Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

In Oh, I’m So Good at Math’: Lessons From the Jay-Z Business Model , New York Magazine's Andrew Rice presents an insightful but too uncritical account of everyone's favorite superstar: Last week, the twelfth solo studio album by the rapper Jay-Z, Magna Carta … Holy Grail, burst forth from a cloud of calculated obfuscation. The release came with little of the usual promotional buildup: no radio single, no Rolling Stone cover. Instead, it was announced via a three-minute commercial during game five of the NBA Finals. Shot in vérité style, the ad purported to show the artist in his studio, his Brooklyn Nets cap slung backward, as he made ­gnomic pronouncements to producers Timbaland, Pharrell Williams, Swizz Beatz, and the graybeard Rick Rubin. “We need to write the new rules,” Jay-Z declared. The nature of those rules was revealed in the spot’s final second, when the words SAMSUNG GALAXY flashed on the screen. Viewers were directed to a website, where they could make out—amid...

A second look at that first Atlantic Yards flyer (Live. Work. Play…), sent to Brooklynites in May 2004, turns up some remarkably echoey rhetoric. "It's more than just basketball. It's a dream, it's jobs and it's housing," said Sen. Chuck Schumer. "This is something that has been the dream of so many people in this great borough for decades, that major league sports would come back to a major league town," declared Gov. George Pataki. "This is a dream come true for Brooklyn," asserted Borough President Marty Markowitz. Little did they know. Maybe the overstated headline--"What Brooklyn Leaders are saying about Atlantic Yards"--should've been a hint. Only one of the four was a Brooklyn leader, and only two of the four are Brooklyn residents. And their Atlantic Yards claims, as of now, are more fantasy than reality.

The public relations and marketing firm DKC (formerly Dan Klores Associates) is proud of its work on Atlantic Yards, as summarized in a case study . (They're leaving out brochure-maker KnickerbockerSKD , now known as SKDKnickerbocker , now home to former Forest City Ratner spokesman Loren Riegelhaupt . And we can't forget the role, as I explained 11/1/05, of "dark genius" Joe DePlasco , a DKC managing director.) From the DKC site Forest City Ratner objectives DKC was retained by Forest City Ratner Companies, one of the country’s leading developers, to prepare the groundwork for a Frank Gehry-designed development in the Atlantic Yards near downtown Brooklyn. strategy The cornerstone of DKC’s strategy was a community and media awareness program consisting of outreach to local advocates and activists around affordable housing, public space development, sustainable development and other community and design benefits. DKC handled all messaging for the development over the...

Well, the new Best Western Arena Hotel is in Bedford-Stuyvesant, but that has not stopped them from claiming proximity to Downtown Brooklyn, promoting (as in the graphic below) Brooklyn scenes at Fulton Ferry, and drawing a name from the two-years-away Atlantic Yards arena. Six blocks away? A press release claimed : Located within walking distance to the Atlantic Terminal, guests have convenient access to a variety of attractions including the Barclays Center, future home for the Nets NBA team, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Museum and the world-famous, Coney Island. Just minutes from the hotel, guests will also enjoy shopping at Atlantic Terminal Mall and Macy’s. “Brooklyn is quickly becoming a top destination for tourists, business and leisure travelers, and with the new Barclays Center, a new sports arena for the New Jersey Nets scheduled to open in 2011, our hotel will be a great addition to the city,” said Mukesh Patel, owner of the Best Weste...