Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

In Piling On Carl Kruger, Convicted Already In Court Of Public Opinion , City Hall News explains that state Senator Carl Kruger, unlike many charged with corruption, is not even being given the doubt in the recently announced case involving payments from Richard Lipsky. Why? City Hall News reports: “Everyone who’s been paying attention to politics in Brooklyn, has long known that these two gentlemen play pay-to-play politics,” said one politician who asked not to be named, referring to Kruger and Assembly Member William Boyland, Jr., who was also accused of accepting bribes. “They are shady folks, period.” Kruger’s personal life is already the source of much speculation and innuendo. But his political behavior did not win him any friends either. Dan Feldman, a former Brooklyn Assembly member tried to explain why. “A high percentage of the time, I’m amazed and shocked when these people get into trouble. Frankly, this is one of those cases where I’m not shocked—I just didn’t get good vi...

As I wrote November 29, Forest City Ratner continues to rely significantly on The Darman Group , a firm run by Darryl Greene, which was unfit to participate in a bid for the Aqueduct "racino" because of Greene's criminal record. Indeed, in the past two years, Greene's firm has expanded beyond its Queens office, as indicated in the screenshot below, to Brooklyn and Philadelphia. The Brooklyn office is at 182 Duffield Street, a row house adjacent to the MetroTech development, which is owned by Forest City Ratner's First New York Managemen t division. (Photos by Jonathan Barkey) The IG's Aqueduct report Greene and his firm came in for some tough treatment in the state Inspector General's 10/21/10 report that criticized the Governor’s Office and state Legislative leaders for failing to fulfill their public duty in the January 2010 selection of Aqueduct Entertainment Group (AEG) to operate Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs) at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens. (Full...

Given that the controversial Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) is such a big part of the argument in favor of the project, as suggested in The Civilians' new play, IN THE FOOTPRINT: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards , the CBA is worth another look. Notably, developer Forest City Ratner (FCR) recently lied, despite clear evidence to the contrary, that the CBA--signed more than five years ago--went into effect only when the arena broke ground this past March. (The FCR statement is on video below.) Moreover, the developer claims that there's no need yet to hire an Independent Compliance Monitor (ICM) to provide a credible outside analysis of the CBA, despite provisions in the document to hire one "[a]s soon as reasonably practicable." Instead of hiring an ICM, a process that began three years ago but was apparently put on hold, Forest City Ratner instead relies on its own subcontractor, Darryl Greene and his firm, The Darman Group. And Greene has such cr...

A New York Times article today, headlined Report Says State Senators Manipulated Casino Bidding , cites the state Inspector General's report on the Aqueduct "racino": In a scathing 300-page report [ PDF ] on the competition to install video slot machines at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens, the inspector general described a chaotic and ultimately doomed process that was without formal rules or objective criteria, and was awash in “unrestrained political considerations,” lobbyists and targeted campaign contributions. But when Forest City Ratner was anointed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Vanderbilt Yard without any competiton--and when an RFP was issued 18 months later--there was no such inquiry. And, as I argued in March, the Vanderbilt Yard deal was worse. Campaign contributions The article states: The report says that the bidder, a consortium called the Aqueduct Entertainment Group, or Aqueduct Entertainment, marshaled funds at the behest of the state...

Henry Stern, the former Parks Commissioner and founder of the watchdog group New York Civic, has written a compelling column, Gargantuan Tower Approved Two Blocks From King Kong , regarding the city's approval of 15 Penn Plaza, Vornado's fat skyscraper near Penn Station. (It's also on HuffPost, as The Great Giveaway .) His point, relying on Community Board arguments, is that the issue is not accepting "change" or blocking a view from the Empire State Building, but whether a connected developer gets a set of variances to build 56% bigger than officially allowed. (I referenced this point as well when I wrote about the issue on August 24, but could have emphasized it more.) And his rhetoric is firm: We believe that what happened in this case is a textbook example of unsound public policy, favoritism to a particular extremely well-connected developer, and lack of regard for the future of the commercial neighborhood around Penn and Moynihan Stations. To grant a massiv...

I wrote in March how there was more outrage over the state's selection (since rescinded) of Aqueduct Entertainment Group (AEG) to run a video casino at Aqueduct Raceway than the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) questionable procedure for disposing of the Vanderbilt Yard--even though the latter was more of an outlier. Well, the video casino (aka racino) is still making news. The Daily News reported Saturday: A source with knowledge of the investigation told The News Friday that it's unlikely the inspector general will be able to recommend charges of bid rigging or collusion. "It would be difficult, if not impossible" to bring charges, a source familiar with the matter said. "Ethically it stinks and is unseemly, but it just may not be illegal." The Sampson-Andrews leak There's new controversy over the decision by Senate Democratic leader John Sampson to leak (or, to him, give) to AEG lobbyist (and former Senator from an adjacent...