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We Give Ratner the Atlantic Yards Land for Free
If you wanted to buy some land to develop for your own profit, would you expect taxpayers to pay the entire bill for you? Well, if you are a law school buddy of Pataki, that is exactly the sweet deal you could get while Pataki was Governor...and the exact deal Bruce Ratner seems to have gotten with you and me footing the bill.
This comes via Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn.
According to the March 9th 2007 Daily News New York City is spending $100 million to buy the property on or near the 22-acre Atlantic Yards site for developer Forest City Ratner.
Of the $205 million proposed to support the project in the Mayor's preliminary budget, $100 million is slated for land acquisition costs and $105 million for roads, utilities and other infrastructure needs, according to EDC officials.
The state is chipping in an additional $100 million.
David Yassky was pretty angry upon hearing this:
"There's no justification to spend public money like this," said Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn Heights). "Government money should be spent on transportation infrastructure, schools and traffic calming - not subsidies for a private company.
Now, what is especially galling about this is that Bruce Ratner agreed to pay $100 million for the land, according to the September 07, 2005 issue of Commercial Property News:
Plans for Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards development continue to trudge along after would-be developer Bruce Ratner...yesterday offered to double his offer to develop a glass-walled arena for the New Jersey Nets basketball team and a new rail yard. Ratner's $100 million bid, though still far short of rival bidder Extell Development Company's $150 million offer, plumps the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's budget by an extra $50 million.
Ratner's $100 million bid was finally accepted, part of the controversy where the low bid of a friend of then Governor Pataki was accepted over a higher bid. Now we learn that the city is planning to pay for the entirety of this land purchase?
Corruption runs deep in New York.
The question is, what will Yassky do about it?
Is he just going to make pissed-off noises or actually take steps? I mean, the City Council does have some say here.
Indeed
What will the City Council (not just Yassky) do about it?
And how can I get City money to pay for my apartment and the new paint jobs we've done to it?
This is fucking insane!
What exactly is Ratner paying for himself? It seems like this is a huge public development with his name on it, and him receiving all the profits.
While there have been many other outrageous aspects of this plan, I think this one might be what could turn some of the plan's big supporters against this project. It's one thing to offer tax breaks. It's quite another for the city to be buying land to give to a millionaire, when there were plenty of other developers willing to actually pay to develop the land.
Bingo
This whole thing is about the biggest, gapingly disgusting example of corruption I have ever seen. And Pataki, Bloomberg and Markowitz have the corruption all over them.
Recycling
I think this shows a noble example of recycling. Ratner is paying $100 million for the Vanderbilt Railyards (which make up 8.4 acres of the 22 acre site), and the City taxpayers are giving Ratner $100 million in subsidies. Free money! How great is that! Of course, the first $100 million in direct subsidies is only to be followed by another $105 million in direct subsidies, plus a couple hundred million in indirect subsidies.
Isn't it great how the government really does care about people. Especially people who happen have the most expensive lobbying efforts in the state.