Listening to NPR on Tueday morning they were covering a conference hosted by Crain's on NYC's recovery. Since I was at work, I only heard it intermittently, but was NOT impressed. It sounded like a dozen varieties of trickle down, voo-doo economics. Two basic themes were being put forward repeatedly during the parts I heard, with absolutely no challenge from the NPR folks:

1. Banks are our saviors and so need even more tax money for bailouts;

and

2. Developers are our saviors and so need more tax money for sweetheart deals from the city;

2a. A corollary to the second theme was we need infrastructure money because that benefits developers. That's right. Infrastructure was being discussed as helping DEVELOPERS not the community.  read more »

Seems Ratner is halting work, at least for now, on his Atlantic Yards Overdevelopment Project. Remember when this was being called a "Done Deal?"

From a Develop, Don't Destroy Press Release:

BROOKLYN, NY— Developer Forest City Ratner has halted all work on the proposed Atlantic Yards project site in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Specifically the developer has abruptly stopped work on building a new rail yard that would sit under a portion of development. The work stoppage was reported yesterday on the Atlantic Yards Report and today in the New York Daily News.

"Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project is clearly in a dire financial situation. There is no other way to explain why the developer has halted work on the only part of his Atlantic Yards plan unencumbered by litigation. He is delaying his own project because of a serious lack of financing," said Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) spokesman Daniel Goldstein."  read more »

The Brooklyn Papers has an interesting revelation that one of the people leading the pro-Ratner counter rally to Community opposition to Ratner's Atlantic Yards is an admitted pimp:

One of Bruce Ratner’s boosters at the pro–Atlantic Yards rally on Saturday is a former strip club manager who used to arrange for dancers to have sex with NBA stars.

The Atlantic Yards supporter, Thomas “Ziggy” Sicignano, who now runs Brooklyn U.S.A., a youth basketball program in Park Slope, said that Ratner’s foundation gave his organization $10,000 in 2005.

That donation came four years after his stunning courtroom admission that he prostituted strippers to attract NBA stars to the Gold Club in Atlanta.

This comes as no surprise. After all, the counter-rally wasn't a community based rally, but were getting paid to be there. And many people suddenly become Ratner supporters after getting paid money by him. Sicignano had his price. Vito Lopez had his price. Ratner's whole scheme is about buying favors, so he and a pimp would get along just fine.

As tomorrow's big anti-Ratner rally approaches, bringing together not just Ratner's usual opponents but even some former supporters turned sour (e.g. Bill DeBlasio), new revelations are coming out about Ratner's broken promises and the city's willingness to let him get away with anything.

We now know that Bruce Ratner is trying to weasel out of the Affordable Housing part of the deal he made with the city. Affordable Housing was the excuse the city had to throw so much money (taxpayer money) at Ratner's feet. Bringing the Nets to Brooklyn was another excuse. Ratner is backing out of the first promise. Is he backing out of the second one as well? According to the Newark Star-Ledger, Bruce Ratner may be giving up on bringing the Nets to Brooklyn:

The owner of the Devils hockey team and Newark Mayor Cory Booker are seeking to assemble a group of investors to buy the Nets and move the basketball team to Newark, according to people familiar with the effort.  read more »

Brooklynites concerned about Bruce Ratner's overdevlopment plan for Brooklyn might want to pay attention to a lawsuit MIT has filed against Ratner's architect, Frank Gehry.

Frank Gehry is a controversial figure, though I have always kind of liked his architecture. He has been criticized for wasting space and designing buildings that are too large and inconvenient for the people who use them. But to me his architecture always had a touch of the same playfulness I always have liked in the archtecture of Antoni Gaudi. Of course Gaudi was ridiculed early in his career, too.  read more »