Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Tonight is the latest event in the monthly community tickets giveaway mandated under the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement( CBA), and managed by the Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance (DBNA), led by the Rev. Herbert Daughtry under the administration of his daughter Sharon Daughtry. Only nonprofits registered as of last November 30 are eligible for the monthly drawing, though eligibility should reopen in July or August for the second year of operation As indicated on the flyer below, tonight's event also serves as an African American History Month Celebration and "The DBNA Suite will be given for a game event at Barclays Center to the person wearing the best African attire!!!" The impulse to recognize the month is understandable. But I'm not sure offering a prize for "best African attire" is the most inclusive strategy for a project serving a broad community, given that some potential attendees, for a number of reasons, do not have such...

The story behind Atlantic Yards, via the 2011 documentary Battle for Brooklyn is now available as a DVD and download. It's unchanged in narrative--it ends essentially with the groundbreaking and arena in mid-construction. The movie is thus dated--the arena itself is now a juggernaut for publicity and a residential building, long delayed, is finally under way. Some statistics need an update. Still, as I wrote in my  review , it's "most valuable in the camera’s witness to the palpable insincerity and cold-blooded indifference of the developer-government alliance." The addendum--an interview with the filmmakers (Michael Galinsky, Suki Hawley, David Beilinson), and protagonist Daniel Goldstein--offers worthy perspective. Hawley points out that, however much people cheer the arena, they know "something happened that wasn't quite right." Indeed. Sure, arena-related traffic isn't as bad as feared, nor is there much crime, though the Times still ...

It's not surprising that the New York Times would say everything's pretty much fine. Yes, compared to the fears expressed before the opening of the Barclays Center, there's been what the Times called in an initial headline "Smooth Debut for an Arena That Rocked Brooklyn" but has revised, rather snarkily and conclusory, to Neighbors Predicted Chaos. Now They’re Just Annoyed. Yes, most people do take public transit, and gridlock so far has been managed away. (More towers will complicate things.) Crime is low (though crime was hardly the top fear). And residents admit the impact isn't as bad as they'd imagined (though that throng of Justin Bieber fans was, in fact, chaotic ). "Everyday irritants" But there's no mention of things like buses and trucks idling outside the arena on "the pad" and beyond. And it's irresponsible to dismiss as "gripes about everyday irritants" some issues that were not--and should n...

Empire State Development, the state agency overseeing Atlantic Yards, yesterday sent out the two-week Construction Alert dated Monday, Feb. 18, after preparation by developer Forest City Ratner. There is site excavation at the site of the B2 tower on Dean Street and Flatbush Avenue, involving "the use of 2-3 dump trucks (3 round trips each), 9 loads of material off site." It's not clear whether that's a daily or cumulative total. An electric meter, and then start-up of HVAC systems is scheduled at the Dean Street Playground Comfort Station, renovated by Forest City as part of the construction impact mitigation requirements. And there's various work going on at the LIRR Yard, including the removal of parking and trees from the north side of Pacific Street between Sixth and Carlton avenues: • PT/JV [Posillico Tully/Joing Venture] has removed the boulders and concrete debris in block 1121 and will cut down and level the existing dirt pile accordingly. • PT/JV...

Yesterday, NPR's All Things Considered offered team coverage for  Inside Brooklyn's New Barclays Center , an eight-minute piece that, according to the blurb, aimed to address "Questions [that] remain on whether the new arena project delivered on its promise of helping to transform Brooklyn — and the Nets." The background So we learn about the "Brook-lyn" chant, the (lousy, to me) "locavore black-and-white cookies" in the arena, and we hear some exaggeration: "much of the footprint of the arena sits atop a once troubled and deserted area that the city had been trying to develop since 1968." First, not so deserted, given the gentrification. Second, about half of the footprint of the arena sits on the the Atlantic Terminal Urban Renewal Area (ATURA). Third, the city, while designating ATURA in 1968, did not try hard to develop it. Here's a summary of Bruce Ratner's purported thought process: You want to move the team to o...

The online publication Next City yesterday published a long article (subscription-only) on the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), headlined Selling Low, Building High: How Brooklyn Dropped the Ball on the Biggest Negotiation of Its Life . There's some useful stuff--CBA Chair Delia Hunley Adossa won't talk, nor will her sidekick Charlene Nimmons. And the piece pronounces: Seven years after the Brooklyn document was signed, five of the groups have been mostly silent or reconstituted after without much fanfare. But it still falls short. My comment Here's the comment I posted: It's good that Next City has tried to provide a broad look at the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA). But even the moderately skeptical tone of the article doesn't address the drama and mendacity behind the CBA--or recognize the consistent criticisms of the CBA that came in real time (from groups like Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and my Atlantic Y...

Writing in Prospect Heights Patch, 2/12/13, Gib Veconi (of Brooklyn Speaks and Atlantic Yards Watch) wrote  Too Much Room for “Improvement,” a warning about plans for a new BID (Business Improvement District) that would oddly encompass the Atlantic Yards site. (My 1/7/13 coverage here . Note that Veconi says the boundaries may now include all of Dean Street between Sixth and Carlton avenues, notably the Newswalk building.) His central warning is that undeveloped areas of the Atlantic Yards site should not be included. An excerpt: One suspects that few Community Board members and elected officials would agree that development at the Atlantic Yards site has suffered from too much public review. Instead, they have seen the project’s sponsors skirt required environmental review and disclosure processes to meet a deadline for tax-exempt bond financing; create institutions like its Community Benefit Agreement that convey a sense of accountability where none in fact exists; and...

From a Daily News editorial yesterday headlined  The stuff of a great mayor: The Democrats running to replace Bloomberg have shown zero willingness to make tough choices : It’s not whether the city will go on, it’s what kind of city we’ll have. One with rising crime, or one with only 400 murders annually. One in which new business are willing to risk capital, or one in which companies stagnate or, worse, flee. One where employment grows, even in the boroughs, or one that falls behind the national trend. One of rising, vibrant neighborhoods, or one that sees the return of urban blight. Far too casually, de Blasio and Democratic rivals Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson and John Liu dismiss the possibility that New York could go into decline. They campaign with collective amnesia about how hard it was for the city to climb up from ashes and lawlessness, and they take for granted that all will live happily ever after. Tough choices and risk capital Another excerpt: Over...

On 2/10/13, the Wall Street Journal published The NYIndex, "the top-100 people in the Greater New York area who are noteworthy newsmakers," with rankings based on mentions in news, coupled with "correlation to his or her industry's contribution to the gross domestic product" and also "a nominal boost based on their Klout scores, which is a third-party measure of social-media activity." So it really has more to do with publicity than achievement, which is why, for example, the Trumps are on top. The article on development, in fact, stated: Arguably, only one Brooklyn developer enjoys celebrity status: Two Trees Management, which created a neighborhood in Dumbo and wants to do so again soon at the Domino Sugar factory in Williamsburg. Sure, Bruce Ratner's no celebrity. But he doesn't want or need to be one to pull the right strings--and why he was still number 4 last week (below) and this week . People's picks Below is the chart ...

The Barclays Center event calendar for March has been released, and it's a lot busier than February and January , thanks mainly to eleven days with the circus, seven of which have multiple shows. (We'll see if 11 am shows drawing families causes any traffic congestion, even with relatively limited attendance of 4,000 expected.) It would have been busier had Lady Gaga not canceled shows scheduled for March 6 and March 7, though those should be rescheduled. The Swedish House Mafia shows March 2-4 should be a test for whether arena operators can turn down or baffle the sound so bass doesn't penetrate into neighboring residents (leading to a pending violation ). Though the Nets do sell out, they're still conservatively estimating only 15,000 attendees. A boxing card is expected to draw 5,000, while the A10 college hoops tournament is estimated to draw 4,000.

Trees on Pacific Street in summer When the city removes parking  next week from the north side of Pacific Street between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues, and directs the street one-way, there's some collateral damage, "construction delay-induced blight," as Peter Krashes writes on Atlantic Yards Watch:  "Temporary" removal of street trees on Pacific Street (and elsewhere) could last for decades with delayed construction . Next week developer Forest City Ratner will remove 20 street trees on that north side of Pacific, part of a 2008 Parks Department permit that allows the removal of 86 existing street trees. But this may take far longer than previously assumed. As Krashes writes: The area where the trees on Pacific Street are located was originally anticipated to be the first area of the second phase of the project to be constructed. However, in October 2012, FCRC Executive Vice President MaryAnne Gilmartin told investors that second phase construction...

In his 12th and final State of the City Address, a total achieved only by engineering a suspension of term limits, Mayor Mike Bloomberg came to one of New York's most prominent new buildings, the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, for an event that had elements of pep rally (as per the  Daily News ), valedictory, and triumphant kiss-off to his critics. As the Times  reported , Bloomberg "will attempt to ban plastic-foam products , ease the consequences of marijuana possession, install curbside charging stations for electric cars and legalize European-style youth hostels across the city." "And five times in the 50-minute speech, he denounced 'special interests,'" the Times reported , prompting journalist Gail Robinson to observe that the speech "proves once again a special interest is any interest the person speaking does not agree with.” (As I tweeted, Bloomberg has said "Bruce Ratner's word... should be enough.") Daily News columni...

Today, Mayor Mike Bloomberg delivers his final State of the City address at the new Barclays Center arena, chosen because it has generated “unprecedented economic activity in the area.” He may even salute some well-publicized elements: an  award to the 1 millionth visitor , a new gallery  honoring black basketball in Brooklyn, a mural at the Dean Street entrance. Surely he won't specify how much the arena has cost city taxpayers, and whether that money might have been directed at real public goods, things like open libraries and Head Start. The city  acknowledges  $179 million in direct subsidies for land and infrastructure. But the city contribution is far greater than previously analyzed. As I detail below, free land for the project has been vastly undervalued or not even counted, adding up to nearly $80 million, at least, and likely more than $124 million. The beneficiary: developer Forest City Ratner. ( Update 9/8/16: Note additional $7,168,...