In the Congressional primary today, unlike for the open seat in 2006, Atlantic Yards is not on the agenda. Only one candidate (Simon) mentions it.

Well, there's a Democratic primary today for the newly drawn 10th District, which includes the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park site and extends from Borough Park to Lower Manhattan. Unlike when the seat containing the site was last open (2006!), the project is not on the agenda.

Note that Rep. Yvette Clarke, whose district lines have moved, had much to do with the project (other than some photo ops, and sending a staffer to public meetings, and thus promoting job openings, etc.). 

Bigger players in Congress like former Rep. Charles Rangel and Sen. Chuck Schumer have helped the project, directly and indirectly, by getting tax-exempt bonds grandfathered in and ensuring that cheap EB-5 financing for immigrant investors remained afloat (and failing to apply scrutiny to a dubious program).

So, while the project may re-surface as a Congressional issue, other local issues--as The City pointed out--are more pressing, including funding for public housing, climate change, and repair of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

As The City pointed out, the crucial New York Times endorsement, for TriBeCa resident and self-funding lawyer Dan Goldman (noted for his impeachment role), focused on national issues and ignored three candidates already serving as elected officials: Assemblymembers Yuh-Line Niou and Jo Anne Simon, and Councilmember Carlina Rivera. 

(That endorsement, as critics pointed out, may relate to some family connections. Here's a general list of endorsements for all the candidates.)

The Times didn't mention former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, attempting a comeback in her 80 (!), but did have praise for current Rep. Mondaire Jones, who moved from Rockland/Westchester to avoid a race in a newly configured district, but has no local experience. (And Bill de Blasio dropped out.)

With Goldman considered the frontrunner, thanks to his money and endorsements (and the most "conservative" Democrat, at least on some issues), the most viable challengers, according to polls, are Rivera, Niou, and Jones. (To be fair, polls can be wrong, so people who support Simon and Holtzman have every right not to vote strategically.)

Pundit Michael Lange predicts the three top challengers will split the vote, allowing a Goldman victory. If so, that's the price of a system that schedules a primary election in August and, unlike with city elections, does not allow ranked-choice voting.  

In the Daily News, columnist Harry Siegel suggested that, on the big issues, the candidates are not far off:

While Democrats are campaigning on the premise that the American Way itself is on the ballot this November, New York’s one-party contests mostly seem to be defined by a narcissism of small differences.

About Atlantic Yards

As far as I can tell, the only candidate to mention Atlantic Yards was Simon. From her web site:

The community is front and center to Jo Anne’s activism. She is a fierce advocate and she has fought against the closure of Long Island College Hospital (LICH) hospital, demanded more and more deeply affordable housing in the Atlantic Yards development, advocated for and secured the city’s first traffic calming study, and worked with the community to clean up the toxic Gowanus Canal and its uplands, now a federal Superfund site. She was an early pioneer pushing to bury the polluting Gowanus Expressway into an environmentally-just and sustainable tunnel and passed first-in-the-nation technology to fine illegally overweight trucks on the BQE.

Well, as a supporter of the BrooklynSpeaks coalition, she saluted the 2014 settlement that brought faster affordable housing, though it was not even as affordable as originally promised. Since then, she's joined the call for more deeply affordable housing.

And while she's criticized the developer and state periodically for lack of accountability, the BrooklynSpeaks settlement was way too optimistic about prospects for the advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation.

On housing

Rivera is considered the most pro-development candidate, backed by the YIMBY group Open New York (and by others). From her web site:

The housing crisis most requires that we create more housing supply. Carlina knows that we need to build more affordable and accessible housing in all areas, not just a select few, to address soaring rents and housing instability, which can often lead to homelessness. As a Council Member, she’s fought for community land trusts, rezonings that prioritize more affordable housing development, and the full funding of public housing from every level of government. Carlina believes that housing is a basic human right, and that we have it in our power to make sure every person has access to permanent, dignified, affordable housing.

Niou is considered the least pro-development candidate and the farthest left (and thus dissed by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries). See this analysis of her differences with Rivera. From her web site:

For years, the Congress has continually failed to adequately invest in NYCHA, leaving public housing residents in grossly unsafe and unhealthy living conditions. Yuh-Line will fight for the funding our public housing deserves, as well as a new, national Mitchell-Lama style housing program that drives construction of 100% affordable housing.

From Holtzman's web site:

For too long, the federal government has starved needed housing programs. I will use my expertise to create more affordable housing. As Comptroller, I created ways to use the City’s pension funds to finance the building of tens of thousands of units of affordable housing for City residents. I will explore opportunities to expand that groundbreaking program.

From Jones's web site:

As someone who was raised in Section 8 housing in New York,and who is a renter in New York’s 10th Congressional District, our affordable housing crisis is personal to me. Simply put, we must do everything to address the severe shortage of affordable housing and end homelessness in New York City. As a member of Congress, I played a pivotal role in securing passage of the Build Back Better Act in the House, the single-largest investment in affordable housing in American history, with tens of billions of dollars in new NYCHA funding, as well as Section 8 housing funding and other housing affordability relief. But with the median rent in Manhattan reaching all-time highs and the number of unhoused New Yorkers at its highest level since the Great Depression, it’s clear Congress must do far, far more. I support the campaign for a fully affordable building at 5 WTC, I co-sponsor the Homes for All Act to create 9.5 million new affordable housing units, and I support federal financial investments that guarantee housing as a human right for New York City. Moreover, last summer, I was proud to convince the White House to instruct the CDC to extend the nation’s eviction moratorium, which kept as many as 11 million people from being evicted from their homes during the pandemic.

From Goldman's web site:

The solution to affordable housing requires two things: more housing and better housing. In order to do that, Dan believes we need to incentivize public-private partnerships – we allow the private companies to do what they do better than the government (i.e., building) but require them to give back much more to the community in the way of affordable housing, community and public space, and services such as early childhood development, medical facilities, and mass transit. We also must ensure rigorous environmental controls are followed to ensure that affordable housing is not just relegated to areas with environmental concerns.

From The City:

In addition to the public housing issues, New York City is also facing record-high rent prices and the need for affordable housing is dire. In separate statements to THE CITY, candidates Jo Ann Simon and Dan Goldman cited affordable housing as being a top agenda item if elected to Congress. Attorney Goldman said he will be “a committed advocate” on affordable housing.

“We need to make NY-10 accessible and inclusive to the people who live here. That means we need deeply affordable housing developments and to preserve the units we have to prevent displacement,” said Simon, District 52 assemblymember, in a statement.

Other ways the next rep in Congress could help alleviate the housing crisis include: pushing for more federal funding for rental vouchers, construction of income-targeted housing and supportive housing, and supporting legislation that would make it easier for cities and states to build more housing. They could also support a federal ban on discrimination against voucher-holding tenants.