Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

From CBS yesterday, Residents Say Rats Are Running Rampant In Prospect Heights, Brooklyn : Rats running rampant in a Brooklyn neighborhood have residents on edge. Now, they’re looking for more help to get rid of the rodents. “I’m not talking about 10 or 20; I’m talking four or five hundred of them,” resident Jose Barreto told CBS2’s Vanessa Murdock. “I’ve been through a lot in this neighborhood and the rats are the worst.” “You hear them screaming every night,” he added. Barreto said rats drill through trash cans and have even chewed through wires in his car. Bottom line: some people blame the developer of Pacific Park for not treating empty lots; the developer says it's stepped up its abatement program; Borough President Eric Adams plans to hold a "rat summit."

There wasn’t huge news at last night’s bi-monthly Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting, but here are the specific project updates, described below: open space outside 550 Vanderbilt should be open by February site maintenance has improved there are no plans yet for the tower including a school Mekelburg's aiming for 535 Carlton, may seek a liquor license allowing service until 4 am but the landlord won't allow it the Barclays Center has a new hotline if the oculus doesn't shut down on time (Also see coverage of big-picture issues .) Project update: open space Ashley Cotton of L&L MAG, which represents Forest City (and says she speaks for the joint venture Greenland Forest City Partners), said that open space planned outside 550 Vanderbilt is finished, but not yet open because of safety issues regarding final work on the building. “I was told February, today,” she said of the new goal. (Previously,  the goal  was the end of 2017.) On Dean S...

So there was Borough President Eric Adams yesterday walking the streets of Prospect Heights, learning about the resurgence of rats. I’m in #ProspectHeights taking a #rattour with local residents, seeing firsthand the challenge our community faces with infestation. We’re overdue for a coordinated @NYCGov response to combat #rats in this neighborhood. pic.twitter.com/cMiu2HuT10 — Eric Adams (@BPEricAdams) December 18, 2017 I hate #rats . I’m sure you do too. If there’s a problem in your neighborhood, contact my Constituent Assistance Center. The next #rattour might be in your community. All of us need to collaborate and coordinate to clean up our streets. pic.twitter.com/vbUmQiqKg3 — Eric Adams (@BPEricAdams) December 18, 2017 On NY 1 NY 1's Jeanine Ramirez followed along, reporting : They said the problem has expanded beyond Prospect Heights to Park Slope and Fort Greene. They blame the surge in construction across the area, especially the Atlantic Yards project. ...

The rats are back, in Prospect Heights and in a lot of places around the city, stirred up by construction, attracted by garbage, and resistant to all but the most careful measures. As the Brooklyn Reader reported 6/22/17,  Prospect Heights Residents Complain of Rat Infestation , residents on Dean Street between Sixth and Carlton avenues cited multiple construction projects (including Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park) and inadequate street cleaning. The city Department of Health said it was "intensifying our efforts in this zone" and observed that property owners--with guidance from the DOH's  Rodent Academy --were responsible for their property. Two blocks away, at St. Marks Avenue between Flatbush and Vanderbilt avenues, longtime resident (and Atlantic Yards foe) Patti Hagan told me "it's just gotten worse and worse every time they dig up the streets and sidewalks for infrastructure." She noted that construction workers leave food trash and that some resta...

Remember the "rat tsunami" caused, many arena neighbors believe, by arena construction, as reported in June 2011 ? It was predicted, in a way. See Brooklyn Community Board 2's 9/29/06 comments on the Atlantic Yards Draft Environmental Impact Statement and General Project Plan: Construction Impacts Community District 2 is experiencing a significant increase in the number of disease-bearing rats, which can be attributed to the large amount of construction currently underway. Community residents have reported that the rats are regularly seen scurrying in and around  their homes. In light of the prospect of the massive demolition, excavation and construction associated with this project, it is anticipated that the underground habitats of Brooklyn’s rodent population will be disturbed. Containment plans to mitigate the inevitable disturbance and escape of large numbers of rodents into neighboring communities needs to be specifically defined and coordi...

Remember this address: 620 Atlantic Avenue. That's the official address for the Barclays Center arena, even plastered on scaffolding at the corner of Dean Street and Sixth Avenue. And if community members calling 311 about Atlantic Yards-related complaints make sure to include "620 Atlantic Avenue" in their complaint--along with a more precise location of their concern--it will be easier for the city to track issues and respond. That was one takeaway from yesterday's Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meeting, held at Brooklyn Borough Hall. Police reps and Sam Pierre, Brooklyn director of the Mayor's Community Assistance Unit, announced the change. He sat next to and consulted with Lolita Jackson , the mayor's recently-appointed not-quite-ombudsperson for the project. Commented Rob Perris, District Manager of Community Board 2, "It's really important for Community Boards, electeds and others... to get the word out that this system is in...

After one year overseeing Atlantic Yards, Brooklyn's (and perhaps the city's) most controversial project, Arana Hankin sounds enthusiastic about the job, that she's helped solve problems. But it's tough to call her position a comfortable one. On the one hand, Empire State Development (ESD, aka Empire State Development Corporation) clearly needed a point person for all things AY. So Hankin, Director, Atlantic Yards Project, has done some worthy work, helping lead responses to the "rat tsunami" and illegal parking around the project site, among other things. On the other hand, the state agency has the inherently conflicted role of shepherding Forest City Ratner's project while overseeing the developer, leaving Hankin--more a coordinator/good soldier than policy maker--in a tough spot, though it's not one to which she'd cop. After all, the agency, before Hankin joined it (though she was involved in overseeing it), withheld a key Atlantic Yards d...

A community forum last night on rodent issues, hosted by Empire State Development and New York City Departments of Health and Sanitation, drew just a handful of residents, but their concerns indicated that, however welcome Forest City Ratner's offer of free heavy-duty garbage cans, rat problems in the area of the Atlantic Yards site will persist. Notably, the street corners at and near Fourth and Atlantic avenues, heavily-used thoroughfares, overflow with garbage, which draws rats, and additional construction and project-related utility work on the streets exposes rats. A few attendees called on Council Member Steve Levin, who represents those blocks, to take action. (Council Member Letitia James, who represents the north side of Flatbush Avenue, sent a representative, though Levin did not.) One resident of Pacific Street between Fourth and Flatbush avenues said that "you have to walk shaking your keys" on the street at night to stave off. "Otherwise you hear ...

Update and correction 8/18: Forest City has given out 250 cans , with some 1350 potential recipients, thus indicating that the Brooklyn Paper's numbers were wrong. The potential cost would be much higher than $5500, though currently it's about $8000, at retail. === The Brooklyn Paper, two days late with the news that Forest City Ratner has announced its plans to distribute heavy-duty garbage cans to a limited number of Prospect Heights residences, adds some useful detail in today's Bruce Ratner--taking on rats : Now Ratner will dole out 172 cans at the Atlantic Yards Community Liaison Office, which is in a trailer on Carlton Avenue. The tight-lidded cans will help residents stop providing a feast, in the form of easily accessible household trash, for the vermin. If residents can’t obtain their cans next week, they can set an appointment to pick one up. The 34-gallon Rubbermaid wheeled cans — valued at $32 apiece — were approved by the Health Department and purchas...

Nearly four weeks after announcing , on 7/14/11, a plan to fund new garbage cans for residents in the area around the Atlantic Yards footprint, Forest City Ratner has finally provided details, via a public notice (below) that began to circulate last night. However, some of those reporting rat problems likely will be disappointed: the area covered is limited, from Fourth to Vanderbilt Avenues, and Atlantic Avenue to Bergen Street, with a good chunk of the rectangular territory including the Atlantic Yards site itself. (Residents of buildings with 12 or fewer units can pick up lidded, heavy-duty cans during weekdays next week, as per the notice below, at the Atlantic Yards Community Liaison Office.) Nor does the area represent an evenly-drawn radius around the site--it goes south (and slightly to the east and west) but not north. I queried City Council Member Letitia James, who had conveyed complaints from Fort Greene, north of Atlantic Avenue. The "process has begun but it ...

Bending from its previous posture that it would not take steps to abate the "rat tsunami" beyond the Atlantic Yards construction site, developer Forest City Ratner today announced it would provide vouchers to residents in the neighborhood to ensure they have sturdy garbage cans to contain waste. The initiative would be part of a multi-faceted program that officials agree is needed to address rats, a program welcomed by City Council Member Letitia James and other community members. FCR's MaryAnne Gilmartin, speaking at the bi-monthly Atlantic Yards District Service Cabinet meeting at Borough Hall, said it could take a week to provide details on the scope of the program, but said it would not extend to commercial businesses. Forest City's Bob Sanna added that 16 new trash receptacles would be placed in the construction site, for food waste only, not construction debris, something unique in his experience. Four workers have been added to empty the cans and addres...