All
letters in PDF format
Letter to Community Boards 2,6 and 8, requesting equal time
for opposing views to the Ratner plan. At their lasts meetings
they provided time for Forest City Ratner, ACORN and BUILD,
all proponents of the plan, with no time for opponents. The
letter requests agenda time for the presentation of the community-created
Atlantic Yards Development Workshop plan and requests detailed
information from Jim Stuckey, including detailed financial
information, about the project. read
the letter here
Read DDDb and 14 community and civic organizations' Open
Letter to Community Boards 2,6,8 concerning
their involvement in what has so far been an illegitimate
Community Benefits Negotiation.
Letter to Borough President
Markowitz, criticizing his secretive, devisive approach to
meeting with the Community, while denying ULURP
(pdf version).
September 28, 2004
Honorable Borough President Markowitz:
I understand that you have invited a selected group of "community
organizations and elected officials" to meet with you
on September 29, 2004, to share ideas about the coming development
of the Atlantic Yards complex.
Your invitation states: "As Borough President I am committed
to finding solutions to community concerns about this project
that work for your neighborhoods and for all of Brooklyn.
At this meeting, I would like to discuss the Atlantic Yards
development in general, talk about the project time line and
look at the process as the project moves through state review."
I’m writing on behalf of Develop Don’t Destroy
Brooklyn (DDDb) to officially protest the random manner in
which you are attempting to engage the community regarding
this project.
There are rumors in the community that over the past few months
you have been engaging with BUILD and ACORN in closed door
meetings to help broker a 'Community Benefits Agreement' (CBA)
deal between them and FCR. Despite repeated requests by members
of the community, this CBA being negotiated, purportedly for
the community, has not been made available to us. Regardless
of the veracity of these rumors, now you are engaging another
select group of organizations to represent the community.
DDDb protests the illegitimate methods you are engaging to
involve the community.
For example, it is irrefutable DDDb is a community organization
that is in a leadership position when it comes to any discussion
on the proposed Atlantic Yards development. Furthermore, DDDb
represents a large portion of the affected neighborhoods,
and we are the only community organization directly representing
the people who will be most immediately affected by the proposed
development-those homeowners, business owners, and tenants
who would be displaced by the project.
Yet, we have been informed in no uncertain terms, by Mr. John
Benguiat from your office, that this meeting, supposedly for
"community organizations", is not open to us. We
highlight this point, not because we feel that the community
voice would be more effectively represented via our organization,
but rather to emphasize that the process you are using for
community input is erratic, illegitimate, and lacking in checks
and balances.
Mr. Markowitz, on August 2, DDDb and 14 community organizations
urged our political representatives to do all they could to
ensure that the proposed Ratner Arena Highrise project be
kept within ULURP, (http://dddb.net/letters/ULURP.pdf). On
August 19, this position was reiterated by Fort Greene Association
(http://www.dddb.net/letters/FGA_letter.pdf).
On September 9, all three of our community boards re-iterated
that the only effective way to engage the community and ensure
our input into the process is via ULURP. Yet, rather than
ensure that every member of the community has an equal voice
in public hearings, you continue to attempt to have the community
represented via closed meetings with selected organizations.
DDDb would like to formally register its protest at the illegitimacy
of the process you are using to ensure community involvement
in the decision-making surrounding the development of the
Atlantic Yards.
On a separate note, your letter states that the proposed project
is will be moving under state review. We would like to know
why you are saying this. We are not aware that such an agreement
has been signed between the City and the State and request
that you inform your constituency as to when this decision
was made, and provide us with the appropriate documentation.
Sincerely, Develop Don't Destroy
DDDb
Letter to the International Olympic Committee Members and
President Dr. Rogge.
excerpt
As citizens of New York City, we therefore feel that
we must call on you and the IOC to refute these claims by
reaffirming to New York City’s bid committee and public
officials that:
1. The IOC does not countenance bids that involve the gratuitous
destruction of homes and neighborhoods, when suitable alternatives
exist (as they do in New York City); and
2. The IOC does not countenance bids that circumvent a candidate
city’s normal approval process in the name of attracting
an Olympics...
DDDb Letter to
the Executive Director of the New York City Conflicts of Interest
Board
excerpt
I am writing on behalf of Develop Don’t Destroy
Brooklyn to lodge a Conflicts of Interest complaint about
City Planning Commissioner Ms. Dolly Williams. It appears
that Ms. Williams has broken the law as described in Chapter
68 of the Ethics Law of the City Charter...
Ms. Williams has at least a $1million investment in Mr. Ratner's
proposed arena and high rise development...
Therefore we are calling on you and the Conflicts of Interest
Board to look into this matter immediately. We expect that
you will require Ms. Williams to give up her financial interest
in Mr. Ratner’s project, since she made her investment
during her tenure as an employee of the City. If she doesn’t
take this step, we will call on the DA to begin an effort
to prosecute her for her conflict under criminal law...
The
Fort Greene Association, which has joined the DDDb coalition,
has written the following position statement Opposing the
Ratner Proposal
excerpt
Dear Speaker Silver,
This letter is to place on record the opposition of The Fort
Greene Association, representing the community of Fort Greene,
Brooklyn, to the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards Project as proposed
by Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC). While the Fort Greene
community welcomes responsible development in the downtown
Brooklyn area in general and of the MTA Atlantic Terminal
in particular, we most ardently object to the use of City,
State and Federal funds for the FCRC venture without review
from the communities which it will directly affect...
DDDb and
14 Community Organizations Call for Assembly to Pass Bill
Requiring City Oversight for Ratner Proposal
excerpt
Dear Assemblyman Gottfried,
The citizens of Brooklyn and New York City are under threat
of a massive development proposal for Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
bypassing all city review and oversight, with anend-run around
ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure). Without ULURP ourcommunities
have no input into this project and our city legislators will
have no oversight or opportunity to vote on the proposal...
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