December 20, 2006

Brooklyn: Atlantic Yards Approved!

It's the best news in Brooklyn since the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the NY Yankees in the 1955 World Series.

Today, the Atlantic Yards project received final approval from NY State. When complete, the Frank Gehry-designed complex will add 6,400 housing units, significant office space, and a gorgeous 18,000 seat arena to house the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, who will be liberated from their New Jersey imprisonment.

After a lapse of over 45 years, Brooklyn will shortly be a major league town again. The Brooklyn Nets will be playing against the Knicks, the Celtics, the Lakers and the rest of the NBA. I've never been much of a basketball fan, but that will change with the first jump shot on the Brooklyn arena floor.

A dramatic project hasn't been built in Brooklyn since the Verrazano Bridge opened in 1964. And we have to share that with Staten Island.

Brooklyn has never had a center--but once this place opens, it , right next to the LIRR and a zillion subway lines, will be the center. I predict that it will be immensely popular, and once it has been completed, it will rather quickly win over much of those in Park Slope, Fort Greene and other neighborhoods that have opposed it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's one you might be interested in. From the Guardian.

The Phantom said...

Thank you for sharing, but as might be expected it is unbalanced.

--Brooklynites have expressed reservations--

There is substantial opposition to the project from people in the immediate area. But every indication that I have seen shows that big majorities of Brooklynites support the project.

Which is why it was championed by the Borough President, Senator Charles Schumer, an area resident, and many others.

You can't do anything grand and dramatic without opposition.

I respect those who oppose the development, but some in the media are now spinning this in a direction that is misleading and which most Brooklyites, black and white, completely oppose.