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On November 29, residents of Prospect Heights and the surrounding areas were presented with an “informational meeting” hosted by Community Boards 2, 6, and 8 about Forest City Ratner’s proposed $2.5 billion Atlantic Yards Development. The event was held at New York City College of Technology in downtown Brooklyn. Hovering as a backdrop to the entrance of the auditorium was a potential glimpse of Prospect Heights’ future: Forest City Ratner’s office tower complex MetroTech.

A nighttime stroll through MetroTech’s pavement plazas and across its fluorescent paths illustrates one of the more remarkable elements of the complex: its lack of people. In the evening, after the office workers scuttle home to Long Island and elsewhere, Ratner’s towers cast unnatural shadows across an urban void. Bereft of ground-floor retail spaces outside of the businesses that ultimately serve the commuters during their workday, the empty blocks create a bleak, uninviting wasteland.

A Midwestern developer such as Mr. Ratner potentially could be forgiven for creating this lifeless development. Commercial ghost towns similar to MetroTech are ubiquitous in car-friendly burgs across America. But such forgiveness grows thin when one considers that this same developer is responsible for the Atlantic Center and, most recently, the Atlantic Terminal—hermetically sealed urban malls that turn their backs to the streets, leaving empty sidewalks for Brooklyn residents to traverse. 

It is this track record that has many in the area worried about Forest City’s latest proposal, the Atlantic Yards. Exponentially dwarfing Ratner’s previous Brooklyn projects, this 10-year construction project stands to bring more of the same failure, though now wrapped in dilettantish postmodern architecture. Perhaps realizing this, Forest City’s PR team seems to have mostly abandoned attempts to convince those in the community that Atlantic Yards will be engaging or in any way enjoyable for local residents. Forest City has instead turned up the volume on its promises of jobs and affordable housing.

At the informational meeting, which a Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn press release referred to as a “pep rally” for the project, Forest City executive vice president Jim Stuckey voiced the party line on these issues. Pro-stadium groups such as BUILD and ACORN, however, are banking on the success of the community benefits agreement (CBA) that Forest City has initiated (see Carreira, “Ratner Applies Full-Court Press on Downtown Stadium,” Rail, November 2004). A CBA is a legally binding contract establishing guidelines that cover a number of neighborhood concerns.

The CBA is being touted as the first of its kind in New York City. As Stuckey repeatedly reminded local residents, the CBA illustrates Ratner’s magnanimity, since he is not required by law to enter into the agreement. Fortunately, those less inclined to take Forest City’s goodwill for granted do have a precedent by which to judge the document. The development of the Staples Center, home of the Los Angeles Lakers, occurred under the auspices of a CBA established in May 2001.

The Staples CBA, as it is commonly known, ultimately represents the 28 neighborhood and community organizations that joined together as the Figueroa Corridor Coalition for Economic Justice. This number does not include the various labor organizations that in separate negotiations also backed the provisions of the CBA. The Atlantic Yards agreement, by contrast, is presently being cobbled together by the developer, subcommittees of Community Boards 2, 6, and 8, and a select few pro-arena groups. Opponents of the proposal were not invited to take part in the negotiations. According to Jim Stuckey, the rationale for this is that Forest City is “trying to work with groups that have a history of creating jobs,” like ACORN. This has not precluded Ratner from including BUILD, despite the fact that the organization only came into existence following the announcement of the proposal last January—with the seemingly solitary purpose of speaking on its behalf.