Mark Twain said there are lies, damn lies and statistics and his adage applies to unemployment measurement. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes six unemployment metrics monthly, each referred to in ascending order of inclusiveness of the unemployed as U-1, U-2, etc.

The measure reported by the media as the unemployment rate that severely undercounts the unemployed is referred to as U-3. The U-3 rate is obtained by dividing the narrowest definition of the unemployed by the work force.
The U-3 definition does not include whom the BLS calls discouraged and marginal workers, those who want a job but have given up the search because market conditions and personal experience indicate the process is futile.

U-6 Unemployment counts the marginal and discouraged plus those seeking full time employment but can only find part time work. The Federal Reserve tracks what it defines as the Augmented Unemployment rate, which I’ve read is equivalent to U-6 less part time workers. I couldn’t find any Augmented Unemployment releases on the Fed site and despite major data inclusion differences, some bloggers have used U-6 and the Fed’s stat interchangeably.

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.

Does sloppy bookkeeping and oversight encourage confidence? Not in my mind. Yet the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) continues its shoddy oversight of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yard's project. Keep in mind that the ESDC has up to now been nothing but a rubber stamp for everything the Axis of crony capitalism (Ratner and his political pawns) has wanted. Now they file an inadequate and incomplete financial projection for Ratner's overdevelopment plan that basically tells the taxpayers very little about what it will actually cost them in the long run. This comes from the number one organization that has been fighting Ratner's corrupt plan from the start, DDDB:

Financial projections released today by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) purporting to show Forest City Ratner's (FCRC) projected profit for the proposed "Atlantic Yards" project appear to raise more questions than they answer - and to severely understate the developer's profit.

The financial documents, which were released only after State Assemblyman Jim Brennan and State Senator Velmanette Montgomery sued the ESDC for the information, fail to provide sufficient details or underlying assumptions, including information on "sources and uses" typically provided for a project receiving significant amounts of public funding. In some cases, the documents omit information altogether, for example, assigning no projected value to the project's planned hotel. The true value of the assets, once built, would appear to be much higher than the values outlined; several elements of the plan appear to be estimated below market value, let alone future value.

The first phase of what is likely to be a groundbreaking (no pun intended)...or maybe landmark (uh, oh...another pun)...okay, precedent setting eminent domain lawsuit has been decided in favor of the plaintiffs and against the Ratner/Pataki/Bloomberg axis of crony capitalism. The case is "Goldstein vs. Pataki" though it is understood that "Pataki" is nothing more than a cardboard cutout that Ratner is hiding behind, so I consider the case "Goldstein vs. Ratner." The defense had filed a motion to dismiss, but the presiding judge has found ample grounds for the lawsuit to procede:

In his report, Judge Levy found that the plaintiffs' case was certainly appropriate for the federal courts, and that contrary to defendants' arguments, was ripe to be heard. "Clearly, the proposed condemnations, and the consequent disposition of plaintiffs from their homes and businesses, pose a significant threat of harm," wrote Levy in dismissing the defendants' claims that the case was not yet ripe for federal court. He added that the "Plaintiffs' Amended Complaint raises serious and difficult questions regarding the exercise of eminent domain under emerging Supreme Court jurisprudence."

A Brooklyn reader sends me his open letter to incoming Governor Eliot Spitzer regarding his concerns about Ratner's gigantic plan for Central Brooklyn creating a new target for terrorists:

It is clear that the State run Atlantic Yards Development Project is headed for quick approval by the PACB. Once that occurs, rapidly followed by Governor Pataki’s exit, you will become the highest elected official responsible for the outcome of the project. Given that PACB’s decision will be based on materials prepared by the ESDC, which you have long criticized, it is equally clear that knowledge of the full impact of this project will not be available when they make that decision.

Unconscionably the ESDC has chosen to ignore all too many of the documented concerns of the communities surrounding this project. One area of profound consequence they have refused to address regards issues of public safety and security. Since the attacks of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina this has become a major focus of attention at all levels of government, yet any such consideration here was disregarded.

Beyond having just been overwhelmingly elected as Governor, this issue matters in terms of your current position as Attorney General. The decision of the ESDC to omit safety and security concerns, apart from violating common sense, also violates recent federal court decisions. For this reason it is likely that the state will be drawn into unnecessary litigation regarding the ESDC’s decision to prepare its Final Environmental Impact Statement as if concentrating three known terrorist targets at a single location will have no consequences and therefore need not be acknowledged.

Even as the Empire State Development Corporation's loving (and somewhat corrupt?) endorsement of Ratner's plan for central Brooklyn tries to recover from the delay caused by local musician Raul Rothblatt, a new and potentially far more challenging delay may be thrown at them.

NY Assembly members Joan Millman, Jim Brennan and Anette Robinson have co-signed a letter dated November 22nd, 2006 calling on Sheldon Silver to put the brakes on Ratner's plan until several changes are made and guarantees put into place. Their letter is an excellent enumeration of what is wrong with Ratner's plan. Scan of the letter below:

Errors in the Empire State Development Corporation's report on Ratner's plan to ruin Brooklyn have led to a delay in final approval of the project, probably allowing Eliot Spitzer to have more of a say if he chooses. Pataki has been fast tracking his buddy's plan in the fears that Spitzer, who agrees in principle with Ratner's plan, may decide that the process has been too corrupt and the plan too expensive for the state. But this little glitch will mean Spitzer can play more of a role in the process if he chooses.

From Erik Einquest at Newyorkbusiness.com:

New York state approval of the controversial Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn will likely be pushed back to 2007 because of a technical error by the Empire State Development Corp.

The ESDC failed to incorporate some public comments into the final environmental impact statement that its board certified last week. The document will have to be reprinted and certified again at Monday's meeting of the board...

Gov. George Pataki, whose term ends Dec. 31, is an enthusiastic supporter of the project. Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer has also said he favors the project, but has expressed a desire to look more closely at its financing...

Affordable Housing is the mantra that we keep hearing from the pro-Ratner camp, where people are willing to overlook the insane scale of the project, the sewage overflow problems, traffic problems, corruption and cronyism surrounding the process, and the lack of community input for the promise of affordable housing. I am very much for affordable housing, but it has almost become a code word in Brooklyn for pro-Ratner. But I have always felt that Ratner's promise of affordable housing always seemed hollow. Where are the guarantees that he will keep his promise? How long will that housing be affordable to the average Brooklynite? And what does Ratner really mean by "affordable?"

Well, we are getting a hint that my feelings that Ratner's promises aren't trustworthy are founded.

One way to judge Ratner's proposals (as well as the three other proposals Pataki and Bloomberg have been ignoring!) is comparing it to other projects in NYC. Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) is doing just that and finds that according to Manhattan standards, only 17% of Ratner's proposed housing would be "affordable." Remember, we were told as much as 50% would be "affordable."

Seriously.

I also had a WFT moment after I read Michael's post about the WFP. I coincidentally had just finished talking to Dan Garodnick who is also calling for a strategic voting under the WFP banner, but in this case the candidate is Eliot Spitzer.

As you all know, Dan is my NYC Councilman, neighbor and the man who has taken it upon himself to fight the uphill battle of maintaining the already existing affordable housing we have in New York City.

So I called Garodnick to confirm if he had indeed lent his name to a flyer I got under my door the other day. It seems like it was circulated by the Stuyvesant Town Tenants' Association and it's asking for people to vote for Eliot Spitzer under the banner of the Working Families Party, instead of the Democratic Party.

Echoing what is already on the flyer, this is what he had to say:

Today was the second annual Walkathon for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn. My wife, son and I have now walked in both, raising our tiny amount of money for DDDB.

I will cut to the chase, then get to the personal observations. DDDB claims that the Walkathon raised more than $100,000 for their legal fund to challenge Bruce Ratner's corrupt plan for developing the Atlantic Yards and surrounding areas. Not bad!

I also want to, as I have many times, say that DDDB is NOT anti-development. That is a false myth put forward by Ratner supporters, and, I am afraid, perpetuated by many who should know better, including David Yassky. Yassky is now talking tougher about Ratner, which I applaud, but he continues to portray the Ratner opponents falsely as advocating against development on the site.

Okay, now with those two points out of the way, I want to describe what the DDDB Walkathon was like.

The event started at the Prospect Park bandshell, hung out there for awhile as people gathered and talked, marched up Prospect Park West to the Farmers' Market at Grand Army Plaza (which we were jokingly encouraged to "pillage and loot"...meaning buy stuff, of course), then marched down the park's main road back to the band shell, about 1.5 miles, I am told, which matches what my wife and I would guess from when we used to run in the park. We were led by an enthusiastic and fun marching band. Afterwards there was music and speeches, much of which I missed because my son wanted to play in the playground. We had great fun, though I noticed the CBID president distincly NOT playing in the playground! Shame!