Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Well, now that Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is the Democratic mayoral nominee and presumptive next mayor for at least four and likely eight years--mayors rarely lose re-election--we'll be hearing more about who he listens to. And as with Bill de Blasio's "Circle of Power"  (circa 2013!) there's something of an Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park connection. From the New York Times today,  Meet Eric Adams’s Inner Circle , we get: Frank Carone, prominent lawyer and Adams confidant Mr. Carone, a longtime counsel to the Brooklyn Democratic Party with a reputation as an old-school power broker, has been an ally of Mr. de Blasio’s. He is politically influential, though some of his dealings over the years have drawn scrutiny. He has been a key donor, adviser and friend to Mr. Adams — Mr. Adams has worked out of office space belonging to Mr. Carone’s firm, an arrangement that Mr. Adams had to account for during the campaign. Well, the Politico article linked was a bit...

So the New York Times today has a deep dive on Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams's relationship with donors, How Eric Adams, Mayoral Candidate, Mixed Money and Political Ambition , which sounds a lot like a deep dive the Times did on his predecessor, Marty Markowitz. 10/24/11, From Brooklyn Office, Mixing Clout and Charity . It's unfortunate that such investigations--which rely not only on significant reporting chops but access to documents that are not simply online--come so late in their administrations. (As noted below, The City and Politico previously published their own investigations.) After all, this comes after numerous institutional endorsements of Adams, which can of course be transactional, as well as a full-throated New York Post endorsement of him, and a second-place nod from the New York Daily News . While the latter did cite his "entanglements" with those doing business, both should have had to reckon more with his record. And it's confounding ...

It was just a casual aside in some fashionista blogger's paid-for gush over the 550 Vanderbilt condo tower: "There’s a roof deck with a gorgeous view for dinner parties, a daycare center going in Pacific Park and tons of retail and restaurants a stone’s throw away." Oh, a day care center ? When exactly is that "going in"? Answer: not soon, not at all. Also, while the gush suggested the day care center as serving market-rate purchasers of million-dollar apartments, the center's justification is to serve the poor. The promised 15,000 square foot "intergenerational center," with child care, youth and senior centers sharing corridors and an atrium--as touted by the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, whose  Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance  in 2005 signed the Community Benefits Agreement--was as of 2014 projected to be in Building 6, due in February 2025. That's in the middle of the center railyard block, which requires a costly deck. Accordi...

Borough President Adams bestows proclamation, via DBNA This is late, but let's look at the inaugural round of donations--more than $100,000--to community groups in underserved areas of Brooklyn, by the Atlantic Yards/Nets/DBNA Community Foundation . The money surely does good, but also represents part of the developer's community strategy. The donations were announced in a ceremony at Brooklyn Borough Hall on 7/30/15, with Borough President Eric Adams bestowing a proclamation. The DBNA is the Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance, led by the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, largely (if not exclusively) funded by Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park original developer Forest City Ratner, and long a vigorous cheerleader for the project. Since the Barclays Center opened, the DBNA has distributed free tickets to arena events via community groups, promised in the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA). Last year, it was to  finally begin a CBA-promised program in which commu...

From my article in City Limits' Brooklyn Bureau today, Plan for Community Use of Barclays Center Emerges : One anticipated—and delayed—element of the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) is a promise to rent the arena “to community groups for at least ten (10) events per year, at a reasonable rate, with net proceeds from such events to be used to support nonprofit community organizations.” That community events program should finally become visible when the Barclays Center begins its third season of operations, at the end of September. Given the “significantly reduced cost,” said organizer Sharon Daughtry, executive director of the Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance (DBNA), who spoke at a launch event March 14, “a lot of money can be funneled into our community organizations.” Such events—which could include fundraisers, concerts, job fairs, and banquets—may be held in various arena locations, including the arena bowl, the Cushman & Wakefield Theater (a tru...

Well, that's a surprise. After ignoring Atlantic Yards for months--the paper still hasn't reported on the deal with the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group to buy 70% of the remaining Atlantic Yards project, nor the developer's dubious effort to raise EB-5 funds--the New York Times today publishes a rather critical article about the Barclays Center Meditation Room and, by extension, developer Forest City Ratner's promises. On the front page. (It's a far different take than the skimpy, congratulatory coverage in the Brooklyn Paper and News12 .) The headline, Arena’s Meditation Room Raises Its Own Existential Questions , suggests a whimsical approach. (The caption online is The meditation room for Nets games at Barclays Center is meant to fulfill a pledge by developers," but in print asks, "What is the sound of an empty room?) Though NBA/Nets reporter Andrew Keh melds skepticism with whimsy--and, as noted below, prompted a Forest City e...

Despite much  consensus  that Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) is a model to avoid, in a parallel universe of partly-fulfilled promises and mutual congratulation, the "modern blueprint" in which Forest City Ratner "nourished" and "harvested" community support still holds. The jobs and housing lag, there's an ongoing lawsuit regarding promised job training, and the arena has still not been offered at discount rates to community groups as promised. But the Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance (DBNA), organized out of the Rev. Herbert Daughtry's House of the Lord Church, has steadily distributed free tickets at monthly sweepstakes drawings, one of the most visible positive results of the CBA. And Barclays Center developer Bruce Ratner was welcomed as a savior, then improbably claimed that the tickets program was "as important or more important than the arena," because it brought community groups together. Th...

Of the benefits promised in the controversial Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), one that has come to fruition is the Community Tickets Program. In the program, nonprofit and community organizations get access to 50 seats in the Barclays Center upper bowl, four in the lower bowl, and ten in a suite for most ticketed events. The program , managed by CBA signatory the Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance (DBNA), has generated enthusiastic thanks from the various groups gaining tickets via the the DBNA's monthly sweepstakes and the flash giveaways for those who follow the DBNA  on Facebook . Tonight, as indicated in the graphic at right, there's a sweepstakes and one-year anniversary celebration, honoring Bruce Ratner, Chairman of Forest City Ratner Companies, signatory of the CBA. The tickets program is featured in the trailer to an apparently in-progress documentary on the DBNA, in which the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, founder of the organization and fa...