Meanwhile, on the Brooklyn Side...

It now seems like the shoe is on the other foot in Brooklyn.  For years, the critics' strategy was to flood the courts with lawsuits in hopes that a victory would stop the project or the simple drip, drip, drip of so much litigation would delay it. Now with the premises officially vacated, the team sold to Mikhail Prokhorov, a half billion dollars in bond proceeds released and the land turned over to Forest City Ratner, delays work in the state's favor.  The more that's in the ground, the less likely anything can stop or slow it.

On Tuesday, for example, the day Mikhail Prokhorov made what one Moscow radio station called his "Napoleonic" tour of New York, critics were in a Brooklyn court room.  They were attempting, once again, to get the court to rule that changes in the project's master plan have been so drastic they need to go back to square one in the approval process.  The state says what's done is done and if the critics have an issue, it should go to the court where condemnation is being dealt with.  The judge reserved ruling but seemed to lean the state's way.  It is the last suit to reach oral argument.

Meanwhile, excavation continues for the arena at one end of the site while demolition is taking place at the other end.  Both Ratner and the bond rating agency keep saying the arena will be ready for the Nets' home opener in October 2012, but admit it will be tight.  Critics are calling for protests, providing "suite crashers" with dates and places of breakfasts where Nets salesmen will be pitching Barclays Center suites to prospective buyers.

• Justice Friedman limits oral argument - Norman Oder - Atlantic Yards Report
• Barclays Watch: The Dig Goes On - Brownstoner
• Calling All Suite Crashers: Barclays Suite Breakfasts! - Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn