Atlantic Yards "flying up"? On Brian Lehrer, a weak update

Yesterday, WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show featured a segment titled Atlantic Yards Check-In:

The Atlantic Yards development is flying up. Eliot Brown, commercial real estate reporter for the Wall Street Journal, gives an update on the project and checks in on the World Trade Center memorial, which is racing to meet the September 11, 2011, deadline.

The arena's rising, sure, but the development is not flying up in the slightest.



Guest host Jami Floyd, who displayed the unfortunate tendency to laugh at things not so funny, like the rate problem around the Atlantic Yards site. Guest Brown suggested, erroneously, that Chinese investors seeking green cards for purportedly job-creating investments  were investing "in the arena."

As I commented, they're investing in something called the "Brooklyn Arena and Infrastructure Project," which is replacing a land loan and will go to infrastructure (and possibly other things).

Of course potential investors were told they were investing in the arena, but that was deceptive.

I posted several comments and questions as the broadcast proceeded.