Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Remember how a Forest City Ratner executive,  asked  in July 2009 if the would seek more subsidies, responded, “Forest City does not expect to ask for more subsidy?" Not only did Executive VP later request $10 million more in housing subsidies, so too did Executive VP Bruce Bender try to get state funds to repair the Carlton Avenue Bridge the developer was  supposed to fund . The corruption charges that surfaced in March 2011 against then-state Senator (and now-imprisoned) Carl Kruger portrayed a chummy relationship between Kruger and Bender, who not only tried to get money for the bride but also for the Lakeside Center project in Prospect Park. (Bender's wife is on the Board of Directors of the Prospect Park Alliance.) Though the conversation between Kruger and Bender occurred in December 2010, the charges cast in new light some of Kruger's over-the-top support for Atlantic Yards, including his Brooklyn aria at an August 2006 environmental re...

New York Magazine's Chris Smith reports on Public Advocate (and mayoral hopeful) Bill de Blasio's attempt to curry favor with real estate developers: He ripped “heavy-handed, rapacious bureaucrats” getting in the way of development, and beat up on the city’s land use approval process and its buildings department, two eternal villains in the business community. And as a badge of business-friendly courage, de Blasio cited his support of Atlantic Yards despite the fierce opposition the project provoked in Park Slope, the neighborhood he represented in the City Council. "When it came to the criteria that mattered above all others — good jobs and affordable housing,” de Blasio said, “it was clear that Atlantic Yards would help stanch the bleeding in an area facing huge problems of affordability.” If only that were how things have turned out. Channeling Kruger & Golden? de Blasio, actually, sounds like a couple of seeming ideological opposites, a conservative Demo...

In the wake of a troubling week for Barclays (and a big week for the Nets), Battle for Brooklyn filmmaker Michael Galinsky pulled together a few clips from the March 2010 arena groundbreaking, which have a special resonance. The first is from Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a supercilious prediction of amnesia: "And for those that say it took a long time to get here, yes it did. But nobody's going to remember how long it took. They're only going to look and see that it was done." Then, in his mugging manner, Borough President Marty Markowitz hammed it up, introducing "[one of] the most important elected officials ever coming out of Brooklyn, the chairman of the finance committee, Sen. Carl Kruger. Right Carl? The power returned to Brooklyn because of you." Kruger, of course, was indicted on corruption charges and is now in federal prison. The video barclays Center ground breaking from rumur on Vimeo . The Barclays bit Markowitz turned to Barclays...

Earlier this month, New York magazine published an illuminating, somewhat sympathetic profile of King Carl of Canarsie: The gothic saga of Brooklyn power broker Carl Kruger, a state senator who loved a gynecologist and his family so much he was willing to sell his influence for them. It allowed Kruger to half-explain how he slipped into corruption, clawing his way up from neglect (he was put up for adoption but returned to his mom) and poverty--and it provoked several (mostly anonymous) commenters, as noted below, to observe that Kruger was dirty a lot longer. And, though Atlantic Yards is unmentioned, the Kruger saga provides excruciating context for the (then)-Senator's over-the-top support for Atlantic Yards, support that, at least in retrospect, seems provoked not by Brooklyn pride, or jobs, but something more. It's not clear whether (guilty) lobbyist Richard Lipsky 's payments to Kruger were predicated on support for Atlantic Yards, but Kruger pleaded guilty  to,...

New York Times columnist Michael Powell, in A Developer Between Legal Clouds , offers some much-needed connections between “Developer No. 1” in Brooklyn and “Developer No. 2” in Yonkers and some corruption cases that curiously left Forest City Ratner a beneficiary yet legally unscathed: The Brooklyn and Yonkers cases are not simply about wayward politicians. The cases share an intriguing tie to the developer Bruce Ratner, who in project after project deploys lobbyists and politicians to change zoning ordinances and chase down rich packets of subsidies. I think the case in Yonkers--where Forest City gained the benefit of a City Council vote thanks to a vote gained by bribery, and never explained giving the indicted briber a no-show job--involves the developer more than the case in Brooklyn, where lobbyist Richard Lipsky and former state Senator Carl Kruger had a range of clients and beneficiaries. Questions and answers Powell writes: So many questions remain, not the least of w...

Reported Brooklyn Daily , regarding the guilty pleas by former state Sen. Carl Kruger and Richard Lipsky: The [federal complaint against Kruger and Lipsky] in no way says or suggests that we behaved in an inappropriate manner,” Forest City Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco explained. Not so. Neither  the 4/7/11  indictment  (superseding a 3/9/11  complaint ) suggested that Forest City, or executive Bruce Bender, behaved illegally . And the indictment, far more terse than its predecessor, did not suggest inappropriate behavior. But the complaint , as I pointed out 12/21/11, very much suggested inappropriate behavior--at least if you think asking Kruger for $15 million, including $9 million to complete the Carlton Avenue Bridge (and talking rather profanely about it ), is inappropriate.

In lobbyist Richard Lipsky's guilty plea yesterday, there was no mention of Atlantic Yards or the unnamed developer, Forest City Ratner, that was among his clients. It was about paying referral fees to now-disgraced Sen. Carl Kruger for clients Kruger directed his way, and then expecting Kruger to help him in Albany. Though the indictment and legal complaint  indicated that Kruger allocated $500,000 to a client of Lipsky--actually the allocation was at the request of Forest City Ratner executive Bruce Bender, but to his wife's charitable cause--there was no evidence of whether Kruger did so at Lipsky's request. Lipsky, whose Neighborhood Retail Alliance blog was frozen after he was charged last March, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and one count of bribery. Though he faced a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, Crain's  reported  that Lipsky made a d...

The New York Times reported, in Lobbyist Is Expected to Plead Guilty in Corruption Case : Richard J. Lipsky, a prominent New York lobbyist who was charged in the bribery conspiracy case that also ensnared State Senator Carl Kruger, is expected to plead guilty on Wednesday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, a person briefed on the matter said Tuesday. Mr. Lipsky’s plea would come just two weeks after Mr. Kruger resigned from the Senate and pleaded guilty to corruption charges... Lipsky was charged with feeding lobbying fees to Kruger in exchange for the Senator helping Lipsky's causes, though it wasn't clear what Lipsky would plead to: Over several years, a criminal complaint charged, Mr. Lipsky directed about $260,000 in lobbying fees to two shell companies linked to Mr. Kruger. “Kruger’s official actions included sponsoring and supporting legislation, lobbying other elected officials and directing state monies for the benefit of Lipsky and his clients,” the complaint...

Sixteen-year Southern Brooklyn state Senator Carl Kruger pleaded guilty yesterday to accepting at least $1 million in bribes--thus supporting his over-the-top residence in Mill Basin and a Bentley--and resigned from the Senate. The news coverage ( Times , Daily News , Post ), the more entertaining editorials ( Daily News , Post )  and Michael Powell's Times column ,  emphasized Kruger's self-pitying, pathetic, tearful apology, while the Daily News (as did the Observer ) pointed to a culture of corruption in Albany. Indeed, Kruger gets to keep his pension. Neither Kruger's brief allocution nor any of the news coverage mentioned Kruger's interaction with "Real Estate Developer #1" (as detailed beginning on p. 21 of the the 3/9/11  complaint ), aka Forest City Ratner. However, Kruger's guilty plea apparently included admitting that he helped deliver state funds to a cause championed by Forest City Ratner executive Bruce Bender, part of the legislator...

Assemblyman Carl Kruger, and (by extension) Forest City Ratner must be breathing a little easier after learning that Assemblyman William Boyland, charged in the same overall federal corruption case which snared Kruger and mentioned FCR (in relation to Kruger), was acquitted yesterday. In Jury Acquits Assemblyman of Conspiring to Take Bribes , the New York Times reported that the jury found Boyland's actions questionable but not criminal: Most jurors felt that Mr. Boyland “clearly did things wrong,” the juror said, citing evidence that he lied on disclosure forms about his work for MediSys, and that he had a no-show job. ...“We could not connect the dots,” the juror said. “We could not say that because he got the money, he advocated for MediSys... We couldn’t do that beyond a reasonable doubt.” Other party guilty Here's what's confusing: the former MediSys CEO, David Rosen, was already convicted of conspiring to bribe Boyland in return for him helping MediSys. Ma...

The Wall Street Journal today follows up on news (as I and others reported yesterday) that Forest City Ratner's Four Sparrows Marsh Retail Center at Mill Basin has been withdrawn, explaining that it's actually dead, but--according to the developer--the Carl Kruger corruption charges have nothing to do with it. In Plans Killed for Project Tied to Probe , the newspaper reports: The shopping center had ties to a corruption case involving Mr. Kruger, a Brooklyn Democrat, but Forest City officials said that case had no connection to their decision to drop the project. The builder believed the shopping center faced an uphill battle on two fronts, according to a person familiar with the matter: Forest City was worried about political opposition to the big-box retailers planned for the site, and the developer wanted to avoid an expected lengthy legal battle over turning city park land into commercial space. Well, Atlantic Yards faced a battle, if not an uphill one, but Forest Cit...

The mayor's office has quietly indicated  (as per  Queens Crap)  the demise of Forest City Ratner's  Four Sparrows project , once touted as housing a Wal-Mart: The Four Sparrow Marsh Retail Center at Mill Basin project has been withdrawn as of September 2011. It's unclear why, but the project has been tainted by corruption charges. About 15 acres were to be retail, including an existing Toys 'R' Us, and 46 acres formally mapped as parkland. This fit into Forest City's m.o.: getting the inside track on potentially valuable public property and then getting the zoning changed. Here's the  Draft Scope  for an environmental impact statement and here's the  Environmental Assessment Statement . Here's a  photo  of the vacant city-owned site, by Adrian Kinloch, which shows why environmental and park advocates were  alarmed . Here's some  previous   coverage  of the issue. Touched by corruption charges Does "withdr...

In March, I pointed to a couple of posts Room 8 blogger Gatemouth, aka Howard Graubard, had written about the charges against state Senator Carl Carl Kruger (who, by the way, says he's running for re-election !), Assemblyman William Boyland, and lobbyist Richard Lipsky. Now Gatemouth points out that state Senator Marty Golden, who in 2008 took three days to introduce a resolution concerning arrested state Senator Hiram Monserrate, has been conspicuously silent regarding Carl Kruger, who helped to elect Golden. And, Gatemouth points to another curious connection between Kruger and Golden: a $3000 campaign contribution by Dorothy Lipsky (lobbyist Lipsky's wife) to Golden. Spreading the wealth I took a look at campaign contributions that Richard Lipsky and Dorothy Lipsky gave from their three addresses (all listed in the city's lobbying database; search on Richard Lipsky ) and found a varied set of recipients. See below for the full list, but it includes significant contribu...

Developer Bruce Ratner's brother, and ally, appears in Brandt Goldstein's 2006 book Storming the Court: How a Band of Yale Law Students Sued the President--and Won , excerpted below: [Law student] Lisa [Daugaard] met [Professor] Harold Koh in the spring of 1991, as a second-year student in his international business transactions class, known as IBT... After the IBT class, she'd seen enough: Koh was of the system, by the system, and for the system. She would never have dealt with him again had it not been for a radical New York lawyer on campus named Michael Ratner. To Lisa, Ratner was the anti-Koh. Bearded, bald, and fond of quoting Che Guevara, he'd represented everyone from inmates in the 1971 Attica prison rebellion to Nicaraguan citizens attacked by U.S.-funded contras. Ratner had come of age at Columbia Law School during the Vietnam War, and he considered most politicians "corrupt assholes." Along with his colleagues at the Center for Constitutional Rig...

In a letter to the New York Post headlined Above board , Emily Lloyd, President/Administrator, Prospect Park Alliance, Prospect Park, writes: “Kruger Crony Leaned on Me for Vote,” (March 17) states that Forest City Ratner Vice President Bruce Bender sought funding for the construction of a new skating rink in Prospect Park without having been requested to do so by the Prospect Park Alliance. Alliance staff did ask Board Member Amy Bender to help advance our request for state funding for the skating rink, which is currently under construction. Bender’s husband, Bruce, was trying to assist the alliance in obtaining state-funding toward a major public project. Alliance staff who are involved in public fundraising were informed about those efforts. All proposals for public funding are requested in an appropriate and transparent way. Wiggle room I'd point out that there's a little wiggle room there. Alliance staff asked Amy Bender for help. They didn't necessarily ask her to as...

When, in September 2006, I first wrote about lawyer Michael Ratner's campaign contribution in apparent furtherance of the goals of Forest City Ratner (run by his brother Bruce), nobody in the press seemed to care. When news of corruption charges against state Senator Carl Kruger first surfaced this month, I mentioned that Kruger had received FCR-related campaign contributions, and on Friday I wrote again about Michael Ratner. Exclusive? Today, in an article labeled "Exclusive," the New York Post offers Kruger's campaigns see big 'Net' gains : State Sen. Carl Kruger -- who, the feds charge, directed state money to the Atlantic Yards project, which includes a new Nets arena -- took thousands of dollars in campaign cash from deep-pocketed donors connected to its developer, the team and the arena. (Actually, he directed state money toward a Prospect Park project pushed by Forest City executive Bruce Bender.) Nets investor Michael Ratner and his wife, Karen Ra...

An anonymous and creative person has created an animated video that appropriates the dialogue between Bruce Bender and Carl Kruger, but has cartoon characters deliver it, with cutesy/robotic computer-generated voices.

Now that charges are swirling around state Senator Carl Kruger, it's worth a look back to see how Forest City Ratner (FCR) apparently steered campaign contributions to him less than a month after the Atlantic Yards plan was announced. Kruger, along with some other undistinguished Brooklyn politicians, received campaign contributions via a most unusual source: FCR CEO Bruce Ratner's brother Michael Ratner (below right), the eminent human rights lawyer, as well as his wife Karen Ranucci. Kruger got $2000 from each on 1/6/04, as indicated in the graphic (click to enlarge; full list at bottom). Atlantic Yards was announced on 12/10/03. Michael Ratner's curious pattern Michael Ratner wouldn't comment when I first wrote about this in September 2006. I suggested that he was carrying water for his brother Bruce, who for a stretch was a "refusenik" from campaign contributions. Michael Ratner's Brooklyn political contributions--in a pattern quite different from...

You'd think that the Prospect Park Alliance, a group of civic-minded folk raising money for a beloved resource, might be a little peeved at being caught up in some apparently sleazy politics, and at least a few are. In Prospect Park group rage at 'Kruger' exec , the New York Post reports: A top Atlantic Yards executive who requested state funds for Prospect Park's skating rink from embattled state Sen. Carl Kruger was never asked to do so by the park's fund-raising group -- and now park advocates are furious at being linked to the corruption scandal, sources told The Post. "He has dragged our name through the mud," fumed a Prospect Park Alliance source about Forest City Ratner Vice President Bruce Bender, whose conversation with Kruger was featured in a federal criminal complaint against the Brooklyn Democrat. Bender's wife is on the board of the Prospect Park Alliance. Did the group get the $4.5 million promised? Apparently not, according to the Post:...

Room 8 blogger Gatemouth, aka Howard Graubard, has a couple of very interesting posts on the charges against state Senator Carl Kruger, Assemblyman William Boyland, and lobbyist Richard Lipsky First, in Restling With Our Rights, or Lincoln Suspends the Constitution (Due Process for Electeds, Part One) , he criticizes District Leader Lincoln Restler, who became the first pol to call for the elected officials' resignations before a trial But he's no supporter of Kruger, not at all. He writes: Carl Kruger and I go back a long way. I’ve despised Carl ever since 1984. Brooklyn Democrats were then in the midst of a leadership war between the forces of Borough President Howard Golden and the late Tony Genovesi, fighting a series of proxy wars across the County. The anecdote continues for a while, leading to this: I then looked at an angry looking bald man watching us warily. Having already been through a morgue of newspapers clippings looking for dirt on Maisel’s associates, I said th...