Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

My post yesterday ( link ) on the book Unequal Cities and discussion surrounding it pushed me to take a look at some progressive advocacy advocacy reports aimed to influence city officials. First, let's look at a few parts of  Remaking New York City: Can Prosperity Be Shared and Sustainable?  (also below), published in November 2004 by the Pratt Institute, and written by urban planners Brad Lander, then head of Pratt Center for Community Development, and Laura Wolf-Powers, Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning, School of Architecture, Pratt Institute. The report gave Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s administration a mixed assessment: The Bloomberg vision for New York City’s future is compelling in many respects: its focus on livability and public space, its high design standards, its acknowledgement that adaptation to a largely post-industrial economy is needed in land use planning, workforce development and economic development policy. But the vision also implies several a...

Last November, the Skyscraper Museum held a book talk,  Unequal Cities: Overcoming Anti-Urban Bias to Reduce Inequality in the United States .  The bottom line, for me, after reading the book and watching the video is that the author's historical analysis seems sound, but his solutions--especially related to Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) and other topics I've reported on--are based on inadequate research or explanation. In other words, his focus on criticizing progressives for not embracing the possibilities of growth is not matched by scrutiny of developers and their allies.  The summary, from the Skyscraper Museum: Cities are central to prosperity: they are hubs of innovation and growth. Yet the economic vitality of wealthy cities is marred by persistent and pervasive inequality. In his new book Unequal Cities , economist Richard McGahey argues that deeply entrenched anti-urban policies and politics limit cities' options to address inequality. Many factors – stru...

When Developers Promise Community Benefits, Who Holds Them Accountable? , Neil deMause wrote in City Limits 6/17/22, assessing unfulfilled promises regarding the Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) Atlantic Yards, Yankee Stadium, Columbia University. and the Bronx Terminal Market. The first half of the article focuses on Atlantic Yards, detailing how it's fallen short (and relying significantly on my reporting). And it quotes me: The poor results, Oder says now, should come as no surprise. “The rollout was deceptive and over-hyped, the structure fundamentally flawed, and the oversight—by the (absent) Independent Compliance Monitor and local officials/press, as well as the under-equipped signatories—inadequate,” he writes in an email. (Editor’s note: Oder is a freelance contributor to City Limits). About housing From the article: Start with the housing provision of that agreement: While roughly half of the housing completed to date has been designated as affordable to low- or moder...

In August 2006. when I first read an article in Next American City, then a quarterly magazine (and now the online NextCity) headlined A New Dynamic: Atlantic Yards Challenges Brooklyn Progressive Politics , I suggested : While there's not much new for Atlantic Yards-watchers, and some information is dated or inaccurate (the project now would be 6860 apartments, not 7300, and Atlantic Avenue divides Prospect Heights and Fort Greene rather than serves as a Prospect Heights thoroughfare), the article does point out to a national audience how the project has fractured some typical community alliances, notably among progressives. Upon re-reading Michael Freedman-Schnapp's article, I think he was significantly prescient, in part, though his analysis still seems somewhat contradictory: unskeptical at one point, but skeptical in its conclusion.  (As of the publication, Freedman-Schnapp was Senior Policy Associate at the New York Industrial Retention Network. He went on to become ...

I wasn't planning on writing about the late James Caldwell (RIP) and Atlantic Yards until sometime after his funeral Wednesday, but Stephen Witt's Recollections of James Caldwell (1952-2021) , posted yesterday on PoliticsNY (part of the Schneps Media network ), requires response. The "notorious" Witt has never been known for nuanced reporting on Atlantic Yards--mostly for the Courier-Life chain, since bought by Schneps--and this summary is no different. So much for Witt's 2012 pledge to "be vigilant to be watchful against my own tendencies to have personal axes [to] grind. (His recollections address much more than Atlantic Yards, of course, notably Caldwell's salutary role in blowing the whistle on the city's problematic Third-Party Transfer Program.) Summarizing Atlantic Yards Witt writes: My relationship with Mr. Caldwell became closer in 2003 when Developer Bruce Ratner bought the Brooklyn Nets and announced the massive 22-acre Atlantic Yards pro...

City, construction unions strike deal to hire low-income workers , The Real Deal's Kathryn Brenzel reported yesterday, citing a (for now) under wraps "project labor agreement with the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York that guarantees unions will 'prioritize referral' of workers who live in areas where 15 percent of the population lives below the federal poverty level or are residents of public housing." So that could mean up to 26,000 construction jobs on city owned properties as well as "selected future projects," and help further integrate construction unions, some of which are long clannish.  But the devil will be in the details, including questions of enforcement and even whether the qualifications can be gamed. After all, hiring of minority and women workers in projects like Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park has been treated as a goal, not a guarantee.  That's in both the non-governmental Community Benefits Agreem...

Well, it may not be "as important or more important" than the Barclays Center, as arena developer Bruce Ratner claimed in September 2013 upon its first anniversary, But it is the most enduring and visible product of the "borderline calamity" Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement: the annual Community Tickets program run by the Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance ( DBNA ), which offers tickets to most arena events. There have been many grateful recipients, who otherwise wouldn't have been able to attend events. "To date, we have distributed over 85,000 tickets to over 600 Brooklyn based community organizations," the DBNA states . Applications  are due by 5 pm Dec. 6. Free tickets The program allows various nonprofit and neighborhood groups free access to 2 to 20 Upper Bowl tickets per group; also, four Lower Bowl tickets, and seats in a suite are distributed. Most tickets are chosen via live stream drawings and in-person sweepstak...

From the press release regarding tonight's BrooklynSpeaks meeting : Sixteen years after the announcement of the Atlantic Yards project, fundamental questions about the completion of its affordable housing—required in less than six years—and other public benefits still remain. Where will the rest of the apartments be built, and when? Who will be able to afford to live in them? At the same time, the City has yet to address the disruption caused by both project construction and the ongoing operation of an arena built in a residential neighborhood. How can street safety and local quality of life be improved during the next phase of development? As reported two weeks ago (by Curbed and the Brooklyn Eagle ), a lawsuit from row-house neighbors aiming to block the two-tower 80 Flatbush development has ended in a settlement, much of it under wraps, that includes what's been dubbed a Community Benefits Agreement, or CBA. As Atlantic Yards-watchers have learned, the notion of a CBA ...

Over several posts, I'll revisit various Response to Comments documents in separate environmental review or project approval processes, pointing out, with the asset of hindsight, unwise or unfounded assessments by either commenters or the Empire State Development Corporation (now called Empire State Development), the state authority overseeing and shepherding the project. I previously wrote about the "project concept, evolution, and process to evaluate changes." These comments are from the first round of project approvals, in the 2006 Final Environmental Impact Statement, bottom. Emphases are added. How sturdy were promises? Commitments made by the project sponsors should be legally binding. (23, Council Member David Yassky; 143, Malcolm Armstrong) Promises made will be null and void as soon as the current governor and current mayor leave office. (349, Robert Ohlerking) What mechanisms are being set in place to assure compliance with applicable codes and that c...

This is the seventh of several articles based on discussion at the 1/22/19 Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting. The first concerned timing for the B15 tower, with school, and the B4 tower. The second concerned questions about the affordability of future income-restricted housing. The third concerned plans to constrict streets around the B15 tower. The fourth concerned plans for the railyard, demolition, and Times Plaza. The fifth concerned an absurdist dialogue about the definition of construction. The sixth covered NYPD parking, post-event enforcement, and more. So, how exactly does the new health center at 38 Sixth, the tower at the southeast corner of the arena block, fulfill the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), a question I raised in this blog ? I tried to raise it at the meeting. The CBA, I noted, says only that the developer should provide space for the health center to be built out, and that the program, funding and who it is serves would be determi...