhaps Ratner's best friend might want to consult a dictionary...or the bill itself to see what the infrastructure projects are all about. Just because eminent domain was abused for the purpose of AY does not mean Ratner is entitled to Federal money to finance a failed "development" scheme that Ratner eagerly wants completed.

Eminent domain was intended for projects that benefited the entire community and not a few wealthy financiers in the process. Rebuilding roads, laying new water pipes, building more mass transit lines and creating more accessability to broadband internet is what Obama had envisioned. Creating a new energy grid that utilizes green, renewable energy is also a part of that plan. I seriously doubt the names "Bruce Ratner" or "Atlantic Yards" had ever entered the President's mind.

And of course, the Atlantic Yards Report has more on the matter.

Atlantic Yards Now Further From Ever Being Built

When it comes to Atlantic Yards, anything negative for Frank Gehry or Bruce Ratner is good news to me. Ratner has his share of economic and legal malaise lately, stalling the project that has left a large chunk of downtown Brooklyn abandoned. Well now the economy has claimed a portion of Frank Gehry's workforce.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Frank Gehry laid off more than two dozen staffers in late November after client Forest City Ratner ordered the architect to put down his pencils on the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project, according to people familiar with the matter. A Gehry Partners LLP spokeswoman declined to comment.[...]

Forest City Ratner's parent, Forest City Enterprises Inc., said last week that it has cut off its new development pipeline, except for Atlantic Yards. But the project faces challenges given the recession and the financial markets. A $153 million land loan from Gramercy Capital Corp. that has accrued to $177 million, is due at the beginning of February. Forest City is in talks with Gramercy to extend the loan.

If I were Gramercy, I'd find them in default. With all of the hurdles that Ratner faces, letting him off the hook for an extended period of time is a bad idea from an investor's standpoint. Ratner has done enough damage to our city (along with the politicians that help him), so putting Forest Ratner out of its misery wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

How NYC Newspapers Colluded With Bruce Ratner To Build Atlantic Yards

When it comes to big business, New York City's major newspapers are in bed with developers like Bruce Ratner. This video shows you the in-depth details of the relationships between the Daily News, the Post and the New York Times:

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.

Ratner Manufactures Rally In Support Of His AY Failure

The Atlantic Yards Project envisioned by developer Bruce Ratner has fallen on hard times. With the lackluster support and energetic opposition, he has had to scale back his plans and hasn't done much except petition for more of Brooklyn's tax dollars to pay for the start-up costs. That is why he held a "Brooklyn Day" to conjure up community support of his massive plan to redevelop downtown Brooklyn. He even helped sponsor last weekend's "Jazz 'n' Roses" at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, perhaps to show that he cares about the borough or something like that. Yesterday's spectacle though, was a little more over the top than just sponsoring a nice event.

From The Atlantic Yards Report:

Despite decent weather, free t-shirts, a full-page ad in the Daily News, an E-newsletter, requests from union bosses to attend, and promises of free food, free transportation, and “international recording artist Maxi Priest,” the disparate and soon-diminished crowd was often subdued, even bored, and a passel of Forest City Ratner operatives monitoring the event looked somber, despite the billing as a “fun day.”

3500 attendees?

At the event’s peak, with union members streaming in from Downtown Brooklyn job sites, seniors and kids (who had a day off from school) bused in from throughout Brooklyn, and downtown office workers and Greenmarket visitors mingling during their lunch hour, there were probably more than 2000 people present. (Note that a similar event in 2004 drew 1500, according to the developer, though it's hard to tell from the photo if it was more crowded.)

WNYC and the New York Post suggested 3500 people were at the rally--that Forest City Ratner overestimate may apply to the number of people on the plaza, as I don’t disbelieve that 5000 sandwiches and 3000 t-shirts disappeared. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle estimated there were more than 1000 attendees (and noted that some seniors were just there for a day out), while the New York Observer counted “hundreds” and the New York Daily News cautiously stuck with “scores.” The Daily News, which has cheered for the project on its editorial page, bluntly stated in the lead that the rally was "paid for by the developer" and headlined the article Ratner cooks up rally for Brooklyn project. The New York Times, not surprisingly, ignored the event. The New York Sun wrote a tough preview piece.

Many attendees, however, didn’t stay for the speeches, and as the hour-long program of speakers proceeded, the crowd diminished, with fewer than 500 listening until 1:20 p.m., when the speeches ended and the music began. (The event was billed as from 11 am to 3 pm.) By comparison, at the counter-protest May 3, where AY supporters at least had visible antagonists in those calling for a “Time Out” rally, the energy was much greater. In this case, only a few project opponents were spotted in the audience, though Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn spokesman Daniel Goldstein, in press coverage, called attention to the self-serving, even “desperate” nature of the rally. The Brooklyn Paper ran a scathing editorial questioning Forest City Ratner's correlation between "Brooklyn's renaissance" and the development of Atlantic Yards.

Check out the rest of their post for more details and lots of pictures.

On one hand, it is sad to see that quite a few local politicians are on board this sinking ship and that they have to try and engineer community support for something that clearly has next to nothing of the kind. On the other though, I'm glad to see these crooks going down in flames and on the defensive. For a while I was pessimistic about the fate of downtown Brooklyn and had almost given up on Ratner & Co.'s abuse of eminent domain to profit off of the borough. Gladly I can say I was wrong and hopefully all of this will be behind us soon enough.

Brooklyn Does Matter

And it matters more to its residents than Bruce Ratner thought. Pulling one over the citizens of the community with eminent domain abuse is going to take more than having the good graces of some local politicians. Again, activism matters and it does work.

A New Governor Could Be Good News For Brooklyn

This past week and especially the coming Monday heralds a new day in New York. Not only does Eliot Spitzer resign and David Paterson become Governor, but the whole political dynamic in the state is completely shook up. Out of the many examples we will find in the coming weeks and days, there is Brooklyn, and the infamous Atlantic Yards project that Bruce Ratner is so fond of.

Now the AY project was having trouble already, but a Paterson Administration could spell complete doom for Ratner and his quest to remake Brooklyn into gentrified garbage. It is about preserving and beautifying Kings County, not tearing it down and making anew. And there are some that feel that this is the right time to drive the stake in Ratner's heart plans.

From Curbed:

Who knew that something as sordid as that Client 9 thing would have implications for something as dry and legalistic as eminent domain? But it does. This morning's Sun considers the possible implications of Gov. David Paterson--who has been an opponent of eminent domain--on a number of projects including Atlantic Yards, the big Columbia Expansion and the city's plan to take Willets Point and redevelop it with a huge convention, hotel, retail and residential complex. Opponents of Atlantic Yards aren't wasting any time. The postcard here to "Dear Gov. Paterson," which isn't specifically about eminent domain, is already in circulation.The Sun notes that the incoming governor was part of a 2005 rally on the steps of City Hall "during which he called for a statewide moratorium on the use of eminent domain." The issue--along with a Brooklyn Museum Gala honoring developer Bruce Ratner--were major topics of conversation at a meeting on Atlantic Yards last night. The Atlantic Yards postcards are already in the mail, with anti-Columbia Expansion and Willets Point likely to follow.

So far Paterson is saying a lot of good things, I can only hope that it continues and translates into positive action for our state.

Whats The Rush Ratner?

Aww Brucey baby, why ya pouting so much? There's no need to get mad or shall I say, desperate to have your four billion dollar project approved so quickly. All the residents of Brooklyn (you know that place you want to destroy and remodel for your own selfish reasons?) is a fair shake in court and to make sure that those things we like to call "laws" are followed. Well and to make sure that your multi-skyscrapered project gets an extreme makeover in order to keep Brooklyn looking like the borough it has always been.

From The Gothamist:

Ratner’s lawyers are warning the court that the lengthy appeal process is putting the project in jeopardy because “the credit markets are in turmoil at this time . . . There is a serious question as to whether, given the current state of the debt market, the underwriters will be able to proceed with the financing for the arena while the appeal is pending.” If the appeal is not quickly resolved, developers “are likely to encounter significant difficulties and cost increases in concluding the bond financing that is essential to the arena's completion,” lawyers argue.

The environmental review suit is one of two lawsuits currently stalling the project; Develop Don’t Destroy has a second suit in federal court challenging the state’s use of eminent domain to condemn privately owned properties to make way for the 22-acre development. A lawyer for the MTA, arguing for project, insisted in court on Friday that the legal battle was having “a chilling affect” and was simply a stalling tactic. A spokesman for Develop Don’t Destroy told the Brooklyn Paper, “Our lawsuit was not ‘designed’ for anything. It was filed in order to make sure that a state agency follows state laws.”

Gasp! State agencies are supposed to follow state laws? Who woulda thunk it? By the way, why is the MTA arguing for Ratner? Shouldn't they be looking at what all that concrete and population influx will do to tax our mass transit system before allowing taxpayer/straphangers money to represent Ratner in court?

"Atlantic Yards" Back In Court

For those of you that despise gentrification and making one company wealthy at the expense of a community, today is crucial for the plaintiffs arguing against Forest City Ratner and Judge Garaufis' decision to allow the Atlantic Yards to be built as planned. Members of the community are going up against the U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn the decision that basically said that it is okay to destroy a community if it makes the area more glitzy and glamorous.

From The Atlantic Yards Report:

U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis already dismissed their case for a failure to state a claim, ruling that presence of some measure of public benefits—mass transit improvements, the removal of blight, subsidized housing, a sports facility, open space—trumped any allegation that the project might primarily confer a private benefit on developer Forest City Ratner.

There’s a difference, the plaintiffs argue in a final reply brief, and it has to do with process. Precedential cases, which drew on more egregious fact patterns—severe blight in Washington, DC (Berman), and a land oligopoly in Hawaii (Midkiff)—lead courts to defer to legislative determinations, as the Supreme Court in 2005 did in its narrow Kelo v. New London decision, upholding the use of eminent domain for economic development.

The brief says the courts must “resolve the obvious tension between and among” the three cases, which call for courts to defer to “a legislative determination that a taking serves a public purpose” but, as reaffirmed in Kelo, must look carefully at “plausible allegations that ostensibly ‘public’ purposes are pretextual and that the real purpose of a taking is to benefit a private developer.”

The plaintiffs--13 homeowners, business owners, residential and commercial tenants--suggest that, in this case, no deference is warranted, because “all of the indicia of legitimate public decisionmaking are absent, and most or all of the indicia of illegitimate private decisionmaking are present.”

The entire post is long and complex, but a good read for anyone that wants to understand the legitimate arguments of the plaintiffs. All they want is to be able to bring the case to court so that they can present the facts.

This isn't some frivolous lawsuit, it is a chance for the people of the community to speak out on what happens in their lives and the area around them. Allowing one company (and one man, Bruce Ratner) to be able to take people's property away from them so that he can make a profit is not only disgusting, it is un-American. The Appellate Court should at the very least allow the people to present their case.

Affordable Housing Bill Tainted By NY Legislature

A smart piece of legislation put together by a coalition of groups to enable construction of affordable housing was cut to pieces by the state legislature this week. Instead of a bill that would have provided for the lower and middle classes by revamping certain tax breaks, a few special developers (like Bruce Ratner) got gigantic tax breaks to pad their controversial projects. The culprit who amended the legislation is Brooklyn's own Vito Lopez, yet all but two legislators signed the bill.

From The New York Times:

Mr. Lopez, who did not consult many of the advocates and builders who had worked on the city’s proposal, defended his legislation, saying it aimed at housing for poor and working-class New Yorkers. Middle-class families were just “not as high a priority,” he said.

But many advocates, city officials and even some Senate Republicans are saying that Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, betrayed the city’s effort. By all accounts, Mr. Spinola, the leading industry lobbyist, played a major role in negotiating the compromises and the tax deals for Atlantic Yards and other developments that led to Senate approval.

“This was a backroom deal,” said Liz Krueger, one of only two state senators who voted against the bill.

Sounds a lot like the same old crap from Albany. Unless the bill is miraculously changed back to its original intent, this one definitely needs to be vetoed by the Governor. It goes against the central theme of what he ran on, cleaning up the corruption that is so rampant in our state. Three hundred million dollars in tax breaks for companies like the Forest City Ratner group is completely unacceptable.