DailyHeights

Dan Goldstein of Develop Don’t Destroy says today that there is a “secret” Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Forest City Ratner and New York City/State…

Goldstein: “This second MOU lays out plans for an even larger development, and more development rights, for Bruce Ratner than the public MOU.”

“… The second MOU, or ‘MOU 2,’ allows new development rights for FCR to develop millions more square feet over their Atlantic Center Mall and the PC Richards/Modell’s mall … These sites are directly adjacent to the disclosed footprint of Ratner’s proposed Brooklyn Atlantic Yards (BAY) …

“MOU 2 also refers to a mysterious previous MOU from May 2004.”

“It also provides for a state takeover of yet more acres in addition to the 21 acres in the public MOU. This would add more than one million square feet to what is already 8 million square feet of development in the BAY plan, and what is already an overburdened traffic intersection and public transportation hub.”

I MOU. MOU 2?

Discuss.

JOSHUA ROBIN writes in Newsday: “The MTA voted this afternoon to negotiate exclusively with developers planning a basketball arena and high-density residential community on the authority’s downtown Brooklyn rail yards, shutting out for now a rival bid that sought a more modest neighborhood on the site.”

“The 11-1 vote allows Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials to seek more money from developer Bruce Ratner for the Atlantic Avenue site, giving them 45 days to reach a new agreement … If the deal isn’t struck in that time, MTA officials could return to discussions with the rival developer, the Extell Development Co.”

CHARLES V. BAGLI writes in the New York Times: “The real estate investment group battling with the developer Bruce Ratner for control of the Atlantic railyard near Downtown Brooklyn offered a compromise yesterday that it said would allow both parties to declare victory: The group would incorporate Mr. Ratner’s plan to build a glass-walled basketball arena for the Nets into its project.”

“The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is scheduled to review the rival bids, and possibly select a winner, at its board meeting tomorrow. The investment group, led by Gary Barnett, president of Extell Development Company, has offered $150 million in cash for development rights at the 8.3-acre site, or three times as much as Mr. Ratner.”

“But Mr. Ratner, who has worked for three years on a $3.5 billion proposal for the arena and 6,000 apartments at the railyard and on adjoining parcels of land, brushed off the proposal. He contends that the transit authority and the public will get far more from his project than the $50 million he bid, including a newly built railyard, affordable housing, transit station improvements and tax revenue from the arena.”

“‘Forest City Ratner has an unmatched record in Brooklyn and throughout the city for developing and completing highly complex projects,’ said Joseph DePlasco, a spokesman for Mr. Ratner and his company, Forest City Ratner. ‘Also, they already have in place a long-term partnership with community groups and community leaders to develop thousands of needed jobs and 2,500 units of affordable housing while generating billions of dollars in revenue for the city and the state.'”

LINK: Development Rival Offers Compromise on Nets Arena [New York Times]

[Thanks to RHODAMINE for the photo of the Atlantic railyards.]

Breaking! Lucas writes: “Whoa – no less than half an hour after I left [the Wed. night Daily Heights happy hour at] Soda, BUILD caught a brick (or something) through the window… A report from the streets:”

20 minutes ago (say, 10:50 pm), the sound of breaking glass spilled into my living room, immediately followed by an inaudible yell (“Fuck You!” ?). My roommate and I walked over to the window (no, we didn’t jump up and run; smashing glass isn’t unusual around here – La Rena, the market across the street, was robbed a couple weeks ago at 5 am). We looked down from the third floor and tried to determine what was going on. A police car was stopped at the Bergen/Vanderbilt light, headed westbound on Bergen. There were no more than 4 or 5 people on the street. The police car crept forward as the light changed, paused for a minute (a 20-something black man in a tank top was walking towards the car, away from the sound), then the police accelerated quickly away. My roommate and I sat down, assuming someone had broken a beer bottle. Less than 10 minutes later, the breaking sounds resumed …

More photos and story after the jump! …
Read more …

Marie Louis of BUILD writes on DAILY HEIGHTS: “I think it would be great to have a public debate between BUILD and DDDb on the value of Atlantic Yards and the CBA to our community. We believe in our mission of using the development process to create and connect people to sorely needed employment, business, affordable housing and educational opportunities. We must close the wealth, unemployment and poverty gaps that has rendered our community into a state of socio-economic apartheid. Pockets of wealth in the midst of neighhorhoods grappling with extreme rates of poverty, unemployment and underclass entrapment.”

“Instead of complaining about challenges or ignoring them BUILD recognized the hope and the potential to connect people to opportunties through the Atlantic Yards / Nets Arena project. Opportunities to help make a dent in the local unemployment and poverty crises by changing the paradigm for how development transpires in neighborhood. Consequently [BUILD] launched a movement to secure a Community Benefits Agreement for Atlantic Yards- Announced at our first conference on Sunday, February 9, 2004 on the steps of City Hall.”

“We praise God for blessing us with the success of signing a CBA on Monday, June 27, 2005.”

“Again, my parting words are: I challenge Develop Don’t Destroy to a public Debate on The Value of FCRC’s Atlantic Yards and why it would be detrimental to our community for it to not move forward.”

LINKS:
Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development [buildbrooklyn.org]
Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn [dddb.net]

REVEALED: The Source of BUILD’s Wealth [Daily Heights]
BUILD Burns Midnight Oil on Vanderbilt Ave. [Daily Heights]
Are “Angry Yards” Protesters Ratner Puppets? [Daily Heights]

Architecht Douglas Hamilton, RA writes in a release archived on boerumhillbrooklyn.org:

“… After a virtually clandestine announcement in the back pages of the Times, the embattled state transportation agency is allowing only 43 days for potential competitors to prepare bids on a spectacularly valuable and very complicated Greater Downtown Brooklyn site that the State’s preferred developer has been working on for more than a year-and-a-half.”

“The New York business community should be deeply concerned about the message that this kind of backroom deal-making sends to the larger world of commerce. In essence, we are posting signs at all ports of entry to New York saying, “CLOSED FOR BUSINESS (Unless you have inside connections)”. …the ghosts of Tammany Hall and Robert Moses are still lurking in the back corridors of City Hall and the Statehouse.”

Full text of Hamilton’s statement below.
Read more …

From the And-You-Thought-The-Onion-Was-Funny dept.:

DEBORAH KOLBEN writes in the Daily News: “Just weeks after a group of Brooklyn clergy published a newspaper bashing the proposed downtown Brooklyn Nets arena complex, developer Bruce Ratner has gotten into the newspaper game… The Brooklyn Standard [PDF], a glossy 16-page tabloid with information about the $3.5 billion project, is scheduled to hit the stands today…”

Q: Wait… what’s so funny about that? Why is Daily Heights so anti-Ratner?
A: We aren’t.

Q: That’s a lie. If you are so neutral, then why are you always making fun of the Atlantic Yards project?
A: The Atlantic Yards project is being promoted by–and will benefit–people with money, power and influence. Generally speaking, these people say and do many things that are amusing. Are they funnier than us commoners? Possibly not. But we do have a popular media obsessed by money, power and influence that feeds us hilarious quotes, like this one:

“We said from the beginning that we are going to provide as much information as humanly possible,” said Joe DePlasco,…spokesperson for a company that last updated its Atlantic Yards website more than 500 days ago.

LINK: Ratner Rolls Out Tabloid to Sell $3.5B Arena Plan New York Daily News

[PICTURED: Bertha Lewis of ACORN kisses Michael Bloomberg; Tom Callan in the Brooklyn Papers]

Found on Develop-Don’t Destroy: “In Thursday’s, June 9th, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Ms. Lewis is quoted as saying this:”

“‘…It is because of race and class that whenever you have a small group of white liberals running and screaming about something, people think its important.” and “What about the thousands of low-income people of color who say that this is a good opportunity, that this could give us jobs and affordable housing? They don’t have to worry about affordable housing. They don’t give a damn about people of color. All they care about is preserving their little Prospect Heights community.”

—
We here at DAILY HEIGHTS have suspected this all along, because we have our finger on the pulse of the community. Here are some relevant comments, posted anonymously a few months back, on our dailyheights forums:

“I am so sick of all of the Yuppies and Gentrifiers moving into what used to be a GREAT Neighborhood. I can’t wait for stadium to be built and for rents to go up. When that happens, the only people who will be able to afford to live in the neighborhood will be the super-rich and the super-poor!…”

“… guess what folks? The drug dealers, loud music, and people from the ‘hood aren’t going anywhere. And neither are the barber shops, hair salons, or nail salons. People of Color (me included!), like to look good. We take pride in our appearance and can appreciate a good manicure every week. So, if you’re gonna live in Prospect Heights, get used to everything about it.”

“I can’t wait for Ratner to tear down those overpriced lofts! I can’t wait for the ball players to take over Brooklyn! Jay Z is coming. P-Diddy is coming. And the Nets are coming. I am so, so, excited! Ya’ll ain’t ready for the African-American Nouveu Riche.”

Links:
Ms. Lewis is Quoted as Saying This [Develop–Don’t Destroy]
Y’all Ain’t Ready for the African-American Nouveau Riche [dailyheights forums]