Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Here's my 2020 preview . For Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, the year 2019 had signs of some progress, if not full re-boot. And the absence of accountability continued, with a new twist. Cropped image of full buildout, Greenland USA.  Missing: Site 5 rendering across Flatbush Ave. (far left) Two towers (B4, B15) started and two more (B12, B13) are set to start in 2020, on top of the four already completed. Various unreliable images of the full buildout (15 or 16 towers) surfaced, as did new (fractional) images of the open space. That progress did not quell lingering doubts about such things as the fate of Site 5, the timing for the platform over the railyard, and the plan to meet the required 2,250 affordable housing units by 2025. There were signs or hints regarding the above three issues, but nothing definitive: Site 5, after a long delay, was said to be moving toward eminent domain the platform was said to start in 2020, but without a timetable (though informatio...

Yes, I read/skimmed it, and there's no mention of Atlantic Yards or the Barclays Center. Ok, here's the blurb from publisher Macmillan: JAY-Z: Made in America is the fruit of Michael Eric Dyson’s decade of teaching the work of one of the greatest poets this nation has produced, as gifted a wordsmith as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Rita Dove. But as a rapper, he’s sometimes not given the credit he deserves for just how great an artist he’s been for so long.  This book wrestles with the biggest themes of JAY-Z's career, including hustling, and it recognizes the way that he’s always weaved politics into his music, making important statements about race, criminal justice, black wealth and social injustice. As he enters his fifties, and to mark his thirty years as a recording artist, this is the perfect time to take a look at JAY-Z’s career and his role in making this nation what it is today.  In many ways, this is JAY-Z’s America as much as it’s Pelosi’s America,...

It came out earlier this year, but let's not forget the book, From the Ground Up , by "Ambassador Charles Gargano," who headed Gov. George Pataki's Empire State Development Corporation when it approved Atlantic Yards in 2006. The summary: From The Ground Up is a prescriptive nonfiction title, complete at 72,000 words. Consider it constructive criticism for re-engineering America, from the man who rebuilt NYC after 9/11 For all his polarizing rhetoric, Donald Trump hit at least one nail squarely on the head: Our country really is a disaster in need of recovery. Regardless of our disparate political leanings, a plurality of Americans simply know in their bones that we’re in real trouble. The mandate Americans gave Trump in 2016 highlights the crises that threaten to break us, economically, politically, spiritually, and literally, if we don’t start immediately improving our infrastructure and other key aspects of our country. Sure, we’ve undergone tough times bef...