Stalled Atlantic Yards Project Leaves Neighborhood Blighted

Photograph of Ward Bakery demolition last fall by threecee on Flickr

Government officials and developer Bruce Ratner have for years tried to seize private property in Prospect Heights to build an arena, office towers and apartments, arguing that the neighborhood was the epitome of urban blight. Opponents, meanwhile, countered that the developer was swooping in just as Prospect Heights was experiencing its first revitalization in decades.

Now, after years of demolition but no construction, the project has brought about the very blighted conditions officials ostensibly sought to remedy. Ironic, huh? Sadly, it's not the fashionable Napoleon Dynamite-type irony; more like the old fashioned irony that led Oedipus to gouge his eyes out after he realized what the hell happened. And with the development foundering, residents fear an increasingly desolate future.

The area is crawling with rats, and Martina Fugazzotto, whose apartment is by six buildings that have been razed in the last four years, tells the Daily News, "It’s creepy to walk around at night. In the summer, there will be guys hanging around outside. I get the worst sexual comments. It’s terrible." And resident Andy Basore, whose home was robbed in November, says, "The project has led to making this area more attractive for the criminal element." The silver lining? With everything demolished, locals like Joseph Medina get a hell of a view: "It's the first time I can see the Atlantic Terminal and the Empire State Building from my window."

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By John Del Signore in News on April 7, 2009 9:32 AM

Comments [rss]

NannyState

It's time for Bruce Ratner to face the wrecking ball.

I rode a new F

I never got my basketball sneakers.

FlowerGal

IvoryJive --

We in our communities have a right to be included in the conversation of what our neighborhoods will look like and how any public works will be funded. Atlantic Yards was a complete work around of the normal process by the Bloomberg Administration. and our native developer cheerleader Marty Markowitz.

Having said, even if shovels were in the ground last year, it is doubtful that financing would have continued to flow and the buildings completed, if the community did not protest (as is their right). Ratner overreached, was arrogant, and assumed that his friends in public office would help him out regardless of the what the public wanted.

IvoryJive

As soon as the first wrecking ball started swinging a year and a half ago, anyone could have predicted that attempts to stall or derail the project would have ended in a pile of rubble. Protecting the community is one thing, but is this the result you want? Buildings, even ones designed by Gehry, would be better than uncovered rail yards, and loads better than fields of rubble. Opposition to this project is as much to blame as the developers. Everybody loses on this deal - just a bad play by all parties. If things fall though, Brooklyn gets no Nets and no arena, Ratner gets no condos, the City gets no taxes, jobs or affordable housing, and the community gets rail yards and rubble.

gothamnyc

martina Fugazzotto is a self involved girl who thinks shes attractive. people, believe me, it must be REAL dark for them to making comments at her.

get off your high horse you nasty girl.

bucephalus

Lather, rinse, repeat.

http://gothamist.com/2009/04/05/harlem_building_boom_is_a_grand_let.php

FlowerGal

Thanks for the follow-up Gothamist.

This is Ratner's MO. He razed the Court Street Movie Theatre back in the ninties and let it sit for years as a huge pit in the middle of a commercial block and Brooklyn Heights. When it rained, the rats got a huge swimming pool.

Thanks Marty & Mike ... hopefully, there won't be a next time.

Knarf

I happen to love the way this post was written. I immediately looked to see who'd written it.

longacre

"It’s creepy to walk around at night. In the summer, there will be guys hanging around outside. I get the worst sexual comments. It’s terrible."

Ratner has a real potty mouth.

nicemarmot

"It's creepy to walk around at night. In the summer, there will be guys hanging around outside. I get the worst sexual comments. It's terrible."

Is it just me or does that sound like most NYC neighborhoods?