Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

The plague of rats around the Atlantic Yards site, widely believed to be caused significantly by Forest City Ratner's construction work, likely can't be solved without an increased commitment from the developer. Nor can the illegal parking problem be solved without a push to the city. Nor can Forest City Ratner's compliance with environmental commitments be thoroughly tracked by a state agency more concerned about business than the community. Nor can FCR be trusted to provide credible information about project oversight. So, as I argue below, a new governance entity, however vaguely defined in pending legislation, might help tip the balance. The problem The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) can't force Forest City to pay for more clean-up. Arana Hankin, Director, Atlantic Yards Project for the ESDC, said June 23 that a directive from the city Department of Health could set the process in motion. In another, more glaring sign of the ESDC's a...

I was asked today to comment for a New York Observer article "about the post-Melo fight between the Nets and the Knicks for New York's psyche. Would you be interested in sharing your thoughts as to what this team does or does not mean for Brooklyn and the city as a whole?" My response: "I think it means that Chinese millionaires think they're investing in an arena in exchange for green cards, via the developer's dubious deployment of the federal government's EB-5 program." Don't put on blinders Yeah, it sounds like a non sequitur, but the point is: when it comes to sports, I lean toward Dave Zirin, who can't forget how team owners wangle profits, not Will Leitch, who willfully puts on blinders. And the New York Observer, however worthy its effort to cruise the borough basketball zeitgeist, should also have been reporting on what surely is misrepresentation and may be fraud. It was former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky who famously said...

Departing Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, the crusader for public authority reform who focused on the new Yankee Stadium rather than the Atlantic Yards project, has left with a valedictory report warning of the need for further reform, including this common-sense statement, "In an era when government is instructed to behave more like business, the failure to receive value for its investments is a crisis that can no longer be ignored." Unmentioned in the six-page report (embedded below) is Atlantic Yards, nor the state's failure to receive any value for giving away arena naming rights. Indeed, "the massive transfer of public property into private hands... not... accompanied by commensurate public benefits" hints at Yankee Stadium ("publicly funded sports facilities by IDA's") and the Columbia University expansion ("university construction using eminent domain powers") but not the equally controversial Atlantic Yards. But Brodsky, ...

Almost a year ago, on 10/11/09, the New New York Times Sports section offered a toughminded story headlined In East Rutherford, N.J., New Football Stadium, but at Whose Cost? Only in the last paragraph did the article mention payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) used by the Mets and Yankees to pay off their stadiums, a highly questionable deal. The similar financing scheme for the Atlantic Yards arena was ignored. Today the Times follows up with As Stadiums Vanish, Their Debt Lives On , which explains: The old Giants Stadium, demolished to make way for New Meadowlands Stadium, still carries about $110 million in debt, or nearly $13 for every New Jersey resident, even though it is now a parking lot. ...New Jerseyans are hardly alone in paying for stadiums that no longer exist. Residents of Seattle’s King County owe more than $80 million for the Kingdome, which was razed in 2000. The story has been similar in Indianapolis and Philadelphia. In Houston, Kansas City, Mo., Memphis and Pittsb...

The road to reforming public authorities is a long one, but, with the expansion of the Authorities Budget Office (ABO) and the release of a report July 1, New York is moving down that road, right? Yes, and no. It's not merely that the ABO is understaffed, with a cohort so small it "borders on insanity," according to corporate governance expert Ira Millstein . (Working pro bono, noted attorney Millstein with colleagues shaped the contours of the 2009 Public Authorities Reform Act, leading New York to what Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, the legislative sponsor, calls "a grand experiment" in reforming government.) It's that even an expert like Millstein assumes that "you'll never have on the board everybody thinking uniformly." And, for some authorities--I'll point to the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and its quasi-spawn , the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation (BALDC)--that hasn't been true. There's been litt...

Amid the pious paeans to Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, New York Times columnist Jim Dwyer reminded people that, um, sports is a business: AT some point in the 1980s, Mr. Steinbrenner began floating the notion that the Bronx was too wicked a place for a sports franchise to survive. Unless, possibly, someone built the team a new stadium. He made these pronouncements as the team was entering an era of prosperity unmatched in its spangled history. During the 1950s, in the golden light of Mickey Mantle, the team never drew two million fans. Even in 1961, when Roger Maris hit 61 home runs and the Yankees won the World Series, attendance was just 1.7 million. It was not until 1976, when the Bronx was on the verge of burning, that the team drew two million spectators. The more homicides in the Bronx, the higher the attendance at Yankee Stadium . Of course, good left-handed relief pitching also helped. Still, Mr. Steinbrenner eventually won the day: one of the wealthiest sp...

It sure looks like State Senator Bill Perkins' concerns about the Job Development Authority (JDA), the shadowy alter ego of the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) that was used to create the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation (BALDC) to issue arena debt , deserved--and deserve--attention. In one important official accounting, the JDA--which has no dedicated staff--appears to be a cipher. Nearly alone among state authorities, it didn't submit a mission statement, an annual report, or a budget report, according to the first annual report by the state Authorities Budget Office (ABO). The unusual transaction Last December , Perkins in a letter to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo asked a question that, to my knowledge, has never been answered: In essence, the ESDC crafted an unusual transaction whereby a nearly defunct entity, the Job Development Authority (JDA) was used to form the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards Development Corporation (BALDC) which then issued the $...

Remember the big battle last year to get the state legislature to reform the state's myriad public authorities? In Manhattan Media's The Capitol newspaper, a 5/10/10 article headlined New Authorities Budget Office Could Be Swept Away By Lack Of Funding explains: When Gov. David Paterson signed a bill last December to regulate the state’s 700-plus public authorities, the legislation was hailed as one of Albany’s most significant reforms in decades—the beginning of the end for the state’s “Soviet-style bureaucracies” that have amassed $45 billion in public debt. The centerpiece of the dense 25-page bill was the creation of the Independent Authorities Budget Office, which replaced a similarly named office that had existed with limited scope and responsibility since 2006. The new office was given a host of new powers—such as the ability to issue subpoenas and remove authorities’ board member. It also was given a number of responsibilities, including the ability to audit authoriti...

In Touchstone For Whether There Will Be Change In Albany: Attorney General Candidates on Atlantic Yards and Eminent Domain , Michael D.D. White offers a long but important-to-read post. The summary: The good news with respect to the possibility of change is that at least two of the candidates for state Attorney General (the Erics) think that the job of Attorney General should entail actions designed to stop Atlantic Yards dead in its tracks. That includes, in the case of state senator Eric T. Schneiderman, investigation of likely violations of law and, in the case of former state insurance superintendent Eric R. Dinallo, use of the Attorney General’s power to issue opinions and rulings to make clear that the law is not being properly interpreted when eminent domain is abused by state officials. (We will be quoting both at length further on.) The bad news is that if the Erics are correct and that addressing these Atlantic Yards abuses should be part of the Attorney General’s job (or at ...

Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky , known for pursuit of public authorities reform and criticism of the Yankee Stadium deal (but not the similar Atlantic Yards deal), has won a key endorsement in the hard-fought race for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General. Today Brodsky announced support from four Manhattan Assembly Members and, notably, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who said, "I'm proud of the way Richard has taken on difficult and controversial matters, and changed the outcomes. We can elect statewide leaders who know how to build coalitions and fix problems. He'll be a great Attorney General." As I've written , it's widely believed that Brodsky didn't push on Atlantic Yards (despite occasional swipes at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's failure to fulfill its fiduciary duty) so as to not offend Silver. Also in the race Those also in the race include state Senator Eric Schneiderman ( endorsed by the state’s larges...

In a long but interesting post on his Noticing New York blog, Michael D.D. White alerts us that the Empire State Development Corporation, "the state agency theoretically most responsible for Atlantic Yards," does not have a whistleblower protection policy even though it's required, not by the public authorities reform bill passed last year but one passed in 2005. White thinks that the indictments in Yonkers relating to Forest City Ratner's Ridge Hill project might hint at some similar investigation of Atlantic Yards, but, I'd add, there's no evidence that's happening, nor is there a fact pattern similar to a Council Member dramatically changing her vote. Could the race among candidates to replace Attorney General Andrew Cuomo turn into a race to investigate Atlantic Yards as well, as White suggests? Well, there are always wild cards, as White notes. Still, I'd point out that one leading candidate, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, was notable last year f...

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, the watchdog of public authorities, leader on public authority reform , fierce after-the-fact critic of the Yankee Stadium deal, and putative Attorney General candidate , has chosen not to look closely at Atlantic Yards (despite occasional swipes at the MTA's failure to fulfill its fiduciary duty), so the below press release is only what Brodsky might have said. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, January 15, 2010 Assemblyman Richard Brodsky , (D-Westchester), Chairman of the Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, today released a letter to Governor Paterson that insists that the Governor explain the state's willingness to let the Atlantic Yards project proceed without knowledge of the costs or the extent of needed subway tunnel repairs. Brodsky expressed dismay that repairs on damaged subway tunnels around the Atlantic Yards site in Brooklyn would be supposedly paid for via a contingency fund in the budget for the arena project. ...

From a press release from Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who spearheaded the reform of public authorities: "Over the past decade the Legislature and the Governor unintentionally created a shadow government, a fourth branch outside the control of our democratic institutions. The result was over 700 Soviet style bureaucracies. They were often effective, but more often ineffective, corrupt, and simply out of control. People who used the MTA, the Thruway Authority, NYPA, or LIPA, more and more were suffering the consequences of secretive and often politically motivated decision making. With one stroke of the pen, Governor Paterson finalizes a reform effort led by the legislature. We’ve adopted new ideas, incorporated existing ideas and created the most sweeping reform of Albany institutions in the last half century. Two fundamental messages flow from this success. One, authorities can be made to bend to the people’s will, and two, real reform that affects the daily lives of people ...

The New York Observer reports that Assemblyman Richard Brodsky and state Senator Bill Perkins have achieved success in their effort to reform public authorities, with apparently only modest pushback from Mayor Mike Bloomberg and others resisting the changes: Brodsky said that the original bill will be signed, and that both legislative houses will pass chapter amendments to ameliorate some of these concerns. For example, according to a summary provided by Brodsky, sale of property "below fair market value sales permitted if it is within the mission of the Public Authority, as defined by their authorizing statute." "The M.T.A., for example, could not longer sell property at below market value for economic development purposes," Brodsky explained. Other authorities whose explicit purpose was economic development--or housing development--could. This would preclude development projects like the Atlantic Yards and Hudson Yards. The chapter amendments also reduce the numb...

Governor David Paterson has called an extraordinary session of the Legislature to begin next Tuesday, November 10, addressing: a deficit reduction plan capping the growth of State government spending providing property tax relief eliminating a statutory inconsistency regarding parole allowing same-sex civil marriage (the focus of the Times's coverage ) enhancing penalties for driving while impaired reforming the pension system establishing a municipal sustainable energy loan program And, notably: Reforming public authorities in New York State by increasing the transparency and accountability of authorities and their transactions and improving oversight of such authorities through the creation of an independent authorities budget office Brodsky's response Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who's pushing for public authority reform, issued a statement: We have been working for months to address concerns raised by the administration, while at the same time preserving the heart of ...