A visit yesterday to the new exhibition at Columbia University, Robert Moses & the Modern City: Slum Clearance and the Superblock Solution , turned up this quote from Mabel Walker's 1938 book Urban Blight and Slums : "Blight is a condition where it is not profitable to make or maintain improvements." These days, of course, blight is more complicated, involving, according to the Empire State Development Corporation, underutilization and poor maintenance. At the same time, lots just across the street from the project site have been developed and other adjacent units sell well.
This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, concerns the $6B project to build the Barclays Center arena & 15-16 towers at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park Brooklyn in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland USA bought a 70% stake going forward. In 2018, once the arena & four towers were built, Greenland bought out most of Forest City's stake, then sold three leases to other companies.