Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Newly public data from a previously unreleased Technical Memorandum (or Tech Memo, bottom) compounds doubts over the controversial approval of a fitness center and field house, under two towers in the southeast block of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, without further environmental review. The document was acquired after a Freedom of Information Law request to Empire State Development, or ESD, the state authority overseeing/shepherding the project. The space would be  under the B12 and B13 towers. planned to start next year, on Dean Street between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues. Reasons for doubt: the number of expected users of the new facilities seems low--42 people entering the 45,000-square-foot fitness center between 8-9 am, and 60 between 5-6 pm--with no process for challenging the calculation far more below-grade space will be created for the fitness center/field house than will be saved by cutting parking on that block, given the project's recent iteration, despite ...

Hey, remember the images below? They were misleading, I've concluded, failing to explain that one of the structures--not that we could really tell--would be 12 feet tall, have a 240-square-foot footprint, and be nearly 3,000 square feet in bulk. At a  Quality of Life Meeting  7/16/19, neighborhood attendees were shown these soft-focus images, "for illustrative purposes only," of two new "Ventilation Structures in Open Space." Located far from the street, they would vent exhaust from the below-grade parking garage and fitness center/field house between the two upcoming towers on the project's southeast block, B12 and B13. These new buildings would both be built by TF Cornerstone, which has leased land from master developer Greenland Forest City Partners. Though a second image (see further below) suggested the structures would be located toward the backs of the towers, the location and dimensions of the structures were hardly clear from the image above. ...

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...

Rendering of 38 Sixth On Monday, March 30, I attended the extremely brief hearing held by the New York City Housing Development Corporation (NYC HDC) on planned tax-exempt funding for numerous projects, including B3, the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park tower known as 38 Dean Street. The 243-foot, 23-story tower, also known as 38 6th Avenue, will be built at the southeast corner of the arena block, on land once occupied by several row houses, including the one that housed Freddy's Bar and Backroom. It's designed by SHoP Architects--also responsible for the arena and two other arena block towers, one under construction. B3 will include 303 subsidized units, though the affordability deserves scrutiny. Most two-bedroom units will cost over $3,000, and well over half the units will go to households earning more than $100,000 . Subsidized units are  skewed toward middle-income households rather than, as long promised, spread more broadly. A small revelation Attending the hear...

So, the epic Atlantic Yards hearing in August 2006 serves as the distinct "Don't" lead anecdote in Making Democracy Fun , the recent book by  Josh Lerner . He's Executive Director of  The Participatory Budgeting Project , "a non-profit organization that empowers communities across North America to decide how to spend public money." What's the solution? As noted in a book excerpt published in the October 2014 Utne Reader,  What the Democratic Process Can Learn From Good Game Design , "Implementing game mechanics, such as collaborative competition, can make the democratic process more effective and even enjoyable." That may well be true, but it has nothing to do with the hearing on the Atlantic Yards Draft Environmental Impact Statement. As I now know, though didn't convey in my coverage (which was among the source s Lerner drew on), the hearing wasn't meant to produce a meaningful outcome. It could have been less of a charade, wit...

Even before we learned that Forest City Ratner's modular construction gambit was not working as planned, a revised New York State document estimated that the cut in costs/wages from a best-case modular buildout would be only 11%-12%, rather than the 22% previously estimated. Why? The previous document had left out a key element in Phase 2 of the Atlantic Yards project: the platform over the railyard. The revised estimate translates into a 12% cut in tax revenues--half the previous projection--compared to conventional construction. On this specific metric, it would be not as bad a deal for the public than previously estimated . Overall, the revised estimate suggests that, in the best case, the savings from modular would be far less than the 25% Forest City was projecting only a year ago (or  15-20% less , in other projections). Without more detail, we don't know exactly why the projection changed so much. Either the savings were overstated from the start, or two estimat...