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...

The idea of a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), at least as pioneered in Los Angeles , is a united front presented by all parties, including labor unions. In the Bronx, as Crain's reports , unity doesn't come easy: Organized labor's previously united front on $10-an-hour retail jobs at the Kingsbridge Armory splintered Friday, with the umbrella organization representing 100,000 unionized construction workers publicly declaring support for a redevelopment project by Related Cos. that would deliver 1,000 construction jobs to it[s] members. No CBA has yet been signed regarding the Kingsbridge Armory. Contrasts with AY Regarding Atlantic Yards, Forest City Ratner has promised unionized building service jobs in the residential towers, thus leading to support of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, which is not a signatory of the AY CBA. Nor are the construction unions. There are no guarantees about minimum retail wages in the AY CBA , so that hasn't been an i...

The Brooklyn Carpenters Union, Local 926 , has produced a video with excerpts from the "Brooklyn Day" rally on June 5. I suggested the rally showed speakers embattled and a not-too-enthusiastic audience, but you can check it out yourself. Among the speakers: Sal Zarzana, president Local 926, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and radio host Curtis Sliwa. Note the criticism of local elected officials who've criticized the project. Let me point out that 15,000 construction jobs is actually 1500 jobs over ten years, or 15,000 job-years. (More likely the project would stretch over decades, thus employing fewer people at one time.) Also note that there's mention of how "Brooklyn" needs the project, but no mention of developer Forest City Ratner. Union interests There's nothing wrong with the unions pursuing their interests, and Forest City Ratner, whether for reasons political and/or to ensure quality construction, has committed to union labor (tho...

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...