Symbols of Brooklyn Resistance Face Wrecking Ball
by Net Income on Aug 11, 2010 8:04 AM EDT
in Brooklyn
Email
PrintDemolition is close for the two best-known symbols of Brooklyn critics' resistance to the Atlantic Yards project: Daniel Goldstein's condominium building and Freddy's Bar. Demolition crews have been inching closer to the building that housed Freddy's and are now only a few doors away. The interior has already been cleared.
Meanwhile, scaffolding has been erected around Goldstein's condo, the first sign that work is about to begin there. Forest City Ratner has said taking down the nine-story building could take months. It's the more critical of the two since Goldstein's condo unit sits over what will be center court at Barclays Center.
- 8/10: Demolition in Prospect Heights - Raulism - Flickr
- Demolition on the arena block: photos, video - Norman Oder - Atlantic Yards Report
- Surreal morning in court: finally, belatedly, a wholesale assault on the Atlantic Yards project, but before a detached judge - Norman Oder - Atlantic Yards Report
48 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Fantastic. Can’t wait to see everything removed and some steel erected from the ground. On that note, I’m still not clear why it would take the same amount of time to demolish DG’s old building as it did Shea Stadium.
I don't think we were ever given a clear answer to that question.
Not sure why it took months to get the necessary Permit(s). It must have been 5 months ago that the court hearings were over – arrangements could have been made well in advance to secure demolition Permits on DG’s leaving. I’m sure FCR has a reason, but we haven’t been told.
My understanding that part of the delay has to do with those properties being designated as Residential not Commercial and thus follow much more regulation. I wonder why they couldn’t get the area re-zoned for Commercial, once everyone evacuated.
Apparently they can’t use explosives, but it isn’t clear if they can use a wrecking ball (as in the Title above). It was stated that heavy equipment is being used on the lower floors of the buildings that were already taken down, but not the upper floors.
Not sure if a Wrecking ball is “heavy” equipment, but I assume a Bulldozer would be allowed.
All of this could have been simplified if some Arsonist torched the place. Then it would have to taken down ASAP to avoid a safety hazard.
As NI assures us, FCP has already considered all of this in their timing, and are on schedule. Nevertheless, if there was a way to be ahead of schedule, that would have been nice.
What does this mean in terms of construction?
Is it possible that the 12-13 season won’t happen?
-Say man when I was growing up we wanted a Jacuzzi, we had to fart in the tub.
Probably will be a close call to begin the 2012-2013 season in Brooklyn, but worst case is to start a few months late and continue playing in Newark, in the interim.
You can personally thank DG here, if Barclays doesn’t open on time. I would think that the first steel would be ready to go up if not for his recent delays.
Of course we can also thank DG, because without his Delays (Delay, Don’t Develop Brooklyn (DDDB), then Proky never would have come along.
Also, as has been written, they actually have to have a walk-through several months ahead of time, before any Basketball can be played.
Orlando is in a similar situation this year, with their new Arena. I don’t think they completely finished construction, yet I’m sure they will be allowed to open in October.
Goldstein has been quiet lately.....
….must be enjoying life as a millionaire. Being a full time oppurtunist does have its perks.
"No one stands on the top of the world. Not you, not me, not even gods. But the unbearable vacancy of the throne in the sky is over. From now on...I will be sitting on it."
by MrDollarBills on Aug 11, 2010 10:02 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
some say that money does not bring happiness...
…i say that is a load of bunk!
"No one stands on the top of the world. Not you, not me, not even gods. But the unbearable vacancy of the throne in the sky is over. From now on...I will be sitting on it."
by MrDollarBills on Aug 11, 2010 10:46 AM EDT up reply actions
ah, an anonymous coward
MrDollarBills, if all you read is NetsDaily, then yes I’ve been quiet. Otherwise, not true.
As for being an oppurtunist (sic), do you care to explain what on earth you mean? Of course, you may do it anonymously, MrDollarBills.
by Daniel Goldstein on Aug 11, 2010 11:01 AM EDT up reply actions
I feel honored...
….to being called a coward by a man of your stature Goldstein, you’re like a pseudo-celebrity around here, so I appreciate the insult a bit more than the ones that come from the usual ham and eggers that post on here.
I don’t browse through the DDDB blogs or whatever that reports news about the whole Atlantic Yards drama, the only time I ever read anything about you is via NetsDaily. Now that you have made an appearance, you can tell us all about how you’re still working to stop the AY project, since you have not been quiet. Enlighten us, as the bulldozers make their way towards your former property, about what you have been doing to put a halt to AY.
Oh, and I shouldn’t have to define the word “opportunist” for someone smart enough to game the system, you know damn well what I meant. You should take it as a compliment. You got yours. We all have a price, yours has just been made public.
BTW, i’m in no means a supporter of the state taking the private property of citizens. I actually thought that what you did was pretty slick, but take it how you want bro.
"No one stands on the top of the world. Not you, not me, not even gods. But the unbearable vacancy of the throne in the sky is over. From now on...I will be sitting on it."
by MrDollarBills on Aug 11, 2010 11:28 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
ham and eggers
funny.
If you do not support the state taking private property of citizens then:
1. Did you support AY?
2. How am I an opportunist for being paid the constitutionally required just compensation; presumably you support that part of the 5th amendment, no?
by Daniel Goldstein on Aug 11, 2010 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions
1) No, I did not. I’m a Nets fan that lives in New Jersey, but I have no reason to sit back and cheer for people being removed from their property.
2) Yes I do.
You seem to be taking offense to the term “opportunist”, so I’ll make it clear: opportunity knocked, and you answered the door. The public image that you have is that of a man that had a price tag on how far he was willing to go for a cause. We all do. There is no shame in that.
It is what it is.
"No one stands on the top of the world. Not you, not me, not even gods. But the unbearable vacancy of the throne in the sky is over. From now on...I will be sitting on it."
by MrDollarBills on Aug 11, 2010 12:30 PM EDT up reply actions
sure, but it isn't true
I went as far as it was possible to go. there was no price tag for me to give up the fight. the fight was over, the payment was not to give up the fight. the payment was the constitutionally required just compensation for taking my home and evicting me, after all legal issues on that front were resolved. so i took the cause as far as it could go.
by Daniel Goldstein on Aug 11, 2010 12:48 PM EDT up reply actions
Well hey.....
….that’s just the way it is. I was under the impression that when you reached a settlement, the fight was still going on, I didn’t realize that it was over at that point. In that case, hell, I would have taken that money and would have been somewhere in Bermuda right now, being fed grapes on one of the many lovely beaches by some gold digger with a sexy british accent and a nice complexion.
Like another poster said, I don’t know you aside from what has been portrayed about you in public, and I’m sure that the situation beneath the surface took a severe toll on your private life.
Let me ask you this though, it’s been rumored that as a condition of your settlement, you had to basically drop the cause or shut up about it. Is that true?
"No one stands on the top of the world. Not you, not me, not even gods. But the unbearable vacancy of the throne in the sky is over. From now on...I will be sitting on it."
by MrDollarBills on Aug 11, 2010 1:10 PM EDT up reply actions
nope, not true
i would never have done that. but that is what they wanted in exchange for paying me (as constitutionally required) for the home they took from me, but I refused.
by Daniel Goldstein on Aug 11, 2010 1:34 PM EDT up reply actions
You got market value for your property
I think not?
Good to hear from you Daniel
I wish you hadn’t taken the money but you did what was best for your family and at least got something from these pigs – EVERYBODY in the footprints of this nightmare project should have held Ratner up for at least 3 million bucks in retrospect.
Obviously I would rather you had kept figting tough by staying so this project could be delayed another few years if not more. What is your current prognosis for what will happen if you don’t mind letting us know? Is it possible the arena could still face more delays?
It is absolutely deplorable that Ratner and now Prokhorov appear on the verge of getting this done.
I think he means there are things on your resume that scream "golddigger"
Such as your payday. It was widely reported that you “sold out.”
Nets = Global
Knicks = Local
I don't blame him
….the folks that followed him in his crusade on the other hand, might disagree with me.
"No one stands on the top of the world. Not you, not me, not even gods. But the unbearable vacancy of the throne in the sky is over. From now on...I will be sitting on it."
by MrDollarBills on Aug 11, 2010 11:58 AM EDT up reply actions
funny
your concern trolling about those who supported the fight is humourous
by Daniel Goldstein on Aug 12, 2010 9:36 AM EDT up reply actions
0-0
What an ego maniac. Stop looking for attention, why else would you waste your time on a nets board. As for being an anonymous people usually post on board using screen names. And even if he posted under his real name what diference would it make. YAWN
I dont think mr bills is a coward
My actual name is Ed Tristram. I own property in fort greene and hav e followed the AY drama. I heard you speak at the fort greene association. Of course I dont know you personally, so I’m commenting on the public image only. Your public life. Everyone deserves a private life as well – I mean, I have judgements about your public persona but I don’t have an opinion about YOU since I dont know you.
I think you should spend your settlement, over your actual cash costs, on the neighborhood. Many people contributed to DDDB. They thought they were helping their neighborhood. The money went in large part for legal costs. Those folks didnt get what they were hoping for – stopping AY. You got $3MM. I just think you owe them a lot of money, sir.
by The old Nets Fan on Aug 11, 2010 11:32 AM EDT reply actions
okay Ed
I was paid constitutionally required “just compensation” because the government took my home, not because i won the lottery. I also gave over 5 years of full time volunteer service to DDDB. I also risked my home to stop the project.
Had i sold to Ratner when all of my neighbors did in 2004, when there will still 6 years of legal, political and procedural issues to be resolved, then i would be deserving of the “sell out” or “opportunist” claim. But I didn’t do that. I stayed in my home, volunteered my time and fought like hell to stop this lousy project that most of the surrounding neighborhood doesn’t want. The project that today promises not to fulfill most (if any) of the promises made by the developer. (See Oder’s article from yesterday as just one more example of this: http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2010/08/orwellian-almost-that-first-atlantic.html)
But when the lawsuits that could stop the project were over and when the government took my home and I became a tenant of New York State there was nothing left for me to do. Within weeks the state would evict me. There was nothing more I could personally do to stop the Barclays Center arena (which is all the project promises to be now). Nothing.
But I ask you, Mr. Tristram, if you were a supporter of DDDB or just an opponent of the project (not clear to me you are either), when the government was preparing to seize my home and offering me far less than half the price of my home and I would have to go to court to maybe—maybe—get something even near market value, were you (or anyone else) ready to help me out, to help me with my “actual cash costs” as you put it?
Forest City Ratner came to me five times over the years to pay me to get out of the way. But we still had lawsuits going that could stop the project and/or defeat the use of eminent domain. So I said no. Had I said yes back then to FCR’s offers THEN I would have been an opportunist. But I said no. there is not a single DDDB supporter, not a single DDDB donor who has asked for their money back. I believe that is because they understand what occurred.
by Daniel Goldstein on Aug 11, 2010 12:13 PM EDT up reply actions
thanks
me too. shame the Nets ditched him
by Daniel Goldstein on Aug 11, 2010 12:48 PM EDT up reply actions
Why? He is broken down
Are you a Nets fan? Just curious what you think of the team right now, the youngs etc….Brooklyn BS aside…
-Say man when I was growing up we wanted a Jacuzzi, we had to fart in the tub.
kenyon
I just liked Kenyon is all. Brooklyn stuff aside I don’t think much about the team right now, i have my own loveable losers to be let down by — the Mets.
having said that I was once something of a Nets fan (not a huge hoops fan) until they were stripped. so I rooted for them in their championship runs but i can’t say i really was ever a fan.
by Daniel Goldstein on Aug 11, 2010 1:36 PM EDT up reply actions
did you buy Mets season tickets with your new found fourtune?
-Say man when I was growing up we wanted a Jacuzzi, we had to fart in the tub.
"Forest City Ratner came to me five times over the years to pay me to get out of the way"
And each of those times, didn’t they offer you much less money than you ultimately got, though? I mean, you are Daniel Golddigger because you waited for the largest settlement you could get. When it became clear you couldn’t recieve any larger an amount, you took the money and ran. Am I wrong?
Nets = Global
Knicks = Local
yes, you are 100% wrong
had I settled with them years before, when there were legal fights remaining, i could have made tons more. but that is not what I was out for. that should be pretty obvious. only a sociopath would spend 7 years fighting for a payday. I was fighting to kill the lame brained project.
“Golddigger”. That’s hysterical.
by Daniel Goldstein on Aug 11, 2010 1:37 PM EDT up reply actions
In your defense, I'm sure you'll have to pay back a significant portion in taxes.
However, with what’s left, you might keep open the possibility of leaving the area to a much cheaper environment.
Just north of Harrisburg, PA is a nice Jewish community called Forrest Hills, that sits at the base and goes up the local mountain range. Prices go up as you go further towards and up the mountain, but are generally 1/3-1/4 of what they would cost in the NY area. State Tax is 6% and local tax is usually 1%.
Lots of homes looking like this one, with a scenic view of the area, and real Deer in your yard (don’t Fear the Deer). http://www.carricatohomes.com/communities.asp
DG, you talk like your apartment was worth $3MM
You got a buyout far in excess of that not just for the apartment but to stop delaying the project. You dont owe ME a thing but I have to think you should pay back the folks who contributed. Not so hard to do – contribute to the parks conservancy or something.
I just think that shouldnt be your money. A question of right and wrong. You.re not beating evil Ratner out of the money, it’s the folks who contributed.
by The old Nets Fan on Aug 11, 2010 10:03 PM EDT up reply actions
5th Amendment rights
According the US Constitution, the 5th amendment speaks of just compensation with eminent domain. I know that some see this as something loose. By just compensation, it actually refers to the current market rate, and not what it was worth when that person bought it. I will not argue that DG bought his condo when it was cheap, but it hardly costs that now. He was arguing that should he leave, he should get the amount that’s worth now, and not when he originally got it. This is part of the scheme the developer tries to do, and then builds something at a price they couldn’t afford to move back there. Just like what Michael Moore said on his segment of gentrification when he used to do a show known as TV Nation. It’s even said that eminent domain has been known to take people out of their property at a depreciated value than what it’s actually worth. If you have been living under a rock, he was fighting this project for about 7 years before finally making an agreement, so he is hardly a sellout, plus this was met with his own personal lawyer that he paid for with his own money, not the groups, so he didn’t steal anything from DDDB. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that he has given up on the fight. On a sidenote, I do admit that I haven’t met with DG after that settlement, though I am probably the only person on this website who has actually met him face to face.
by Tal Barzilai on Aug 11, 2010 10:17 PM EDT up reply actions
cmon Tal
DG’s apt is not worth even $1MM not $3. DDDB’s lawyers made the difference, kept the fight up, until DG cashed in. DG was out there iurging people to contribute. In the end, the only one who benefitted was DG.
Don’t answer that Ratner is really a bad guy, ok?
by The old Nets Fan on Aug 11, 2010 10:42 PM EDT up reply actions
your opinion
is interesting. interesting and wrong.
by Daniel Goldstein on Aug 12, 2010 9:37 AM EDT up reply actions
at the Old Nets Fan
actually Bruce Ratner is the one that owes that neighborhood a lot of money. I lived nearby during this battle and it was quite obvious the community had no interest in this project and in fact many people in my area had posters in their front windows opposing the project. The whole thing is a joke and offers little to nothing for the public good as opposed to what Ratner or Markowitz would have you believe.
How about your hero Ratner builds some public school and a libary surrounded by all that “affordable housing” he promised. The man is a crook and this arena should never have been approved, it is totally unnecessary for the NYC area to get another one for a team that already has a near brand new home awaiting it in Newark.
who is more of the crook here....
….Bruce Ratner, or the politicos in New York that paved the way for him to do this?
That is the bigger question here.
and again, I agree with those who balk at the idea of corporations being allowed to run people out of their homes.
"No one stands on the top of the world. Not you, not me, not even gods. But the unbearable vacancy of the throne in the sky is over. From now on...I will be sitting on it."
by MrDollarBills on Aug 11, 2010 12:05 PM EDT up reply actions
Agreed
Nothing Ratner has built has ever been a public project, and his malls don’t count. Please don’t tell me that there will be affordable housing in this complex, because I just read the AYR today, and Order mentioned that it would be market rate instead. So much for affordable housing, and there is nothing Bertha Lewis, who leads ACORN, can do about it, because she signed a gag order that denies her from speaking out against it even if Ratner doesn’t keep his promise. In other words, the CBA they signed is really and “I own you, and there is nothing you can about it” agreement. In laymens terms, he made them his puppets and controls the strings of them. As for oweing money, he has had many tax breaks and never paid anything back. He even sleeps with taxpayerdollars in his bed.
by Tal Barzilai on Aug 11, 2010 8:02 PM EDT up reply actions
Ratner is another subject
DG is my topic. Isaac, do you trhink he should give some of his $3000000 to the local folks w ho heard him speak at DDDB and contributed and got nothing? He didnt really respond to that point. I dont call him a golddigger. I call him a capetbagger who got money when the supporters who wrote check after check for DDDB legal fees got gotz. sorry. thats how it looks to me about DG.
by The old Nets Fan on Aug 11, 2010 9:37 PM EDT up reply actions
What you talkin' 'bout?
DG didn’t misuse any funds that was given to DDDB. By law, members of not-for-profit organizations cannot use any of the donations for themselves. The money he got was out of a settlement with his own lawyer, and it’s not Brinkerhoff, who speaks at the oral arguments for the plaintiffs. Whatever he did for his needs, he used his own money as did anyone else in the opposition. The donations can only be used for causes the group needs, and not anything else. If you are trying to relate it to what the RNC did by misuing their funds for a strip club, then you are off the mark. Just to let you in on something, he didn’t sign any gag order, so he can still fight the project if he chooses to.
by Tal Barzilai on Aug 11, 2010 10:33 PM EDT up reply actions
@Tal
DG’s apartment is not worth $3MM. It’s not worth $1MM. The extra is to end the fight. The little people who heard DG speak at DDDB and wrote checks year after year were tryin g to save their neighborhood from a development they thought would be bad. They got zippo. DG got rich. He would not have had the leverage for the settlement except for DDDB.
DG’s bank account… If he keeps it, he’s a carpetbagger. You say “donations can only be used for causes the group needs, and not anything else”. but look at it. They got zippo. he got $3MM. He egged them on. He would not have had that big payday without their contributions to DDDB. To me, he owes tham a lot of money.
Legally, he doesnt have to pay them anything. Ethically… if he keeps the money he’s not a hero. He’s not an anti-gentrification fighter. He’s a guy who stirred up a neighborhood and got rich.
(As I said above, I dont know DG personally. Maybe he’s a really nice guy. But his public image is a fella who took the money and left the others behind.)
by The old Nets Fan on Aug 11, 2010 11:09 PM EDT up reply actions
you would be correct
except for the fact that you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. but your concern trolling is cute.
by Daniel Goldstein on Aug 12, 2010 9:38 AM EDT up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
