Missing the Big Picture?

Over at Atlantic Yard Report, Via NoLandGrab :
In response to "State Development Agency Buffeted by Slowing Economy and Internal Rifts":

What does that mean for Atlantic Yards? It's unclear. Paterson has expressed his support for the project, which likely requires less state funding than some of the other projects, and he left it out of a major speech on development last month.

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What's missing? The big picture. The "cost" of Atlantic Yards isn't just in state money used to support the project- it's in the money lost if a better project were put in its place. Does anyone really believe that real estate on the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic has to be sold at 1/4 it value? or that a developer needs huge public subsidies and tax breaks to build there? The money lost by backing a very bad project, one which will require constant government support (as Ratner's failed Metrotech and Atlantic Mall) rather than having a profitable one built is enormous - much more than two billion the state is already promising Ratner.

Ratner's track record as a developer, is appauling - its a trail of incompentance, poor judgement, poor planning and rotten ideas- but all of that is swept under the rug by Ratner's one talent: getting money from the public coffers.