Did Judge Believe That Part of Prospect Heights Really Stinks?

If the truth be told, we've always felt that there were parts of the Atlantic Yards "footprint" in Prospect Heights that could have used a bit of a cleanup, particularly since the city and Forest City Ratner had been allowing conditions like dirty streets to get worse over the last couple of years. Yet, the over-the-top verbiage in the image above, highlighted by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, might seem like a bit of an overstatement. Yet, that's what the Empire State Development Corp's "blight study" said and what the Judge that ruled in the environmental review litigation accepted. Were residents living in "unsanitary and unsafe" conditions? In the words of DDDB:

Over on the Atlantic Yards Report today Norman Oder writes about the Newswalk building, which is surrounded by the project site (or cut out from the footprint to be more precise), and how its developer Shaya Boymelgreen saw his $6 million investment in the building in 1997 turn into a building worth at least $120 million. Such appreciation does not occur in an area where "residents...continue to live among conditions that are unsanitary and unsafe."

Newswalk is certainly an interesting survivor amidst the blight.