Community Input 101: Did ESDC Forget Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods?

[Photo courtesy threecee/flickr]

It's a little thing, but we couldn't help but note the irony dripping from this email from the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, which is a broad based coalition of Brooklyn organizations, to the Empire State Development Corporation. You might recall the ESDC announced on Monday it was finally appointing an ombudsman to monitor the Atlantic Yards project. Here are some excerpts from the email:

We have just received a copy of the May 7, 2007 ESDC press release forwarded to the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN) by a member of the press. Please add CBN to the ESDC's data base for notification of Atlantic Yards related information.

We trust that you recall that CBN wrote to the ESDC on March 8, 2007, offering to work with you in the development of an "Atlantic Yards Construction Community information system" (text of letter attached.) Unfortunately, CBN never received a response to our offer. We renewed our offer to the ESDC at CBN’s April 27th press conference at the site of the Ward Bakery parapet collapse, and want to confirm that our offer of assistance remains open.

We are encouraged that the ESDC has taken steps to create some form of construction oversight, as was promised in the Environmental Impact Statement. However, we are quite concerned that the measures which the ESDC announced today do not contain any direct input from or involvement with the affected communities.

Decades of intense and captivating fun to come!