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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.
More about
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With Ruling Against Columbia, Atlantic Yards Eminent Domain Case Gets New Life
For Immediate Release: December 3, 2009
Not So Fast, It’s Not Over
Court’s Decision in Columbia Case
Breathes New Life Into
Case Against Eminent Domain for
Brooklyn Atlantic Yards Project
Victory Against Eminent Domain Abuse
Looks Like Tipping Point In Statewide Fight
BROOKLYN, NY — The Atlantic Yards project suffers a blow.
In an important decision with far-reaching ramifications, New York’s Supreme
Court Appellate Division (First Department) ruled
today that the Empire State Development Corporation cannot seize private properties
by eminent domain to give to Columbia University.
The property owners and tenants in the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case, Goldstein
et al. v NY Urban Development Corp., were thrown a lifeline today by
a Manhattan state appellate court. In a 3-2 decision the Appellate Division ruled
that the state agency violated the Constitution when it found that the Manhattanville
area near Columbia University was blighted and thus subject to seizure and transfer
to the private university.
“The timing of the ruling is certainly propitious,” said Matthew Brinckerhoff,
lead counsel for the home and business owners who just nine days ago had lost
the first stage of their legal challenge to the confiscation of their properties. “As
Justice Catterson rightly observed the Empire State Development Corporation’s
abusive practices are the height of ‘idiocy.’ In the next few days, we will file
a motion asking the Court of Appeals to reconsider its ruling in our case, based
on this new indictment of the agency’s standard operating procedure. We
know that the Court of Appeals will now review the Columbia University ruling,
and we are optimistic that the abuse of power detailed in Justice Catterson’s
powerful opinion, combined with the agency’s similar conduct in the Atlantic Yards
case will cause a few of the Judges who already expressed skepticism to reconsider
their decision. This will give us a rare second bite at the apple. We will not
waste it.”
“My co-plaintiffs and I will fight every way possible to keep our homes and businesses from being seized. It is clear to me that the Catterson opinion speaks directly to the very same abuses perpetrated by the ESDC in its attempts to push Ratner’s project forward. Today's Columbia ruling gives us good reason for hope that our rights to enjoy our properties will be restored by the Court,” said Daniel Goldstein lead plaintiff on the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case.
Posted: 12.03.09
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