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Phone 718-834-9350 • www.BrooklynPapers.com • © 2006 Brooklyn Paper Publications • 18 pages •Vol.29, No. 28 AWP • Saturday, July 22, 2006 • FREE 2,000-PAGE REPORT REVEALS IMPACT OF ATLANTIC YARDS State big to Brooklyn: You’re Manhattan now Clock starts on 66-day ‘review’ of massive Yards project By Ariella Cohen The Brooklyn Papers Atlantic Yards will cost more to build and benefit the public less than Bruce Ratner said it would — and carry with it environmental Yards impacts that can not be mitigated, a state analysis disclosed this week. But the state’s development czar said the publicly subsidized mega-de- velopment would be worth the price because it advances the Manhat- tanizaion of Brooklyn. protest “We are a city of skyscrapers,” said Charles Gargano, chairman of the Em- pire State Development Corporation, which released the project’s Draft Envi- ronmental Impact Statement on Tuesday. “We are a city of towers.” Now, he says, it’s time the towers came to Brooklyn. Gargano promised that if signif- rallies icant environmental impacts of the MORE INSIDE 16-skyscraper, 18,000-seat arena, NEWS P5 • EDITORIAL P4 residential, hotel, retail and office complex can’t be mitigated, the benefit, calling the state’s calcula- state “will respond.” tions “conservative.” 2,000 Coinciding with Tuesday’s re- In addition to the shrinking pub- lease of the 2,000-page analysis, lic benefit, the project’s costs are By Ariella Cohen Gargano’s ESDC formally en- ballooning. Now Ratner’s project The Brooklyn Papers dorsed the project. would cost at least $4.2 billion, up The action begins a 66-day peri- from an initial $2.5-billion pricetag, More than 2,000 people — all hot of public “review.” and bothered by Bruce Ratner’s plan to itself inflated to a more-recent Beyond the project’s size and $3.5-billion figure. build 16 skyscrapers and a 18,000-seat scale, the DEIS revealed the fuzzy basketball arena in Prospect Heights — Stuckey said the cost of the / Joshua Janke math behind Atlantic Yards. decade-long construction project has assembled Sunday at Grand Army Instead of generating $2.1 billion jumped due to “a general increase in Plaza in the largest opposition rally in tax revenue over the next 30 prices,” and an “incredible amount since Ratner’s Atlantic Yards proposal years, as Ratner promised in pro- of design work” by Frank Gehry. was unveiled three years ago. motional materials and press releas- “Now we have a better idea of The protestors — toting bicycles, dogs, ba- es, the plan certified Tuesday shows what the project will cost,” he said, bies in stylish papooses, and skyscraper-em- Papers The Brooklyn that the project would gross just Umbrella group: More than 2,000 opponents of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project — including these bumbershoot-toting adding that Ratner paid more than blazoned signs furnished by Develop Don’t over $1.9 billion — $1.1 billion for anticipated for homes, businesses activists, who fear the project’s shadows — rallied at Grand Army Plaza on Sunday, July 16. Destroy Brooklyn — crowded around a the state and $845.5 million for the and shops within the footprint. makeshift stage at the entrance to Prospect city — over the next 40 years. Stuckey declined to reveal the Park and cheered Atlantic Yards foes who “do the right thing.” “Do the math,” Barron told The Brook- communities. After subtracting $500 million company’s projected profits from ranged from the elected to the absurd. “Jay-Z needs to slow down a bit and lyn Papers after coming down from the Most of the support that Atlantic Yards in subsidies already committed by the project. In the latter category, Reverend Billy and look at what it is really being proposed,” stage. “The economic formula for this de- has, after all, has come from blacks (and the state and city, the overall bene- Forest City Ratner has main- his Stop Shopping Gospel Choir compared Perez said after stepping off the stage. velopment means that 90 percent of the elected officials whose districts are far from fit to the public drops to $1.4 bil- tained that the project’s mammoth Bruce Ratner to the Devil. “[Ratner needs to] build a better plan be- people moving in are going to be white.” the mega-project). lion over those 40 years — $35 size — which the New York Ob- Somewhere in the middle were actors cause this one isn’t benefiting the poor,” the It was clear from the anti-project crowd Noticeably absent from last week’s rally million a year split between the server reported Wednesday would Steve Buscemi and Rosie Perez. Buscemi, millionaire movie star added. that surrounded Barron that the area is get- were many of the very people caught in the state and city. be the most densely populated area a fixture on the anti-Ratner circuit, began And among the elected officials, City ting whiter and will likely continue to do so middle: the rent-stabilized tenants who live “[The tax revenue shortfall] is in the United States — was neces- his speech with the first-ever airing of an Councilman Charles Barron (D–Canarsie) as more luxury development is built. in Ratner-owned buildings in the Prospect big, it’s not a small difference,” sary in order for the company to unnamed political poem that began, “Roses stood out, calling the project “instant gentri- Though most of the speakers selected by Heights footprint that the developer will said Evan Thies, a spokesman for make a reasonable profit, provide are red/I like William Shatner/But I am op- fication,” bringing up concerns that the “su- DDDB were black, the majority of their au- soon tear down. City Councilman David Yassky affordable housing and build public posed/to the Atlantic Yards project.” permall” would be super-white and drown dience wasn’t, again demonstrating the or- The tenants have been offered help find- (D-Brooklyn Heights). space. For her part, Perez implored her pal, rap- out political support for black leaders who ganization’s difficulties in tapping into ac- ing new apartments and have been guaran- Forest City Ratner Vice Presi- No members of the ESDC board per and Atlantic Yards investor Jay-Z, to have traditionally ruled at the polls there. tivist networks in the area’s minority See PROTEST on page 5 dent Jim Stuckey downplayed the raised any objections to the project’s discrepancy in projected public See TOWERS on page 5 Four-faced liar Borough’s top clock slow on the uptick The Brooklyn Papers ing its landmark property. The four-sided clock atop the Time — the right time — healed all Williamsburgh Savings Bank — wounds. But then the clock slowed easily Brooklyn’s most-recogniza- down again. ble building — is broken. And only “When we bought the building, we time will tell when it will be back in were told that the clock would be the biggest headache and that’s turning out business. right,” said Andrew MacArthur, a Not only are all four faces studded spokesman for the Dermot Company, with burnt-out lightbulbs, but the hands which is converting the landmark into all display different times. luxury condominiums. On a recent Wednesday night at MacArthur blames the problem on 10:31, the clock’s south side read 11:55, its eastern face read 9:30, its north face “gear stuff,” refuting a popular local read 2:10 and the western face couldn’t myth that the high winds atop the tower even be read because the bulbs on one throw off the clock’s hands. hand were completely extinguished. Not everyone is upset at the clock, Mechanically, there’s no excuse for seeing its quirkiness as a symbol of an such problems, because the clock fea- off-beat borough. / Tom Callan / Tom tures a single motor with four axles that “When you see two different faces it J.L. Maher / WCS run the hands. is like seeing two different paintings,” It’s not the first time that the clock has said Robert Goldstrom, an artist who has been down for the count. It didn’t work chronicled the clocktower in more than He knows how to cool it! for most of the 1970s and 1980s — a fit- 50 watercolor paintings. The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn ting symbol of Brooklyn’s decline, some “I have an affection for its current Ayveq, the famously frisky walrus at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, found a nice way to beat the heat The Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower and its said — until then-owner Republic Na- state of misoperation,” he said. this week, playing with one of his balls in a nice, cool bath. A spokeswoman for the Aquarium said that all the famously incorrect clocks. tional Bank sunk millions into renovat- — Ariella Cohen animals get toys to play with — “though Ayveq has another toy he loves to play with.” 90% off your initiation EASTERN ATHLETIC + 4 free Personal Training sessions PROSPECT PARK BROOKLYN HEIGHTS 718 789-4600 718 625-0500 (worth $320) Offer ends August 10th ? 2 DTZ THE BROOKLYN PAPERS • WWW.BROOKLYNPAPERS.COM • (718) 834-9350 July 22, 2006 • Local & Long Distance Services • Airport Transportation Atlantic City, Foxwood and in Reliability • Medical Pickup & Drop Off Mohegan Sun # Casinos Jewels by in Quality Nuts! Gunman robs 1in Service Car & Limo Service SATNICK health food store We service all mechanical & quartz watches & repair all jewelry on premises By Gersh Kuntzman Before she could cancel the The Brooklyn Papers cards, they had been used to POLICE BLOTTER purchase Metrocards at a near- HARTLEY F.