Last December, Ratner abruptly stopped all work on Atlantic Yards. With his typical spin he blamed the work stoppage on the ongoing community lawsuits. But in reality the project had run out of money.
Just as he is now trying to get more financial assistance from both the city, state and the MTA, he is also attempting to re-negotiate all his original agreements with the city, state and the MTA. Ratner has not even paid the MTA his original 2005 low-ball offer of $100 million for the Vanderbilt Railyards, the core tract for the project.
He is also reneging on his much touted 2005 promise to build a new "state of the art" railyard to replace the current working railyard that he is practically stealing. In 2006 Ratner received over $300 million from the City and State to pay for "infrastructure" costs, which included the work on the "replacement" railyard. Apparently, Ratner has already spent our $300 million and has made very little progress. The original railyard is still there and still functioning (less a track or two) and there is no replacement on the horizon.
Whether anything is built or not, Atlantic Yards will forever go down as one of the biggest political corruption "schemes" in New York history. Using public money, public land, no-bid contracts, and reeking of patronage, corruption, and promises of future gains (can you spell A-C-O-R-N?), the Yards story is one that must be told. It is both reprehensible and a disgrace to truth-seeking journaists everywhere that all three major NYC daily newspapers consistently looked the other way. (Perhaps the New York Times should change their slogan from "All the News That Fits" to "All the news that fits our business partners' needs.") I guess Money, Power and Greed still trumps the Truth, just like in the corrupt good ol' days, as represented in films like "Chinatown" and
As for the current state of the AY project, Ratner can place the blame on whomever or whatever he wants; rising construction costs, the economy, the community opposition, Frank Gehry, the courts, the bond market, etc... But just the fact he is now trying to screw over the MTA – and all New Yorkers – when when they are struggling and cutting our services and raising our fares – is disgusting.
