tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20743459.post5849746888023399891..comments2024-03-27T05:26:42.117-04:00Comments on Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report: Academic: public-private partnerships in NY are one-sidedNorman Oderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07618087999719667586noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20743459.post-12682685429097153552008-03-08T09:56:00.000-05:002008-03-08T09:56:00.000-05:00I have two set of thoughts on Moynihan Station and...I have two set of thoughts on Moynihan Station and Atlantic Yards.<BR/><BR/> First, however relatively “slight” the “public amenities” of Moynihan Station that are being relegated in inept negotiation by the Spitzer administration, those public benefits are proportionateley far greater than any of the “conceivable” public benefits of Atlantic Yards, either in terms actual end benefit, or bang for the public subsidy dollar.<BR/><BR/> Accordingly, after a recent 2/23/2003 New York Times article on the foundering of Moynihan Sation efforts, I wrote a letter to the Times about how public benefit dollars should be redistributed from Atlantic Yards to make possible projects such as Moynihan Station. The Times did not publish my 148 words: They publish few letters on local New York area concerns and they don’t really cover Atlantic Yards.<BR/><BR/> My letter is as follows:<BR/><BR/> Michael D. D. White<BR/> 62 Montague Street, Apt. 3A/3E<BR/> Brooklyn Heights, New York 11201<BR/> <BR/> February 23, 2008<BR/>Via Fax- (212)556-3622<BR/><BR/>Letters to the Editor<BR/>The New York Times<BR/>620 Eighth Avenue<BR/>New York, NY 10018 <BR/> Re: Moynihan Station and legacy/ "Plan to Rebuild Penn Station Area May Be Close to Failure," By Charles V. Bagli, February 23, 2008<BR/>To the Editor:<BR/><BR/> If Moynihan Station, richly merited and full of public purpose, dies for lack of political will to marshal funding, the irony is supreme. This Moynihan legacy may have been sacrificed because we did not honor another Moynihan legacy. In 1986, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan sponsored an insightful law banning tax-exempt bonds to finance sports stadiums and arenas. Now, because this law has been creatively circumvented, Forest City Ratner is using a proposed Nets arena to divert more than $1.5 billion of public subsidy into its Atlantic Yards no-bid megadevelopment. Real estate taxes will be intercepted to pay $692.7 million of arena bonds. . . tax-exempt bonds on which over $125 million in city, state and federal income taxes won't be paid.<BR/><BR/> If the public recaptures these ill-conceived subsidies proposed for Atlantic Yards, the city and state can substantially increase their respective $300 million contributions to Moynihan Station.<BR/><BR/><BR/> Sincerely,<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/> Michael D. D. White<BR/><BR/> My second thought about Moynihan Station is that, as the "Big Moynihan Plan is Sputtering" article linked to makes clear, Moynihan Station has turned into essentially two possible projects. One is the simple, more straightforward project that might have been labeled a “Pataki” achievement if Spitzer had not stopped it going through the PACB just before Pataki’s term as governor ended. The other is a more complex mega-project that could be labeled a “Spitzer” achievement if he ever gets it unbollixed. Spitzer was apparently approached and decided to shift over to the mega-development style version of the Moynihan deal during his gubernatorial campaign. <BR/><BR/> The Times accepts only 150 word letters so I had to stick to one point when I wrote, but <BR/>if I had more words available to me (like now) I would probably have pointed out how Spitzer is failing in his Moynihan Station negotiations.<BR/><BR/> When Spitzer intercepted the Pataki plan, I gave Spitzer some benefit of the doubt that he had a better idea about a few additional good options that could be accomplished with some simple tweaking. That wasn’t the case. Moynihan Station is like Atlantic Yards in that Spitzer has bollixed himself up by taking his eye off the ball of public benefit in the course of negotiations. We'd be much better off in terms of getting a truly commendable Moynihan Station if Spitzer had followed the KISS (“Keep It Simple Stupid”) rule and strictly focused of the core public benefit goals of a station with good design.- Instead, Spitzer got drawn into negotiating with the developers in a big mega-scheme where the game theoretically had to play out on the playing field and terms of a big developer. As a result the big developer’s goals have taken over and are inappropriately predominating. Like Atlantic Yards, Moynihan Station doesn’t involve, though it could, simple component parts where developers can be required to bid against each other toward a firmly established bottom line goal for public benefit.<BR/><BR/> I don’t know what overtures made it seem to Spitzer and his people that accepting the invitation onto the big developer’s playing field was a good idea but it hasn’t worked out for the public.MDDWhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16693635186364315879noreply@blogger.com