In 2022, the developer claimed, dubiously, the (now-lapsed) Quality of Life meetings fostered accountability. Where can the Pacific Park Conservancy be queried?

So, does anyone care that the Pacific Park Conservancy, the nonprofit funded to manage the three acres of open space, is essentially a phantom, its phone and email nonfunctional, its officers unavailable?

That's relevant because, as I reported recently, the Conservancy is supposedly in charge of responding to complaints about noise from the dog run between 535 Carlton and the West Tower of 595 Dean.

There should be a venue to air such concerns. However, as I wrote last October, the most recent Quality of Life meeting, for years a bi-monthly opportunity to hear updates and ask questions, was last held Feb. 7, 2023, itself more than four months after the previous meeting.

Yes, since then there have been three meetings--January, March, and April (the latter a do-over)--of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), set up to advise the parent Empire State Development (ESD) and monitor project commitments. 

But the AY CDC, which has made minor progress but too often has served as a rubber stamp, isn't set up to track emerging issues or collect neighbors' accounts.

Quality of Life meetings praised

The irony is that, less than two years ago, the bi-monthly meetings were claimed by the developer to foster accountability.

As City Limits reported in June 2022:

“Generally in terms of accountability this project continues to report to the public through a bi-monthly ‘quality of life’ meeting” held by the state Empire State Development corporation, writes Greenland spokesperson Jeremy Soffin.

My response that the time was that notes from those meetings were less than candid, and that showed limited transparency regarding issues raised.

During COVID, the meetings moved online, with the virtual format making it difficult to ask follow-up questions and impossible to see others attendees' questions or chat.

And now?

Today it's worse, since having the meetings--even limited-transparency online meetings--is better than not having them. 

Note that the term "Quality of Life," the original name for the meetings, arguably became a partial misnomer, as the focus changed. 

In fact, Empire State Development even changed the name to Community Update meetings, but changed it back after some backlash.

Maybe ESD doesn't think that its job is to monitor the project--witness the focus on vertical development, rather than, say, parking scofflaws.

In this case, though, the ESD has two seats on the Conservancy's board. What have those appointees reported back, if anything?

Or, if the Conservancy hasn't met and/or the appointees are not paying attention, well, that's also relevant to Quality of Life.