Jane Jacobs Atlantic Yards Report Card #19: Avoidance of Harmful Large and Heavy Trucking Depots? MAYBE NOT?

This is evaluation item #18 (of 47) of the Jane Jacobs Atlantic Yards Report Card

Avoidance of Harmful Large and Heavy Trucking Depots? MAYBE NOT?

(Image from No Land Grab)

Jane Jacobs views trucking depots in the wrong areas as adverse to neighborhoods. Atlantic Yards is not proposing that trucking depots will be built within its final design. But there will likely be many years where construction trucks fill the neighborhood. This is because the Ratner organization’s operations are likely to go semi-idle whenever convenient for it or when it is seeking financing for the next phase or when waiting fo the next economic upturn. That is because the kind of arrangements that will apply to the Ratner organization on building the megadevelopment will not involve firm public-imposed and enforced deadlines for completion. It the site were bid out for development by multiple developers such deadlines would likely be imposed and they would be enforceable.

(Since this was originally written it has come out that the Forest City Ratner schedule will involve decades, perhaps 30-40 years.)

JJ Cites: [. . . . Visually, they are disorganizing to streets, and so dominating that it is hard- - sometimes impossible– for any countering sense of order to make much impression. P. 234]