Bright lights last night in the Vanderbilt Yard but no mention in Construction Update; why does work for MTV VMAs get a pass?

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The lights were on bright last night at the Vanderbilt Yard until at least 11 pm, but there wasn't any work on the railyard going on.

Rather, as noted on Atlantic Yards Watch,, it appeared that the lights were used in connection with the MTV Video Music Awards, notably the delivery of generators.

Such lights are disturbing to neighbors on adjacent Pacific Street, including the Newswalk building, pictured left below.


No advance notice

While night lighting regarding railyard work has been announced in the periodic two-week Construction Updates issued by Empire State Development (after preparation by Forest City Ratner), no such announcement was part of the most recent Construction Update, issued Monday, August 5.

As suggested in the photo below right, the lights seemed to enable the delivery of truck-based generators to the site for the planned B4 tower at the northeast corner of the arena block.

No, that's not "construction," but the point of the Construction Updates is to alert neighbors to what might be happening around them.

Surely this qualifies.

On video

As the video below indicates, the lit railyard was used as a staging area for those trucks.

Other videos are linked from Atlantic Yards Watch, including one that shows the rail yard illuminated and another that shows a generator being moved into place on the B4 site.