Atlantic Yards Blunders On
Marty places blame everywhere but with himself
The Brooklyn Paper has some interesting and funny news in today's edition concerning Atlantic Yards, the first of which is a telling editorial:
Borough President Markowitz earned our "Press Release of the Week" award with an amazing bit of political legerdemain.Who'da thunk the same guy who lynched a bunch of anti-development community board members ("Marty Shows His Muscle in Brooklyn," AN 11_06.20.2007) would confuse his policy points.
The Beep, a strong supporter of the Atlantic Yards project, put out an angry press release on Wednesday railing against a Metropolitan Transportation Authority plan to cover an expected $300-million deficit next year by hiking subway fares by 10 percent.
Here's where the fancy footwork comes in.
Markowitz's beloved Atlantic Yards project is largely being built over land that the MTA sold to Ratner in 2005 for a mere $100 million — $114 million less than the MTA's own appraisal said the development rights were worth. In a truly open market, those rights might have even gone for more.
At least the mayor, pro-development as he might be, managed to recover some of the $300 million tax break that arose once 421-a legislation hit Albany. Aimed at promoting 80/20 market-rate/affordable housing complexes, Atlantic Yards was suddenly factored in because it provided affordable housing, even though it is not spread evenly among the buildings, as the law requires and therefore would have only qualified the those buildings that included affordable units. Mayor Bloomberg has managed to cut the subsidy's coverage from 25 to 15 years, chopping $100 million dollars off the subsidy.
The article also points out work done by the indefatigable Norman Oder of the Atlantic Yards Report that finds Bruce Ratner's Brooklyn Nets arena to be a losing deal, at least financially. Remind me how this project is good for anyone but Forest City Ratner and the politicians and lobbyists getting kickbacks?"
MATT CHABAN