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About DDDB
Our coalition consists of 21 community organizations and there are 51 community organizations formally aligned in opposition to the Ratner plan.

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We are funded entirely by individual donations from the community at large and through various fundraising events we and supporters have organized.

We have the financial support of well over 3,500 individual donors.

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"Why should people get to see plans? This isn't a public project."
Bruce Ratner in Crain's Nov. 8, 2009

A Net Loss?

"Atlantic Yards" proposes to build 2,250 "affordable" housing units and 4,180 unaffordable units.

900, or 40%, of those "affordable" units would be for households earning $70,901 - $113,440 per year, while 900, or 40%, of those "affordable" units would be for households earning $21,270-$35,450 per year.
(There would be no units for household incomes below $21,270).

Those 900 low income units would amount to 13.9% of the entire "Atlantic Yards" development.

We've been doing our reading and it appears to us that there will likely be a net loss in "affordable" housing units in the 3/4-mile study area "analyzed" by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) in the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS).

Let's do the math: "Atlantic Yards" proposes 900 low income units. The FEIS says that there could be 2,920 households at risk of indirect residential displacement. Even if we include all of the "affordable" units, 2,920 outpaces 2,250.

Even in the best case scenario the ESDC says that the "at-risk* population will be much smaller than 2,000." What's "much smaller": 1,000? 1,500? 800? Regardless, we are looking at a wash at best, with a net loss more likely.

From Chapter 4, Socioeconomic Conditions, of the ESDC's FEIS:
Indirect Residential Displacement:
The proposed project would not result in significant adverse indirect residential displacement impacts because: a) the number of at-risk households in the study area has been decreasing and will probably continue to do so in the future independent of the proposed project and b) the project would not be likely to affect residential property values in areas identified as containing an at-risk population. Based on a comparison of 2000 Census data on household income for renters living in housing units that are unprotected by rent regulations with household income for all renters in Brooklyn, it was estimated that the study area contains approximately 2,929 households that are potentially at risk of indirect residential displacement. These households are located in 10 Census tracts, primarily clustered in the far eastern section of the 3/4-mile study area. However, further examination of socioeconomic trends in these Census tracts indicates that the number of households that are actually at risk of indirect displacement is likely to be substantially lower than 2,929 and that the number of at-risk households is likely to continue to decrease in the future with or without the proposed project. By 2010 and 2016, it is likely that in some of the tracts identified, the at-risk population will be much smaller than in 2000.

It is unlikely that the proposed project would lead to indirect residential displacement in the 10 Census tracts identified in the analysis. This is true for a number of reasons. First, as noted above, existing upward trends in residential property values and incomes in the study area indicate that the at-risk population is likely to decrease in the future with or without the proposed project. Second, similarities between the proposed project housing mix and the housing mix currently present in the 3/4-mile study area indicate that the proposed project would not substantially change the socioeconomic profile of the study area. Third, the project would introduce a substantial number of housing units to the study area, which could alleviate upward pressure on rental rates, reducing displacement pressures on the at-risk population in the study area. Fourth, a majority of households identified as at-risk are located more than 1/2-mile from the project site, and there are intervening established residential communities with upward trends in property values and incomes, and active commercial corridors separating the project site from the at-risk population. These four factors limit the potential for the proposed project to substantially affect real estate values in the tracts containing at-risk populations. Accordingly, the proposed project is not expected to lead to indirect residential displacement in these tracts, and the project would not have a significant adverse indirect residential displacement impact.

(Bold emphasis added. Underline signifies ESDC text added from the Draft EIS to the Final EIS)
The "far eastern sections" defined as "at-risk"*, and referred to above, are called Crown Heights and a piece of Bedford Stuyvesant. There are certainly price pressures on these neighborhoods as we speak, and the ESDC seems to have a cavalier attitude towards the accelerated pressure "Atlantic Yards" could bring.

The underlined text addition, absent in the Draft EIS but in the Final EIS, is unsubstantiated. Worse it contradicts the facts that can be found in this chart.

This appears to be another "public purpose" house of cards.

*From the FEIS: "At-risk populations are defined as people living in privately held units that are unprotected by rent regulations, whose incomes or poverty status indicates that they could not pay substantial rent increases."



Posted: 1.16.07
DDDB.net en español.
Battle for Brooklyn
Screening Schedule

Battle Fore Brooklyn
Unity 4 Community Meeting, June 15th at 388 Atlantic Avenue

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Eminent Domain Case
Goldstein et al v. ESDC
[All case files]

November 24, 2009
Court of Appeals
Ruling

[See ownership map]

EIS Lawsuit

DDDB et al v ESDC et al
Click for a summary of the lawsuit seeking to annul the review and approval the Atlantic Yards project.

Appeal briefs are here.

2/26/09
Appellate Divsion
Rules for ESDC
What would Atlantic Yards Look like?...
Photo Simulations
Before and After views from around the project footprint revealing the massive scale of the proposed luxury apartment and sports complex.

Click for
Screening Schedule
of
Isabel Hill's
"Atlantic Yards" documentary
Brooklyn Matters


Read a review
-----------------------
Atlantic Yards
would be
Instant
Gentrification
Click image to see why:


-No Land Grab.org

-Atlantic Yards Report
-Atlantic Yards Deathwatch
-The Footprint Gazette
-Brooklyn Matters
-Noticing New York
-NY Times "The Local" FG/CH
-Brooklyn Views
-Council of B'klyn N'hoods
-The Brooklyn Paper
-The Brooklyn Wire
-Atlantic Lots
-Who Walk in Brooklyn
-S. Oxford St. Block Assoc.
-City Limits City Blogs
-The Knickerblogger
-Anyplace, Brooklyn
-Bklyn Bridge Park Defense
-Bay Ridge Journal
-Clawback
-Picketing Henry Ford
-Castle Coalition Blog
-Dope on the Slope
-Gowanus Lounge
-Fans For Fair Play
-Views from the Bridge
-Old First Blog
-DailyHeights.com
-Brooklyn Footprints
-Freddys Bklyn Roundhouse
-Ctr for the Study of Bklyn
-Pardon Me for Asking
-Clinton Hill Blog
-Only The Blog Knows BK
-Brownstoner
-Sustainable Flatbush
-A Child Grows in Bklyn
-Williamsburg Warriors

-The Real Estate
-Rail Yards Blog (H. Yards)
-OnNYTurf-Atlantic Yards
-Manhattan User's Guide
-Naparstek
-Streets Blog
-Urban Place & Space
-New York Games
-Field of Schemes
-News 12 Brooklyn
-Queens Crap
-Dist.35 Comm'ity Gazette
-Save Our Parks (Bronx)
-Eminent Domain Watch
-NJ Eminent Domain Law
-PLANYC
-Big Cities Big Boxes
-www.DANDOCTOROFF.com
-Olympic Bloomdoggle
-TenantServices.com
-Tenant.net