Can public-private development (Atlantic Yards, BMT) be fixed? Panel discussion set for Dec. 15.

"Public-private development is failing the public. How can we fix it?"

A virtual panel discussion on that topic is set for December 15 at 7 pm, sponsored by The City Club of New York, the Atlantic Yards advocacy group BrooklynSpeaks, and Voices of the Waterfront, which has challenged, and is responding to, the Brooklyn Marine Terminal redevelopment plan. Register here.

The description:

City and State governments increasingly rely on public-private development partnerships to provide public goods such as affordable housing, open space, and job creation. But recent experience with approved projects like Penn Station and Atlantic Yards, as well as questions about proposed projects like the Brooklyn Marine Terminal, raise concerns about major development projects not meeting their stated public commitments.

Join us for a discussion of why it has been difficult to realize commitments for public benefits from government-sponsored development projects, and what can be done to improve outcomes in the future.

Note that the Atlantic Yards link leads to BrooklynSpeaks' advocacy regarding the state's failure to enforce penalties for the developer not delivering 876 affordable housing units by May 2025. That's the past.

The present is equally concerning. Since then, I've reported that the new Atlantic Yards developer seek to supersize the project, apparently expect new development rights for free, tout new open space that would be outpaced by the new population, and are fuzzy about their affordable housing pledges.

Panelists:

• April Baskin, New York State Senator, 63rd Senate District [Buffalo; Chair of the Procurement and Contracts Committee]
• Moses Gates, Vice President for Housing and Neighborhood Planning, Regional Plan Association
• Raju Mann, President & CEO, Battery Park City Authority
• Elizabeth Marcello, Policy Fellow, Reinvent Albany
• John Shapiro, Professor, Pratt Institute
• Moderator: Laura Wolf-Powers, Professor of Urban Policy & Planning, Hunter College CUNY

I'm not sure who among them is keeping tabs on Atlantic Yards, but I hope some are doing so. Presumably some Brooklyn elected officials will be in attendance, as several who represent areas near the Atlantic Yards site have participated in BrooklynSpeaks press conferences, for example.