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tel/fax:
718.362.4784
Please note our new postal address when sending
contributions to the legal fund:
121 5th Avenue, PMB #150
Brooklyn, New York 11217
About DDDB
Our coalition consists of 21 community organizations and
there are 51 community organizations formally
aligned in opposition to the Ratner plan.
DDDB is a volunteer-run organization. We have over 5,000
subscribers to our email newsletter, and 7,000 petition
signers. Over 800 volunteers have registered with DDDB
to form our various teams, task-forces and committees
and we have over 150 block captains. We have a 20 person
volunteer legal team of local lawyers supplementing our
retained attorneys.
We are funded entirely by individual donations from the community at large
and through various fundraising events we and supporters have organized.
We have the financial support of well over 3,500 individual
donors.
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Atlantic Yards Is In Serious Trouble
Press Release. For Immediate Release: March 21, 2008
With All Eggs in One Forest City Ratner Basket,
Atlantic Yards Project Is In Trouble
Affordable Housing a Fading Promise,
As Undesirable $950 Million Arena Takes Center Stage
It’s Time for Albany and City Hall to Step In
Brooklyn, NY— A front page NY Times article today, Slow
Economy Likely to Stall Atlantic Yards, explains how the economic
downturn is impacting Forest City Ratner’s proposed Atlantic Yards project in
Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
“The article makes clear that Atlantic Yards cannot be built as planned, and was
never financially feasible. The economic downturn has served to make that crystal
clear,” said Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) spokesman Daniel Goldstein.
“Our elected officials cannot allow our public resources, as well as eminent domain,
to be used to construct an arena--which only benefits Bruce Ratner--surrounded
by vacant lots. We call on the city and state to work with the community to develop
the rail yards in a responsible manner, without destroying the existing neighborhoods
in the process.”
Despite the sub-headline “Arena on Track,” the biggest news in the Times story
is that the arena is not on track. The arena would now cost $950 million according
to the article, and therefore is subject to new governmental review.
"Due to this substantial increase in the cost of the arena, the law and fiscal
prudence suggest that the project will have to go back for review and a vote by
the Public Authorities Control Board (PACB). In addition Forest City Ratner does
not own the land it needs to build the arena,” DDDB attorney Jeffrey Baker said.
The PACB is comprised of Governor Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and
Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, and requires a unanimous vote.
When the project was unveiled in 2003 it was the most expensive arena ever proposed
at about $400 million. In mid-2005 it was projected to cost
$435 millon. It was approved at the end of 2006 at
$637.2 million. And now, according to the developer, the arena would be 50%
costlier at $950 million.
Besides facing a new review by the PACB, Forest City Ratner does not own the land
it needs to build the arena. A large portion of the land in the arena’s proposed
footprint is owned or leased by private parties who are currently in court challenging
the state’s use of eminent domain. Next week those plaintiffs will be filing a
petition asking the United States Supreme Court to hear their case. Also 26 community
groups, led by DDDB, will be in the NY State Appellate Court in September arguing
their appeal on their challenge to the project’s environmental review and approval.
"Today a Forest City Ratner spokesperson said they'd be breaking ground for
the arena this Fall. Based on the new review required by the PACB, the eminent
domain lawsuit, the environmental lawsuit, and the economic environment, this
is simply not even close to possible; it's pure fantasy," said DDDB Legal
Director Candace Carponter.
“From the very beginning Develop Don’t Destroy has advocated for responsible development
and today’s news is evidence Atlantic Yards does not accomplish that,” Goldstein
said. “In December 2006 the PACB approved the project as an integrated whole;
now it appears that’s not what Ratner plans to do. Governor Paterson, the other
two PACB members, and our local elected officials must take this opportunity to
send the project back to the drawing board, or scrap it for a feasible project,
with multiple developers who can produce much needed affordable housing over the
Vanderbilt rail yards. The community has created such a plan; it’s called the
Unity Plan and can be found at www.unityplan.org.”
Posted: 3.21.08
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