The borough's top elected official last week said the softening econmoy is all the more reason why Forest city Ratner Companies' proposed Atlantic Yards project should get underway.

Borough President Marty Markowitz made his comments on the proposed $4 billion 22-acre arena/housing/comercial project at the Flatbush/Atlantic Avenues intersection following the collapse of the financial banking institution Lehman Brothers.

"The recent drop in the stock market and weakening of the American economiy underscores the importance of moving ahead with project like Atlantic Yards—which will not only create union jobs and affordable housing in Downtown Brookyn, but also represents the kind of investment magnet that Brooklyn and New York City need right now," said Markowitz.

It is critical that in the next few years, we plan for Brooklyn and New York City's future, and a catalyst for job creation and growth like Atlantic Yards can be the kind of economic engine that will power our borough through lean times," he added.

• Ratner literally has no plans to build Phase 2 were around 80% of the proposed "affordable" housing would be built.
  
  
• Ratner will not build his 650,000 square feet of office space without an anchor tenant, and finding an anchor tenant would be a miracle.
  
  
• Ratner's billion dollar white elephant arena would create very few new jobs and would be a net loss for the City of New York
  
  
• Well, the list is really too long to re-publish here, we've already explained how Atlantic Yards is too costly and too risky, how it is not strategic by any stretch of the imagination, and how the arena is a "frill at the edge." We've also explained how the whole blinkered effort to push Atlantic Yards forward is a charade.
  
  Clearly Beep Markowitz is an excellent mime.

..."You can have both [economic development] and do a project consistent with the community wishes and also provide jobs," said James. "It's not an either/or proposition."

James said she remains a supporter of the Unity Plan, which her office provided some funding to create. The plan calls for a smaller, mainly residential project over the Vanderbilt Yards without an arena.

James said there was no developer in place for the plan, but developers could be found
through a competitive request for proposals [RFP] process.

"Even before the economy went down, people from our community were having a very tough time," said Caldwell. "The CBA will play a beneficial role to helping our people get some of these positions stemming from the Atlantic Yards project," said Caldwell.

Caldwell said many people in the area did not even know about the Unity Plan, let alone be behind it.
"It [Unity Plan] will not create as many jobs and it was minus an arena. All they had was architects that put together models and had no money lined up," said Caldwell.

“All they had was architects that put together models and had no money lined up.” Sounds a bit like [Ratner's signature office tower] Building 1.

Build, baby build! AY is Marty's ANWR

According to Borough President Marty Markowitz, as reported by Steven Witt in this week's Courier-Life:

"The recent drop in the stock market and the weakening of the American economy underscores the importance of moving ahead with projects like Atlantic Yards."

No matter what is happening in the world around us, guys like Marty handily turn it into a reason to build Atlantic Yards...

Build, baby build!

And in the meantime, Markowitz will gladly accept more six-figure checks from Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner for his summer concert serie