Council Members Look to Take on Eminent Domain

first blight is required in NY State for the ESDC to use eminent domain for a so-called “Land Use Improvement Project” which is what AY, except for the arena, is designated as.

any time ESDC uses eminent domain, they have to show blight.
thats what they are doing with AY and up in West Harlem

as for this guy:
“Without Eminent Domain it would be impossible to build anything in a city. All development would have to move to the far reaches of urban life so as not to offend anyone in the community.”

thats a bunch of BS muncipality talking points. its nonsense. there is plenty being built all around the city without eminent domain, I’d say that 99% of it is being built without emient domain or eminent domain abuse. know how? its called Re-Zoning.

Without Eminent Domain it would be impossible to build anything in a city. All development would have to move to the far reaches of urban life so as not to offend anyone in the community. And, to keep the last parcel holder from extorting any project anyone had in mind. It is an absolutely essential tool for community against individual property owners that would stand in the way. Take the money, move to a nice neighborhood forget Flatbush and Atlantic, home sweet home.

Please consider that the issue here is ABUSE of Eminent Domain, not Eminent Domain per se.

And what about all the renters who were dumped out…what about the renters who were in buildings FCR bought? What about the woman who put all that money in starting the daycare center to then get dumped after investing money in the space? What about all the people who were residents in the alternative housing building…they were highly vulnerable? Have they been placed in comparable housing?

To the person who signed at 6:22 as FSRG: UH…150% return on 2-yr investment???! Listen, first of all it’s not like all people FCR bought out were condo owners…I think that was, what, one building? AND, hello! Many people were selling elsewhere these last years for 150% of their relatively recent purchase price so this is not an argument.

To the commenter above who mentioned E.D. is in the Constitution…uh…yeah…for the public good…and as it has developed over time, rulings have angled it to be used when a municipal, state or the federal gov’t compensates property owners and then takes land for public uses…now, okay, Kelo sanctioned the city taking property and giving it to “some” other owner for the public good where the property would not belong to the public (already bad idea but…okay).

BIG DIFFERENCE WITH THE “IDEA THAT IS ATLANTIC YARDS”:
Land was taken to give to a PRE-DESIGNATED SPECIFIC company, and this specific company INITIATED this process! It WAS NOT some gov’t development scheme and FCR some simply bidder. Also, in the case of the arena which will be “publicly owned”: the developer gets to use it basically forever for basically nothing so de facto, that land is also being handed over to the private entity for private profit…and the public will foot the bill.

COME ON ALREADY.

THEN, one of the big issues is that ages ago, FCR was already using the THREAT of Eminent Domain…just the THREAT…HELLO! DISGUSTING.

THAT IS HOW they got their hands on a good deal of the properties…”Hey, you, Bud, sell us your property at a little over market (if that!…gag agreements don’t let us know the real numbers), ‘cuz we want it…and you’ll just lose it in the end otherwise, so sell it to us now.”

Yes, FCR does own a good number of buildings in the footprint outside the rail yards now BUT NOT ALL….AND, a noticeable part of the 60% of the area that is not rail yards is CITY STREETS AND SIDEWALKS that are being handed over to FCR.

PLUS, FOR NO REAL REASON BUT TO SCREW AROUND WITH US, THEY’RE CLOSING THE CARLTON AVENUE BRIDGE TOMORROW 1/16…SUCH A P.R. MANOEUVRE…such a TROJAN WEDGE into the community.

NOW, the SO-CALLED Environmental Impact Study was a sham. It’s like the BS documents your architect gives you for “Scope of Work” because the bank wants to “see something” or the drek the inspector gives you for your $400 to $500. It was nearly a Paste’n’Print job. Please…

PATHETIC.

If you sent the EIS to Germany and just had one person from an architecture firm and one from an engineering/urban planning firm look at it, they would be appalled…shocked that this BS passes for anything. AND…it is really pure BS when you consider this is “planned” as one of the LARGEST urban construction projects in US HISTORY, HELLO!

New York is getting so “third world” it’s pathetic.

I lived in one of the largest cities in the so-called “developing world”. It underwent helter skelter development and now everyone’s paying for it (floods because drainage is horrid…floods with poop and rats, okay…TRAFFIC is unreal!)… It is known as the Traffic Jam of The East.

Already, they’ll incrementally increase traffic on Flatbush THIS WEEK with the closing the Carlton Avenue Bridge tomorrow.

This is a TROJAN WEDGE in the neighborhood.

Drivers currently shoot over Carlton from Flatbush to avoid going to the Tillary BQE entrance. They get onto the BQE further up and avoid the congestion of Flatbush-Atlantic.

I won’t exactly miss the traffic that this creates on Carlton in Fort Greene.

What I WILL MISS is the main pedestrian passageway between Fort Greene and Prospect Heights/Parks Slope. A Trojan Wedge…plan and simple…no need to close the bridge right now, no matter what BS they’re feeding the press on it…if they’re even bothering…

They’re closing the bridge when probably NO work will go on with it for ages. They’ll just be using it:

1) as a PR move to make it seem like “something” is happening;

2) as an incremental way of trying to dull the community, making people rearrange their lives and try to get used to the inconvenience, community displacement, etc. little by little;

3) as a private little parking lot and staging area for themselves.

The CARLTON AVENUE BRIDGE should NOT BE CLOSED now and NOT FOR 3 YEARS as proposed (!!!) so these fools can sit around and do nothing with it and then, maybe build a parking lot platform over the area. During any necessary closing, the minimum requirement should be that a PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE is be built.

REGARDING INCREASE IN TRAFFIC:
Ratner’s mall has increased big-rig traffic in FG massively. ALSO, ALREADY we have tons of 53-foot and 42-foot big rig trucks barreling through the neighborhood and up Lafayette when this is clearly not allowed as a truck route.

THEY TURNING MUCH OF FORT GREENE into a truck route. Check out the Dept of Transportation maps online and you’ll see only specific streets are open to trucks and then, only for local deliveries (moving trucks, deliveries to homes an bodegas/stores), NOT huge, massive construction flatbeds and massive trucks trying to get to Target.

This AM I saw the most incredible big rig maneuver in a while: The driver managed to bring the truck (a 53-footer) around all three sides of the Fowler “Square” (actually, it’s a triangle where Lafayette and Fulton meet). The driver came down Fulton, did a 120 degree turn to the right up Lafayette and than immediately right onto South Elliot. The truck was LONGER than that entire little block in front of the BBQ restaurant on South Elliot. Ridiculous! All this to get on S. Elliot to shoot across on the way to the Mall loading docks I guess.

RATNER and MARTY are in my Hall of Shame.

I’m with 5:23

his point is if you use a name, you can tell throughout a thread who is posting what. DUH!