Ratner Opens Pandora's Box... Can He Deal With What's Inside? 'Eminent Domain' Is Obvious Pain If Ratner Gains BASKETBALL NEWS SERVICES By Tracy Graven Jan 17, 2004 As the clock winds down to the apparent sale of the New Jersey Nets franchise to millionaire developer Bruce Ratner, things in Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, Boerum Hill and Park Slope will heat so hot and fast, residents along Dean Street in the neighborhood will forget that it's the dead of winter. The proposed Brooklyn Arena and Brooklyn Atlantic Yards are a combined residential, retail and commercial space with 7.7 million square feet of space. The arena would seat 19,000 for basketball, and include 4,500 units of residential housing and 2.1 million square feet of commercial office space. Under the plan, development of the arena would begin this year. The completion of the project would be in time for the 2006-2007 NBA season; the team's lease in New Jersey expires in 2006. The Brooklyn arena would be located at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues in downtown Brooklyn, near a major Long Island Rail Road terminal. Last Monday, I spent most of my daily piece on the Nets speculating about the inevitable purchase of the team by Ratner and rapper Jay-Z from the busted YankeeNets union. I wrote of the numerous business units Ratner and Co. would have available to potential tenants. I marveled at the fact that he planned to add a 4,500 unit apartment community. And to hear, and mentally visualize, the glass-facade of a palace he planned to build for his new team, designed by Frank Gehry and spanning the corners of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, I thought, "Yeah ... much better than the swamps of New Jersey." But then I got a wake up call. Initiated by an e-mail by Kieran O., and my ensuing response, my e-mail box was flooded with more petitioning and explanatory e-mails than I'd ever imagined. Almost 100 e-mails in total, about five percent in support of what I had written and the other 95 percent reminding me politely of a few things. I have never stepped foot in Brooklyn. I don't have any history or kin in the Brooklyn area. I don't understand the plight that this foreseeable potential inevitability wasn't this grand design of progress at all. In fact, it was a downright disgrace ..... at least the way it is being pursued at this point. I found out a lot about a little known thing called 'eminent domain.' I say "little," simply because not many laymen in the public know about it. But the city, state, and federal government know every in and out and how to work it to their advantage in seizing whatever property they want, despite the impact it has on hard-working people trying to live the American dream. 'Eminent domain,' (also called "condemnation"), in laymen's terms, is the power of government agencies to acquire property for "public use" so long as the government pays "just compensation." Recognized public uses for which the power of eminent domain may be used include, among other things, schools, parks, roads, highways, subways, fire and police stations, public buildings, and the elimination of blight through redevelopment. A key attribute of eminent domain is that the government can exercise its power of eminent domain even if the owner does not wish to sell his or her property. The problem with eminent domain is that in order the calculation the aforementioned "just compensation" is done by none other than city, county, state and federal agencies who can tailor it to their own needs. "Blight" is used to describe whether or not structures generally in an area meet today's standards. Such is the case in the battle of Jim and Joanne Saleet of Lakewood, Ohio, who face a similar battle on a much smaller scale in their home of 38 years just outside Cleveland. They're in an eminent domain struggle with the City of Lakewood over the mayor and council's wishes to demolish their home, and 55 others in the area, in favor of high-priced condos and a high-end shopping mall, and, in the end, raise Lakewood's property tax base. Multiply the Saleet's dilemma by 23.6 for what's ahead of Ratner and Jigga in Brooklyn. Kieran O., Dean K., Karla R., Marc W., Salvatore P., Mert E., Lee R., Jezra K. and over 80 others who contacted me don't intend on lying down and rolling over. In their e-mails, I see the passion bleeding through their words. I hear the worrisome concerns in their typewritten dialogue. Karla R., who teaches grad students at Columbia University's School of Architecture says, It is difficult to accept the rhetoric that the currently proposed 110 to 620 foot towers with parking for 3,000 cars will compliment our existing neighborhood, or that a 19,000 seat arena will re-knit our communities. This is, plain and simple, a land-grab, Mr. Ratner claims to require our property to build his arena and the accompanying 300,000 SF of retail and 4,500 units of housing. However, he currently owns commercial property directly across Atlantic Avenue that alone, or coupled with the rail yard, would more than suffice for an arena without unethically displacing anyone from their homes. It is shocking that our Mayor, Governor, and Borough President could consider this abuse of eminent domain an appropriate development tactic. Mr. Ratner currently benefits mightily from tax breaks and subsidies received for the distasteful architecture he has built on the opposite side of these tracks, and is now being offered private turnover at the expense of hundreds of families' homes and community. A new building (or several) by Frank Gehry would be a fine addition to New York City (or to New Jersey) in a location where tax paying property owners would not have their homes seized, and where the scope and scale of the project would truly benefit the context rather than choke an already gridlocked intersection and dwarf a relatively low-rise, high density, fully functioning residential community ..... She is, by her own admission, pro-development and pro-building and believes that intelligent, innovative design and planning has the potential to transform the quality of life-- to transform the quality of life, for the better. But, in line with the American dream, wants her nine-month-old daughter to grow up in the home she and her husband have made for her, among the true cultural, ethnic, and economic diversity that is her evolving neighborhood, a community she was eager to invite me to visit personally. Dean K. noted that Mr. Ratner already owns property along side of the proposed site which he intends to enhance in value instead of using it to reduce the impact of his project of ME, my family and my MANY neighbors. NBA fans SHOULD know of this. Who would agree to people having their homes taken from them?!?!? Salvatore P. also knows of the adjacent property that, if used as an alternative, would defer the alienation of the community's denizens. As an architect and successful developer, I know this proposal could shift the footprint of the arena over Atlantic Avenue and onto the site of the Atlantic Center Mall --- already owned by the developer of this same project --- rather than force many private home and business owners from a thriving neighborhood they have helped to create. As a voting citizen and property taxpayer, I am outraged that the footprint proposed would be supported over the one I have just described, given that the former will destroy an established and growing municipal-income generating population, while the latter will require reconfiguring a financially unsustainable architectural atrocity of a retail center that sucks its profits out of the coffers of municipal subsidies. Spanning Atlantic Avenue to situate the arena as I have described is a perfectly feasible solution - both structurally and infra-structurally. I am sure Mr. Gehry's staff could creatively solve this problem in short order. Marc W. of the Prospect Heights area has no reservations about the Nets moving into Brooklyn. But taking away his front room, now you've got opposition. This is not an objection to the Nets moving to Brooklyn, said Marc. It is an objection to the gross disregard for a flourishing and diverse community, the sanctioning of the misuse of eminent domain, and the allocation of public funds for a private project. Mert E. doesn't want the Nets at all. The stadium project is a form of corporate welfare for a very rich and very well-connected businessman (Bruce Ratner) who has already lined the proposed stadium site with his own commercial buildings and stands to add to his personal fortune from the deal. Please do not write about the jobs that this project will bring to Brooklyn--if the money that the city would sink into the stadium were spent for pure economic development, the number of jobs created would far surpass what Ratner hopes to create. Kieran and his partner live in a warehouse converted into loft-style condos, but their residence isn't any old warehouse. This one has history that spans back to the 19th century and connections to the NBA itself ..... Kieran and Luis live, and many others, call the old Spalding Ball Factory their home now. But for how much longer? Bloomberg News is reporting that the $300 million transaction, in which Ratner's group outbid a push by Senator Jon Corzine and Charles Kushner to keep the Nets in the swamps by over $32 million. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff were informed that Ratner's group, which includes rapper Jay-Z, is getting the team, one of the people familiar with the negotiations told Bloomberg. "There are a million details that have to be worked out with the NBA," a source told Newsday on Wednesday. "We're close, but it isn't going to be done tomorrow [Thursday], unless there's a small miracle." In November, Ratner initially bid $275 million for the team, the highest of four suitors, but maneuvering over the past six weeks have shown that Ratner seems to be the bidder with the deepest pockets and grandest desire to own the franchise. Once the sale is officially announced, which could come as early as sometime this weekend, the legal scrap will be on. Thirteen hundred will not go away quietly, if at all, without a fight to the bitter end. No doubt the Saleets will continue to do battle with the City of Lakewood. Brooklyn is much larger scale than the Cleveland suburb and New Yorkers have never been known to back down from anything that stands in the way of their dreams and way of life. If Ratner razes the neighborhood along 475 Dean Street and the many small Mom 'N Pop businesses that have taken years to save up for, build, and spend 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. running, he is taking away the pulse of a neighborhood that has a lot more pride than people give it credit for. Most people take a look at Brooklyn and automatically write the whole borough off as 'blighted,' simply because it's not their perfect little piece of nirvana. But for the 1,300 residents who face having Seat 17, Row L, Section 203 replace their divan or recliner, this neighborhood IS their version of version of euphoria. It's their dream, something they've worked hard and saved every penny for. It's where their fathers and mothers have grown up, passed away, and a place that, after dipping their toe in the water that is the rest of this great country, they come back and are home sweet home. Their homes may be converted loft-style warehouses, not four-bedroom ranches like mine. Those warehouses are constructed of the same bricks that were laid by masons in the 19th and early 20th centuries. There's no Sears vinyl siding in bright colors, it's the same old brick color that's been there for years. Their front stoop is to them what my front lawn is to me. While I drive to Publix, they head down to the corner store, where they're treated with a personalized 'Hello,' and I am just asked for my credit card to the tune of $346. And while I have not actually stepped foot in this neighborhood, I have had the honor of these eight people sharing a piece of their life with me, both in pictures and in words that invoke mental pictures. I have seen how one of my colleagues in business has taken a Hollywood Video store in what was reputed to be 'one of the worst neighborhoods you could put a business in' and turned it into a community-involved celebration of entertainment. Like any other retail business in any city anywhere, there are the dubiously seedy and shifty-eyed characters who parade in and out thinking they are going to get something for free, whether for themselves or to sell quickly for a quick substance fix. But the director of the Brooklyn Hollywood Video has embraced the community and the community has embraced he in return, often nabbing would-be shoplifters for her and helping her keep extra sets of eyes on her assets. This doesn't sound like the Crooklyn I have always heard about. This is more in line with the Brooklyn I have had painted to me in nearly 100 e-mails this week. A Brooklyn I wouldn't mind visiting, if I had the money to go. I would love to go see the Brooklyn introduced to me by my readers. A Brooklyn that is tightly knit; diverse, yet united as one in their effort to save their neighborhood. A Brooklyn that Bruce Ratner wants to seize and demolish in the name of big biz. Gone would be the corner store where locals can get a hot cup o' joe for nickels on the dollar. In it's place would be the $5.00 espresso-cranking Starbucks. Demolished would be the small hole-in-the-wall studio/shop of a local artist, selling their hand-crafted wares. In it's place would be an expanded gallery of expensive artwork that no one in the 'hood could afford. Gone would be homes that people have finally been able to afford; in their place would be 4,500 apartment homes that none of the current residents of Dean Street could match their salaries with month after month. Leases in place of deeds. Temporary instead of permanence. Feet upon feet of urinal troughs instead of the tight little 7'x10' bathroom with Dad's stack of Popular Mechanics and Louis L'Amour paperbacks. In those homes are the rooms where kids spent their youth, sports and music posters tacked onto walls here and there; that one closet where a game of 'truth or dare' got someone their first kiss; the fire escape off the side where frisky teens would sneak out after hours; that bedroom where someone lost their virginity when the parents were out of town; the front doorway where the new bride was carried across by her knight in shining armor; there's that one room converted into a guest room when Mom and Dad come and visit the newlyweds for the first time; the newly-built and personally designed nurseries for newborn babies, hours upon hours spent painting designs and characters on walls, matching the just-right furniture and positioning the soft light lamps, rocking chairs and multitudes of teddy bears; hash marks on the jambs of differing doorways, denoting the annual growth spurts of young children; the tight, short hallway with all the family photos crammed closer together than the family itself; and the front room window that looks out to the night lights of the city. How Mr. Ratner can use eminent domain and simply raze these people's homes and the memories stored inside is beyond me. If he had any decency about him, he would offer some of his millions to purchase these residences from these hard-working people. It's about the only plausible appeasement at this point. The sale, demolition, re-construction and move is all but inevitable, just like progress. While that sentence alone has a chill to it colder than the overnight temps in Brooklyn, it remains a fact based in the reality that is the 21st century. I'd absolutely jump at the opportunity to spend a weekend with these people, walk their neighborhood, see their homes and what others are alleging as "blight," as well as Ratner's proposal, but I don't have anywhere near the money of a professor of architecture nor a millionaire developer. Whether the numerous people I have heard from this week agree with it or not, they may indeed end up displaced, their hopes, dreams and life stability steamrolled by a seemingly heartless millionaire. But if it weren't for the scores of visionary people like Bruce Ratner who have come before him and who will inevitably come in the future, this country wouldn't be where it is today. Trouble is, I can no longer decide if that is a positive or negative. I'm an NBA fan, but I'm also a fan of pursuing, achieving and building upon the American dream. The NBA season lasts from late October to late April, through June for a select lucky few. The American dream is infinitesimal ..... it's a journey whose destination is never quite arrived at completely. How can squashing it truly be justified? Tracy Graven is the Senior Editor in the Atlantic Division for Basketball News Services and covers the Orlando Magic for Hoopsworld.com. © Copyright 2003 by HOOPSWORLD.com, a Basketball News Services Exclusive |
