Friday, November 30, 2012

Atlantic Yards and the Culture of Cheating (link)

I offer a framework to analyze and evaluate Atlantic Yards and the Barclays Center.

Also see my essay from The Brooklyn Rail, A Brand Called Brooklyn, on the use of "Brooklyn" to sell the arena and team.

Also see my essay from City Journal, The Barclays Center's Media Enabler, on the New York Times's erratic, inadequate coverage. (And more here.)

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

After Bieber-related chaos, cops say they'll have a better plan for crowds; frustration remains over black cars plaguing neighborhood streets; enforcement vs. free parking?

The chaos around the Justin Bieber concert two nights ago--fans gathering outside the Barclays Center in the afternoon and chasing a bus down Dean Street in the evening--was an "anomaly," declared the commanding officer of the 78th Precinct, who promised that police would have a better plan in place to tamp down on boisterous fans.


(Video by Peter Krashes, via Atlantic Yards Watch)

However, Deputy Inspector Michael Ameri (recently promoted from Captain) acknowledged that there's still no solution to the problem of black cars and limos, which plague streets around the arena when there are special events (less so for Nets games).

While an "experiment" is planned to give them a place, the problem derives from an inherent tension in the Transportation Demand Management plan prepared by arena consultant Sam Schwartz and accepted by Empire State Development, the state agency overseeing the arena.

That plan states that the solution is "enforcement," but they apparently didn't consult with the NYPD, which is reluctant to devote resources to that effort and thinks education is the solution.

“Make them go to the parking lots or give them huge fines,” one resident suggested at the meeting last night of the 78th Precinct Community Council, in what might be seen as a common-sense solution but one not promoted either by the police or arena management.

Meanwhile, neither the police nor an arena spokesman responded clearly to a question asking for a comparison between the numbers of personnel devoted to arena events when it opened and the numbers now.

Loading dock progress

Barclays Center Community Relations Manager Terence Kelly reported progress on issues raised at the 10/16/12 Atlantic Yards Quality of Life Committee meeting.

Regarding the loading dock on Dean Street, “we’ve been working with our internal security and arena operations... to educate a lot of security to make sure a lot of protocols that have been are acted on every single day for every single delivery,” he said.

Aiming to coordinate with the staging area at Navy Yard so trucks are not idling on Dean Street, he said, “we've been rather successful, I’ve got to say, in terms of slowly getting better,” though he acknowledged “there's certainly room for improvement.”

Or not

Kelly got an immediate response from Peter Krashes of the Dean Street Block Association, who pointed out that, on the previous night after the Justin Bieber concert, two trucks had queued outside the arena on residential Dean Street, with one idling for half an hour, “so problems continue.”

“Unfortunately, there was a lapse in communications,” Kelly responded, adding that “I'd object to a half-hour” characterization. “It was something we certainly want to improve on.”

Indeed, after the meeting, I walked over to Dean Street with Krashes and we saw a delivery truck idling for about ten minutes, first on the curb, then outside the loading dock, sticking out over the sidewalk.

Also, parked in a “No Standing” zone was a bus, which, before the Brooklyn Nets game ended, turned on its engine and, a minute or two later, accommodated a dozen well-dressed people, who had to walk out into the street to enter the bus from the right side.

Kelly noted that the arena has hired a new director of security after the previous one left, which should help improve protocols.

Limo parking problems

One resident asked if drivers are being aware of parking availability, given that some drivers on residential streets apparently don’t know of the options.

Kelly said the operator of the surface lot has placed larger signs on Atlantic and Vanderbilt avenues, and “there's been more active use of the parking lot.” (Indeed, it was nearly full for the Bieber concert.) Still, he noted, the arena is stressing public transportation.

Regarding black car parking, he said, “if anyone wants to pay for parking on the site itself, they're more than welcome to... We're working with Inspector Ameri and DOT [Department of Transportation] and TLC [Taxi and Limousine Commission]. We're in talks about offering whatever we can to educate drivers about staying off side streets and residential streets.”

Precinct Council President Pauline Blake said she saw such cars parked “all over” Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Flatbush avenues. “Tthe issue still exists,” she said, “as far as these cars not adhering to any rules or regulations.”

NYPD perspective

“Black cars are a problem,” Ameri acknowledged, saying it’s a bigger issue for one-time events, such as the Barbra Streisand and Bieber shows, less so for Nets games. “Those are the events we really have to work on go get a place to stage these black cars,” he said, adding “we're looking to stage the black cars offsite.”

One resident asked a natural question: why can’t the limos simply go to the surface parking lot.

“Black cars aren't going to pay for parking,” Ameri responded. (Wouldn’t they do so if the alternative were paying a fine?)

Gib Veconi of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council raised an issue already floated on Atlantic Yards Watch: “we've been told by Empire State Development Corporation and from DOT [Department of Transportation], via our local City Council person, that there's a plan being implemented to have black cars stage between Sixth and Vanderbilt.”

Ameri acknowledged “we are experimenting” with doing that.

Veconi asked about the role of arena traffic consultant Sam Schwartz. “We hear that you're not encouraging people to drive,” he said. “I do not understanding how giving over public space on Atlantic Avenue is a discouragement for people to drive. I'd like to see Sam Schwartz explain... because it's clearly a miss in the TDM.”

Kelly said Schwartz is “certainly in these conversations, yes.”

How, asked Veconi, would the parked cars pick up passengers.

“The goal is just to leave them on Atlantic,” Ameri said, and have patrons walk to the cars. Or they could make a U-turn on Atlantic Avenue at Vanderbilt.

A simple solution?

One resident asked why the black car issue wasn't anticipated and why the arena can’t provide parking space for black cars.

Kelly said that, with only two months on the job, he couldn’t speak to why it wasn't addressed, but said he’d “do everything in my power” to find common-sense solutions.

“It was included,” piped up Newswalk resident Wayne Bailey. “It was enforcement.” Indeed, it was; apparently the police were not consulted.

The plan to offer space on Atlantic, suggested Veconi, is just giving limo drivers free parking.

Bieber-related tumult on Dean Street

It was funny, but not so funny. Dean Street resident Tracy Collins pointed out that, after the Justin Bieber concert, the “tour bus came down Dean Street, followed by hundreds of screaming teen girls.”

Ameri raised his eyes; several people laughed. “It was funny, but kind of dangerous,” Collins observed.
“Live and learn,” Ameri said, acknowledging that, while the police had handled other high-profile events at the arena smoothly, this was different.

In hindsight, he said, the police could’ve planned differently, either having the bus go a different route, or have pens set up to limit fan activity. “I had teenagers running in front of a large tour bus,” he said. “Thank God nobody go hurt. I apologize for the quality of life that it impacted on Dean Street. So next time Justin Bieber comes into town, I'll have a better plan. I was confident in my Jay-Z plan.”

Fewer police and security personnel?

Krashes suggested the problem was related to “a significant reduction in numbers of police and Barclays security.” For example, on the previous night, a T-shirt seller was planted on Dean Street.

Regarding the reduction of police and security personnel, he asked for a comparison between the numbers for the Justin Bieber concert and the Jay-Z concert.

Ameri didn’t quite answer: “Well, I had plenty of officers there last night... it was just the way we handled it, when it came to the crowd. I didn't expect all those teenagers at the Dean Street end of it at 2 o'clock in the afternoon... or thousands of them, hanging around afterward... Last night was an anomaly.”

Kelly responded, “Regardless of contract with Securitas [the former security company], there’s been no reduction in numbers.” He said the arena would try to better anticipate “situations like this.”

ESD take

Derek Lynch, ESD's Community Relations Manager, said "we take these issues very seriously," including limo parking, vibrations from concerts, and flashing lights from the oculus.

"We haven't solved all your problems, but we're definitely moving in the right direction," he said.

And while we "appreciate their service," he said of Atlantic Yards Watch, he encouraged people to reach out directly to ESD.

Tailgating

Bailey said residents of his building wanted clarification on whether tailgating is allowed, as several noticed people attending the last college basketball event to be tailgating at Dean Street and Carlton Avenue.

"There's no policy, there's zero tolerance," Ameri said. One officer said six or seven summonses were issued for drinking in public."

Changes on Carlton

Several residents pointed to an impact from the opening of the arena, the reopening of the Carlton Avenue Bridge, and congestion on Flatbush Avenue: Carlton Avenue has become a shortcut, including for dollar vans, and many drivers ignore both speed limits and stop signs at St. Marks Avenue and Prospect Place.

“I'm going to dedicate some resources to that location,” Ameri responded.

Related is gridlock at St. Marks and Flatbush during rush hours, making it difficult to cross the street using the crosswalks.

The proliferation of bars

Noting the proliferation of bars in the area, Blake observed, "We will accept the bars we have on Fifth Avenue compared to the bars we had 20 years ago."

Still, she suggested that the State Liquor Authority has enabled a "serious problem," given the proliferation of liquor licenses along Flatbush, Fifth, Seventh, and St. Marks Avenues.

"We have to realize that it is here," she said of the arena and its spillover effects. "We have to fight hard to make sure they maintain quality of life that we can live with."

Urination near arena

Referring to reports that arena-goers had been urinating nearby on the street, notably on Pacific Street between Flatbush and Fourth avenues, Kelly said an arena security guard and a police officer had been patrolling one hour before events through one hour after events. 

Also, Modell's has been asked to do more washing of its site; the store is planning to install more lights, a project that was delayed because of the storm.

Who pays?

As the meeting closed down, one resident asked an innocent question: "Are we paying for these [increased] police, or is the Barclays Center paying extra money?"

She didn't get an official answer, but the mutters from the better-informed crowd were clear: "We pay." (Another resident muttered that ESD's Lynch should answer.)

Indeed, the issue came up last June, as I reported. Community Board 2 Chair John Dew asked, “In this particular instance, is there an opportunity to bill back to Forest City Ratner?”

“The answer is no,” replied FCR’s Ashley Cotton at the time. Just as with new housing being built on Flatbush Avenue, said Cotton, a former city official, “the city has to adjust... The arena is not alone in adding new work to the city.”

Overall crime down

Overall crime in the precinct is down, Ameri said last night, though there’s have been “some issues” in the last month with robberies and grand larcenies. The increase is not related to the arena, given that most reports are toward the southwest portion of the precinct in the South Slope.

He acknowledged, however, that the precinct “inherited” some non-violent crime from the Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal malls, now within the boundaries.

Next meeting

While representatives of several city agencies were expected to attend the Precinct Council meeting as scheduled for Oct. 30, the Sandy-related delay meant they couldn’t return last night.

Because the October meeting was delayed, there will be no Precinct Council meeting in November. The December meeting is typically skipped, so the next meeting will be 1/29/12, the last Tuesday of the month.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Outside Barclays Center, trucks wait, idle on Dean Street, unable to enter loading dock (despite promises of tight scheduling)

Yes, trucks are still waiting on residential Dean Street outside the Barclays Center, even though they're not supposed to. They're supposed to be tightly scheduled. That doesn't quite work, as shown in video from last night showing trucks unloading from the Justin Bieber concert.

Remember how New York Magazine critic Justin Davidson, in his 9/21/12 essay Barclays Center Is Brooklyn’s Ready-Made Monument, wrote:
For all its swagger, the arena makes nice to the neighbors in various ways... To avoid clogging roadways, trucks swing into the Dean Street loading docks and ride elevators to a massive underground turntable that positions them in their respective bays.
Or how New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman, in his 11/1/12 review, wrote:
No, this isn’t a beautiful or ingratiating building, but it’s technologically smart, with an underground turntable for trucks that may sound eye-rollingly dull but makes traffic engineers like the city’s transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, swoon because it reduces the number of backing up and double-parked 16-wheelers on nearby streets like Dean.
It's not supposed to reduce the number of 16-wheelers, it's supposed to eliminate them--at least if they follow the rules.

On AY Watch

Well, in an incident report on Atlantic Yards Watch, Peter Krashes wrote:
Two trucks queued on Dean Street waiting for entry to the loading dock for at least half an hour. The second truck turned off its engine, but the first idled for up to half an hour. Only when NYPD asked the driver to turn off its engine did he turn it off. The first driver did confirm that he came from the Navy Yard. He wasn't happy he had to wait at the arena. The trucks finally entered the elevators when two other trucks in the loading dock emerged.
In the first video, the trucks arrive and queue.



In the second, they continue to queue; the first truck, Krashes reported, continued to idle despite a request to turn the engine off.




In the third video, the trucks in the loading dock exit and the waiting trucks finally enter the elevator. There are still Beliebers trying to get a glimpse of their idol.


Out of control on (residential) Dean Street: screaming Bieber fans surround bus, gather on corner, fail to disperse, alarming cops and security personnel

It didn't happen with Jay-Z, or Streisand, or the Nets. But boisterous fans attending a Barclays Center event did in fact make life very difficult on residential blocks near the arena last night.

They just happened to be underage Justin Bieber followers screaming, shouting, and gathering in the street, frustrating both city cops and Barclays Center security personnel trying to get them to disperse.

I wasn't there, but Peter Krashes of the Dean Street Block Association filed a report, with video on Atlantic Yards Watch. At one point, he got into a colloquy with a guy filming a documentary about Beliebers (Bieber fans), who expressed dismay at the situation, agreeing that he'd never seen the impact of the boisterous fans near an arena so tightly situated in a residential neighborhood.

In other words, there's a very small margin for error.

The summary

As Krashes wrote:
Hundreds of fans gathered near the loading dock and on the public sidewalks on Dean Street near Barclays Center chased a tour bus they believed had Justin Bieber in it down residential Dean Street. The bus eventually came to a stop near Dean Playground. From my vantage point I could not tell if the bus stopped because fans got in front of it or because the bus stopped to let fans catch up to it.

The fans were very excitable. They ran without regard to traffic. They screamed without regard to residents, many of whom were presumably trying to sleep nearby.
The videos focus on the north side of Dean Street outside the arena, opposite residences, though the first video extends down Dean Street east of Sixth Avenue.

Chasing the bus

Krashes' description:
The bus emerges from the loading dock elevator. The police try unsuccessfully to keep the sidewalk free. The fans excitedly chase the bus down Dean Street without regard to traffic or nearby residences. It stops in front of Dean Playground. The fans see someone named Alfredo in the bus. Alfredo may have been the fellow photographing the fans and waving at them from inside the bus. Deputy Inspector Ameri from the 78th Precinct is on a bullhorn telling the fans to clear the street. A photographer who identifies himself as associated with Barclays Center photographs the interaction of the fans with the bus.


Hanging out on Dean east of Sixth

Krashes' description:
Fans disperse once the bus leaves. They occasionally continue to scream.


Gathering on Dean Street outside arena, part 1

Krashes' description:
The fans continue to be excited. They continue to gather near the loading dock and bicycle parking area near residences. They scream when a black SUV appears and when another or the same tour bus arrives. They believe they see someone named Kenny. [Likely Kenny Hamilton, Bieber's bodyguard.] One fan says "Oh my God, I am going to kill myself."


Gathering on Dean Street outside arena, part 2

Krashes' description:
The fans refuse to leave and remain boisterous even though Barclays Center security implores them to leave. The same photographer who photographed the chasing of the bus continues to photograph the action.


Gathering on Dean Street outside arena, part 3

Krashes' description:
The fans continue to refuse to leave and don't show much respect for Barclays Center security. A documentary filmaker making a film on fandom says the situation is "not good."


Gathering on Dean Street outside arena, part 4

Krashes' description:
Fans check out the tour buses and cars stored in the "pad" by lifting the Artbridge fence screening. Some scream although there is nothing to see. Other fans copy them to peek under the Artbridge banners as well. Someone screams "Over there, Oh my God." The sidewalk remains blocked.

Bieber fever at the Barclays Center, in photos

Some photos from yesterday's Justin Bieber event at/outside the Barclays Center. Note that the initial set of barriers were removed at the request of the police.

Before the concert, on Dean Street, waiting for Bieber; photos by AYInfoNYC

Before the concert, on Sixth Avenue, waiting for Bieber

Before the concert, on Sixth Avenue, waiting for Bieber 
After the concert, on Dean Street, 10:40 pm

After the concert, on Dean Street, about 10:40 pm; note Peter Krashes of the Dean Street Block Association
(in the checked shirt, under jacket) talking with Derek Lynch of Empire State Development

An eyewitness to Bieber fever, on residential Dean Street: "hundreds of girls screaming and running after the bus"

Last night, photographer and Prospect Heights resident Tracy Collins tweeted:
OMG. [Justin] Bieber's bus just rolled down my block after Barclay concert. 100s of tween girls screaming.
I asked him to elaborate. Collins, a resident of Dean Street between Sixth Avenue (southeastern border of the arena block) and Carlton Avenue (southwestern border of the parking lot), told me he was walking home at about 10:30 pm from Fifth Avenue below Flatbush and the arena, around the time the concert let out.

"Traffic was backed up for several block south on 5th Avenue and throngs of tween girls and their parents/guardians were streaming down the sidewalks, trying to get cabs, getting on buses, walking to and getting to their cars," he recounted. The result: "gridlock and honking horns."

The fans wait

Collins walked up to Flatbush, then east along Dean Street past the arena. At the corner of Sixth Avenue and Dean Street, several hundred fans massed, "apparently waiting for Bieber to get in his tour bus and leave."

"I kept walking home, embedded in a crowd of fans probably heading toward the surface parking lot," he wrote. "I went into my house. At about 10:45, I heard lots of screaming coming from Dean Street (if you've ever seen the girls lose it for the Beatles, this was very similar) and I could clearly hear all of this with my double-paned windows closed."

Collins, to his regret without camera in hand, went to his front door and saw what seemed to be Bieber's "tour bus roll by with a police car with lights on trailing it, and the girls all screaming and running down the sidewalk.... There were literally HUNDREDS of girls screaming and running after the bus."

Pre-event traffic

I'm sure there will be more reports today. Before the concert, one Brooklyn resident (of what I believe is Boerum Hill southwest of the arena) tweeted:
Traffic nightmare in my 'hood magically cleared up at 8:20. Then it hit me. Concert at @barclayscenter. Guess Bieber fans don't ride #MTA.


As precinct council meeting approaches tonight, reports that police will allow limos to queue on Atlantic Avenue in what was once public parking space

Guess what, limos are getting public parking space--an issue that surely will come up at tonight's postponed meeting of the 78th Precinct Community Council, at 7:30 pm.

From Atlantic Yards Watch, yesterday, NYPD to allow limos to stage on Atlantic Avenue during arena events:
AYW has been informed by a representative of the Empire State Development Corporation that the NYPD intends to allow limos to queue during arena events on the south side of Atlantic Avenue between Carlton and Vanderbilt Avenues. The section of Atlantic Avenue is currently available for public parking except during overnight street cleaning hours. On Friday, November 9, use of the area was reserved for vehicles registered with TLC license plates, consistent with the NYPD proposal.
Idling of limos in unauthorized locations in Prospect Heights, Park Slope and Fort Greene has been a major concern for residents since the arena's opening. AYW incident reports filed include 945, 947, 969, 970, 971, 972, 973, 989, 991, 997, and 998. 311 closed reports for many of these incidents noting "police action was not necessary," or "no evidence of violation." Idling of limos has also been documented by Atlantic Yards Report.
However, as AYW points out, "[t]he issue of unauthorized limo parking appears to have been unanticipated by the Transportation Demand Management Plan (TDM) prepared by Forest City Ratner Companies to address traffic congestion and pedestrian safety following the Barclays Center opening...

Further, the proposed "solution" of staging limos on Atlantic Avenue in effect allocates additional public space for the benefit of Barclays Center without public review."

For more, see Atlantic Yards Watch.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Bruce Ratner makes the Forward 50: "the developer had every right to trumpet himself as the King of Brooklyn"

From the Jewish newspaper the Forward, which places Bruce Ratner among the Forward 50 ("the new faces of Jewish power") for netting the Nets and the Islanders, and building an arena:
Bruce Ratner may not have Barbra Streisand’s voice or Jay-Z’s rep on the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant. But the developer had every right to trumpet himself as the King of Brooklyn after his long-delayed Barclays Center finally opened its doors.
...Ratner, 67, didn’t put the bounce back in Brooklyn’s step single-handedly.
...The scion of a well-connected Jewish family from the Cleveland area, Ratner is loved and hated in equal measures for his grandiose plans to transform a gritty but communally valuable stretch of downtown Brooklyn into a fancy and financially valuable arena and string of condos.
But after successfully negotiating nearly a decade of tricky political maneuvering and stop-start lawsuits, Ratner could be forgiven for popping the champagne as Streisand and Jay-Z showered praise on his plans.
I'm not sure that Jay-Z and Streisand, both reaping revenues from the arena, are the arbiters. It's a rather gentle portrait. It might be enlivened by some excerpts from the profile by Neil deMause they published in May 2011.

It's it's not actually "a gritty but communally valuable stretch of downtown Brooklyn." How about a gentrifying area near downtown Brooklyn known as Prospect Heights?

New Nets website, The Brooklyn Game, launches, affiliated with YES Network; the start of a "new community and media platform for Brooklyn"?

Some competition for NetsDaily. A press release:
MAJOR NEW BROOKLYN NETS WEBSITE -- THEBROOKLYNGAME.COM -- LAUNCHES THIS WEEK
~
Will act as the YES Network’s exclusive web partner for Nets content
~
TheBrooklynGame.com takes over content and staff from the popular site, NetsAreScorching.com

BROOKLYN, U.S.A. -- Brooklyn has a world-class professional basketball team, and now the major independent website to cover it. The Brooklyn Game, a new digital media platform dedicated to the Brooklyn Nets, provides fans & readers breaking news, expert analysis, fan commentary, community tools, photo galleries, and more.

TheBrooklynGame.com will be the exclusive web partner for Nets content of the YES Network, the official broadcaster of the Brooklyn Nets. In addition to the new content, the site has absorbed the articles and key staff of NetsAreScorching.com, a popular site that covered the New Jersey Nets since 2009.

YES will use TheBrooklynGame.com content on YESNetwork.com and will promote the TheBrooklynGame.com on air and on YESNetwork.com.

The managing editor of the site is Devin Kharpertian, who last year ran NetsAreScorching.com. Several contributors from that site will contribute to The Brooklyn Game.

The Brooklyn Game was launched by Steven Waldman, the former founder and CEO of the award-winning site Beliefnet.com and former Senior Advisor to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, along with an all- star collection of Brooklyn-based editors including Larry Hackett, the editor of People magazine, Peggy Northrop, the former editor of Reader's Digest, and Michael Grossman, former Editor-at-large of Time, Inc.

“Brooklyn deserves a great home team, and a home team deserves great coverage,” said Waldman. “And fans need an independent, home-grown place where they argue, boast, trash-talk, and discuss with each other.”

"I've been obsessed with this franchise my entire life, and already this is the most interesting year they've had," Kharpertian said. "It's a truly unique moment. I'm excited to provide comprehensive and lively coverage of the franchise and its cultural impact."

“We wanted to partner with The Brooklyn Game because Devin’s analysis is among the best we’ve seen, and Steven’s background in new media ensures that this is going to be a high-quality site,” says Kevin Sullivan, Director, New Media at YES, which also airs the New York Yankees.

“As the Nets begin their inaugural season in Brooklyn, the timing is perfect to connectbring TheBrooklynGame.com withinto the YES digital media family and our where it will thrive alongside our many established brands and talents,” said Michael Spirito, Vice President, Business Development and Digital Media, YES Network.

The Brooklyn Game is part of a larger effort by Waldman and others to create an ambitious new community and media platform for Brooklyn.

The site will also publish a Facebook page and a Twitter feed with the handle @TheBKGame.
What's next?

Surely Brooklyn could use a "new community and media platform." (I've discussed this very casually with Waldman, whose work I respect.) I have to wonder, though, if the Nets are the pathway into that.

The Brooklyn Game has already done some good work. But let's see if their comprehensive coverage actually critiques Nets business practices--say, those $15 tickets. Will the YES Network be OK with that?

An Atlantic Yards connection

Interesting fact: a member of the web site's "Advisory Board and Partners" is attorney David Goldberg, who wrote the amicus brief in the 2005 Kelo v. New London eminent domain case on behalf of three Atlantic Yards supporters: Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD), Rev. Herbert Daughtry, and The New York City and Vicinity Carpenters Labor-Management Corporation, supporting the city of New London.

The brief made the not-unreasonable point that eminent domain can result not simply in replacing lower-income residents with higher-income ones, but in increasing density to accommodate a much larger number of people, as with Atlantic Yards.

Then again, such promises also can be used to usher in sweetheart deals. The benefits estimated in the brief--10,000 office jobs, 15,000 construction jobs, etc.--are no longer viable. Meanwhile, BUILD is going out of business, and the Carpenters have had a few ethical difficulties.

Bieber fever meant no access to Dean Street from Sixth Avenue; then, cops ordered the barricades taken down

The Justin Bieber concert tonight at the Barclays Center is at 7 pm, and some 2.5 hours beforehand, arena officials put up barriers along Sixth Avenue perimeter of the arena block, on the southeast, thus giving fans a place to wait.

However, they also blocked a public sidewalk. The police just broke up that crowd and had the barricades removed, I'm told, and sent everyone to the arena plaza.


Lawyer for Yonkers political operative calls for leniency, suggests (un-charged) Forest City Ratner was the big winner in corruption case

As sentencing Nov. 19 approaches for a former Yonkers elected official and her political mentor, both convicted in a corruption case involving two real estate projects, the lawyer for the political operative has asked the judge to look at the larger picture.

And that picture suggests that neither operative Zehy Jereis nor former Council Member Sandy Annabi were as big winners as Forest City Ratner, developer of the Ridge Hill mall and office project.

(The developer was not charged; its behavior, though not criminal, was less than sterling.)

A call for leniency

Much of the pre-sentencing memo prepared by Jereis's attorney argues for a lighter sentence than guidelines suggest, based on Jereis's character in the community. As the Journal News reported 11/9/12, in Zehy Jereis' lawyer urges leniency in Yonkers corruption sentence:
Former Yonkers GOP chairman Zehy Jereis deserves significant leniency when sentenced in his federal corruption case because of his ongoing community service and the care he provides his ill mother, his lawyer says in court papers.
Although sentencing guidelines call for more than a decade in prison, defense lawyer Anthony Siano this week asked U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon to impose a sentence in the range of 10 to 18 months with some of that served under community confinement. He also requested that Jereis be allowed to remain free while he appeals his conviction.
“In all respects, Mr. Jereis has evinced by his actions and not merely in words, that his actions in his life were motivated by a desire to help others and not by profit,” Siano wrote in his pre-sentence memorandum, which included letters from 56 relatives, friends, tenants and political associates seeking leniency for Jereis.
The letter-writers also include his employees at a car wash in East New York, Brooklyn. (Here's coverage of Annabi's pre-sentencing memo.)

The big picture

Siano's memo also points to the big picture. Though Jereis provided Annabi with some $194,000 over the years, including a $60,000 loan promptly repaid, the money apparently came from his own resources.

"Taking the government's evidence on its face," Siano wrote, Jereis received no more than $25,000 from the real estate projects--$15,000 in fees after Forest City Ratner hired him for a $60,000-a-year no-show job after Annabi flipped her vote, and a $10,000 bribe related to the other project, known as Longfellow.

"At no time did he seek, receive, or have any equity or financial interest in either the Ridge Hill project or the Longfellow project," Siano wrote. "The benefits he conveyed upon Ms. Annabi were largely his own money and were paid out from his own checking account, in his own name."

Forest City the winner

"The evidence in the trial established that Forest City Ratner expended millions of dollars on lobbyists, consultants, and related opinion makers of all kinds. It was the Forest City Ratner interests alone that owned and profited from the Ridge Hill project," Siano wrote. "And indeed, it was solely the Forest City Ratner personnel that decided if, when, and why to hire Mr. Jereis and what they would pay him."

"Nothing in the testimony of the Forest City Ratner witnesses establishes any causal connection or quid pro quo type rational for their hiring of and payment of fifteen thousand dollars to Mr. Jereis," Siano wrote. Forest City's former government relations Executive VP Bruce Bender testified that it was "inconclusive" that they had promised Jereis a job, but "we certainly left the impression we were probably going to do it."

Siano pointed to one similarity between Longfellow and Ridge Hill: "the government's chosen witnesses themselves were going to profit," including equity gains and profits (the Longfellow developers, the Milios); continued legal fees (cooperating witness Anthony Mangone); and bonuses and raises (Bender and Scott Cantone, Forest City Ratner executives at the time).

"Despite these admitted profit motives centered on others, the government has prosecuted Mr. Jereis, and this Court must determine what punishment is proper for Mr. Jereis for his behavior," Siano wrote.

The Annabi relationship

The letters focused on Jereis's generosity to his family, friends, and others, including his close relationship to his children and his mother. Nearly everyone avoided Jereis's defense that his payments derived from his infatuation with Annabi, thus undermining his image as a family man.

One of his sisters, however, suggested an explanation: "The reason why my brother is in this situation is his heart, not BRIBERY. Sandy [Annabi] and people took his love and kindness for granted."

Sunday, November 11, 2012

The Times Sports section on the Nets-related comic books

In today's New York Times Sports section, a promotional report on the two Nets-related comic books, headlined online Nets Comic Books Are Latest Newcomers to the N.B.A. Library and in print "Drawing Upon the Nets for Inspiration."

(I'd suggest there are reasons for skepticism about both.)

The text:
From Walt Whitman to Jonathan Lethem, Brooklyn has served as a muse to a string of celebrated writers. The Nets, although new to the borough, have also inspired writing, in a less highbrow genre than poetry or the novel: comic books.

It started with the Nets’ new mascot, BrooklyKnight, who was lowered from the ceiling of Barclays Center before the team’s season-opening win over the Toronto Raptors. Applauded by some, derided by others, the black-and-chrome BrooklyKnight superhero is far more intimidating than the team’s former mascot, Sly Fox, and the Nets made it clear that he was not to be trifled with.

“He is equipped to handle almost any threat with a protective metal B on his chest,” a news release said. It added that he had “defined muscles, including a six-pack, and a multifunctional cape.”

As part of BrooklyKnight’s introduction, the team released a comic book in conjunction with Marvel Comics, telling of his adventures protecting the team and Barclays Center.

The trend continued last week when Bluewater Productions released a comic, “Orbit: Mikhail Prokhorov,” describing the ins and outs of the life of the Russian billionaire who owns the Nets.

The Prokhorov comic, written by Tony Laplume, begins: “If ever there was a real-life Bruce Wayne, it’s Mikhail Prokhorov.” The notion that his business persona is only half of the story could make some more whimsical fans wonder if Prokhorov, who estimated that he would attend about a quarter of the Nets’ games in Brooklyn, might be secretly donning the BrooklyKnight costume.

But one attribute proves that they are not the same. Prokhorov is 6 feet 8 inches; the mascot appears to be much shorter. It is worth noting that a Web search for a photograph of Prokhorov and BrooklyKnight together yielded no results.

A poem: "I Sing the Song of Junior’s Cheesecake—My Atlantic Yards Report"

Jacob Margolies, a lawyer and writer living in Park Slope, is working on a series of poems "primarily from the viewpoint of a disappointed basketball fan." He calls it the "Brooklyn Nets New York Knickerbocker Poetry Series.” He shares one with us below.

I Sing the Song of Junior’s Cheesecake—My Atlantic Yards Report

By Jacob Margolies

Tonight we give praise to the Lord
for this victory.
And for the gift of patience.
We take it.
One game at a time.

We give thanks for eminent domain
and local religious leaders.
For Russian oligarchs
who are kick-boxing champions.

I would like to pay special thanks
to Pussy Riot
if it’s Ok
with Vladimir and Mikhail.

And praises be
to Jay-Z
Who be Fronting
for Me.

There’s nothing
we can’t do.
These streets make me
feel brand new.

We give thanks for
sentimental feeling.
Gauzy recollections.

I sing the song of Junior’s Cheesecake
Spumoni Gardens
Biting into a cold slice

And to the Brooklyn Dodgers.
We thank you
for moving to Los Angeles.

Did I mention egg creams?

And a special thanks
for hoops memories.
Chocolate Thunder and Super John
The Big Whopper and the Keenan lean-in

And we ask forgiveness
for Selling Away
Doctor J

Thanks to the Labor Unions
the Building Trades
and the Glories of Public Transportation
The LIRR, the IRT, the BMT and the IND

Oh Lord, Master of the Universe
Have pity and compassion
for the sanctimonious simpletons
Who Sought to Deny Brooklyn
This Treasure

Watch them now
Desperately rushing
to purchase tickets

We give thanks for the bank bailout
And naming rights
Branding and leverage
And taking it to the next level

Dr. Dunkenstein reports
we have reached
the next level

Let’s play ball

(copyright: Jacob Margolies)

Saturday, November 10, 2012

While We Were Sleeping: voices on NYU expansion question the character of change, the corporate connection, and the notion of "opposition"


While We Were Sleeping: NYU and the Destruction of New York, available via McNally Jackson Books, is billed as a "collection of pieces in protest," and while the "destruction of New York" seems hyperbolic when we compare changes in Greenwich Village to Superstorm Sandy, there's much worthy of reflection.

Consider this book an ally of the "NIMBY" efforts outlined in the Rea Deal. After all, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation has joined New York University faculty members, residents, and other community groups to sue to block the NYU expansion.

(Here's the web site NYU Faculty Against the Sexton Plan.)

From the NYT

One essay is a reprint of Expand Minds, Not NYU's Campus, which appeared in the New York Times 4/25/12, as the NYU expansion was being considered by the City Council. It's notable, in my eyes, because no op-ed from an Atlantic Yards opponent appeared until after the project was approved.

The essay raises questions about 20 years of construction and demolition, the financial risk, and the impact on faculty.

The corporate connection

NYU professor Andrew Ross, in his essay, points out that NYU's board includes "some of the city's biggest land developers, Wall Street's wealthy financiers, and a bevy of corporate tycoons"--the "governors of the city's growth machine."

NYU's $6 billion in construction is naturally a huge boost to the construction industry, and even though it won't add to affordable housing, the "result is assumed to be in the public interest," Ross writes. "Why Because it is cloaked in the public goodness which is the stock-in-trade of any educational institution."

What kind of change? What kind of neighborhood?

Urbanist and author Roberta Brandes Gratz observes, citing public testimony by Matthew Broderick, the issue isn't opposing change, it's "about the difference between appropriate change and cataclysmic change." She writes:
Today, NYU is all about real estate and money. Does the Village have to be that too just because NYUs board is dominated by developers?
Author Kevin Baker writes:
It is the Village that lends enchantment to the university, not the other way around. You would think that, after 200 years, the university might have figured it out.
Playwright John Guare writes:
Greenwich Village is an idea NYU should not be able to buy.
Architect and writer Michael Sorkin challenges the argument, based on seemingly compelling statistics, that NYU lags behind peer institutions in terms of square footage:
The peer-footage argument neglects, of course, that a great neighborhood is the extension of a campus by other means, that a cafe can be as valuable as a classroom... From a purely planning perspective, NYU is also at a tipping point and risks what has historically made it great as an urbanism. 
Beyond NYU: who are opponents? how find balance?

Several contributors take a broader look at the issues raised in this real estate fight.

Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn writes:
Now, I take great offense at the public and private officials (and media) who, with every controversial project, consistently work to belittle and diminish the stakeholders in the community who dare to raise their voices. We're always called "opponents," when in reality it is the behemoths--be it big-footed, connected institutions or corporations--who oppose the idea of communities having a substantial voice in their futures.
Research psychiatrist and author Mindy Thompson Fullilove writes about the conflict between the benefits of growth and harm caused by overexploitation of the ecosystem:
Unfortunately, universities, so often the site of the production of new knowledge, cannot be allowed to answer these questions--the conflict of interest is too great. Instead, we need new kinds of institutions--free universities, book groups, ethics clubs, debate forums--to bring all sectors of the population together to think through to solutions that offer the best possible future for us all.
That's an admirable goal, but without an infrastructure of funding and institutional support--where's the George Soros of "NIMBYs"?--that won't be easy.

Fair fight? In the Real Deal, "NIMBYs" ($1.15M budget) vs. "YIMBYs" ($26.9M); one "NIMBY," DDDB, isn't even fundraising

The Real Deal, that industry-friendly real estate magazine, offers in its November issue NYC’s NIMBY posse: A roundup of the city’s most influential neighborhood organizations fighting developers.

But the most salient facts are here in this graphic I compiled at right, comparing the budgets and staff sizes of selected so-called "NIMBYs" (Not in My Back Yard) and "YIMBYs" (Yes in My Back Yard).

Note that the YIMBYs surely do not devote all their budgets to development fights, and that the YIMBY list ignored organizations like the powerful Real Estate Board of New York.

Also ignored are YIMBY developers, who can muster political contributions, lobbying, and public relations efforts.

As the budget totals suggest, there are only two "NIMBYs" with significant budgets and staff, and they are far smaller than the YIMBYs.

The article suggests that some of the groups actually go farther than the literal definition of NIMBY--no, not because they have valid points of view, but because "some have pushed to protect whole swaths of the city, successfully curtailing development projects and swaying public opinion." Quelle horreur. (Also see my post on the issues raised by the NYU expansion.)

What about DDDB

It's interesting that one mention goes to Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, which is barely active--and, in its activity, has joined several other groups--Brown Community Develop Corp;, BrooklynSpeaks, FUREE, and Fifth Avenue Committee--in actions surrounding the arena opening, under the rubric AYCrimeScene.com.

The article states:
In late September, the Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards opened to much fanfare. But Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn and other groups wanted to hammer home a message: Developer Forest City Ratner promised jobs and housing along with the basketball.
Develop Don’t Destroy is considered the most visible opponent of the massive project, but cofounder Daniel Goldstein explained that, with the first phase of the development complete, the nonprofit is shifting its focus. “We’re more interested in the longterm macro issues of what’s going to happen with this site,” said Goldstein, who advises other Brooklyn nonprofits and is working on a memoir about Atlantic Yards, but declined to discuss his day job.
That doesn't sound particularly NIMBY, does it?

The article suggests that DDDB "racked up some impressive victories, including pressuring the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owned the 22-acre site, to request alternative proposals for the land in 2005." Council Member Letitia James also applied significant pressure and, really, both were just trying to get the MTA to do its job.

More impressive is that DDDB contacted other developers and got one, Extell, to compete, ultimately bidding three times as much cash as Forest City but seeing the MTA deem the former's bid better and negotiating solely with Forest City.

DDDB lawsuits

The article states:
The group also filed six lawsuits, challenging the use of eminent domain, the soundness of the environmental review and a renegotiated agreement between Forest City Ratner and the MTA.
Though the group met with mixed success in the courts, an appeals court ruled this past June that the developer and the state must conduct an environmental impact study, since the project is now estimated to take 25 years instead of 10. (Forest City Ratner appealed the decision, but New York State’s highest court declined to hear the appeal.)
Yes, "mixed success," but given that courts almost always defer to government agencies, the latter victory was significant.

What now?

The article concltdes:
Today, the group is a streamlined operation: The all-volunteer staff of about four or five is no longer working full-time on the issue, and they have not raised funds in about a year, Goldstein said. (In fiscal year 2009, the group raised about $162,000, according to figures from nonprofit data provider GuideStar.)
Moreover, the group is now focusing on a “political effort” that, in part, hinges on the environmental review. Since the review requires studying alternatives to Forest City Ratner’s plan, and since the company has not closed on all of the land at Atlantic Yards, Develop Don’t Destroy is hoping to persuade state officials to renegotiate their development agreement with the company.
The goal is to have the state issue RFPs for the remainder of the site and to have multiple developers finish Atlantic Yards.
“The struggle over the rest of the site, and what happens there, is really the long-term, ongoing struggle that our group … and other groups are going to have to deal with for a very long time,” Goldstein said.
Is that NIMBY, really? And is this group, and its allies, in a fair fight with the YIMBYs?

Friday, November 9, 2012

The BrooklyKnight comic book provides the back story on the Nets' mascot, plus an ensemble of yet-unbuilt towers (minus one)

Wonder where that crazy new Brooklyn Nets mascot/superhero comes from? A comic book tells the story, and in doing so helps perpetuate a "new normal" about the Atlantic Yards project, which lacks an office tower.

Thanks to The Brooklyn Game (the successor to Nets Are Scorching) for posting BrooklyKnight Comic Book Issue #1:
This comic book, created by Marvel, provides the backstory on the origins of BrooklyKnight. The comic book was given out at Barclays on opening day.
Note that the hokey and inopportune description read by Nets announcer David Diamante--"born from the beating heart of your borough.. forged from the same steel and stone as your arena... your passion given form"--comes directly from the comic book.

One comment on The Brooklyn Game: "Too corny for me. Too lame, too dumb, too stupid, too un-cool, too silly."

The towers

I've excerpted a few pages below.  It's notable how three separate panels portray the arena as already surrounded by three yet-unbuilt residential towers, as in the latest renderings by SHoP, as shown on AtlanticYards.com.

There's no flagship office tower, of course, obviating the (temporary) arena plaza, even though the jobs in that office tower were crucial to the cost-benefit analyses used to justify Atlantic Yards. Apparently even the BrooklyKnight couldn't bring those jobs.

Nets owner Prokhorov gets a comic book

Would you believe that Russian oligarch/billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, principal owner of the Brooklyn Nets, now has his own comic book, joining such luminaries (see bottom) as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Gabrielle Giffords.

It's another example of how a relatively modest investment in an American sports franchise has layered respectability on a controversial figure.

According to the promotion:
As a leading industrialist in Russia’s precious metals sector, Mikhail Prokhorov quickly rose to become the 7th richest man in the country. He ran against the mighty Vladimir Putin in the 2012 presidential elections and purchased the NBA team the Nets, moving the former Garden Staters to Brooklyn this year. As the center of his fair share of controversies over the years, the Russian billionaire has become one of the most talked about figures in Europe and beyond.
Looking more closely

I haven't seen the comic book (available in print and via iTunes) but can't say the sample pages are necessarily well-researched. As noted in the sample panel below, Prokhorov is described as owning "45% of the real estate project currently developing Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards, where the NBA's Nets will relocate in September 2012, playing at Barclays Arena. He also owns the Nets."

Actually, he owns 45% of the arena (holding company), not the full Atlantic Yards project. nor is the real estate project "developing Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards," since the latter is a project, not a place. And, if we're talking percentages, Prokhorov owns 80% of the Nets--and that more prominent role should've come first.

Also, the panel could be updated to account for the fact that the Nets have already relocated and, to be graphically precise, to include the corporate logos on the seats.

Prokhorov Comic Book page

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Veconi on BUILD and the use of the CBA as a wedge: "The cynicism of this was shattering."

In the wake of the dissolution of Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) signatory BUILD (Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development), Gib Veconi writes on Prospect Heights Patch, The First Atlantic Yards Casualties, about the formation of BUILD, in a Forest City Ratner office:
One of the community organizers, Darnell Canada, spoke up. He explained that this was the first organizational meeting of BUILD, whose formation had been announced the week before in a press release from then-Assemblyman Roger Green. “We’re here because we’re going to sign a Community Benefits agreement with Forest City Ratner,” he said. The purpose of the meeting was to decide what to ask for.
"Wait a minute," I said. "We haven’t even heard the pitch. We don’t know what’s going to be built. And we don’t know what’s going to happen to the people who live there now."
"That’s not important, said Darnell. “Where were they when the City cleared people out of Ingersoll Houses? They’ll get what they deserve.”
I looked around. Most of the room, including James [Caldwell] and others I had worked with for years, were nodding their heads. At first I couldn’t believe it, but then I understood. This was all part of the developer’s plan. Forest City was going to use a CBA as a wedge to separate civic leaders residing mostly in outlying neighborhoods from the more affluent residents of the community immediately surrounding Atlantic Yards.
My stomach sank. The cynicism of this was shattering. The people sitting around the table clearly did not perceive the extent to which they were in danger of being horribly abused by the developer. Any firm that would be so brazen in manufacturing support as to stage a “community” strategy session in its conference room would certainly have no qualms about disposing of such support as soon as its usefulness had ended.
Read more.

After leaving Forest City Ratner, Bender and Cantone rely on old ties for new clients: Prokhorov's Onexim, Viola's Virtu, and maybe even the Nets

Bruce Bender and Scott Cantone, Forest City Ratner's top government relations officials until they left earlier this year in the wake of the Ridge Hill corruption trial, have formed Bender Cantone Consulting, which relies in part on relationships begun while at Forest City Ratner.

The NYC Lobbyist Search web site (see screenshot at bottom) indicates five clients, including the Onexim Group, controlled by Brooklyn Nets majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov, which describes itself as "one of Russia’s largest private investment funds, with a focus on mining industry, innovative projects in energy and nanotechnology, real estate and other industries."

According to the web site, the consulting firm earned $5,000 from Onexim during July and August. For what isn't clear, but Prokhorov's foundation made a $1 million donation to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Prokhorov held and event at BAM in the run-up to the September 28 opening of the Barclays Center.

Another Nets connection

Another client is Virtu Financial, an electronic trading firm, whose Chairman and CEO is Vincent Viola, former Chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and a longtime minority owner of the Nets. The Brooklyn-born Viola was the connection that brought several investors to the Nets, including novelist Mary Higgins Clark.

According to the web site, the consulting firm earned $18,750 from Virtua from May through August.

Other clients

Other clients include the New York Yankees, the Association of Car Wash Owners, and the Albany government relations firm Cordo & Company. Only for the Yankees, among the five clients, is the subject lobbied disclosed: "regulation of ticket sales."

Lobbying fees aren't disclosed either, but presumably they're earning a good deal more than what's been reported so far.

What about the Nets?

Note that while Bender Cantone's web site indicates that the Brooklyn Nets are among the featured clients, the team is not listed on the lobbyist search site.

That may indicate that the Nets are not yet a formal client. Or it could be a reference to the lobbyists' past work, while at Forest City.

The firm's promise: "relationship that transcend political identity"

Bender and Cantone promise on their web site:
With 40 combined years of experience in public service and 20 years in the private sector, Bender Cantone Consulting offers clients comprehensive expertise and innovative approaches to solving problems. We are a proven and tested team that has successfully represented clients' interests in the community, in government and with the media.
As seasoned professionals representing our principals in Albany, City Hall and Washington D.C., we have developed long-term trusted relationships that transcend political identity and enables us to provide our clients the information and advice they need.
Indeed, one of the hallmarks of Forest City Ratner's work has been the company's influence on both sides of the legislative aisle. Of course strategic campaign contributions to both sides can't hurt, either.

Their record

Their website states:
Together, they have developed and implemented public affairs strategies for some of the City and State's most visible development projects: Atlantic Yards and Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York by Gehry at 8 Spruce Street in Lower Manhattan, The New York Times Building in Midtown, East River Plaza Mall in Upper Manhattan, and Ridge Hill Village in Westchester, among others.
And yes, they're taking some credit for the arena.
The database


Convictions in Ridge Hill case upheld; judge's summation a reminder of Forest City's not-so-honorable behavior; in memo, Annabi's lawyer calls for probation, citing smothering family and ongoing responsibilities

From the New York Times, Judge Upholds Convictions in Yonkers Corruption Case, published online yesterday (and not in print):
A federal judge in Manhattan on Wednesday upheld the convictions of a former Yonkers councilwoman, Sandy Annabi, and a political operative who had testified that he had given her gifts out of love and not for corrupt reasons, as the government had charged.
Prosecutors had accused Ms. Annabi of taking about $195,000 in secret payments over the years from the operative, Zehy Jereis, in return for dropping her strong opposition to a proposed 81-acre luxury mall and housing complex in Yonkers called Ridge Hill, and a second project. The government had also contended that Ms. Annabi gave Ridge Hill her support in order to help Mr. Jereis obtain a no-show job from the developer, Forest City Ratner.
“The jury was entitled to conclude that the thing that changed Sandy Annabi’s mind about the Ridge Hill Project was her benefactor Zehy Jereis’ financial interest in getting the project approved,” the judge, Colleen McMahon of Federal District Court in Manhattan, wrote in her decision.
...Neither Forest City Ratner nor any of its employees were charged in the case. The developer has said it cooperated with the authorities throughout the investigation.
Forest City's deal

It's true that the developer cooperated, but McMahon's decision (bottom) reminds us that Forest City did not exactly behave honorably. (Here's my coverage of the case, including an analysis of why Forest City wasn't charged.)

Though Forest City agreed to pay more to Yonkers, a claimed concession to Annabi, "both supporters and opponents of the project testified that the extra $10 million that FCR agreed to pay was totally insignificant," McMahon wrote.

"The evidence showed that Jereis was indeed able to get FCR the private meeting with Annabi that it had been unable to arrange without his help," McMahon wrote. Five days later, they produced what then-Forest City executive Scott Cantone termed a "political parachute" for Annabi.

(Given testimony by Cantone and his boss Bruce Bender about unseemly though not illegal behavior, it's understandable why Bender left Forest City before the trial and Cantone soon after. They now run a consulting company, Bender Cantone Consulting, which relies on part on old ties for new clients.)

Jereis, as McMahon described it, then began hounding Forest City for a job, the $60,000 consulting contract for a no-show position. "In the end, the jury was entitled to conclude that the only relevant thing that changed about the Ridge Hill Project between December 2005 and June/July 2006 (or for that matter, between June 9 and June 15) was that Jereis now had a financial interest in getting the Project approved," she wrote.

And while McMahon agreed there was no evidence that Annabi was aware of Jereis's request to Forest City for a job before she flipped her vote, the jury didn't need to find that to reach a conviction, the judge noted.

Moreover, according to judge, "there was circumstantial evidence" for a jury to reach that conclusion, given the close political relationship between Annabi and Jereis and the fact they spoke 81 times on the day the two first met with Forest City.

Sentencing Nov. 19

Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 19. In a voluminous memo, Annabi's lawyer, Edward Sapone, asks for probation, house arrest, and community service, not jail time, serving up a significant support for Annabi, with dozens of people citing her civic spirit and good works throughout her career.

As the Journal News reported:
Relatives called Annabi the rock of her family ever since she was a teenager, when her parents were arrested in a federal drug case. Her mother spent a year in prison and her father 13 years, forcing Annabi to work through high school and college.
Her dreams of becoming a prosecutor were dashed because financial hardships kept her from attending law school, relatives wrote.
Sapone suggested that Annabi was susceptible to Jereis’ political and personal efforts to gain her support, citing a psychiatrist’s assessment that she was naive when it came to others’ motivations.
Pulling at the heartstrings

The memo also pulls at the heartstrings. For example, it states that, as her grandparents' first grandchild born in the United States, "That status would prove to be detrimental to Ms. Annabi, who would be overly sheltered and deprived of life's experiences and the freedom to make small mistakes and to develop and grow in a healthy way."

They lived in an area overrun by gangs, and her parents were enormously protective, leaving her "little opportunity to test boundaries, experience life's situations, and establish relationships outside her family."

After her parents went to prison and even when her mother came back, Annabi was forced to grow up and be a virtual parent to her two younger brothers. Later, after her father returned from prison, Annabi, at 27, was still living with her mother and brothers:
Ms. Annabi's family continued to suffocate Ms. Annabi, and they simultaneously heavily relied on her. They tried to protect her while relying on her to protect them. Consequently, Ms. Annabi did not move out of her family's apartment until she was 34 years of age.
A friend said in a letter cited in the memo: "Everyone in her family leans on her. On the inside, Sandy is 80 years old--I know--I am her closest friend. It's not fair. She is worn out."

Learning from the mistake

Sapone's memo does acknowledge, "Ms. Annabi recognizes that she should not have accepted Mr. Jereis' gifts, and she has learned a lot from her mistake."

Meanwhile, Annabi's family relies on her to monitor her infirm parents' health, even as she "battles to control her own pain," including migraine headaches and other health problems.

"Additionally, the public does not need protection from Ms. Annabi," the memo states, citing "immense support" not only from those close to her but "from every segment of society."

On the other hand, Annabi doesn't apologize for flipping her vote--her defense was that the concession was worth it.

It will be up to the judge to decide how much the public needs protection from--or to make an example of--an elected official whose decision privileged corporate interests over the public interest.

McMahon's decision

Yonkers Corruption Case, Judge's Decision on Post-Trial Motions, 11/7/12


Wednesday, November 7, 2012

My City Journal essay on the New York Times's record covering Atlantic Yards: "The Barclays Center's Media Enabler"

I have an essay in the online section of the urban-policy magazine City Journal, The Barclays Center’s Media Enabler: From the start, the New York Times was reluctant to challenge Brooklyn’s new arena.

An excerpt:
[The sanitized story] again signaled the paper’s inability to get tough on Forest City Ratner, the Times’s partner in the New York Times Building in midtown, which opened in November 2007. Atlantic Yards has involved nearly $300 million in direct subsidies from the state and city, substantial tax breaks, and an inside track (and discount) on public property for the developer, along with the state’s use of eminent domain to deliver purportedly blighted land for Ratner to warehouse. All of this presented ample opportunity for scrutiny.
...Ratner has enjoyed heavy-duty support from New York’s political class since announcing the project nearly a decade ago. That left the press as the only potential counterweight. The New York Daily News regularly cheered for Atlantic Yards. The newspaper now sponsors the Barclays Center plaza, and on October 28, it produced a 44-page special section, chock full of ads from arena sponsors. The New York Post, while occasionally critical, never really dug, while its sports page was predictably enthusiastic. That left the Times. While it occasionally broke news, the paper never truly mustered the effort to dissect Atlantic Yards. The Times ignored important events or relegated coverage to its online edition. Except for a 15-month stretch ending in 2006, the paper failed to make Atlantic Yards one reporter’s responsibility, losing institutional memory.
If there was no newsroom thumb on the scale for Ratner, neither did anyone dig too hard... Outside the newsroom, the Times’s preferences were more glaring.
For the rest of the article, click here.

Eminent domain

City Journal, published by the conservative Manhattan Institute ("new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility"), frequently challenges the Times and is a critic of eminent domain. (See the Winter 2010 article regarding Atlantic Yards, Eminent Domain as Central Planning, by Nicole Gelinas.)

With Atlantic Yards, it should be noted, critics of eminent domain span the political spectrum; after all, a leading voice slamming New York state's condemnor-friendly laws is longtime civil libertarian Norman Siegel, while liberal New Jersey law professor Ronald Chen has declared that "the New York Court of Appeals basically abdicated any meaningful role for the judiciary in determining whether a blight designation even passed the laugh test."

Beyond the article

Given the space constraints, there's much I can't address in the article, so I'll augment it here.

Do I recognize that the Times's staff was shrinking and that it's tough to cover complex stories? Yes. Do I recognize that the Times missed other big stories, such as NYU's absorption of Polytechnic University? Yes.

Doesn't coverage of Atlantic Yards reflect the fact that Brooklyn still lags in comparison to coverage of Manhattan? Probably. Do I think Times coverage suffered from “The View from Nowhere”--as detailed by NYU media scholar Jay Rosen--in which journalists position themselves between poles to appear impartial, no matter who’s lying? Yes.

Do I think those are excuses? No, not for not showing up or ignoring counter-evidence--especially with the copious information available from others' reportage (including this blog) and Brooklyn activists.

Yes, the Times has done some good work in the midst of its erratic, inadequate coverage. But the Times has made numerous groaningly bad calls, some cited in my City Journal article (the MTA deal, the Community Benefits Agreement, hyping Jay-Z, etc.), others not. Here are some of the latter:
  • critic Herbert Muschamp, in his rapturous 12/11/03 essay hailing Atlantic Yards, claimed, in glaring error, “The six-block site... is now an open railyard.” The Times wouldn't correct it
  • a 11/6/05 article that allowed Forest City Ratner point man Jim Stuckey to claim that criticism of the developer was "Orwellian, almost"
  • the 9/5/06 lead story that treated rumors of a 6-8% scaleback in Atlantic Yards as big news, even though that would bring the project back to the square footage initially announced
  • a month after Atlantic Yards was first approved, the Bloomberg administration in January 2007, quietly doubled the size of its direct subsidy for Atlantic Yards, to $205 million (now closer to $180 million). The Times waited until 4/5/07 to backhandedly mention the subsidy increase
  • the newspaper failed to cover the 5/29/09 state Senate hearing on Atlantic Yards, the only such state oversight hearing in the project's history
  • the Times on 4/17/12 unskeptical transmitted Forest City Ratner's claim that retail changes on and around Flatbush Avenue were "evidence that the arena has already met its goal of transforming a dreary section of Brooklyn," including the railyards--but they remained undeveloped
What it meant

Tougher Times coverage might not have killed Atlantic Yards. More responsible coverage, however, could have helped shape deals more in the public interest, delivered a project with less neighborhood damage, and dissected the flaws in the eminent domain process.

Above all, such coverage would have put public on notice that such high-stakes, decades-long real estate development demands steady skepticism and democratic oversight. Even after the project has been approved.