Weekly Digest: Pushback to Emerging Project Revisions
Weekly Digest: Pushback to Emerging Project Revisions
The coalition BrooklynSpeaks seeks more deeply affordable housing, and more. Also: a belated meeting for project neighbors, plus a note to readers.
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 was about a briefing by the coalition BrooklynSpeaks to local officials about the pending plans to revise the project with a new developer and, likely, bigger buildings and more density.
They rightly call for deeper affordable housing, given the project’s track record, and argue for reciprocity from the arena operator.
I think the arguments are worthy, given the need to push back against the state’s typical support for any developer, but wonder if the push for affordability means they’ll give carte blanche on scale.
Also, I don’t disagree that emerging plans deserve third-party analysis regarding finances, but think that vetting should extend more broadly. Read more here.
A belated meeting Wednesday
For those in Brooklyn concerned about (and wanting updates) on the project, there will be a Quality of Life Update meeting 6 pm on Wednesday, a day after the election.
The meeting will be held online, which, as I wrote, does accommodate more people, but it also allows--as experience has shown--the organizers to ignore follow-up questions and prevents attendees from conversing with each other and possibly sharing information.
The meeting will be on Zoom. Registration: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jfX9MgsFTsWiguTSctqB1w/
Questions and comments for the presenters can be submitted via email to AtlanticYards@esd.ny.gov before the meeting. Questions and comments can also be submitted in the virtual platform’s chat feature during the meeting.
As I wrote, it’s unclear whether we’ll get any substantive updates about plans for the remaining project, but I do expect them to address, for example, the role of the (seemingly phantom) Pacific Park Conservancy, which governs the open space, including a noisy dog run.
From Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report
Oct. 29: Though Related CEO drops claim against seven named (aggrieved) EB-5 investors, harassment said to continue, so lawsuit amended to target various "John Does."
This is the company that, as part of a joint venture, may take over Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park. Note: when the initial lawsuit was filed, it prompted a flurry of coverage in the real estate/business press. But no one followed up on this latest twist.
Oct. 30: China Construction America, once said to be contractor for Vanderbilt Yard platform, found liable for $1.6 billion in Bahamas construction dispute.
This raises a question: did Atlantic Yards dodge a bullet, in avoiding work by this company (which, yes, has experience with the Long Island Rail Road)?
Nov. 1: Barclays Center releases November 2024 event calendar: ten concerts, six Brooklyn Nets games, and two nights of college hoops.
Nov. 2: Now open on Dean Street, at entrance to open space between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues: SIMÒ pizza. It’s open for lunch, unlike Nin Hao, the fancier new restaurant also part of the 595 Dean complex.
A note to readers
I conceived of this newsletter a year ago, when the project was in a seeming lull. I saw it as a way to take stock of some things, to post some “explainer” articles, and to produce new in-depth articles.
I hoped to reach New Yorkers new to the project and those in the urban planning field, including academics.
I didn’t know—I should have!—how much was going on behind the scenes, later uncovered via Freedom of Information Law requests, such as the proposed supersizing of the project and a new plan for Site 5.
Nor did I know—though it emerged before the newsletter launch—that the current master developer, Greenland USA, would face foreclosure on its six railyard tower sites.
So I have numerous articles in incomplete form. For example, as I learned when I recently led a tour of the project site, no one knew why the Barclays Center has a green roof.
No, it’s not mainly for esthetic purposes; it’s to tamp down bass escaping from the building. (Yes, that’s another article in process.)
My internal statistics show that this newsletter gets more readership (or, at least, open rate) than my (often) shorter posts on my long-running blog, Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report. After all, if you don’t want to follow those more frequent posts, you’ll always get a round-up here.
But please share any queries or comments, so I can continue to refine my coverage.
Tours
I recently led a couple of tours for the annual Open House New York weekend. (The tours were free, with a small registration fee.) It was interesting, as always, to meet some people for whom aspects of the project rang a bell (a modular building!), and others who knew little.
I also lead an annual free tour on the first Friday of May, part of the annual Jane’s Walk festival, organized by the Municipal Art Society.
Before then, I may lead another tour for Open House New York, perhaps for a modest fee on top of registration. If so, I’ll announce it here and try to give readers a priority. I’m also available, of course, to lead tours for classes and groups, for a fee.