Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

The New York Times today begins a three-part series,  UNITED STATES OF SUBSIDIES, A series examining business incentives and their impact on jobs and local economies. The first installment, which dominates the front page, is headlined As Companies Seek Tax Deals, Governments Pay High Price . Surprising, though Brooklyn-based developer Forest City Ratner has collected hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies and other support for the Atlantic Yards project, neither the firm nor its parent, Forest City Enterprises, appears among those company that have received more than $100 million. In fact, as I explain below, Forest City Ratner, rather than being absent from the list of firms taking advantage of subsidies in New York State, should be at the top of the list, as it gains far more than the $157 million attributed to JP Morgan Chase. (Here's my posted comment , which responded to another commenter's statement that "Atlantic Yards is a perfect example of the worst...

In a demonstration yesterday outside J.P. Morgan Chase at MetroTech, featuring an in-character "Mr. Moneybags" and the "mic check" rhetoric of Occupy Wall Street, organizers from ALIGN: The Alliance for a Greater New York , condemned the bank for accepting a 25-year subsidy in 1988 worth nearly $238 million but not meeting job totals. According to Good Jobs New York , Chase had 5000 in New York City in 1988 and was supposed to ultimately have 5950 jobs, all part of job retention promised with a move to MetroTech. But Chase has since cut jobs and relocated jobs to other states, leaving a total of 1593 jobs. Was obligation cut? The Brooklyn Paper, however, reported : JP Morgan Chase spokesman Michael Fusco said that the agreement cited by protesters was dropped and renewed in 2004. He said the company is now required to have only 2,500 full-time employees and recently hired 800. “We’re in compliance with the city and remain in good standing with IDA,” ...

An article on the baseball allegiances of New York City Council members made the front page of today's New York Times, headlined In Council, It’s Mets 18, Yanks 13, and Neither 12 . Cute. While Council Members were apparently asked about their "team preference," the question could have been better phrased, using language from Bettina Damiani of watchdog group Good Jobs New York, "Which 'sports entertainment corporation' do you prefer?" Given that context, the next step would be to ask what other entertainment corporations they prefer. Not in Dodgerland any more Sports fandom just isn't pure any more. Not that it ever was--but the distance from Dodgerland ever increases. Maybe that's why some of the Council Members expressed no preference. There was exactly one mention in the article of how the teams played hardball to get new stadiums built: Councilwoman Helen D. Foster of the Bronx said that she used to root for the Yankees “before they destro...

The New York Yankees, as expected, got the tax-exempt bonds they sought, with one abstention among the board members of the New York City Industrial Development Agency, that of Comptroller William Thompson's representative. The New York Mets got their bonds, with no debate. Here's coverage in the Times. Questions pending I wasn't there, but Good Jobs New York 's Allison Lack was, and she observed: Representatives for the Yankees and Mets each made presentations during the hearing, which goes against standard IDA practice. By the IDA’s own rules, comments in favor or opposition to projects are limited to public hearings (one took place yesterday). At all the IDA board meetings Good Jobs New York has attended over the years, never before have we seen project applicants speak in favor of their projects during these meetings. IDA staff presented a summary of public comments on the projects and responded to these. However, a number of concerns and questions remain unanswere...

The Yankee Stadium deal was the subject of a scathing episode of the CUNY-TV talk show City Talk , taped November 11, which raised many issues that should be pursued regarding the planned Atlantic Yards arena. Host Doug Muzzio, a Baruch College political scientist, was joined by two forceful guests. Bettina Damiani, Project Director, Good Jobs New York (GJNY), declared, "If somebody could write a book on how to make an opaque democratic process and screw over poor people, this would've been it." Baruch professor Neil Sullivan, author of The Diamond in the Bronx: Yankee Stadium and the Politics of New York (2001, updated 2008), said the fundamental question was "how much welfare do you think the Steinbrenners [Yankee owners] should get? (Note that the video for me was fuzzy, but I downloaded the audio.) Opening up Muzzio brought up the recent spate of critical news coverage. DM: OK, the last week, stories all over the place, Jim Dwyer in the Times, For Yankees, May...

A new report from Environmental Defense, Everybody Wins: Lessons from Negotiating Community Benefits Agreements in Los Angeles , fleshes out some crucial differences between those pioneering CBAs and the "historic" CBA "negotiated" between Forest City Ratner and eight groups, most of them established after the Atlantic Yards project was announced. Notably, the groups participating in the Staples Center and Los Angeles Airport CBAs based their negotiating position on responses to flaws in the environmental impact review (EIR). The Atlantic Yards CBA was signed on 6/27/05, three months before the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) even issued its Proposed Scope of Analysis for the Preparation of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and more than a year before the Draft EIS was issued . Bettina Damiani of Good Jobs New York made this point in her 5/26/05 testimony to the New York City Council, testimony that was ignored by the media at the time: P...