December 15, 2006

In the past week the New York Post, the New York Daily News and Courier-Life editorial boards have endorsed Atlantic Yards. Courier-Life is the publisher of community newspapers throughout Brooklyn, including the Park Slope Courier, Flatbush Life and Caribbean Life. The endorsement below appeared in today's edition of the Courier-Life papers.

Courier-Life - Atlantic Yards: The Time Has Come

For three years, the borough has debated the merits of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project: up, down and sideways.

Ratner first introduced his plan in 2003 with hopes of bringing the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn, and to build a new arena to accommodate the move at the Flatbush and Atlantic avenues intersection.

While the Nets arena was a cornerstone of the project, Ratner hired famed architect Frank Gehry, who constructed a master design for the site detailing a 22-acre project, which included 16 high rise buildings comprised of retail and office space, as well as 6,430 units of housing, and eight acres of publicly accessible open space.

In the course of the three years since the plan was first introduced, the Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) has negotiated a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) with eight locally-based organizations and has agreed to, among other items, build affordable housing, a guarantee of jobs, plus business opportunities for people of color and an intergenerational community facility.

The project has also faced stiff opposition along the way, particularly in regard to the use of eminent domain, plus concerns about increased traffic, as well as height and density issues.

Last week, the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) approved the project and sent it before the state Public Authorities Control Board for a final approval.

It is now time for this newspaper to weigh in on the plan. And it is with fierce Brooklyn pride that we give the project a huge thumbs up for the following reasons.

The more than $4 billion project opens up tremendous opportunities for both jobs and entrepreneurs throughout the borough and the impending construction will include thousands of union jobs and opportunities for people of color, and openings for other minorities to gain entrance into these jobs through apprentice programs shepherded by the CBA.

Once the project is built, there will be opportunities for landscaping, building maintenance, concessions, office and retail work, and a hundred ancillary services that will create opportunities, big and small, to a vast swath of boroughites.

The 2,225 units of affordable housing will give police, teachers and firefighters an affordable alternative so they can live and pay taxes in the city where they work. Likewise, 10 percent of the affordable units will go towards seniors on fixed incomes who have given their lifeblood to the city.

FCRC has also agreed to allow the arena to be used for community events, such as college and high school activities and games. The arena will also bring special events, such as circuses, concerts and conventions to the borough and all the side opportunities that come along with them.

Centrally located adjacent to New York’s third largest subway hub, with 10 subway lines and the LIRR, the site provides easy access from all five boroughs and Long Island.

And then there is basketball, a life force for many in the borough. Having the Nets in Brooklyn will foster a new and exciting spirit in the borough for generations to come. A price tag can’t be put on that spirit.

But at the very heart of the matter is the transformation this project will bring to the borough…or better said, the crowning of the borough’s current transformation, which has turned it into the city’s true crown jewel. Brooklyn has always been a quiet place for borough insiders; today, it is the final stop for singles and families from across the city seeking its ever-growing lures.

The Atlantic Yards project will be the final and perhaps the most important piece of this transformation, assuring the momentum of growth and prosperity for generations to come. It is not an overstatement that one day, in the very near future, people will see Brooklyn as New York City’s capitol and that other borough merely a pleasant getaway across the Brooklyn Bridge.

So the time has come to embrace the project, welcome it, even cheer it on.