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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
DDDB...
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CORRECTED. NY Press Corps Gets It Wrong.
C'mon guys.
 Lawsuits
Are Alive and Well.
There was much confusion (read: underinformed mistakes made)
this morning regarding some legal news related to "Atlantic Yards."
Each news outlet covering the story got a little piece of it wrong, but the Daily
Intelligencer blog of New York Magazine got the story lavishly wrong
(they have since corrected
their errors and NoLandGrab has covered
their fiction fixed for reality).
Before we go any further we'll state it simply: There was no decision
today on the federal legal challenge to New York State's and Forest City Ratner's
abuse of eminent domain. Any news reports saying so or implying otherwise are
misleading.
There was much confusion (read: underinformed mistakes made) this morning regarding
some legal news related to "Atlantic Yards." Each news outlet covering
the story got a little piece of it wrong, but the Daily Intelligencer
blog of New York Magazine got the story lavishly wrong (they have since
corrected
their errors and NoLandGrab has covered
their mistakes).
To cut to the chase: There is NO news on the federal eminent domain lawsuit—Goldstein
v. Pataki—filed by 13 "Atlantic Yards" footprint property
owners and tenants. That lawsuit alleges that New York State's use of
eminent domain for the project is a violation of the United States Constitution.
If the plaintiffs win that suit, "Atlantic Yards" as proposed cannot
be built as their properites are located where the developer wants to build the
project. On March 30th in front of New York Eastern District Justice Nicholas
Garaufis there was a three-hour oral argument on the defendants' motion to dismiss.
Today marks seven weeks since that hearing and both sides await Judge Garaufis's
decision. For an in-depth report on the substance of the March 30th hearing, go
to the coverage
from Atlantic Yards Report.
What New York's press corps was trying to report today was that
a Manhattan State Supreme Court case—Anderson v. ESDC—was
dismissed yesterday by presiding Judge Tolub. That case involved 13 rent-stabilized
tenants who reside in the proposed "Atlantic Yards" project site. They
argued that the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) does not have the
legal authority to terminate rent-stabilized leases, that that authority is held
by the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR). Judge
Tolub did not dismiss the case on the merits, but instead ruled that the plaintiffs'
claims belonged in the Appellate Division where they now intend to go.
While we fully support these tenants' defense of their rights, this case has no
relationship to or bearing on Goldstein v. Pataki, has entirely different
litigants and attorney, is not funded at all by the DDDB Legal Fund and was not
organized by DDDB.
The legal fate of "Atlantic Yards" rests primarily in the final outcome
of Goldstein v. Pataki, and the suit—DDDB
et. al. v. ESDC. et. al.—filed on April 5th in State Supreme Court
which challenges the Final Environmental Impact Statement and seeks to annul the
project's environmental review and approval. That case was argued for nearly four
hours in front of Justice Joan Madden on May 3rd. Again Atlantic
Yards Report
has outstanding coverage of those arguments. Both of those cases are pending
and that status quo persists.
Finally, each news outlet that covered the story, from NY1
to the NY
Times, got the arguments of the Anderson case wrong. Furthermore,
each outlet that did cover this story erroneously also entirely
ignored the epic May 3rd DDDB et. al. v. ESDC. et. al. hearing.
So while all goes well with the legal cases DDDB is involved with and fundraising
for, all is not well with the New York press corps.
Posted: 5.18.07
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