Waiting for Bruce: The Commercial Observer Tours Atlantic Yards Arena
By Daniel Geiger

...Mr. Ratner managed to break ground on the basketball arena – which will be home to the Brooklyn Nets – in 2010, just before tax free bonds the state had permitted him to issue in order to finance the arena's construction at below-market interest rates were due to expire. The timeline for other components of the project, including the construction of three residential towers that will hug the arena, is less clear.

"I think we'll break ground sometime this year," was all Mr. Ratner would say, referring to the first residential building that is slated to rise at the site, a tower on the corner of Dean and Flatbush whose base will cantilever over a rear entrance to the 14,000 seat Barlcays Center. The first building will be something of a barometer, Mr. Ratner suggested. The offerings in the other two buildings, he said, be they studios, one bedrooms, or larger apartments, will be based off the market's reception of the spaces that Forest City Ratner will offer in the first tower. (Emphasis added.)

Mr. Ratner bristled when asked to make further reaching projections of progress on the Atlantic Yards site. Standing inside the arena and gazing into its nearly finished bowl of seats, The Commercial Observer's gaze couldn't help but trail farther, through a large entryway being used by construction vehicles. Beyond was the rest of the site, a stretch of train tracks and dirt recessed below grade that runs east for several blocks between Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street.

"We're here to talk about the arena," Mr. Ratner snapped when asked when those portions of the development would begin.
(Emphasis added.)

One could forgive Mr. Ratner's edginess given the opposition he has faced. Sensing that he had perhaps recoiled a little too fiercely, his demeanor quickly loosened.

"You have to understand, my words have been twisted around in the past," Mr. Ratner said.

"And then all of a sudden I'm getting sued," he added, seeming to refer to a recent suit by a group of workers who claim they were promised union jobs by Forest City Ratner for enrolling in a training program, but subsequently weren't offered employment.

...Mr. Ratner also pointed out that games will be partially visible from the plaza in front of the arena.

"It's going to be the only court in the league where you can literally watch the game from the street outside," Mr. Ratner said, pointing out the arena's embrace of the surrounding community.
(Emphasis added.)

NYU administrator Stephanie Bonadio says job vanished after her sex harassment complaint
She says James Stuckey, ex-dean of Schack Real Estate Institute, tried to make her perform sex act

Barbara Ross. New York Daily News

A NEW York University administrator charged the school Wednesday with eliminating her job when she accused a dean of sexual harassment.

Stephanie Bonadio, 34, once a rising star in NYU's Schack Institute for Real Estate, claims her career was ruined when she accused her boss of forcing himself on her.

In the Manhattan Supreme Court suit, Bonadio says she was having dinner at the Strip House restaurant on E. 12th St. with James Stuckey, then dean of the Schack Institute for Real Estate, when he tried to get her to perform a sex act.

As she asked about her pending promotion,"He grabbed her hand and ...without her consent, he forcibly placed her hand on his crotch and his erect penis," the suit charges.

She said she told Stuckey "she was not that kind of girl."

Soon after Bonadio reported the incident, Stuckey, a former executive with Forest City Ratner and ex-head of Mayor Bloomberg's commission on design, resigned "for health reasons," the suit says.

Florida law would turn its publicly funded ballparks and stadiums into homeless shelters
By 'Duk | Big League Stew | Yahoo! Sports

Could the new Marlins ballpark or the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field serve as a homeless shelter for the 270 or so nights a year that they're not used for baseball?

If two Florida lawmakers have their way, they might. As reported by the Miami Herald, state legislators have unearthed an obscure law that has not been enforced since it was adopted in 1988. It states that any ballpark or stadium that receives taxpayer money shall serve as a homeless shelter on the dates that it is not in use.

Now, a new bill would punish owners of teams who play in publicly funded stadiums if they don't provide a haven for the homeless. Affected ballparks would include the Miami Marlins' new ballpark in Miami's Little Havana, the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg and several spring training facilities. It also includes the homes of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Miami Heat, Jacksonville Jaguars and Florida Panthers.

The newspaper estimates that owners might have to return $30 million in benefits that were already bestowed if the bill passes and they can't prove they were running homeless shelters (to the newspaper's knowledge, no teams have been).

From the Miami Herald:

Senate Bill 816, which would make teams and stadium owners return millions of taxpayer dollars if they can't prove that they've been operating as a haven for the homeless on non-event nights, passed its first committee in the Senate on Monday with a unanimous vote.

"We have spent over $300 million supporting teams that can afford to pay a guy $7, $8, $10 million a year to throw a baseball 90 feet. I think they can pay for their own stadium," said Sen. Michael Bennett, R-Bradenton, who is sponsoring the bill. "I can not believe that we're going to cut money out of Medicaid and take it away from the homeless and take it away from the poor and impoverished, and we're continuing to support people who are billionaires."

With this being an election year, it's not too much of a surprise that state lawmakers might find a headline-grabbing way to show that they're concerned about the rights of the little people. And what better target than professional sports, where exorbitant salaries and construction costs are printed in the newspaper every day?

I don't suspect that this bill will pass, though. The rich folk behind the ballparks have way too much lobbying power. The homeless advocacy does not. It's simple math...

Is Atlantic Yards Good for Brooklyn? A Public Call to Host a Town Hall Meeting With Michael Ratner

As reported by Michael O’Keeffe in yesterday’s New York Daily News, I have issued a formal request to Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights to co-host a film screening of the documentary Battle for Brooklyn. The documentary describes the efforts in Brooklyn to resist the Atlantic Yards basketball arena/housing development project, which will upturn twenty-two acres in the heart of the borough. That has meant protesting eminent domain evictions, sweetheart backroom deals, the prospect of acerlated gentrification, the tearing down of historic buildings and the use of taxpayer subsidies. Mr. Ratner is an investor in this project, spearheaded by his brother, Bruce Ratner, a high powered real estate magnate. Michael Ratner is also a hero of mine. His work opposing the Patriot Act, torture as policy, and the War Powers Act is an inspiration to anyone who cares about civil liberties and real freedom. In other words, not freedom the way Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich or Ron Paul talk about freedom—the freedom to destroy the environment, smash unions, or  build a pipeline through your backyard—but the freedom to actually assemble, debate, discuss and live in an open society.

But Michael Ratner is also an investor in this incredibly controversial project.  He has never commented publicly about the constitutionality of how eminent domain was used to remove people from their Brooklyn homes and businesses. He has never explained why someone of his sterling reputation would involve himself in a project that symbolizes for so many residents the profits of the few over the needs of the many. Maybe he believes that this kind of massive development project is completely constitutional. Maybe he thinks that it’s in the best interests of Brooklyn. Maybe he believes that the Ratner family will profit mightily from the project, which will in turn support the good works of the CCR. I have no idea. As a boy with Brooklyn roots, I’m certainly open to his arguments, but it would be good to actually hear them. Given Michael Ratner’s profile as a civil libertarian, I honestly believe he has an obligation to be public and transparent about his involvement

That is why I am issuing the following offer to Mr. Ratner: let us co-host a showing of the documentary Battle for Brooklyn. The film, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award, is remarkably gripping and would provide a terrific basis for a townhall conversation about the merits of Atlantic Yards, the constitutionality of eminent domain for private benefit and whether sports arenas are answers to the vexing problems of urban development and job creation. I already have agreements secured from several movie theaters willing to host such an event as well as a commitment from Daniel Goldstein, the protagonist of Battle for Brooklyn, to attend. You and I can both make brief statements and then open it up to the crowd. To Mr. Ratner: I can be reached at dave@edgeofsports.com. Let’s hold this event soon, in a comradely amicable setting, that allows us all to clear the air and educate the public about whether Atlantic Yards is in the best interests of Brooklyn not to mention in accordance with the kind of free, open and just society you have spent a lifetime championing.

Yet another instance of major broken promises from Atlantic Yards "developer" Forest City Ratner. What would ACORN say?

Norman Oder reports:

How many subsidized apartments for low-income families in first Atlantic Yards tower? Just eight 2BRs, as Forest City Ratner reneges on promise to build half the affordable space as 2BR/3BR units
Atlantic Yards Report

How many affordable apartments would there be for low-income families--families that need two bedrooms or more--in B2, the first planned Atlantic Yards tower?

Only eight.

And that's out of 350 total units.

The building, which has been delayed nearly two years and has not yet broken ground, would include 130 studios, 180 one-bedroom, and 40 two-bedrooms.

Of those latter 40 units, 20 would be subsidized. However, only eight of them would be low-income, with monthly rents at $701.75 and $902.25, at least under current income guidelines.

The other subsidized "affordable" two-bedroom units--four each--would cost $1604, $2406, and $3007. It makes you wonder how much the market-rate units would go for.

Reneging on the pledge

Why so few larger units? For the first building, Forest City Ratner has reneged on its long-promised "goal" to ensure than half the affordable housing--on a square foot basis--would be two- and three-bedroom apartments.

And that was a key selling point to struggling families hoping for better housing, as noted in the screenshot at [right], from the original AtlanticYards.com web site.

Note that the web site misleadingly implied that half the number of units--rather than square footage--would be larger units...

Full article

Praise for a Developer
To the Editor:

I disagree with Michael Powell ("A Developer Between Legal Clouds," Gotham column, Jan. 10) that two bribery investigations with ties to the developer Bruce Ratner and his company, Forest City Ratner, suggest misdeeds on his part.

More important, the professional investigators have not found that the company or its employees behaved in an illegal manner.

While I do agree that we have an unprecedented amount of corruption among elected officials, lobbyists and others, you cannot and should not assume that a developer is guilty of the same behavior because, well, he's a developer.

As a former New York City public advocate and during many years in public service, I have had the honor to work with Mr. Ratner. He has always demonstrated the highest ethical standards and behavior. As consumer affairs commissioner and as a developer, he has worked to improve the city and help those with greatest needs.

BETSY GOTBAUM
New York, Jan. 11, 2012

In new briefs, ESDC and Forest City ask appeals court to overturn decision ordering new environmental review for Phase 2 of Atlantic Yards
Atlantic Yards Report

The battle over the last remaining Atlantic Yards lawsuit continues in court, with new briefs from the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and developer Forest City Ratner.

The state agency, decrying an "unprecedented judicial usurpation of agency discretion," slams state Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman for imposing what it says are her views on how to analyze the potential impact of an extended project buildout lasting 25 years, rather than the officially announced ten years.

Similarly, Forest City denounces "an unprecedented expansion and distortion of SEQRA [State Environmental Quality Review Act], and an improper substitution by the court of its judgment for that of ESDC."

Thus, contends the agency, her decision, which required the ESDC to conduct a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) regarding Phase 2--the eleven towers outside the arena block and Site 5--should be reversed both because judges should defer to agency decisions, as well as "the record here, which makes clear that ESDC took multiple SEQRA 'hard looks' at the impacts of the Project under various construction schedules."

The briefs by ESDC and Forest Citywill get a response from the two coalitions (led by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council/BrooklynSpeaks) that brought the (now-combined) lawsuit.

The twist

But the whole thing's a bit surreal.

Why? Because statements made outside the record by developer Bruce Ratner make a mockery of the agency's longstanding claims the project would last ten years. Moreover, a regular pattern of construction-related abuses means that the mitigation plan created by and cited by the state is less "robust" than asserted.
...

Continue reading.

A Developer Between Legal Clouds

...Last week, the lobbyist Richard Lipsky stood in a courtroom to acknowledge bribe-making. His partner in crime, Carl Kruger, the former state senator and a Brooklyn Democrat, had taken his tear-soaked turn two weeks earlier. They face years in prison.

A few weeks from now, in the same courthouse, a Democratic Yonkers councilwoman and her cousin, the city's Republican Party chairman, are expected to stand trial. They are accused of bribery, extortion and tax evasion.

The Brooklyn and Yonkers cases are not simply about wayward politicians. The cases share an intriguing tie to the developer Bruce Ratner, who in project after project deploys lobbyists and politicians to change zoning ordinances and chase down rich packets of subsidies.

I should emphasize that Mr. Ratner has walked between the legal raindrops. Federal prosecutors have not implicated him or his company, Forest City Ratner, in either of these corruption cases.

But he figures prominently enough that the indictments identify him as "Developer No. 1" in Brooklyn and "Developer No. 2" in Yonkers. In Brooklyn, he has pushed the 22-acre Atlantic Yards development, including an arena and residential towers. Forest City Ratner was the development partner for the headquarters of The New York Times Company.

Mr. Ratner has a political maestro's touch. His vice president, Bruce Bender, is a stalwart of the Democratic Party's powerful Thomas Jefferson Club in south Brooklyn. Its members — Mr. Kruger, Councilman Lewis A. Fidler and State Senator John L. Sampson — quickly championed this project.

Mr. Bender was a hound to the chase after public subsidies. In 2009, the city's Independent Budget Office concluded that the arena deal would cost the city $40 million more than it would generate in tax revenue over 30 years.

Mr. Ratner, by contrast, would haul in $726 million in special public benefits.

The Yonkers case has received less attention, yet raises perhaps more troubling questions. On a hilltop on the northern edge of Yonkers, Mr. Ratner wanted to build an 81-acre luxury mall and housing complex called Ridge Hill.

But surrounding towns feared snarls of traffic, and the county planning board voted the project down in 2005.

Mr. Ratner had a patented response. He hired the former counsel to a powerful Yonkers politician as well as the city's Republican chairman, Zehy Jereis. And Assemblyman Michael Spano of Yonkers resigned his seat to take a job in the lobbying firm Patricia Lynch & Associates. Ms. Lynch was former top aide to the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, and, as chance would have it, an Albany lobbyist for Forest City Ratner.

Mr. Spano now is mayor of Yonkers.

Yet for all this, Mr. Ratner found himself in a bind in 2006. He lacked the votes to overturn the planning board. Sandy Annabi, the Democratic council leader, stood as his most outspoken opponent.

ACCORDING to the federal indictment, these machinations revived the Ridge Hill project:

On June 2, 2006, Mr. Jereis, the Yonkers Republican chairman, met with a Ratner official at a restaurant. A week later, Mr. Jereis brought along his cousin, Ms. Annabi, to chat with the official.

Five days later, Ms. Annabi announced she would support Ridge Hill. (Mr. Ratner's shop drafted the news release for her.) Mr. Ratner agreed to hire Mr. Jereis as a consultant for his company, once Ms. Annabi voted yes.

The City Council approved the zoning change on July 11, 2006.

Three months later, Mr. Jereis signed a $5,000-per-month consulting contract with Mr. Ratner.

In January 2010, federal prosecutors accused Ms. Annabi of selling her vote "for baubles and trinkets" and indicted her, and Mr. Jereis.

So many questions remain, not the least of which is where the money came from. Prosecutors say Mr. Jereis gave Ms. Annabi a $160,000 shower of bribes.

Back in Brooklyn, similar questions remain. Mr. Lipsky shared $252,000 worth of his lobbying fees with Mr. Kruger; the source of that money is unclear...
(Emphasis added.)

Full article

Nets, Struggling on Offense, Watch Pacers Find Rhythm
The New York Times. By Jake Appleman

When the two worst-shooting teams in the N.B.A. got together Monday night, the Nets played down to their standing and fell to the Indiana Pacers, 108-94.

The Pacers, who shot 53 percent to the Nets' 37 percent, also made 13 of 21 3-point attempts. If sinking shots — and the Nets' hopes — seemed like no contest for the Pacers, it was because most of the 3-point attempts were not contested.

"We just didn't do a good job of running them off the 3-point line, of paying attention to details," Deron Williams said...

Company fabricating metal arena facade shuts down; work was supposed to extend through May; no comment from Forest City at this time

The Whitestown, IN-based company that has been fabricating the weathered steel for the Barclays Center facade unexpectedly went out of business last week, raising questions about whether and when the additional steel needed would be delivered, and how the overall project timetable may be affected.

It's unclear how much of the steel has been fabricated and delivered by ASI Limited, but a considerable amount of facade work remains to be done.
...

A spokesman for developer Forest City Ratner said "we cannot comment at this time." The Empire State Development (ESD), the state agency overseeing Atlantic Yards, said it was a question for Forest City...

Marty Markowitz on THE PEREZ NOTES Part 2.
The Perez Notes

I had the opportunity to interview, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Here are some of his views, on the issues of the day. Below the quotes, is the audio of the interview.
...

Atlantic Yards

"If the folks that opposed this, hadn't tied the project up for 7 years in litigation Atlantic Yards a good piece of it would've built. The affordable housing would've been on it's way. The Nets would be playing in the arena and defeating the Manhattan Knicks."

"The folks that were impacted by eminent domain, overwhelmingly most of them did very well. The folks that are the loudest complainers, folks could argue are the gentrifiers."

"I have significant reservations about permit parking, about resident parking only, I don't think it could work."

Markowitz can say whatever he wants and continue to place false blame whereever he wants but the "failure" of Atlantic Yards is that it was never feasible as promoted and approved. Who says? His buddy Bruce Ratner says.

Billionaire and Ex-Minister to Oppose Putin in Russian Presidential Election
By Ellen Barry and David M. Herszenhorn

MOSCOW — Amid a crescendo of complaints from Russians fed up with the country's tightly controlled political system, two prominent figures — a billionaire industrialist and the recently ousted finance minister — sought to fill a void in the opposition leadership on Monday.

The billionaire, Mikhail D. Prokhorov, who owns shares in a major gold mining company and an array of other ventures in Russia as well as the New Jersey Nets basketball franchise in the United States, said he would run for president, challenging Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin.

"I made a decision, probably the most serious decision in my life: I am going to the presidential election," Mr. Prohkorov said at a news conference. He has barely appeared in public since mid-September, when he was removed as the head of a pro-business party, Just Cause, after clashing with Kremlin political strategists.

"You may remember, the Kremlin removed me and my allies from Just Cause, and we were not allowed to do what we wanted," he said. "It is not in my nature to stop halfway. So for the last two and a half months we sat and worked, very calmly and quietly, and we created all the infrastructure to collect two million signatures," the number needed to get on the ballot as an independent candidate.
...

For Mr. Prokhorov, whose business interests include a stake in the Atlantic Yards development in downtown [sic] Brooklyn, his leap into presidential politics could be risky. He is the first wealthy businessman to pursue a political goal in Russia against the governing authorities since the 2003 arrest of Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the former chairman of the Yukos Oil Company, who was jailed after he began financing an opposition party. He remains in prison.
...

As NoLandGrab says, "Wow, who could have predicted that? We had Bruce Ratner's word, after all."

Out of work! Ratner ally BUILD got just 15 jobs for black Yards supporters
The Brooklyn Paper. By Daniel Bush

The organization that promised to deliver jobs for black supporters of Atlantic Yards has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from developer Bruce Ratner to help train workers for the positions — but has only secured work for 15 people at the $5-billion mega-project.

The mostly black members of Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development who were promised some of the 1,500 jobs per year over the project's 10-year buildout loudly supported Atlantic Yards during the approval process, often appearing in hard hats at rallies and hearings and presenting a contrasting face to the project's mostly white opponents.

BUILD's President James Caldwell said that the group has helped 400 people find work around town — but he admitted that only 15 of those positions were on Ratner's Prospect Heights development, which currently consists of only the under-construction Barclays Center near the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues.

Residents filed a lawsuit against Ratner and BUILD last Tuesday in federal court, claiming that executives at BUILD and Ratner's company falsely promised them union memberships and jobs in exchange for completing a "sham" 15-week training program run by the Downtown nonprofit in 2010.

Caldwell disputed the claim, and blamed his failure to secure more Atlantic Yards jobs for local residents on the economy and lawsuits from Yards opponents.

"There would be [more jobs] had all these things not taken place," he said. "The bottom fell out of the economy."

But the Great Recession didn't hurt BUILD's bottom line: the organization's annual operating budget increased from $191,721 in 2007 to $279,395 in 2009, according to the latest available documents from the Internal Revenue Service...

Continue reading

Sorry, but opposition to the project has nothing whatsoever to do with the project’s failure to create jobs. For two years Forest City Ratner has had completely unimpeded rights to construct its project and if BUILD has only been able to provide 15 Atlantic Yards jobs (out of some 400 or so on site) that too has nothing to do with opposition.

The fact that Reverend Daughtry bought into the developer's job hype, partnered with Ratner and ignored any concerns, criticism and warnings about the project is his own responsibility.

Denis Hamill's Daily News column, "Denis Hamill tells why there is so much union pride in building Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Construction boss Bob Sanna is behind the Nets new basketball arena," is a really sweet love letter to Forest City Ratner's head of construction Bob Sanna who is overseeing the Atlantic Yards construction.

Hamill asks Sanna, "What was the first thing he had to do to erect this 18,000 seat arena?" Hamill allows Sanna to blithely respond, without challenge, "Demolish 52 buildings. We did that in sections, starting at Atlantic Ave, as politics played out and tenants vacated. Then we start carving away at the land."

Spoken like a true tin pot dictator. Politics didn't "play out," it was a fixed political deal. And tenants weren't "vacated," they were removed by eminent domain condemnation.

But Sanna's language isn't all that's slippery. See Hamill didn't bother to note that while Sanna as a Brooklyn native is excited to play his part in the Atlantic Yards land grab, he is an outspoken hypocrite NIMBY in New Jersey. Here, in full, is NoLandGrab from November 17th:

What's good for Brooklyn is apparently not good for Forest City Ratner's head of construction's own neighborhood.

Group says 'Look at the figures'
The Item of Millburn and Short Hills
by Lindsey Kelleher

Supporters of the Concerned Neighborhood Association argue that the infrastructure on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Old Short Hills Road isn't big enough to support the proposed synagogue that Rabbi Mendel Bogomilsky wants to build there.

And Robert Sanna, a trustee for the association, noted that constructing a synagogue on this property, which is 1.8 acres, could set a precedent for building other institutions such as shelters, day care centers or hospitals on property lots that are too small to accommodate them. Current township regulations require 3 acres of land for building a house of worship.

State-licensed architect Michael Soriano from Cornerstone Architectural Group LLC was hired by the Concerned Neighborhood Association's attorney Kevin Coakley to show the Millburn Zoning Board of Adjustment how many people could fit inside the Chai Center under the International Building Code New Jersey Edition.
...

The Item previously reported that some people in favor of the Chai Center find it ironic that Sanna is against zoning exceptions in his Jefferson Avenue neighborhood but is employed with Forest City Ratner Corporation, a development company in New York. Sanna noted to both The Item and at the Oct. 31 hearing that his occupation is not relevant to the synagogue application.

article

NoLandGrab: But Sanna's own unvarnished, hypocritical NIMBYism is relevant to us! He doesn't seem to have a problem with a state override of city zoning for Atlantic Yards, the sweeping away of city rules forbidding the siting of an arena in a residential neighborhood, or the fact that (if his boss can hornswoggle the funds to build it) Atlantic Yards would be the densest residential tract in North America.

Boxy and Timely
Archinect

Forest City Ratner has released renderings of their SHoP-designed high-rise condos for Atlantic Yards. And let's face it, assuming Ratner doesn't backtrack on the design yet again, the project resembles the same ho-hum, cookie-cutter vertical sprawl of a thousand-and-one other transit-oriented development boondoggles. But this one is even special-er, cus the business and modular-savvy of SHoP seems to have been put to good use for Ratner's union-busting scheme. As L Magazine writes: 

The union workers who would be assembling the towers, in various factories, before they're stacked up, would stand to make less the half the hourly wage they could expect if the tower was constructed on-site. Forest City Ratner told the Times, "We are in the process of attempting to reach an agreement that will work for the building trades and Forest City in an effort to create permanent employment," because they are definitely trustworthy when it comes to delivering the jobs they'd long promised the community. 

Someone, quick, please break-down what Bruce Ratner makes per-hour, given his $931,584.00 annual income. #FAILtecture

15 Documentary Features Advance in 2011 Oscar® Race

Beverly Hills, CA (November 18, 2011) – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 84th Academy Awards®. One hundred twenty-four pictures had originally qualified in the category.

The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company:

• "Battle for Brooklyn" (RUMUR Inc.)
• "Bill Cunningham New York" (First Thought Films)
• "Buck" (Cedar Creek Productions)
• "Hell and Back Again" (Roast Beef Productions Limited)
• "If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front" (Marshall Curry Productions, LLC)
• "Jane's Journey" (NEOS Film GmbH & Co. KG)
• "The Loving Story" (Augusta Films)
• "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" (@radical.media)
• "Pina" (Neue Road Movies GmbH)
• "Project Nim" (Red Box Films)
• "Semper Fi: Always Faithful" (Tied to the Tracks Films, Inc.)
• "Sing Your Song" (S2BN Belafonte Productions, LLC)
• "Undefeated" (Spitfire Pictures)
• "Under Fire: Journalists in Combat" (JUF Pictures, Inc.)
• "We Were Here" (Weissman Projects, LLC)

The Documentary Branch Screening Committee viewed all the eligible documentaries for the preliminary round of voting. Documentary Branch members will now select the five nominees from among the 15 titles on the shortlist.

The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Much of the media was in bright, shiny object mode reacting to Bruce Ratner and SHoP Architects release of a few new tower renderings to the New York Times.

Norman Oder has done more than react to the bright, shiny rendered objects. He has dug deep and offered, believe it or not, continuity to the now eight-years-and-counting-developing story mostly characterized by bait-and-switches and broken promises.

Here's Oder's FAQ for the press and the public:

Ratner's modular tower release and the mostly compliant press: an FAQ on timing, misdirection, jobs, the lack of larger apartments, and Ratner's astounding admission
Atlantic Yards Report

Well, Forest City Ratner yesterday announced plans for Building 2, a 32-story, 350-unit tower with half subsidized apartments--the world's tallest modular tower--and the press piled on.

They just didn't answer all the questions.

Why were the renderings released yesterday?

No report explained that. There's no financing for the first building. The modular plan isn't final.

I'd bet that the release was strategized to deflect any lingering attention from the lawsuit filed two days earlier by construction workers charging they didn't get promised jobs and union cards after going through a selective training program mandated by the Atlantic Yards Community Benefit Agreement.

And to put pressure on construction unions. Remember, Ratner stopped building the Beekman Tower (aka 8 Spruce Street) midway to renegotiate with the unions.

What kind of pressure?

Well, Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building Building and Construction Trades Council, said, in a statement, "We are in the process of attempting to reach an agreement on modular construction that will work for the building trades and Forest City in an effort to create permanent employment opportunities for our members,"

Is Ratner definitely building modular?

Not at all. "We intend to do it modular," he told the Wall Street Journal, but said the decision isn't final. Indeed, you have to watch his language. In November 2009, after the state eminent domain decision, Ratner said they had the "intent" to move the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn for the 2011-12 season.

Didn't the permit application describe a non-modular process?

Yup.

Did any press outlet mention that?

Not yet.

...

Does this announcement represent an about-face by Ratner? The Daily News said "project opponents saw another about-face by the developer." The Times quoted Council Member James, "who denounced what she described as the growing distance between the promise and the reality of Atlantic Yards."

It's another example of journalists pitting Ratner against "opponents" and maintaining what Jay Rosen calls the "View from Nowhere," the false middle, the inability to do any analysis. Actually, Bruce Ratner said it himself, that "existing incentives" don't work for high-rise, union-built affordable housing.

He said that?

Yup. Of course, he proposed--and the state approved--high-rise, union-built affordable housing.

Does that mean all the promises about Atlantic Yards residential rental towers, and the approval of those promises, were bogus?

Uh, yeah.

Some of the reactive press:

The L Magazine, Yup, It's a Prefab High-Rise for Atlantic Yards

Fort Greene - Clinton Hill Patch, Design Revealed for Atlantic Yards' Pre-Fab Tower

International Business Times, Forest City Ratner, SHoP Unveil Atlantic Yards Tower [PHOTOS]

Gothamist, Sorry, Brooklyn: This Is What Atlantic Yards Is Supposed To Look LIke

WNYC, Atlantic Yards Tower Design Revealed

The Wall Street Journal, Ratner Goes 'Modular' in Brooklyn

Daily News, Apartment tower at Atlantic Yards will be built in a factory

The Brooklyn Paper, Unions, aesthetes dunked as Ratner plans pre-fab building at Yards

New York Post. Atlantic Yards building with 'Legos'

Curbed, Here's a Glimpse at the World's Tallest Prefab Condo Tower

Smart Planet, NYC SHoP Architects take modular construction to new heights

Crain's New York, Bruce Ratner's breakthrough

NY1, Plans For Atlantic Yards Modular Tower Unveiled

Media Bistro, Details Released for ShoP's Atlantic Yards Residential Buildings, Will Include World's Tallest Modular Tower

The project's planned 6,400 apartments—and particularly the 2,250 units pledged for low- and middle-income tenants—were a key selling point for the development when it was approved by the state over neighborhood criticism in 2006. It was later stalled by lawsuits contesting the use of eminent domain, and then slowed by the economic downturn.

Now Forest City has told government officials that the high proportion of affordable apartments has made it difficult to make the economics work for the towers, despite a surprisingly strong rebound in the rental market.

Previously, the company asked the city for additional subsidy to make the first Atlantic Yards tower move forward, to no avail.

Mr. Ratner said Thursday that the existing incentives for developments where half the units are priced for middle- and low-income tenants "don't work for a high-rise building that's union built."

He added that he had "accepted the fact that we're not going to get more subsidy."

(Emphasis added.)

...The state approved Ratner's revised proposal in 2009, with a report by KPMG saying that yes, it was plausible to build out the project in ten years, thanks mainly to the demand for subsidized housing. KPMG's report was questionable mainly for its unrealistic estimates regarding the condo market, not the market for mixed-income rentals.

The warning

The state was on notice. A 2009 report by the Kahr Real Estate Group, commissioned by the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, warned:

It is extremely unlikely that the full project can be financed and completed within 10 years at a profit by a private sector developer without substantial subsidies in excess of what has already been currently proposed.

That's exactly what Ratner admitted today and why he's seeking concessions from unions and/or building modular.

Two years ago, did anyone official heed the warning? No.

"Different opinions," Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) Senior Counsel Steve Matlin said dismissively on 9/17/09, contrasting the KPMG study with the more pessimistic Kahr report.

Today, likely to deflect from a federal lawsuit filed two days ago, Forest City Ratner has released new renderings of the first towers the developer hopes one day to put up, and has confirmed, sorta maybe, that the towers will be done with modular, pre-fab construction. Notably, where once Tower 1 was to break ground this year, then was shifted to early 2012, now Ratner says maybe in the spring....yet, according to the Post, there is no financing.

More on the renderings from Atlantic Yards Report but we want to hone in here on a statement by Bruce Ratner in the exclusive given to the developer's favorite newspaper, The Times, that raises an important question. The statement:

Mr. Ratner, chief executive of Forest City Ratner, said that prefabrication or modular construction could save time and cut construction costs by as much as 25 percent.

“I was robbed,” claims plaintiff in lawsuit against BUILD and FCR; defendants deny promising jobs and union cards, setting up contest over credibility; claims over unpaid wages in "sham" training program may be easier to prove
Atlantic Yards Report

To City Council Member Letitia James, the leading political opponent of Atlantic Yards, the federal lawsuit filed yesterday by seven would-be Atlantic Yards workers, who claim they were promised construction jobs and union cards after finishing a highly competitive training program, confirms that the project “was the greatest bait and switch in the history of Brooklyn.”

For the workers-- some of whom quit jobs or declined job offers in expectation of post-training work and union membership--it was simply a chance for justice, after going through the 15-week program sponsored by Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) signatory BUILD (Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development), where they learned little and were put to work, without pay, on a mostly unsupervised contracting job.

“We were repeatedly reassured on numerous occasions that all we had to do is to complete the program and we would obtain union books and employment,” said Kathleen Noreiga, 58, an electrician (in video below). She made a point of saying she had rallied for the project with BUILD, which, while offering job training and assistance, has regularly brought Atlantic Yards supporters to public hearings and events. (BUILD CEO James Caldwell has regularly praised Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner as "like an angel sent from God.")

Seven of the 36 workers who went through the program, which concluded last December, joined the suit, announced at a press conference yesterday afternoon. (Videos by Jonathan Barkey)

“I was robbed,” asserted Maurice Griffin (in video below), who quit his non-union carpentry job to do the 15-week, Forest City Ratner-funded program that began last August.

“They guaranteed me a union card, They said it’s not a question of whether we have it, but whether you complete the program. And I completed it. I came every time, early. I did my work. I’m here to let everybody know I’m not going to stand for this.” Griffin later joined a union on his own.

"Not only was I lied to, and my classmates, but Brooklyn was lied to," added plaintiff Clarence Stewart (in first video), saying the students were told they would work on the project but instead were offered jobs at McDonalds. "He basically stole Brooklyn, and every time I pass by the arena, it makes me sick and appalled."

The plaintiffs are suing for both back wages, based on unpaid construction work, as well as likely more significant sums regarding alleged deceptive practices regarding expected union memberships and jobs at the project. The suit seeks both compensatory and punitive damages

The Pre-Apprenticeship Training Program (PATP) was required under the CBA, signed in June 2005, but not delivered until more than five years later:

Commencing upon execution of this Agreement, Developers and BUILD shall initiate and coordinate a job training program to train Community residents for construction jobs within the Arena and Project...

(Emphasis added)

"It is sadly something we can all agree on: we were all stiffed," said state Senator Velmanette Montgomery, in a statement read by staffer Jim Vogel. "I applaud them for standing up and saying what was done to them was wrong."
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