A video artist and teacher visiting from San Francisco claims she’s the latest victim of police harassment of photographers in New York – and this time the overzealous cop may have been acting on behalf of Forest City Ratner, the corporation behind the controversial Atlantic Yards project in downtown Brooklyn. Katherin McInnis tells Atlantic Yards Report that she was on the Pacific Street sidewalk shooting “blurry, arty video” of the rail yards on Sunday when......

In November, Charlie Rose sat down with rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z. The musician is originally from Brooklyn and late in the interview Rose queries about the expected success of the Nets once they move to Kings County. Jay-Z is very enthusiastic about the potential of the team and the virtues of the borough, as he prefaces every statement about Brooklyn with the words "we" and "ours." It is unintentionally comedic then when Rose immediately......

Yesterday, Governor Spitzer, Mayor Bloomberg, MTA CEO and Executive Director Lee Sander and other officials kicked off the extension of the 7 line by unveiling a new sign in Times Square pointing the way to Hudson Yards. Ah, nothing like putting in signs for things that won't be ready for years - the 7 will reach 34th and 11th Avenue in 2013. The 7 line extension will cost $2 billion for the 1.5 miles......

The Real Deal (via Brownstoner) is reporting that, according to a recent court ruling, the city is taking two Williamsburg properties via eminent domain for Bushwick Inlet Park. The properties are located along the East River between North 9th and 10th streets. According to one real estate expert, the city will only pay about $100 per square foot, compared to the $200 per square foot it could garner on the open market, even though the......

Yesterday, people critical of developer Bruce Ratner's massive, billion dollar Atlantic Yards project held the Third Annual Walk Don't Destroy Walkathon. And leading opponent Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn held a press conference asking a new question that goes beyond eminent domain and the size and scale of the plan. Now the question is whether the Atlantic Yards will be safe from a terror risk. Earlier this week, Newark Police Director - and former NYPD......

It's a mixed bag for Columbia today. The school was probably happy to find out that it ranked 9th in U.S News & World Report's latest top college ranking issues, but it's no fun to learn that its billion-dollar Manhattanville project was rejected by a community board committee. IvyGate got a hold of the embargoed "Annual Ranking of Best National Universities" information and found that Columbia ranks ahead of Dartmouth (#11), Cornell (12), and......

A federal judge dismissed an eminent domain lawsuit that would have stopped the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. The lawsuit, brought by Daniel Goldstein of the vocal anti-AY group Develop - Don't Destroy Brooklyn, claimed that the multi-billion dollar project abused eminent domain, by not having much public benefit, only benefit for developer Bruce Ratner. Judge Nicholas Garaufis dismissed the case, writing, "Plaintiffs have not set forth facts supporting a plausible claim of an unconstitutional......

So this is how borough presidents wield power: Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz has flexed his BEEP muscles by dismissing five members of Brooklyn's Community Board 6 - and their common quality was that they were vocal opponents of the Atlantic Yards project. And City Council members David Yassky and Bill DeBlasio also didn't reappoint four other members who opposed the massive $4 billion project that has been the source of community tension. Gowanus Lounge......

When we first saw the Daily News headline, "Brooklyn arena project gets safety net," we thought that the Empire State Development Corporation had literally bought a huge, super-reinforced netting to put around buildings being demolished for the Atlantic Yards project, in hopes of preventing other huge chunks of buildings falling onto sidewalks. But it turns out the ESDC is just appointing an ombudsman ("to speak to government agencies and the public about the $4.2 billion......

The Atlantic Yards Report's Norman Oder weighs in on the financial documents on the Atlantic Yards project. Developer Forest City Ratner only released three pages after Freedom of Information Act requests. Oder sent the docs to an affordable housing expert, David A. Smith, who was unimpressed and said, "They make one hungry for more detail, without which it is impossible to have a properly informed opinion." Oder also notes there are "unexplained gaps" in the......

Developer Bruce Ratner has been letting the media know that construction will begin on the Atlantic Yards project. The controversial development will bring an arena for the Nets as well as commercial and residential space in the millions of square feet, as well as displace residents in its 22 acre footprint. Metro reports that for the first phase of prep work, a "temporary rail yard" will be set up on the eastern side so......

It's official: Barclays Bank has bought naming rights to the Brooklyn Nets' future arena in the Atlantic Yards project. Naturally, there's a website: Barclays Center - Planned Home of the Nets. Cute how it says "Planned," right? And this map showing how all routes lead to the "Barclays Center" is pretty funny. We noticed a few things on the site. Three Nets players were highlighted: Vince Carter, Nenad Krstic, and jersey-popping Richard Jefferson. There's......

The Public Authorities Control Board votred to approve the Atlantic Yards project. This means the last minute effort to convince Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to vote yes on the project worked, and Governor Pataki can leave office knowing that the project passed during his term. However, expect lawsuits to delay the project from going forward. The Brooklyn project will span 22 acres in downtown Brooklyn and will cost $4 billion. Here's the Atlantic Yards......

Dun dun DUN! It turns out about NY1 reported that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver might try to delay a Public Authorities Control Board vote on the Atlantic Yards project, planners from the Empire State Development Corporation went to his office to plead their case! Now it looks like the vote will happen today and that Silver may, in fact, okay the massive $4 billion project as long as Governor Pataki "doesn't tie it to other......

It’s another defining week for the Atlantic Yards. On Wednesday, the 8 million square-foot project faces one of its last hurdles: approval by the Public Authorities Control Board, the state oversight body that monitors Albany’s fiscal commitments to projects like the Yards. PACB votes have derailed large-scale projects before, most notably last year when Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver and Joseph Bruno, the Senate majority leader, killed the West Side Stadium plan. Of course, it’s no......

+ The New York Times calls yesterday's Atlantic Yards community forum "polite" and estimates attendance at a few dozen people. Most speakers supported the project, no doubt a result of civic overload (given the district's active Congressional primary race) and Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's boycott of the meeting. One Fort Greene native who lives in Park Slope attacked opponents who "live in brownstones," or many of her neighbors. + Norman Oder's Atlantic Yards Report calls......

The NY Times is reporting that Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner will cut the size of the project by 6-8%. How? By reducing the amount of market-rate housing. And also from the Times: "[Ratner's company] Forest City is also considering reducing the height of the project’s tallest tower, which is known as Miss Brooklyn, to get it under the height of the borough’s tallest building, the nearby Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower, according to real estate......

Atlantic Yards Report, the great blog that's following and challenging the Atlantic Yards Report, has a good look at a Crain's Business poll. Crain's reported that 60% of people supported the behemoth project, because of the housing and jobs it would bring. The number is even 60% in Brooklyn, though 33% oppose it (vs. 25% citywide). Atlantic Yards Reports questions wonders if the polled really have a sense of what the project is about. For......

The Atlantic Yards Project's public meeting last night was packed with Brooklyn residents wanting to have their say. WNBC reported that hundreds of people were waiting outside the New York City College of Technology, since the auditorium was full, and inside, "the crowd became unruly, cheering wildly for their cause until security was called in to remove a few of the audience members." That sounds about right - and they had lots of signs......

Get ready to rumble: Tonight is the first of two public meetings to discuss the Atlantic Yards project - but this is the only public hearing, where comments will be recorded into the record (a public forum will be held on September 12 - Primary Day - and it's unclear whether testimony with be recorded). While the Empire State Development Corporation seems to support this project no matter what, it's important for residents to speak......

Yesterday, protesters gathered at a rally against the $3.5 billion Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn. Organized by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, the rally had entertainment along with words from politicians and famous anti-Atlantic Yards types, including Park Slope resident Steve Busecmi, according to the NY Times, who "read a poem...which included the line" “I’ve played a lot of crazies, but this seems insane.” Rosie Perez said, the project was "an insult to the poor"......

Well, that didn't take long. Two days after Frank Gehry's new designs for the Atlantic Yards were released comes word from the Daily News that even some of Ratner's supporters, like Assemblyman Roger Green, are now pushing for further reductions to Brooklyn's instant skyline. The bill that the assemblymen are pushing would reduce the square footage of Ratnerville down to nearly 6 million square feet, from nearly 9 million. "In exchange, the bill would......