Ratner supporters are very passionate about his Atlantic Yards Project. They often brook no criticism whatsoever of his plan, always coming back to the promised benefits of the project. Bruce Ratner’s development schemes could indeed address real development needs of Brooklyn. The problem is that for the most part his actual plans DON’T address them. The “affordable housing” is defined such that poorer residents would be quickly priced out as the overall value of the area goes up. The promise of jobs is in no way guaranteed and would mainly be white collar or very low paid jobs, not solid, union jobs. There is no plan for new schools and firehouses in an area where schools and firehouses are already too few and far between. And no one has yet addressed the problems of the massive increase in traffic in an already packed area or where the sewage will go with our already overtaxed sewer system. The already smelly Gowanus canal will be the ultimate destination of large chunks of the sewage from Ratner’s 17 skyscrapers and giant arena.

But all practical problems aside, one thing not one single Ratner supporter has ever been able to explain away are the blatant lies and almost as blatant corruption that surrounds Ratner and his business dealings. Let’s face facts. The practical problems like whether the affordable housing is REALLY affordable and for how long, whether the city’s infrastructure will be upgraded adequately to deal with the increased traffic, population and sewage can all be negotiated and worked out if Ratner would actually negotiate in good faith. But what is clear is that Ratner and his business are NOT dealing in good faith. Mostly he gives the community lies and corruption and THAT is something that none of his supporters, from Bloomberg and Pataki to Marty Markowitz, have been able to justify.

First I covered Ratner’s literally secret deals with Bloomberg and Pataki PROMISING him development rights to build nearly 1.9 million square feet of residential and commercial space on properties OUTSIDE of his current Atlantic Yards project, without having to go through the city’s legal and environmental review processes. The ONLY reason this secret deal, was a community group filed a Freedom of Information Act request. Otherwise, this secret deal would still be secret. No Ratner supporter has been able to justify this underhanded secrecy.

Then I covered a particularly corrupt deal whereby generous Ratner would, with his own money, hire HIS OWN LAWYER for the Empire State Development Corporation to use in their review of Ratner’s own project. The STATE was using Ratner’s own lawyer, paid for by Ratner, to review Ratner’s project. Talk about conflict of interest! This was only stopped by a lawsuit. No Ratner supporter has been able to justify how this could POSSIBLY be honest and fair. I will add that a further suspicious close relationship between Ratner and the Empire State Development Corporation is the fact that the latter uses excess space in Ratner’s underfilled Atlantic Mall, his previous monstrosity in Brooklyn. Alone this means nothing except that Ratner can’t even fill his existing retail space. But in the context of the lawyer fiasco, this becomes suspicious.

Currently, there is no evidence that Ratner is connected with the abnormal number of fires that have been occurring in the very area he wants to develop in and near. Guttman may well have been caught using arson to further his interests, but so far Ratner may simply be an innocent beneficiary of the fires in Prospect Heights and surrounding areas.

But now we have Ratner distributing a pamphlet of lies to the residents of Brooklyn. As reported extensively in the May 6th Issue of the Park Slope Paper (warning: link is a PDF), the pamphlet has little in it that is factual. I will only mention a couple of examples.

First of all, the pamphlet’s portrayal of Ratner’s Atlantic Yard’s project leaves out the entire arena, replacing it with beautiful green space, and leaves out the 17 skyscrapers he proposes to build. Hell, I think the city should hold him to what he portrays in the pamphlet! It looks good to me. Too bad it isn’t the real plan. Ratner is NOT being honest and forthright with the community!

Ratner also claims that his project has the support of several Community Boards and local organizations. Turns out that the Community Boards, though initially included in negotiations, were essentially kicked out before the plans were finalized. Further, only 2 out of 8 of the local organizations that Ratner claims were present in the negotiations of his plan even EXISTED at the time of negotiations. Apparently the other 6 organizations must consist of psychics so that they could be part of the negotiations before they even formed. Neat trick that!

In one way, though, Ratner is coming clean in this pamphlet. Ratner’s latest pamphlet now says his project will provide some 3,800 permanent jobs. This is far fewer and possibly more realistic than his original claim of 10,000 new jobs, which he used to attract the support of labor. Now if we could only make him be more honest about the rest of his project, we might be able to trust him enough to negotiate the practical aspects.

Come on folks! How can we trust a man who deals in secret, is corruptly connected with state and local agencies and politicians, and who outright lies to the entire community? Ratner supporters remind me of codependents of addicts…making excuses no matter how egregious the lies and deceptions.

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