Bruce Ratner says unfinished Atlantic Yards is "not the end of the world." Deflecting past promises, he says it's government's job to build affordable housing.
WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show on May 1 hosted Bruce Ratner on Early Cancer Screening : Bruce Ratner , real estate developer, philanthropist, founder of the Michael D. Ratner Center For Early Detection of Cancer (CEDC), and co-author of Early Detection: Catching Cancer When It’s Curable (OR Books, 2024), argues for earlier and more equitable cancer screening. In the last three minutes of the show , however, Lehrer turned to Atlantic Yards, and generated a rather cavalier and evasive response from Ratner regarding the project's unfinished state, 20 years after its announcement, with 3,212 of 6,430 approved apartments built, and missing income-targeted affordable housing. (Of 2,250 promised units, 876 remain, or 38.9%.) Ratner on Inside City Hall Asked if criticism of broken promises was fair, Ratner responded," It's fine to say. First of all, we did build 3,000 units of which 30% were affordable." What do you mean, "we"? Forest City, either by itself or