Friday, May 31, 2013

Atlantic Yards and the Culture of Cheating (links)

I offer a framework to analyze and evaluate Atlantic Yards and the Barclays Center: Atlantic Yards and the Culture of Cheating.

Note: this post is post-dated to remain at the top of the page.


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Posted by Norman Oder at 8:00 PM

3 comments:

  1. Norman,

    If I remember correctly, you've had a longstanding relationship with the Institute for Justice for a while, so you may already be familiar with the interesting online article that William Stern, who used to be the head of the UDC, did for them in 2009. But in case you missed the article, it has some interesting specific criticisms of the involvement of "the New York Times" in the Times Square redevelopment project (which Stern headed early on). (Stern did an earlier, less detailed, version of this article for the "City Journal" in 1999 -- but it has less specific information about the involvement of the "Times" in the Times Square redevelopment project.)

    Here's a link:

    http://www.ij.org/stern-perspective

    If the link doesn't work, you can find it doing with a search engine using the following key words: William Stern Times Square.

    Enjoyed your "City Journal" article, and agree that it's important to examine the past in order to learn from it.

    Benjamin Hemric
    Wed., 11/28/12, 8:35 pm

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  2. Thanks for the comment. Actually, I've had no relationship with the Institute for Justice, other than to attend a few events where they participated.

    I'm familiar with the Stern article, and the passage cited below. That said, I suspect the situation in the newsroom is less blatant, though the editorials on Atlantic Yards--the most recent quoting a Forest City executive but no skeptic--clearly show what the Times believes.

    ---
    From the article:
    For example, Jack Rosenthal, then deputy editorial page editor of the paper, was the Times’ point man in representing their interests about the redevelopment. He acted not as a journalist covering a story but as a decision maker, dictating public policy. Rosenthal was speaking for the paper, and the paper was part of the New York Times Corporation. The Times Corp. had decided it should have as much decision power as city or state government with regard to 42nd Street.
    They did so in many ways. One of the primary methods was to use their close relationship with important city officials, such as city planning commissioner Herb Sturz (the city’s point man on the project and my equivalent for the city), who later went to work for the Times after he left city government. An incident that demonstrates Sturz’s relationship with the Times occurred at a city-state meeting to discuss the project. At the meeting, Sturz announced, “Punch [Arthur Sulzberger, former publisher of the Times] wants 1 Times Square down.” At other times it was unvarnished attempts at pressure. In a private meeting, Rosenthal made it very clear to me that the Times wanted Klein to develop the garment wholesale mart and grew increasingly upset at my opposition to the idea.

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    Replies

    1. I suspect the situation in the newsroom is less blatant *today*

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