Due to the involvement of my daughter in Brooklyn activism, I have been
following the story of Forrest City Ratner's plan to redevelop the Atlantic
Avenue Railroad Yards owned by the MTA. It is the stuff of afternoon soap
operas. The history can be found at http://www.nolnadgrab.org/
The reason that I comment on this here is the involvement of the Rev. Al
Sharpton in this issue. Sharpton has voiced his support of the project because
there appears to be a plant to provide job training and guaranteed jobs in a
neighborhood that is labeled as "blighted." Some of the facts are now just
coming out.
Bruce Ratner, the CEO of Forrest City Ratner is also owner of the NJ Nets NBA
team. He thinks he needs a new, modern stadium and wants to build that in
Brooklyn.
The MTA put out an RFP for the Atlantic Railroad Yards and only sent copies to
Forrest City Ratner (FCR). FCR offered $50 Million for the property. When a
citizens organization opposed to the project got a copy of the RFP and sent it
to other companies, there was a bid from another development company for 3X that
amount. As a result, FCR upped their bid to $100 M. The MTA only negotiated
with FCR.
Opposition to the project came from 2 sources: Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
and the Park Slope Neighborhood Association. Support for the project came from
an organization called BUILD and one named "ACORN" both acronyms for catchy,
impressive names. Three of the members of BUILD sat on the Coummunity Board
which has the responsibility to gather community input on major new project and
to negotiate with the City and the Developers on behalf of the Community.
Today, the major news is that BUILD is totally funded by FCR, three of the
officers of BUILD receiving six figure salaries provided by FCR's funding and
that they will also be the recipients of the contracts to run the job training
programs that Sharpton found so valuable, even though they have less experience
in job training as our ex-FEMA director had in disaster management.
So, when BUILD and the Community Board was negotiating with FCR, they were
really negotiating with themselves for a cushy deal.
The lesson here is that the view from the outside is not always a clear picture.
It may only be a reflection of what you want to see. While Sharpton's position
on job training is right on, in this case, it is also apparent that he might
have been mislead as to the inscestuous relationships between developers and
pseudo neighborhood associations. You need to know who you can trust before you
open your mouth.