Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

A conversation with Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani, whose new book significantly chronicles Prospect Heights, with Atlantic Yards as a backdrop. From Common Edge : A diner where the proprietor welcomes all. A neighborhood tradition of sharing clothing on fences. A donut shop that lets an immigrant community hang out. A supermarket that serves as a community anchor. These places are evoked in Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani’s recent book, The Cities We Need: Essential Stories of Everyday Places (MIT Press). A bodega replaced by a craft beer bar. Photos: Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani Another excerpt: NO: I want to play devil’s advocate. You call what happened to Vanderbilt Avenue and Prospect Heights a manmade disaster. As you know, I’m a skeptic about Atlantic Yards, but I do meet people who say it’s great to have more people in the neighborhood, more stuff. So I assume you’re channeling the people who feel a sense of loss. GBV: I think that displacement is real. You have more people, but where it used ...

A Nov. 26 New York Times article,  5 Ways to Fix New York City’s Housing Crisis , quoted various experts, including former deputy mayor Alicia Glen, now managing principal at the real estate firm MSquared : She said the city needs to focus on the “small and practical” things, like regularly pursuing big neighborhood rezonings to make way for more density and negotiating better prices with landowners and contractors for affordable housing development. She said the city should spend more on subsidizing mixed-income housing developments and not just developments that target only low-income people. Among 51 comments, the eighth most recommended was this one , from Eve Salinger: Re: Alicia Glen's point about small and practical - more that 3000 units of housing - including 800 affordable - have yet to be built on the Atlantic Yards site, a 20 year old project that has received hundreds of millions in subsidies and little oversight. If developers are to be given increased subsi...