Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

After co-winning the Municipal Art Society's highest honor, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis medal, along with her boss Bruce Ratner, Forest City Ratner CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin yesterday appeared on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show,  The CEO Sleep Experiment : After WNYC's "Clock Your Sleep" project , four CEOs launched an experiment to encourage their employees to rest more during the day, get better sleep, and stay away from email after work. Laura Walker , President and CEO of New York Public Radio, Arianna Huffington , chair, president, and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group , Herb Scannell , President of BBC Worldwide America , and MaryAnne Gilmartin , CEO at Forest City Ratner Companies , check in on what they learned and what permanent changes might work for them. Gilmartin is charismatic and engaging when in a chummy situation like this, though chillier in more charged settings. At about 5:29, she joked that she applied the agreement--a nap...

Last Tuesday, 1/21/14,  Bertha Lewis , president of  The Black Institute , was on  The Brian Lehrer Show  to discuss  Black Americans and Immigration , but at 17:46 a caller brought up Atlantic Yards affordable housing. And Lewis got her talking points in without much skepticism. "I live in Brooklyn along Atlantic," said Jed in Brooklyn. "I live just down the road from Barclays, I love that it's there, at first I was really upset, because I was a Freddy's Backroom guy. I'm calling because  the affordable housing issue , people don't seem to be talking about it that much any more." (He's obviously just far enough away for the arena not to impact his block. But that kind of comment is sure to warm Marty Markowitz's heart.) "And that's why you supported it," Lehrer said to his guest. "Absolutely." "So the question is: what happened?" Mayoral support "And I'm glad you asked," Lewis...

Yesterday's Brian Lehrer Show featured a valedictory for Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, as the 12-year veteran got to celebrate his victories, with some supportive callers. Still, Markowitz's verve quickly curdled into pique when he offered a few choice words for Atlantic Yards opponents and some frothing about bike lanes. The segment was titled Marty Markowitz on the Rise of Brooklyn  and, on the show page, illustrated with the four tweets below right. It was broadcast, not so fortunately for Markowitz, right after an interview with Andrea Elliott, the New York Times journalist who wrote a five-part series, "Invisible Child," about a homeless 11-year-old and her family, who live in a Fort Greene shelter, in a deeply divided neighborhood. Changing Brooklyn Where, asked Lehrer, would Markowitz begin when describing how Brooklyn has changed? Markowitz cited neighborhoods like Fort Greene, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Windsor Terrace, Carroll Gardens, Bo...

WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show yesterday featured another shadow debate on the Atlantic Yards project, this time keyed to the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), issued Tuesday by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC). While Jeff Baker, attorney for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), and Jim Stuckey, president of Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards Development Group , didn't address each other directly, and there wasn't enough time for all the questions that needed to be asked, both had a chance to get their talking points on the table. Most notably, Stuckey would not reveal the company's expected profit--a required element in the company's bid for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) Vanderbilt Yard--but said that such numbers would emerge after the project is completed. FCR's investment in infrastructure is considerable, he said, and deserves to turn a profit. "It is, after all, America," h...