Check out the Comments section, which is thoroughly critical of the article, until we hit #13:
You could bother to interview any of the project opponents, some of whom won a recent court case against the project and are awaiting another important decision from the judge. However, you saw nothing wrong with using their illustration of the parking lots, while failing to give them credit for it.
Comment #11 Posted By: Eliot 05/04/11
pher
Ratner definitely expected opposition. He was engineering astroturf support for the project in January of 2004, working with disgraced former Assemblyman Roger Green to create phony "community organizations" to sign his "Community Benefit Agreement", which has no teeth (but did get him Bertha Lewis' lips). Through his CBA proxies, Ratner waged a PR campaign against neighboring communities, painting them as rich NIMBYs so he could justify refusing to engage with them or their elected representatives on either benefits or impacts from Atlantic Yards.
Comment #12 Posted By: pher 05/04/11
Anonymous
Ratner is resilient. What these idiots in Brooklyn don't understand is that he has built Brooklyn. If it wasn't for Ratner, there would be no Prospect Heights, there would be no Fort Greene and no Clinton Hill. Those areas were doomed until he brought jobs and industry to that area.
Comment #13 Posted By: Anonymous 05/05/11
Anonymous
Regarding #13, it's the opposite. Fort Greene was landmarked in 1978, Clinton Hill in 1981. The momentum had begun well before Ratner moved into real estate development.
Comment #14 Posted By: Anonymous 05/05/11
Anonymous
This article was well done, and the truth of Ratner and the atlantic yards project has come about. I think the critics of Ratner need to take a hike, if it weren't for this man, downtown Brooklyn, and the atlantic yards area would still be a run down blighted area. Ratner should be honored during for all of this, rather than be put down by these NIMBYS.
Comment #15 Posted By: Anonymous 05/06/11
Anonymous
Regarding #15, Ratner got a good deal--an insider's deal--on a valuable piece of public property, the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard. Just look at the Hudson Yards plan for a contrast: multiple bidders at the outset. As for the the blighted 'atlantic yards area,' consider that Ratner had demolish luxury condos that had been converted from industrial space.
Comment #16 Posted By: Anonymous 05/06/11
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