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For
Immediate Release: March 8, 2006
Impending Demolition of "Underberg Building" By Forest City Ratner
Attempt to Stabilize Battered "Atlantic Yards" Proposal
Ratner's Demolitions Subvert State Review Process
BROOKLYN, NY - Developer and land speculator Forest City Ratner
intends to begin demolition today on the "Underberg Building"
at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Fifth Avenue within the
footprint of its proposed "Atlantic Yards" development.
"It must be made very clear to the public that this
demolition and the others that may come have nothing at all
to do with an approval of Ratner's proposal or the start of
the project. The project's review process has barely
begun and the developer faces substantial political, legal and
financial obstacles in his attempt to shove his misguided plan
down the throats of Brooklynites," said Develop Don't Destroy
Brooklyn (DDDB) spokesman Daniel Goldstein. "The community's
fight to determine its future landscape and well-being is stronger
than ever."
Reverend Clinton Miller, Pastor of Clinton Hill’s Brown Memorial
Baptist Church located a few blocks from the proposed development
site said, "I have maintained from the beginning concerning
this development, that he process will determine the project.
If the process is wrong, then the project will be wrong."
(Reverend Miller’s full statement questioning the transparency
and democratic principles of New York City and State governments
is here: http://www.dddb.net/clintonmiller.pdf)
The developer claims that five other buildings in the proposed
development site are in such a terrible state as to endanger
the safety of the public. Despite this claim, none of the buildings,
most of which Ratner has owned for over eighteen months, currently
have protective scaffolding, sheds or netting to safeguard the
“endangered public”.
"Ratner bypassed the City review process and City Council oversight
for the far less stringent and much more opaque State development
review process. Despite public and political outcry about that
breach of process, the developer is apparently not content to
just sidestep the City Charter but has now also chosen to take
advantage of the very low standards of review set by the State
process," Goldstein said. “By demolishing these buildings Forest
City Ratner is destroying evidence, for all time, that would
confirm that the neighborhood he claims to be 'blighted' is
not at all 'blighted.' Instead Ratner's demolitions are his
attempt to create 'blight' where there was none.”
Forest City Ratner and the Empire State Development Corporation
will eventually try to claim that the development site is a
'blighted' neighborhood in order to invoke the use of eminent
domain to take private property and hand it over to the developer
for his private, mostly luxury housing and arena project.
An appeal, by DDDB and co-plaintiffs, to a February 14th court
decision that paved the way for the demolitions will be heard
in court on March 23rd. At the same hearing the Empire State
Development Corporation (ESDC) will appeal a February 14th decision
disqualifying ESDC's attorney on "Atlantic Yards" for having
a clear conflict of interest as he represented Forest City Ratner
on the same project.
DEVELOP
DON’T DESTROY BROOKLYN leads a broad-based
community coalition
fighting for development that will unite our communities
instead of dividing and destroying them.
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