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April 27, 2007

ESDC Presses Pause Button on AY Demolition

In the wake of yesterday's building collapse at the Ward Bakery, demolition on all Atlantic Yards properties has been put on hold. From the ESDC press release today: "The Empire State Development Corporation and developer Forest City Ratner have agreed that the developer will temporarily suspend all abatement and demolition activities until the City’s Department of Buildings concludes its preliminary investigation or the City directs us otherwise." Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn is calling for the ESDC to take it one step further and create an oversight body to ensure more accountability going forward.
ESDC Calls Halt to All AY Demolitions [DDDB]




Posted by Brownstoner at 12:35 PM | Comments (17)
Categories: Atlantic Yards

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Ratner's tried to be all things to all people. As part of his PR, hired minority/woman owned firms for the demolition who are probably sub par in an already sub-par business. (unless they are fronted by women/minorities) either way a lot of money has to go to craft at the expense of quality.

Posted by: anon at April 27, 2007 2:57 PM

i was wondering how long it was going to take before someone expressed doubt about the minority/woman owned firms.

because they're minority/woman-owned that they must be "sub-par," right?

Posted by: tracy at April 27, 2007 3:27 PM

2:57 represents DDDB in a nutshell. Undercover racists.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 27, 2007 3:30 PM

Dolly Williams is a member of 2 minority groups (woman and member of another minority group) and a big time contractor who is also an investor in the AY project and is the Markowitz/Brooklyn appointee to the Dept of City Planning. My guess is that her firm will get a ton of work on this project and satisfy the requirement for minority owned contractors. So this BS about minority owned businesses benefiting is really just about business as usual between people who are already benefiting from serving their own self-interests...not the community's interests at all.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 27, 2007 3:32 PM

Anony 3:30-hope you know for sure that the 2:57 poster was DDDB before you jump to that conclusion. Additionally, most opponents of AY are anything BUT racists/sexists, contrary to what the press would have you believe. And Mr Goldstein doesn't speak for everyone who staunchly opposes Ratner's plan for AY. I do take offense to the sweeping statement that minority/women-owned businesses are sub-par! The fact of the matter is that Ratner did not maintain the building that he has owned for a year and just who is responsible to make sure that scaffolds are put up to protect the neighborhood? Whoever is, whether developer, contractor, ESDC, Dept of Buildings...whoever, they erred bigtime and at the expense of many people. Doesn't anyone have to vet/approve the manner in which these buildings are demolished? To me this episode seems additional proof that we don't want Ratner's brand of work done in Brooklyn at all. And this in a market where there are plenty of developers who fight to be granted approval for develoipe quality proposals and who work hard to do the right thing...Ratner is handed the keys to the castle so to speak and paid big bucks to do shlocky work.

Posted by: CCL at April 27, 2007 4:02 PM

Anony 3:30-hope you know for sure that the 2:57 poster was DDDB before you jump to that conclusion. Additionally, most opponents of AY are anything BUT racists/sexists, contrary to what the press would have you believe. And Mr Goldstein doesn't speak for everyone who staunchly opposes Ratner's plan for AY. I do take offense to the sweeping statement that minority/women-owned businesses are sub-par! The fact of the matter is that Ratner did not maintain the building that he has owned for a year and just who is responsible to make sure that scaffolds are put up to protect the neighborhood? Whoever is, whether developer, contractor, ESDC, Dept of Buildings...whoever, they erred bigtime and at the expense of many people. Doesn't anyone have to vet/approve the manner in which these buildings are demolished? To me this episode seems additional proof that we don't want Ratner's brand of work done in Brooklyn at all. And this in a market where there are plenty of developers who fight to be granted approval for develoipe quality proposals and who work hard to do the right thing...Ratner is handed the keys to the castle so to speak and paid big bucks to do shlocky work.

Posted by: CCL at April 27, 2007 4:02 PM

Tracy, CCL: It is a well known fact that many of these firms are not minority owned. Minority/women are just a front or got into the business because contracts favor them. So a lot of money has to be spent on graft, like paying off the front or take your cut and subcontract a real firm. So don't be so quick to get offended. The Construction industry is notoriously corrupt.
BTW. Why minorities like Asians would need help is beyond me.

Posted by: anon at April 27, 2007 4:08 PM

3:30 PM represents Ratner in a nutshell playing the race card.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 27, 2007 4:08 PM

"So this BS about minority owned businesses benefiting is really just about business as usual between people who are already benefiting from serving their own self-interests...not the community's interests at all."

So true.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 27, 2007 4:15 PM

D-O-N-E-D-E-A-L!!!

Posted by: Anonymous at April 27, 2007 5:38 PM

Anon 3:30; I think you misread the first post. They said "minority/woman owned firms for the demolition who are probably sub par" Did not say that minority firms are sub par. This particular firm is deemed sub par because they knocked the parapet off to fall five stories into an unprotected area.
Don't be too quick to take offense.

Posted by: anon at April 27, 2007 5:44 PM

Anon 5:44, you should quote more of the first post:

"As part of his PR, hired minority/woman owned firms for the demolition who are probably sub par in an already sub-par business. (unless they are fronted by women/minorities)".

the phrase "unless they are fronted by women/minorities" implies that as long as the "real" work is not being done by women/minorities, and that the women/minorities are just a front, then the work is not "sub-par."

sounds pretty sexist/racist to me, and i do take offense.

Posted by: tracy at April 28, 2007 9:57 AM

The internet is a wonderful thing, but it never ceases to amaze me how so much misinformation is posted that passes for fact. A little research (yes, on the internet) by the original poster and by those subsequent posters who accepted that the OP assumptions were correct would have revealed that the demolition contractor is Gateway, a firm that is one of the most well respected demo companies in the city (they do a whole bunch of work directly for NYC), that the asbestos remediation subcontractor to Gateway is Topline, also a well respected company certified by NYC, and that neither of these firms is minority owned. I'm all for animated and healthy discussion on the merits of Atlantic Yards and/or its developer, but it really gets my goat when folks can't be bothered to do a bit of elementary fact checking before floating erroneous "facts" in support of their viewpoints. It detracts from rather than reinforces the opinions expressed.

Posted by: John Ife at April 28, 2007 7:12 PM


john ife: If so than Ratner is already going back on this word
http://www.blackstarnews.com/?c=121&a=3027
Prep work and construction of a temporary rail yard on the east side of the Vanderbilt Rail Yard started this week, Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) announced.

The Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn is a residential and commercial development, including over 2,200 units of affordable housing and the future home of the Nets basketball team, all designed by world-class architect Frank Gehry.

In keeping with the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), a voluntary and legally binding agreement signed by eight local community groups and ratified by over 200 community groups and leaders, the first contracts of this initial work, worth more than $600,000, have been awarded to minority- and women-owned (M/WBE) firms.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 28, 2007 9:10 PM

Unbelievable! To what portion of the project does the above article refer? "Prep work and construction of a temporary rail yard on the east side of the Vanderbilt Rail Yard". Does it say anything about Ward's bakery? No. The only demolition mentioned as being part of the initial work contract cited in the article is that of 179 Flatbush. Whatever the merits of the arguments against the project, warping the facts in carelessly read articles and stretching credibility does not seem, to me at least, to be the most effective method of putting them across.

Posted by: John Ife at April 28, 2007 11:35 PM

Mr. Ife - If the companies mentioned are so reputable why are they doing such a bad job. I assume in demolition work that what happened is considered a major failure - people could have been injured or killed. Why the sloppy job?

Posted by: Anonymous at April 29, 2007 8:13 AM

Tracy, you want to talk about racist and sexist - choosing firms because they are owned by a race or sex is sexist, but that doesn't bother you, does it?

Posted by: Anonymous at April 29, 2007 11:11 AM

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