Marty Markowitz's Reply to Atlantic Yards Open Letter

Earlier this week we ran an "open letter" from Steven Hart to Brooklyn Boro Prez Marty Markowitz about, well, how Gowanus would likely drown in crap on many days if Atlantic Yards is built. While the Draft Environmental Impact Statement somehow concludes that there will be less sewerage flowing into Gowanus with Atlantic Yards than without it, we await a definitive and objective analysis.

Meanwhile, the Boro Prez--who has been one of the biggest supporters of Atlantic Yards while expressing concern here and there about its scale--posted a reply to the open letter. Even though it sounds suspiciously boilerplate/form letter-like, since GL quoted the original letter, we quote the Beep's reply:

I assure you that my only goal for the Atlantic Yards project is to ensure that it works for all of Brooklyn and New York City.

Currently, my staff and I are reviewing the recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) from the Empire State Development Corporation, which discloses all the impacts associated with the project. I believe that an inclusive and comprehensive DEIS approval process is crucial to the success of Atlantic Yards, so I hope that Brooklynites like yourself will live up to our reputation for thinking out loud by speaking up and participating during the upcoming public-comment period, beginning with the August 23 public hearing.

Taken together or separately, the issues of traffic, parking, public safety, infrastructure, environmental concerns, and others in the EIS will determine if Atlantic Yards is indeed what I have stated since its inception: a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a new center of life in Downtown Brooklyn that is an economic engine for the entire borough, and city, that includes an affordable housing component that will set the new standard for urban developments across America.

I know that the public and others will contribute innovative, worthy ideas that will make this project even better, and one all Brooklynites can take pride in for generations to come.

Marty

Here's where GL sees this heading: Atlantic Yards is so massive that there is immense wiggle room to hack off ten or twenty percent of the project so that public officials can claim to be responsive to the concern of (very affluent and politically connected neighbors that are stating to hate the thing) while leaving its essence intact for Forest City Ratner. We wouldn't be at all surprise if the plan was pre-written so that some square footage could be cast off at the end of the planning phase so it's backers could claim that they had heard the public and reduced its size.

Just a thought.