Weekly Digest: a Noisy Dog Run, a New Affordable Housing Graphic
Weekly Digest: a Noisy Dog Run, a New Affordable Housing Graphic
A highly controlled online meeting fails to ventilate the full dog run dispute; a Barclays Center rep leans into the "Urban Experience."
This digest offers a way for people to keep up with my Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report blog, as well as my other coverage in this newsletter and elsewhere.
My long story this week, published in Common Edge, was Delays Undermine Promises of Affordable Housing in Brooklyn, explaining how rising Area Median Income (AMI), as well as policy changes and loose contract language, allowed the developers of Atlantic Yards to deliver below-market “affordable housing” far more costly than envisioned.
The record undermines the claim, by a state judge in 2010, that, “Whatever the pace may be for the delivery” of benefits like affordable housing, “the nature of those benefits remains the same.”
Notably, my article also includes the debut of a new infographic by Ben Keel, detailing not just the affordability “band” for each below-market unit delivered, but also the actual cost.
The trend is stark. It shows not just a skew toward middle-income apartments but also how they have become more costly over time. Bonus irony: the units could be even more costly, but developers recognize that asking for the allowable “affordable” rents would be unwise.
A curious meeting
For the first time since February 2023, Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, held a Quality of Life meeting to air residents’ concerns and provide project updates.
In reality, it was mostly to provide project updates, since the online format is distinctly un-transparent: attendees are invisible, without ability to speak on or off camera. Chat is disabled. Only the hosts see the questions. Attendees, unlike in an in-person meeting, can’t follow up or to communicate with others.
Of course, scheduling it the day after the election guaranteed many people would be distracted. There’s no video, either; a recording would highlight the meeting’s flaws.
It’s important to recognize these tactics because ESD likely will report, at a meeting next Thursday of the advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation, that it had dutifully conducted a meeting and various issues were discussed.
It’s unlikely ESD will acknowledge that the format was designed to tamp down pesky questions and potential community solidarity.
A dog run dilemma
At the meeting, a representative of the Pacific Park Conservancy, an entity that in May I rightly described as a phantom, told attendees that they had decided to limit hours at the dog run, which has been subject to noise complaints, located west of the West Tower of the 595 Dean complex.
Sounds like progress?
Well, not quite, and you had to read my coverage to understand. I separately spoke to a neighbor of the dog run, who said the hours weren’t being enforced and that early morning noise, at 6 am, would still be permitted.
Separately, a representative of an informal group of dog owners told me that a 6 pm close for most of the year ignores their schedules and the needs of dogs.
Could there be a resolution? Well, it likely would require investment—by the Conservancy, 595 Dean builder TF Cornerstone, even the dog owners—to tamp down the sound.
The “Urban Experience” rhetoric
I also reported how a representative of arena operator BSE Global, thanks to the online format, offered a commercial for a planned youth basketball program at the former Modell’s store across from the arena, and otherwise provided positive updates on arena issues.
Notably, Marissa Shorenstein referred to the arena’s Ticketmaster Plaza, now on its fourth sponsor, as the “Urban Experience,” an obscure term from state documents not previously used by arena reps.
Why might they be leaning into “Urban Experience” rhetoric?
Well, I suspect BSE Global is trying to position the plaza as more a civic than commercial space, thus helping evade pressure to pay for the privilege of making it permanent.
From Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report
Nov. 5: Adweek: Brooklyn Magazine relaunches as BKMag after BSE Global buys it, plans to emphasize guides and short-form videos. That friendly article missed the fact that the publication’s Editor-in-Chief has departed—presumably nudged out—after 7 months.
Nov. 6: An online meeting tonight at 6 pm to hear residents' concerns and project updates. Here are some issues: arena impacts, dog run, open space, signage.
Nov. 7: At belated online meeting about project issues, low turnout & big questions bypassed. Looming: foreclosure, new developer, supersizing plan. Part 1 of 3.
Whose map explains more? Not the one above. Click to my coverage for a more illuminating one.
Nov. 8: Acknowledging noise complaints, Pacific Park Conservancy reduces dog run hours. Dog owners, neighbors both frustrated. Can sound be tamped down? Part 2 of 3.
Nov. 9: Is a project change cooking, or at least a permitted developer? Advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation set to meet Nov. 14 at 3 pm in Brooklyn.
My bet: it’s too soon for Empire State Development to report that it’s negotiated project changes with a joint venture, involving Hudson Yards developer Related Companies, expected to take over the six development sites (B5-B10) over the Vanderbilt Yard.
However, it’s not unlikely ESD will report that the new joint venture qualifies as a “permitted developer.” That, however, raises a question about vetting the “regional center”—the private entity that recruited immigrant investors under the EB-5 investor visa program.
Nov. 10: At meeting, arena rep outlines plans for kids' hoops at Modell's, offers reassuring rhetoric about arena operations (& vendors), leans into "Urban Experience." Part 3 of 3.
A final note: adding BlueSky
If you’re on social media, perhaps you follow me on Twitter/X, where I’m @AYReport. I’ve also recently joined the app BlueSky, where I’m @normanoder.bsky.social. So I’m now posting links and (occasionally) entering into discussions on both.
A good number of journalists and urbanists have either joined or migrated to BlueSky, though it remains to be seen if the other Twitter/X alternatives, like Threads and Mastodon (which I’m not on), will rise as well.