Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

OK, not everyone's thrilled with the corporate-sponsored, artist-heavy block party today on Dean Street between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenue. Yesterday, cordial critics in the Barclays Center Impact Zone Alliance called for  improving construction oversight. Then there's Atlantic Yards uber-opponent Patti Hagan, who upon receiving a boilerplate promotional announcement via her block association--"Join Greenland Forest City Partners, multimedia artist Mike Perry and ten of Brooklyn's visionary artists as they embark on creating 10 colorful murals in one day and celebrate Pacific Park Arts"--responded with the following message: Dear St. Marks Ave./Prospect Heights Neighbors: August 15th I would hope we will all simply boycott Ratner's phony "Block Party on Dean St." (NOT A DEAN ST. BLOCK PARTY.) Has nothing to do with the Dean St. Block Association" or the Prospect Heights community -- which Ratner+NYC/NYS gov. have done so much t...

Prospect Heights activist Patti Hagan, the first person to protest the nascent Atlantic Yards project in July 2003 before it was announced, shared her testimony on the Draft Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement, which she was unable to give in person. Some excerpts: Understanding that this is yet another futile exercise in unaccountable government, I’m here to share my cynicism about the whole ESD/Ratner/Prokhorov/Chinese Communist Gov. charade. Of course you don’t want to hear from me or anyone else in this community -- it’s just that the court has forced this “hearing,” has forced you to sit and “listen” to hoi polloi kvetch. Of course you’ve already Greenlighted Ratner’s Way, pretending to hold him to account, going along with his endless stream of promises, endlessly broken.... You’re not the only official association playing along with Ratner, playing along with political correctness. The august Municipal Art Society has bestowed its Jackie Onassis Medal on him and se...

Prospect Heights residents have been getting the below postcard from mega-brokerage Corcoran encouraging them to choose that firm to sell their home. (Postcard via Prospect Heights activist Patti Hagan.) The text, as stated on the back: Prospect Heights is Happening! Your neighborhood is transforming. With the Barclays Center arena nearing completion, Propsect Heights and the surrounding area are being redefined. Then follows the Corcoran pitch. The unmentioned irony The "Just Sold" building pictured is 618 Dean Street, directly across the street from the planned interim surface parking lot for the arena, which could last a decade and might impinge ever so slightly on residents' lives. The ad for 618 Dean And did Corcoran, in  its ad , mention the parking lot? Nope: It is also located next to Brooklyn's new restaurant row Vanderbilt Ave whose rising stars include Eton, Maya Taqueria, Pequena, and Milk to name a few! Its time to stop living small ...

Daily News sports reporter Stefan Bondy produced a suck-up interview with Bruce Ratner today, and while he did quote Ratner opponent Patti Hagan, he nonetheless declared the arena "Bruce Ratner's triumph" and otherwise skated over any countervailing evidence. And Hagan, at the Brooklyn Film Festival June 3, offered a little back story about Bondy's interview, as shown in the video below. "You might be interested to know I got called by a Daily News sports reporter a couple of days ago," she recounted, "who said that he had been able to have an interview with Bruce Ratner, and the one thing that Bruce Ratner said, on agreeing to be interviewed, was that no questions could be asked--the name Daniel Goldstein could not be mentioned." Actually, Goldstein is mentioned in the story, but it doesn't look like Bondy asked Ratner about Goldstein.

Update 9:32 pm. As expected , the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) this morning approved findings that the Development Agreement--which has a 25-year outside date--and MTA contract for the Vanderbilt Yard "do not have a material effect on whether it is reasonable to use a ten-year construction schedule for the purpose of assessing the environmental impacts of Atlantic Yards." (Documents are here .) The findings were geared to fulfill a request by Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman, who will hold a hearing December 22 on a request for a stay on project construction, based on her preliminary ruling that the ESDC make "findings on the impact of the Development Agreement and of the renegotiated MTA agreement on its continued use of a 10 year build-out for the Project, and on whether a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement [SEIS] is required or warranted." "Does it stand to reason that 25 years is the same as ten years?" asked project oppone...

For years there were murals on the east side of Carlton Avenue between Dean Street and Pacific Street, painted by Patti Hagan and Schellie Hagan of the Prospect Heights Action Coalition (PHAC), on property owned by Henry Weinstein, who has resisted selling his building and adjacent lots to Forest City Ratner. (Update 1/22/09: not all the property is owned by Weinstein ; about half is owned by Forest City Ratner.) ( Photo by Tracy Collins) It's gone now and, after eliminating governmental entities in charge of graffiti removal suspects, Patti Hagan suspects Forest City Ratner, though with no direct evidence. ( Photo by Collins.) I think it's certainly plausible that the mural was painted over by project supporters, but I also think that FCR would be savvy enough to keep its distance. (I haven't had a chance to ask about it, but FCR doesn't answer my questions, anyway.) Hagan also thinks the removal was tied to the October visit to New York by prospective Nets owner Mik...

The second day of the two-day Atlantic Yards hearing held by the Empire State Development Corporation was even more of an anti-climax than the first day . Without a contingent from ACORN and with only a handful of project opponents, no more than 100 people attended during the 2-5 pm day session and far fewer showed up for the 6-8 pm evening session, leaving a sea of empty seats in the Klitgord Auditorium of New York City Technical College. During the latter, hearing officer Edward Kramer several times paused to go “off the record” before new people showed to testify. In fact, the hearing at times seemed like open mike night for members of the construction unions and Community Benefits Agreement signatory (and Forest City Ratner-funded) BUILD (Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development), who touted the expected benefits of the project. (Photos by Tracy Collins ) By my estimation, fewer opponents and critics attended the two-day hearing than the 130 who attended the June 9 update ...