Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Yes, I know the election results are dominating people's consciousness right now, but there is a Quality of Life Update Meeting behind held tonight at 6 pm, on Zoom, for residents around/of the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project to voice concerns and also to hear various updates. This would be the first such meeting since February 2003.  The meetings slacked when vertical construction finished, and also, I suspect, because personnel had departed from Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project. However, the reason for such meetings, with ESD having the ability to bring representatives from various agencies and companies to field questions, has not waned, as I wrote . Registration:  https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jfX9MgsFTsWiguTSctqB1w .  Questions and comments for the presenters can be submitted via email to  AtlanticYards@esd.ny.gov  before the meeting. Questions and comments can also be submitted in the virtual platform’s chat fea

In a friendly article likely goosed by a press release, Adweek reported yesterday,  Brooklyn Magazine Relaunches As BKMag After BSE Global Acquisition , confirming I reported in July,  So, once-indie Brooklyn Magazine is now part of Nets owner Tsai's BSE Global, which plans a larger media enterprise to champion/amplify Brooklyn.   (H/t to Brownstoner for noticing the Adweek article.) From Adweek: The relaunch is the first step in a broader bid from BSE Global to build a global media brand, called Brooklyn Media, early next year, according to global chief products and experiences officer DeJuan Wilson. “We want to put Brooklyn at the center of the BSE ecosystem and connect people to Brooklyn through all the things they love,” Wilson said. “The relaunch is about positioning BKMag as the ultimate guide to Brooklyn.” That means, according to the article, "BKMag will more heavily emphasize guides, such as lists of the best restaurants in the borough and short-form video content.&q

From my new essay in Common Edge, headlined Delays Undermine Promises of Affordable Housing in Brooklyn : The megaproject Atlantic Yards (aka Pacific Park) in Brooklyn was announced in 2003 under the slogan, “Jobs, Housing, and Hoops.” Of 4,500 rental apartments, half would be below-market "affordable housing," memorialized—so it seemed-–in a 2005 agreement that original developer Forest City Ratner signed with the grassroots group ACORN... That housing promise, to be fulfilled in ten years, was key to gaining political and community support for the 16-tower project, despite concern about subsidies, scale, eminent domain for a basketball arena, and an end-run around democracy. Atlantic Yards, though, faced delays and revisions. As condemnations finally loomed in 2010, a lawyer for targeted property owners argued that a newly extended project deadline, to 2035, vitiated promised benefits. That argument failed. “Whatever the pace may be for the delivery” of such benefits, a

Weekly Digest: Pushback to Emerging Project Revisions ( link ) The coalition BrooklynSpeaks seeks more deeply affordable housing, and more. Also: a belated meeting for project neighbors, plus a note to readers.

OK, the first of the two restaurants in the base of the 595 Dean buildings, Nin Hao, opened in mid-September, and this Tuesday, so did SIMÒ Pizza, the fourth location for the mini-chain. The photo at right, looking east along Dean Street, is from Oct. 17, when they were finishing up. The address is 629 Dean Street, open daily 11 am to 10 pm. A margherita pizza at SIMÒ is $13.90.  Nin Hao has a more complex menu and higher price points, and is open at 5 pm daily. Presumably the presence of these two retail outlets will increase foot traffic in the central piece of the project's current open space, along Dean Street midway between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues. View this post on Instagram A post shared by SIMÒ Pizza: 90 Seconds to Napoli (@simo.pizza)

The Barclays Center yesterday circulated its November 2024 event calendar, citing 17 ticketed events in as many days. That includes six Brooklyn Nets games, nine concerts, and two nights of a college basketball tournament. Note amplified sounds on the plaza today from 12 to 4 pm before the Nets game. The calendar does not include a Nov. 9 concert, R&B Forever Tour , listed on the arena's web site. So there should be ten concerts, not nine, and a total of 18 ticketed events over as many days Plaza action The calendar also includes an "AMEX shoot," presumably a commercial, on Friday, Nov. 8, and another, unspecified commercial shoot, on Thursday, Nov. 14.  Presumably both will take up a portion of the plaza. The duration for both events is said to be 7 am to 7 pm. November 2023 The November 2023 calendar had 20 ticketed events over as many days. The calendar included ten Brooklyn Nets games, two days of college basketball, five concerts, and the Rock & Roll Hall of

BrooklynSpeaks to Elected Officials: Ensure Deeply Affordable Housing, Have Arena Plaza Operator Fund Monitors ( link ) Also: get financial analysis of proposed effort to supersize project. But will community coalition give carte blanche on scale?