 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
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.
More about
DDDB...
|
|
|
|
 |
ARCHIVES:
By Date|
By Category|
Text Search
|
The Meaning of Ratner's Most Recent Bait and Switch
Click to enlarge
World-renowned architect Frank Gehry was used by Bruce Ratner to gain
public and political support for his Atlantic Yards proposal. But on
June 4th Ratner officially
fired Gehry from the entire project and released a new design for
the arena.
DDDB’s opposition to Atlantic Yards was never about the architect, it has been guided by the fact that the whole project and process is a violation of the public trust, not just the recent bait and switch with Frank Gehry. The Gehry bait and switch is emblematic of a pattern with the Atlantic Yards project. Just some of the earlier examples are:
BAIT: 50% “affordable” housing...
SWITCH: 37% “affordable” housing, with no answers about how
many units there will be or when (and most units wouldn’t be affordable to most
Brooklynites.)
BAIT: 8 acres of “publicly accessible open space”
SWITCH: 6 acres of inner condo courtyards & the once promised
public arena rooftop park is gone.
BAIT: 10,000 office jobs
SWITCH: Zero office space is now planned.
BAIT: 4,500 housing units
SWITCH: 6,430 units
BAIT: Commitment to buy MTA’s rail yards for the lowball sum of $100 million at
closing & construct a state-of-the-art, new rail yard and a platform over the
yards.
SWITCH: $10 or $20 million at closing and no state-of-the-art
rail yard or platform.
BAIT: Construction timeline when approved was 10 years for the whole project
SWITCH: Marisa Lago, CEO of Empires State Development Corporation
(the state agency overseeing the project) says it will take “decades.” Nearly
half a year after approval Ratner got agreements with City and State to take 6
years to build just the arena, 12 years to build Phase 1 (arena & 4 towers), no
timeline for Phase 2 where the bulk of the affordable housing was proposed.
BAIT: Would remove alleged “blight”
SWITCH: Ratner has created real blight.
Atlantic Yards is neither a “dead deal” nor a “done deal.”
Ratner wants to control 22 acres in the heart of Brooklyn, demolish it, blight
it, build an arena and sit on the rest until he feels like it; and the New York
State appears willing to let him do that. That’s why we
need your help to continue the fight during these next crucial months. There
are key MTA & Empire State Development Corp. public meetings on June 22, 23, and
24, where the future of the project will come into focus. Please visit www.dddb.net/upcoming
for details.
Posted: 6.21.09
|
|
|
|
