I am serious: Let's Require Ratner to Clean Up the Mess He Already Made

Metrotech is a failure that is losing tenants. The Atlantic Mall is blight and failure that is losing tenants. BOTH were tax payer subsidized. IF Spitzer were SERIOUS about reform he would require that Ratner turn both into revenue producing - in other words tenants that paid taxes (not city offices stuffed in by Bloomberg, not the ESDC, not corporate welfare companies that have received tax breaks) - properties before giving that greedy, corrupt jerk another dime.

Hells Bells, as my high school football coach used to say. With all the money Ratner gets you could pull someone off the street who could build something better.

Forest City Enron?

With every bubble, comes a burst. And with every burst, a symbol of the excesses is 'executed' in public court. In the 80s, after the collapses of Drexel Burham, it was Michael Miliken** . More recently, Enron and Martha Stewart. The Real Estate market is a long way from bursting, and its assets are a little more solid than empty promises of future earnings, but all the excesses that come with a 'hot' market are certainly here - the desire for money is so insatiable that laws are overlooked or sometimes, broken.

As NoLandGrab reports, there's what's now being called a 'Federal Conspiracy Probe' up in Yonkers, and Forest City Ratner still piously claiming, amid a hailstorm of subpoenas to various council members that they're as honest as a Quaker. It seems odd doesn't it, that all of these politicians are being subpoenaed, the sole beneficiary is Forest City, yet Forest City coos 'Gosh, who, us?!, impropriety?!'.

The odd thing about these big, out of scale, voraciously greedy projects that Forest City has advocated is that they violate the most basic common sense urban planning principles, zoning laws that we made in reaction to such schemes and their effect - both physical and psychological - on the community, and Forest City seemingly glides through the law and processes meant to check bad development with ease. Yet the thought that 'some thing's a little funny here' hasn't occurred to anyone in the mainstream press . Why? I can speculate; Ratner's an insider of the New York establishment, and while they're happy to string up some hicks from Texas, they have a different standard for their own.

Gargano's being investigated, Forest City's very bad project is being investigated, yet Mike Bloomberg, perhaps unaware of the dirty subways, over crowded schools, increasing pollution, crumbling infrastructure, is tossing 200 million to a billionaire developer so that he can buy land that he's already getting at 100 million below it's value. Elliot Ness, where are you?


(**I remember, when I worked in an investment house shortly after graduation - -post Miliken, post boom, a sales assistant reminding me that Miliken's sales assitant spent more time in jail than Miliken. Similarly, during the John Gottfriend bond scandal at Solomon Brothers, the clerk who executed the orders was unceremoniously fired on the spot, while Gottfriend walked away with 100 million for his trouble. So are the ways of Wall Street.)

Let's Kick out Some High School Students and Build Luxury Condos

Greed, Inc, otherwise known as forest city, just can't get enough of public subsidies and public land....
RATNER NOW WANTS BROOKLYN TECH!

As if the Atlantic Yards illegal land-grab wasn't enough, billionaire developer Bruce Ratner now has his sights set on acquiring the Brooklyn Technical High School building.

And here's a good reason why this is a bad deal for the school:

In addition, Broooklyn Tech is currently in the midst of it's own alumni-funded multi-million-dollar upgrades. In late 2005 the school announced it had received a record $10 million in donations from their alumni. In their 11/05 press release they stated their commitment to the school: "Over the past 20 years, the Alumni Association has funded major projects in the school including a state of the art robotics laboratory, modernization of the school library, and the completion of a new athletic facility." Many alumni, as well as residents of Fort Greene share the belief that the school is a venerable gem and should be a protected as if it was a landmark.

as I said earlier:

The usual excuses: better facilities for the kids - will be used - to funnel yet more control over to Forest City (they get taxpayer funded tenants at his failed Metrotech park, he gets their prime vintage buildling in the heart of Fort Greene) Will he attempt to raze the building or add stories? Given his track record, I venture to guess yes. But the real loser will be Brooklyn Tech students - they have a building with a long history - that could easily be revamped giving them one of the most pristine facilities in the city, a prime location and their own space and identity - who among us would want to look back on high school and say we attended it in a corporate park with a dozen corporations? Are the dull, lifeless poorly designed building really the best environment for them to learn in?

The more I read and hear about this guy the more revolted I am. If Bruce Ratner is a 'favorite' among politicians, the new york times and our so called elite then it is a clear indicator or just how warped and corrupt they are. So its not so much a question of would Bruce Ratner kick out this or that person, the question is who wouldn't he kick out/use for profit?

The Original Article from South Oxford makes the point:

The Brooklyn Technical School of today includes multiple gymnasiums, a huge basement level swimming pool, open air rooftop handball courts, libraries with fireplaces, a metal working foundry, multi-level rooms for architectural reconstructions, laboratories of all types (including materials testing labs and an Aeronautical lab with a large wind tunnel), the second largest auditorium in the city (after Radio City), elevators with cast metal doors, WPA murals, a broadcast radio studio (complete with the large antenna that's visible from all over Brooklyn), and more. The stately 1922 art deco-styled building enjoys easy access across the street to Fort Greene Park for athletic activities such as track and tennis. It also shares close proximity to its own football field on Fulton & Clermont, which, by the way, was donated by a generous Brooklyn Tech alumni, Charles Wang (founder of Computer Associates).

What a difference between the Wang and Ratner: one gives back invests in infrastructure and quality of life , the other one takes, takes takes, and robs the public coffers to enrich himself.