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+--- Thread: Atlantic Yards is a go (/showthread.php?tid=12446)
Atlantic Yards is a go - Paper Boy - 12-21-2006
mr ratner finally got permission to build his new stadium and 16 towers in brooklyn.
i don't know if anyone has been to the area where they are building the stadium but there's really no easy way to get there. the only choice you have is by subway, for long islanders, you'll have to change at jamaica, always fun, and get on whatever subway goes to brooklyn. people from jersey and points north will have to ride into penn or grand central and jump on the subway. the place will definately sellout the first few seasons but after that, i don't know.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/am-yards1221,0,6847972.story?track=rss">http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyo ... ?track=rss</a><!-- m -->
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Gov. George Pataki reached an agreement Wednesday clearing the way for a giant, $4-billion project that would reshape part of Brooklyn with office towers, apartment buildings and an 18,000-seat basketball arena hosting the New Jersey Nets.
The leaders agreed to move ahead with the 22-acre Atlantic Yards project after months of debate that pitted residents who fear destruction of Brooklyn's brownstone environment against officials and developers who believe it will create thousands of jobs.
The approval means "we can build critically needed housing, including affordable housing, new community facilities, grand open spaces and increase economic development all across Brooklyn," Pataki said. He added that he looks forward "to eating a hot dog as I watch the Brooklyn Nets play in Brooklyn's new arena in the 2009-2010 season."
Silver said he decided to approve the project because the developer agreed to meet numerous community concerns, including affordable housing, open space and upgrading of parks.
The vote moving the project ahead took place at the obscure but key state Public Authorities Control Board, a panel controlled by Pataki, Silver and Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.
The project is backed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and the vast majority of the City Council, State Assembly and Senate also support it. The Empire State Development Corp., another key agency, approved the project earlier this month.
Calling it "unique in scope and ambition," Bloomberg also praised its approval and called the project "the biggest private sector investment in Brooklyn's history and the ultimate example of mixed-use development."
The Atlantic Yards project was designed by architect Frank Gehry, and would rise above a downtown Brooklyn railyard. It would bring a major league sports franchise to Brooklyn for the first time since the Dodgers left in 1957. The developer, Bruce Ratner, owns the Nets.
The project, centered at Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, calls for 16 towers with 4,500 apartments, a hotel and office and retail space. One building would rise 58 stories above the railyards. Gehry scaled down the project after protests.
Bertha Lewis of the community group ACORN called the vote "a holiday gift for Brooklyn families. The Atlantic Yards project represents a historic 50-50 commitment to affordable housing and jobs."
Opponents of the project contend that its scale and striking design, including undulating glass towers of varying size and lengths, would alter Brooklyn's character and create a traffic, air quality and noise nightmare.
Daniel Goldstein, a spokesman for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, noted that opponents are suing to block construction. "The constitutionality and legality of their illegitimate project has yet to be proved," he said.