All stories about "Atlantic Yards Stall"

On the left, we have Frank Gehry's original Miss Brooklyn, released almost exactly two years ago. On the right, is the new contender, the unfortunately named B1, released this morning. Whether B2 or Mr. Flatbush are coming in 12-24 months is unknown, but B1 is the latest Atlantic Yards thinking.

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Not only did we wake up to new Frank Gehry renderings of Atlantic Yards in the Daily News this morning, there was a competing "nightmare vision" of the project as an office building and arena surrounded by parking in the Post. The mini-tabloid war over Brooklyn's most controversial development follows a weekend that saw a rally calling on a "time out" on Atlantic Yards demolitions and a counter-demonstration that appeared to have been somewhat orchestrated by Forest City Ratner, not to mention a column in the Daily News bearing developers Bruce Ratner's name that said there is no such thing as an Atlantic Yards Stall and that the entire project would be completed by 2018. The Municipal Art Society helped prepare the "nightmare vision" renderings that form a dramatic counterpoint to Mr. Gehry's new "festive" Atlantic Yards vision. The Post's Rich Calder calls the possible future "Atlantic Lots," writing that "this vision of the state-approved project isn't attractive - unless parking spaces turn you on." Meanwhile, there is a back and forth over Mr. Ratner's 2018 scenario, with opponents saying that it's "pie in the sky."

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[Photo courtesy of Brit in Brooklyn]

After the public announcement of the Atlantic Yards Stall come the calls for a "moratorium" on demolition in Prospect Heights of buildings on properties that could eventually become part of the development. The original completion date for the project was already 2016 for some of the outlying parcels and, now, residents of Dean Street say there's no reason to keep tearing things down if the land is going to be empty until 2020 or so. The Dean Street Block Association sent a letter to Gov. David Paterson and to the head of the Empire State Development Corp. asking for the bulldozers to take a time out until the status of the project is clear, lest the neighborhood be left with wide-open 1960s Urban Renewal-style cleared land that stays empty for a decade or two or three. It asks for "a moratorium on demolition until such time that the communities surrounding Atlantic Yards can be assured that rational decisions are being made to protect the area from the blight associated by dormant sites, over-scaled inefficiently situated construction staging, and surface parking lots." The ESDC, however, already appears to have indicated the demolition porn will keep coming.
· Residents: Atlantic Yards project is going haywire [Metro]
· A Call for a Moratorium on AY Demolitions [Brownstoner]
· Atlantic Yards: No Frying, No Fat, No Oil [Brit in Brooklyn]

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As if the troubled Atlantic Yards project doesn't have enough problems, the property owners and tenants fighting the use of eminent domain on the project have filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The petition asks the Court to hear the appeal of the eminent domain case, which was dismissed on February 1. Goldstein v. Pataki was originally filed in October 2006. The Atlantic Yards opponents argue that hearing the case "provides the Court with an important opportunity to address the appropriate constitutional limits on the government's power to seize private homes for the benefit of powerful real estate developers like Bruce Ratner. The group's legal argument is that there is only a "pretext of a public purpose" for taking land for Atlantic Yards via eminent domain where the "actual purpose" is "to bestow a private benefit." Fans of legal documents can find the full petition and other paperwork here. The Court only accepts a handful of cases each year, but the appeal lengthens the time line for the developer.
· Supreme Court Asked to Hear Eminent Domain Case [DDDB]
· Atlantic Yards Stall: Timeline of Despair [Curbed]

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