Politicians Being Politicians

For it's impressive distillation of nauseating backslapping, mawkish self-celebration, and dubious factuality into one hugely lame quote, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz's comments in a Governor Spitzer press release on New York's self-imposed Kyoto Protocol could go down as a politicians-being-politicians quote of the year:

“Bravo to Governor Spitzer for striking this blow against global warning and greenhouse gas emissions—and for recognizing that with a little courage, being ‘green’ is much easier than people think. Here in cutting-edge Brooklyn, we’re proud of our solar-powered subway terminal at Stillwell Avenue in Coney Island, our co-gen co-ops in Clinton Hill, our huge new green roof in Red Hook, our food justice efforts in East New York—the kinds of sustainable initiatives that have the rest of the country saying ‘Brooklyn, NYC, and New York State — How green it is!’”

Yes, that's exactly what everyone's saying.

'I'm not giving up my family's house'

Facing the threat of eminent-domain-driven evictions, Brooklyn residents aren't going quietly, Julia Vitullo-Martin reports for The New York Sun:

If New York City had such a thing as the Most-Endearing-House-in-the-Five-Boroughs Award, the tiny four-story frame house at 493 Dean St. in Brooklyn, built sometime in the 1830s, would be a contender. Fronted by a fenced herb garden, casement windows above and a small Alice-through-the-looking-glass door below, the house seems to beckon visitors in from the street. At Sunday's Garden Walk 2007, held by the Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District Association, the owner, Jerry Campbell, said his grandfather bought the house 50 years ago, moving to Brooklyn from Sugar Hill in Harlem. He wanted a house he could afford on his own, not share, Mr. Campbell said. Sugar Hill had gotten expensive.

Mr. Campbell's house and his neighbor's at 491 Dean were chosen for the walk in part because their backyard gardens grow at the edge of the neighborhood's first known garden, Parmentier's Horticultural and Botanic Gardens, established in 1825 on 25 acres by a Belgian nurseryman, André Parmentier. The remaining "petits Parmentiers" are imperiled, the tour organizer, Patti Hagan, said, because they occupy the western edge of Bruce Ratner's proposed Atlantic Yards development, which the association's brochure calls a "24-acre House & Garden Grab." Arguing that the area's heritage is important, Ms. Hagan said it was known as Rose Hill a century ago, when it was Irish. Indeed, roses still bloom in nearly every garden on the tour. Of the 16 listed gardens, only two are in the Atlantic Yards footprint, though nearly everyone — owners and visitors alike — expressed dismay at the looming threat of eminent domain.

Why Brooklyn's Better

In its 2007 "Blue List" of must-see yet seldom traveled to destinations, the backpackers bible, "Lonely Planet," lists Brooklyn among its top spots, the Daily News reports:

Citing its multiethnic character and multiplying number of trendy neighborhoods, the book lauded the borough as "the hippest part of New York City."

"It's a diverse place," Lonely Planet spokesman Frank Ruiz said. "There are hipster bars, there's great shopping, all along with an intimate neighborhood feel."

So adventurers seeking wild fauna in their natural habitat should go to Honduras for howler monkeys, Gabon for elephants and Brooklyn for tattooed bloggers in $50 T-shirts?

"I'm not a big fan of hipsters, but I guess it's sort of exciting that they're attracting people from the outside who want to see what's going on, what all the fuss is about," said Scott Beard, 31, co-owner of Barcade in Williamsburg, which was singled out by Lonely Planet for vintage arcade games and local brews. ...

Other Brooklyn recommendations range from the well-known - the hot dog-eating contest in Coney Island - to insider favorites like a Slope bed-and-breakfast or dinner at the Carroll Gardens Mexican restaurant Alma.

"We have a lot of people coming in from Norway, Sweden and Germany," Alma owner Ronald Starns said. "A lot of people say they don't feel like they're in the city. They're almost on vacation while they're on vacation."

See, the beauty of Brooklyn is precisely that is not Manhattan. That a Manhattan-based developer and a Manhattan-based mayor and a Manhattan-based Empire State Development chief and a Manhattan-based governor all seek to "improve" Brooklyn through the government-orchestrated development of the Atlantic Yards helps explain why Brooklynites are so uniformly opposed to the project. Turn Brooklyn into Manhattan, and that which makes Brooklyn better will be gone forever.

The Enigma of Prospect Heights

When someone writes the tome on how expansive government is genetically inefficient, there ought to be a chapter on the failed record of intra-bureaucracy communication.

A case in point comes courtesy of New York, where, one might recall, many Brooklyn residents were recently served with condemnation notices courtesy of the Empire State Development Corp. In part, the notice of their properties' impending implosions read:

The Atlantic Yards site is located in the intersection of three major arterials: Atlantic Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, and 4th Avenue. Despite its location on these major arterials and the presence of ten subway lines and the LIRR Atlantic Terminal across the street and two other subway lines and 11 bus routes in the vicinity, the Atlantic Yards project site has been a center of blight and decay.

For the state to qualify for a legitimate eminent-domain taking under New York's constitution, the affected property owner has to be in the way of a public-works project (new highway) or a blighted area the state proposes to revitalize, and be justly compensated. Hence, ESDC's farcical claim that Prospect Heights is a "center of blight and decay."

Meanwhile, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is proposing a reworking of somewhat controversial 421(a), a tax-abatement program created in the 1970s to spur residential development. Developers receive significant chunks off their property-tax liabilities in exchange for introducing new residential units to the housing market. For areas that are already affluent, a "geographic exclusion area" was created to ensure these tax benefits don't unduly benefit wealthy landowners. The GEA, as 421(a) currently exists, includes Manhattan from 14th Street to 96th Street and the Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn.

The program being three decades old, posh neighborhoods now exist in many areas outside the GEA. Consequently, many news stories have described how 421(a) allows people like Natalie Portman, Calvin Klein, and Derek Jeter to save gobs on their property-tax liabilities. While 421(a) is scheduled to sunset at the end of 2007, Mayor Bloomberg has proposed reworking it as a vehicle to generate "affordable housing." Several members of the City Council have pitched their own reform, essentially seeing Bloomberg's "affordable housing" requirement and doubling it. Quinn is currently working to reconcile the differences.

A map of Quinn's proposed Geographic Exclusion Area (green line):
So the area where Forest City Ratner intends to build the Atlantic Yards project is now too developed for tax benefits? (h/t: The Observer's real estate blog.)

Perhaps the city's Economic Development Corp. will reconcile everything with a new motto: "Prospect Heights: a neighborhood of contrasts -- at once both too affluent and too blighted for frivolities like tax benefits and private-property rights." Though how that would attract anyone I'm not sure.

The Hammer Is Falling ...

... on Brooklyn.

Residents in the Atlantic Yards footprint receive eminent domain condemnation notices. Note the claim that Prospect Heights is a "center of blight and decay." Makes you wonder whether the Empire State Development Corp. even bothered visiting.

Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn asks:

For all those elected officials (for example our Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum whose spokesman said "If eminent domain is part of the project she's not supporting it.") and un-elected ones like ESDC Chairman Charles Gargano, who said eminent domain would not be used for "Atlantic Yards," your notice is below. Now watcha gonna do?