Yes, a quality-of-life enforcement unit around the Barclays Center is needed, per BrooklynSpeaks. But how could it work, when the political powers don't care?

On Oct. 31, I wrote about how the coalition BrooklynSpeaks, in its briefing to local elected officials regarding the future of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, urged that they ensure deeply affordable housing and have the Barclays Center operator fund quality-of-life monitors. Here's the link.

Let's take a second look at the latter recommendation, which I thought worthy but asking too little. It's clear, from the events of Sunday, when quality-of-life violations were blatantly encouraged, that it couldn't be viable without a vastly changed political firmament.

Pacific Street and Carlton Avenue, access managed
not by the NYPD but by the Shomrim safety patrol

My coverage: Unannounced Barclays Center event for Hasidic group draws elected officials. NYPD lets volunteers (!) cordon off streets. Scofflaw vehicles block sidewalks, paths. 

In other words, the powers that be--city and state leaders--wanted the event to run at the convenience of attendees and arena operators. 

Interests of neighbors--in not having cars on their sidewalk, buses blocking crosswalks, or double-parked buses idling nearby--were disregarded. 

These could have been easy to enforce, with fines, but there was no political will. There's not even political will--though maybe it's an easier lift--to get the Barclays Center to be a minimally good neighbor by telling nearby residents when a potentially disruptive private event is schedule.

The tradeoff

As Gib Veconi of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council framed it in October, the arena operator should pay for the value the public lost for not getting the Urban Room, the enclosed atrium at the tip of the flagship tower (B1, which original architect Frank Gehry dubbed "Miss Brooklyn") once slated to loom over the arena.

In exchange for removing the Urban Room, the public should be compensated, he said, "through a charge to the arena operators that could be used to pay for the cost of a publicly operated quality of life enforcement unit, which, if you've spent any time at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Atlantic Avenue, you know, is desperately necessary."

As I wrote, that's a good start and represents clear reciprocity, but I think they could ask for more.

After all, the arena operator (and Brooklyn Nets/New York Liberty owner) Joe Tsai has been newly enriched by a 15% investment by the family of Julia Koch, money that's being used to pay down debt and, apparently, invest in a Brooklyn "ecosystem" of media, events, and venues.

Given how the publicly-assisted arena has supercharged the value of BSE Global, they surely could pay more to the public coffers, supporting, for example, deeper affordable housing and, yes, a smaller building on Site 5 than currently proposed.

But let's take a closer look at the initial recommendation.

Value to the operator

Yes, the public benefit from the atrium could be debated. As I wrote in July 2022, when BrooklynSpeaks staged a protest to highlight the fines due for not building the Urban Room, it was hard to argue that public officials and community groups were truly pining for the atrium, which, while offering an enclosed space, did not provide as much open space as the plaza.

Rather, the protest was a test run to see whether Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, was ready to enforce the fines due in May 2025 for the 876 more required units of affordable housing. Answer: they won't.

However, the private benefit from keeping the plaza--the opportunity for crowds to gather, the canvas for promotion and advertising--is huge. 

So too is the benefit to BSE Global from avoiding the construction of that flagship tower and Urban Room, which would take several years, disrupting arena operations and limiting the advertising canvas.

Value to the developer

Developer Greenland USA doesn't want to build B1 and the Urban Room because that, an executive lamented, could take eight years and, surely, would be costly to manage.

So it wants to move the unbuilt bulk across Flatbush Avenue to Site 5, longtime home of the big-box stores P.C. Richard and the now-closed Modell's, and build a far larger two-tower project than the plan originally approved.

ESD already supports that plan, though the parent board must approve it, after a ritual public review. (Greenland is seeking a partner or, possibly, a buyer.)

In other words, Greenland would benefit enormously by not building B1.

But at some point, building bigger at Site 5, even if it were to include affordable housing, is overkill for those living, working, and traveling nearby. As I've written, the proposed Floor Area Ratio, a common measure of bulk, is more than twice the bulk granted in the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning.

The bottom line

Why should the public suffer for business decisions made by original developer Forest City Ratner, which built the arena and had the right to build the rest of the project, to decouple arena construction from tower construction?

Those decisions were inherited by the future owners of BSE Global and the Atlantic Yards Development Company. The latter is currently controlled by Greenland USA, which, even if it loses, as expected, the right to build six towers over the railyard, will retain rights to B1 and Site 5.

Both the arena operator nor project developer are motivated, not surprisingly, by the bottom line.

It's up to civic groups, public agencies, and elected officials to balance those benefits with civic obligations, including the impacts of arena events. The track record, unfortunately, does not give reason for optimism.

In response to this article, Veconi tweeted, "@barclayscenter needs a contract with the community that spells out standards for handling disruptive events, including confiscatory remedies for violating them (e.g., forfeiture of arena rental fees)."

My response: "That's a good idea, but the issue is the political power to get there. #BarclaysCenter offers platform to elected officials, is *less responsible* than it used to be! The arena once announced all private events, as well as expected crowd size, to alert neighbors. Today, nah."