Comment On What Is Going on With Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries: Two Things We Hope He Remembers

We want to comment on what is going on with respect to Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and Atlantic Yards to say that we hope he remembers two things. (See: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, An update from Jeffries: "I remain highly critical" of Atlantic Yards.)

There are a lot of bad things to remember about Atlantic Yards, enough to make a very long list. In the comment the assemblyman has issued available on Atlantic Yards Report Mr. Jeffries has already indicated he has not forgotten Atlantic Yards’ abuse of eminent domain.

Two other things we hope Jeffries knows should be remembered:

1.) The housing portion of the community benefit agreement provides substantially no benefit and should be considered a fraud upon the community. One thing that makes this absolutely clear is the missing income band of low-income families for whom no affordable housing will be provided. For more on this see #11 in the list at: Ratner: The Little Boy Trying To Get Too Many Cookies Out of The Cookie Jar and Getting None (Friday, July 31, 2009)

(Above chart shows the units in Atlantic Yards referred to as "affordable." Click to enlarge.)

2.) The mega-monopoly needs to be broken up into parcels that will be distributed by bid to multiple developers replacing Forest City Ratner. In other words, we should be doing something consistent with what mayoral candidate Bill Thomson has said should be done with megadevelopments. (See: Monday, October 19, 2009, Thompson’s Advocated Multiple Parcels (a la Battery Park City) vs. Single-Developer Mega-monopolies Should Boost Developers’ Bids.)

With luck, Mr. Jeffries will have a chance to remember these things at tomorrow's PHNDC meeting.