Weekly Digest: When the Arena Operator Won't Come Clean
How tough is candor? Also, a test of three AI chatbots on Atlantic Yards.
This digest offers a way to keep up with my Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report blog and my other coverage in this newsletter and elsewhere.
I’m writing late enough on Sunday to note that the Brooklyn Nets, losing today to the New York Knicks, ended a forgettable season that columnist Steve Lichtenstein called a “waste.” Of course, good luck in the NBA draft lottery could put the team back on a more optimistic path.
Rest assured, there will be new players next year to promote, and then to forget. Remember Dennis Schröder?
This wasn’t a big week in Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park news, but one thread, as suggested below, is whether the managers of the Barclays Center can be trusted.
The answer: not quite. First, they announced an “activation” on the arena plaza without explaining that “elevated sound” meant a DJ for hours. Then, evidence was clear that arena operators didn’t clean the plaza directly post-event, as promised, but let the mess linger until morning.
From this newsletter
April 10: What Does AI Say About Atlantic Yards? It can be useful, but it can miss some things—sometimes a lot—or even make stuff up.
I posed several questions posed to three models. I suspect that more and more, people will be using AI for search and—gulp—to produce student papers or, at least, a first draft.
But it’s only as good as what is sucks in, and not everything is available on the open web. The AI-produced image below is perhaps a metaphor.
From Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report
April 8: The only game in town? Offering Memorandum for immigrant investors in "Atlantic Yards II" claimed middleman U.S. Immigration Fund (USIF) was "the holder" of EB-5 rights in NYC.
In other words, the USIF, which is steering the long-gestating foreclosure of six Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park sites, is not exactly trustworthy.
April 9: So, there will be an "activation" on the Barclays Center plaza, with "elevated sound," tomorrow and Sunday, before Brooklyn Nets games. That didn’t tell us much, and the arena operators should’ve come clean.
Well, I followed up and observed the DJ and the truncated plaza. It’s only a public space when they let it be so.
April 11: Aiming for an edge, landlord Brodsky (with two Atlantic Yards towers) now touting "Neighborly Events" programming. An Atlantic Yards story that emerged in Curbed, thanks to a press release.
April 12: Flashback, 2013: a ceremony at Brooklyn Borough Hall involving aide Winnie Greco, a delegation from Shanghai, and a future ESD Director, John Wang, all after Greenland Holding Group, parent of Greenland USA, entered the Atlantic Yards picture.
Thanks to China Daily, which memorialized it. Why is this important? Well, maybe it isn’t. But it’s worth knowing who all the players are.
April 13: As photos of liquor bottles and other trash show, maybe the Barclays Center operating company doesn't clean the arena plaza "through post-event," as a representative of the arena company claimed last November.
Why am I focused on such “bad news,” rather than all the happy people who attended the reggae fest, and the other arena events? Well, someone has to try to keep them accountable
Reader bonus
My two free tours as part of Jane’s Walk NYC, “A Megaproject Unresolved: What Happened with Atlantic Yards?,” are available at on May 2 (Friday) at 6 pm and on May 3 (Saturday) at 9 am. Registration is required.