Atlantic Yards Tour

Atlantic Yards Footprint Tour: Brooklyn's Most Contested Development

The planned Atlantic Yards project is the most contested development in Brooklyn today, and would irretrievably change the heart of the borough. Located just east of downtown, mainly in Prospect Heights, the 22-acre project, designed by Frank Gehry, would be built over and well beyond an 8.5-acre railyard, including a basketball arena and 16 mostly-residential towers, up to about 511 feet tall.

Proponents tout "jobs, housing, and hoops," including a restoration of Brooklyn to the major league status it lost when the baseball Dodgers left for Los Angeles in 1957. They also point to the need to develop over the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard, a functioning railyard but a gap between gentrifying Prospect Heights and Fort Greene.

The project would be very dense, involving 6430 apartments. Among them would be 2250 affordable rentals--the subsidy amount remains unknown--part of a negotiation with the housing advocacy group ACORN, which has generated significant political support for the project.

There's been significant local opposition and some hard-fought lawsuits. As of February 2008, a federal lawsuit challenging the use of eminent domain had been dismissed at both the trial court and appeals court level. A state lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of the project's environmental review; in late October, ten plaintiffs sued the city, state, and developer to block the planned use of eminent domain--which could stall the project.

The rendering below, from the Final Environmental Impact Statement, shows the expected impact on Dean Street.

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On the tour

In 2.5 hours, we'll walk in and around the footprint. Among the issues: the scale of the project, transportation access and traffic challenges, the location and provision of open space (designed by Laurie Olin), the quality of the buildings that would be demolished (are they blighted?), the history of urban renewal in this neighborhood, the provision of affordable housing, and developer Forest City Ratner's history in Brooklyn, including two malls near the project site.

Driving Directions
Price: $15/person. We meet outside the tallest building in Brooklyn (for now), the Williamsburgh Savings Bank (at Hanson Place and Flatbush Avenue, near the intersection with Atlantic), home to several subway lines (2/3/4/5/N/R/Q) & the LIRR. We end a block away from a frequent bus to several subway lines.

Tour guide Norman Oder, a journalist, writes the Atlantic Yards Report, a blog devoted to critical and careful looks at various angles of the controversy.

New York Like A Native

Touring Brooklyn (and the L.E.S). via foot, subway/bus, & even vehicles (www.nylikeanative.com)