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BROOKLYN’S REAL NEWSPAPERS Including The Brooklyn Heights Paper, Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Paper, DUMBO Paper and the Downtown News Published every Saturday — online all the time — by Brooklyn Paper Publications Inc, 55 Washington St, Suite 624, Brooklyn NY 11201. Phone 718-834-9350 • www.BrooklynPapers.com • © 2005 Brooklyn Paper Publications • 16 pages •Vol.28, No. 22 BWN • Saturday, May 28, 2005 • FREE SEALED WITH A KISS Ratner, mayor, ACORN, agree on housing plan By Jess Wisloski ACORN — an acronym for the Asso- The Brooklyn Papers ciation of Community Organizations for Reform Now — would be responsible for A deal binding a community organ- processing applications for the low-, mod- ization to developer Bruce Ratner’s con- erate- and middle-income units. tentious Atlantic Yards project, antici- ACORN’s activities would be monitored pated since last fall, has finally arrived. by HPD, Donovan said. The pact, between Ratner and ACORN, No overall price tag was assigned at the a national organization, was sealed — lit- Borough Hall event to the city’s pledge, erally — with a kiss. although it was stated that the Housing ACORN Executive Director Bertha Development Corporation, a city housing Lewis planted wet ones on both Mayor fund, might alone be on the hook for Michael Bloomberg and Ratner at a me- $67.5 million in subsidies. dia event staged in Brooklyn Borough “Developments [like the] one we envi- Hall on May 19. Lewis, Bloomberg and sion at the Atlantic Yards, become ever Ratner declined to answer most questions. more important as our city’s housing Ratner hopes to build a basketball are- prices continue to rise almost exponential- na and 17 office and housing high-rises ly,” said Bloomberg. on 24 acres of property stretching east “We’ve all read the stories: Our red-hot into Prospect Heights from the intersec- real estate market shows that our econo- tion of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues. my is growing, but it’s also a mixed bless- The actual signing of the agreement, ing, because as housing becomes more which was written as a memoradum of un- expensive, more longtime residents are derstanding, will not take place until after getting priced out of their own neighbor- various governmental actions are taken hoods,” said Bloomberg to a chorus of that are necessary for the Atlantic Yards support from backers of the project who project to proceed. attended the event. Bloomberg said the city would fund a “We know, if you give people economic “50-50” affordable housing scheme on incentives to do things, they respond the the Ratner site that would allow half of way they should be,” said Bloomberg, who the proposed 4,500 residential units to be congratulated Borough President Marty reserved for what has been described as Markowitz for promoting Ratner’s project. low-, moderate- and middle-income renters. / Tom Callan / Tom Callan / Tom The incentive for Ratner is an expecta- The other half of the six-block stretch tion that the HDC will offer him 1-percent would be rented at market rate. tax-exempt mortgages for the construction Shaun Donovan, commissioner of the of the project’s moderate-income units. Department of Housing Preservation and “HDC adds up to $45,000 a unit to Development, said a 50-30-20 structure subsidize construction of the moderate-in- The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn was contemplated, with the 20 percent be- Papers The Brooklyn come units,” explained HPD’s Donovan, Bertha Lewis, executive director of the Association of Community Organizations ing low-income units, 30 percent moder- Lewis, who at Borough Hall last week cemented her new role as a community whose agency would implement HDC for Reform Now (ACORN), kisses Mayor Michael Bloomberg at Borough Hall. ate and 50 percent market-rate. advocate for Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yard’s project, also kisses the developer. funding. “Just like tax-exempt bonds have a lower interest rate, we give a 1 percent mortgage up to $45,000 per unit in ex- change for the developer to charge mod- erate-level rents.” The 20 percent for low- and very low- income rentals are subsidized with low- interest-rate, tax-exempt bonds and tax MTA opens bidding on rail yards site credits, said HDC spokeswoman Tracy Paurowski. By Jess Wisloski And you’d better work quickly — the more of three parcels of the rail yards, could bid on the MTA property, the RFP great public pressure to seek top-dollar for “This agreement represents the first The Brooklyn Papers proposals are due July 6. properly called the Vanderbilt Yards, was the first public attempt the agency has the Vanderbilt Yards. time that this concept of 50-50 has been The Metropolitan Transportation Au- which sit between Atlantic Avenue and made to solicit bids there. Since Ratner’s Forest City Ratner Com- implemented in a private agreement by a If you want to build something thority quietly issued a Request for Pro- Pacific Street, from Fifth Avenue to Van- “An RFP makes sure that everybody and panies announced plans to build a profes- private developer in a project of this other than a basketball arena and sky- posals (RFP) this week seeking bids for derbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights. his mother knows about it, and they can bid sional basketball arena and 17 residential scale,” Lewis said at Borough Hall. “And scrapers over the Atlantic Avenue rail development rights over its Long Island The three parcels are 100,000 square if they want,” Kelly explained this week. and commercial high-rises emanating it represents the first time that ACORN’s yards, this is your chance. Rail Road storage yards near Atlantic and feet, 119,000 square feet, and 148,000 “It opens up the entire process to anyone from Atlantic and Flatbush avenues out to tiered income concept has been imple- But judging from the bidding over the Flatbush avenues, where developer Bruce square feet, and the complete guidelines who would be interested in bidding. Vanderbilt Avenue in December 2003, no mented on such a large scale.” Hudson Yards in Manhattan earlier this Ratner wants to build a 19,000-seat bas- are available on the MTA’s Web site, “The purpose is to see who else is inter- official bids have come forward, accord- According to the memorandum of un- year, you’d better have several-hundred ketball arena and four skyscrapers. www.mta.info. ested in the property,” he said. ing to the MTA. Neither has Forest City derstanding, 50 percent of the 2,250 be- million dollars. The RFP invites proposals for “the sale Although MTA spokesman Tom Kelly The cash-strapped MTA, which faces a Ratner offered a public bid on the devel- low-market units will consist of studio The ear of the mayor and governor or lease of all or some of the air space and had told The Brooklyn Papers in previous massive budget deficit and has threatened opment rights over the rail yards. and one-bedroom units. wouldn’t hurt. related real property interests” in one or interviews that anybody who wanted to service cutbacks and fare hikes is under See MTA BIDDERS on page 5 See KISSED on page 12 Four die as plane crashes in Coney By Michael Weissenstein The pilot tried desperately to right he said. “It didn’t look like anyone Associated Press the 4-year-old plane after it went into could survive that.” a tailspin, said Herbert Lecler, 51, Zigun said it was the first plane Four people were killed Sat- who was fishing on the beach. crash on the beach that he could re- urday afternoon when a single- “He couldn’t, and he bounced on call. Several sunbathers were on the engine plane crashed on the that beach,” said Lecler. beach when the plane came down, beach in Coney Island, hitting Joshua McCabe, a registered although the Coney Island crowd the sand as stunned sunbathers nurse visiting from San Diego, was was generally sparse, he said. looked on, officials said. eating inside Nathan’s Famous hot Police and fire officials moved The victims, all on board the dog restaurant when he heard the quickly to close off the beach after Cessna 172S, were dead at the crash. McCabe and another witness the crash. Dozens of people were scene following the 1:30 p.m. rushed to the scene, where they gathered along the boardwalk staring crash, said Federal Aviation Admin- found the pilot already dead and a out at the wreckage, which was in istration spokeswoman Holly Bak- female passenger barely alive. sight of the Wonder Wheel attraction. er. Police and fire officials were at Within seconds, he said, “she There were no injuries on the the scene, where the shattered white wasn’t breathing and then she lost ground. Callan / Tom aircraft remained on the beach her pulse.” The crash occurred on a sunny about halfway between the Atlantic Dick Zigun, a longtime Coney spring day at the world-renowned Ocean and the boardwalk. Island resident who was at the crash beach, home to the Cyclone roller- Eyewitnesses said the plane was site, said it looked like the plane coaster and the Astroland amuse- circling above Coney Island when its had come down nose-first. ment park. The plane hit the beach Papers The Brooklyn engine suddenly stalled, and the air- “The wings are broken off, and near West 19th Street, close to Key- Officials look over wreckage of the single-engine Cessna 172S, which crashed on Coney Island beach Sunday, killing the pilot and three pas- craft quickly plunged into the beach. the cockpit glass was smashed up,” span Park.

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