Atlantic Yards: Brooklyn's Vietnam? -- Daily Intel -- New York News Blog -- New York Magazine

Photo Illustration: Everett Bogue; Photos: Getty Images (Ratner), AP (Atlantic Yards), iStockphoto (helicopter, suit)

When the Vietnam War ended, many of those who had spent the past fifteen years protesting it found themselves at a loss. With nothing to fight against, they felt purposeless, empty. Like dust in the wind, as the great band Kansas once said. And while some of them went on to become activists in other arenas, many merely tuned in, joined up, and got jobs working for the Man. A similar kind of ennui seems to be settling over Brooklyn today, in the wake of an article in the New York Times that said the slowing economy will delay aspects of Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards project, and perhaps end them forever.

Specifically, the Times said, Miss Brooklyn, the Frank Gehry–designed office tower that a number of residents had protested as too tall and too ugly for the neighborhood, and several affordable apartment buildings the developer had planned, may now not be erected for "years," Ratner says. If ever: "Economic downturns have a history of delaying, and sometimes killing, large construction projects in New York," the Times notes.

But Ratner does plan to proceed with the construction of a $950 million Nets arena on the Atlantic Yards site, and to this his opponents are desperately clinging: "If the Times article is accurate, Ratner has virtually eliminated all of the supposed 'public benefits' touted by the Empire State Development Corporation when it approved the general project plan in late 2006," says the Brooklyn Paper.

As Kim in Miss Saigon faithfully believed her American solider would return to rescue her, borough president Marty Markowitz and housing corporation ACORN still believe in Ratner's promise: "I remain confident that Forest City Ratner, with its successful track record of development through all economic climates, will fulfill its vision of bringing the Nets, affordable housing, and a new city center to Downtown Brooklyn," Markowitz said.

But Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn is not fooled! “Our elected officials cannot allow our public resources... to be used to construct an arena … surrounded by vacant lots,” said spokesman Daniel Goldstein said in a press release that went out this afternoon. That's right! Don't keep those lots vacant! They want the whole Atlantic Yards or nothing at all!

Wait. That kind of means they do want Atlantic Yards, right? Have they been seduced by The Man after all? Sigh. We all know where this ends, and that's with Goldstein putting on a suit and driving his SUV to work at Forest City Ratner.

Slow Economy Likely to Stall Atlantic Yards [NYT]
Ratner kills Miss Brooklyn, most of Atlantic Yards [Brooklyn Paper]