Brooklyn Paper Blocks Links Re City Rules NOT Requiring That Hi-Decibel Late Night Construction On The Ratner/Prokhorov Arena Be Done At Night

In an Atlantic Yards Report story we read that the Brooklyn Paper today published an article headlined "Noises on! Barclays Center construction now 24-7-365" that contains the following language, “City rules require that the work be done at night, when traffic is lightest,” leading the reader to infer that city rules are requiring that ALL of the work now being done at night during the now 24/7 schedule must be done at night. That’s not so.

What was more startling however, was reading in the Atlantic Yards Report story that when Atlantic Yards Report’s Norman Oder twice tried to provide corrective comments to the article via the Brooklyn Paper’s “Reader Feedback” feature, his corrections were blocked. (See: Thursday, October 06, 2011, Brooklyn Paper covers after-hours construction but suggests that all of it is required to be done at night. Not so.)

Into the breach we went with a Noticing New York test of the Brooklyn Paper’s correction- censoring block. Here is our comment and our diagnostic of the situation.

The Noticing New York comment first attempt was blocked. See the text of that comment, followed by the screen shot below:

Forest City Ratner has indeed asserted that city rules require that SOME of the high-decibel work being done at night has to be done at night. Is that actually true? Forest City Ratner is an untrustworthy source of information. No matter, it is absolutely clear that NOT ALL of the ear-splitting work going on 24/7 is required by city rules to be done at night.

Why this work is going on 24/7 needs to be questioned. Why does Ratner get to jackhammer away throughout the night (and on weekends) at incredible hearing-destroying decibels for months when, in theory, his arena is “on schedule” and there is no need to rush its building with extraordinary measures?

See the following for details and more links respecting the above:

http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2011/10/brooklyn-paper-covers-after-hours.html

http://noticingnewyork.blogspot.com/2011/09/construction-of-ratnerprokhorov.html

I noticed that someone posting a comment as “Prospect Heights Resident from Prospect Heights” had posted a comment “via AYR & NLG” that was essentially Mr. Oder’s attempted correction except that it did not include effective links back to information in Atlantic Yards Report about the actual correct facts of the situation.

Considering the possibility that the inclusion of the links had resulted in the blocks, I substituted the following for my own attempted inclusion of links:

Google the following headlines (suggest you use quotes) for details and more links respecting the above:

“Brooklyn Paper covers after-hours construction but suggests that all of it is required to be done at night. Not so.”

“Construction of the Ratner/Prokhorov (“Barclays”) Arena Is Behind Schedule. Either That, OR a 24/7 Construction Schedule Was ALWAYS Intended”

It worked. So the effective http-style links back to Mr. Oder’s Atlantic Yards Report content were probably the problem. It’s unfortunate, especially in view of the need for the necessary corrections and the amplification of facts available from Mr. Oder, that links could not be included to help Brooklyn Paper readers get correct information.