In New York City nothing symbolizes the hangover experienced from the real estate frenzy of the aughts better than the debacle that is the Atlantic Yards. Critics have long believed that Forest City Ratner Chairman and CEO Bruce Ratner’s high-flying promises of jobs, starchitecuture, affordable housing, high-rises, and sports were cynically calculated to sell his intention to control the rail yards at Atlantic Avenue.

Daniel Goldstein is the spokesperson and one of the founders of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. He has spent the last five-and-a-half years fighting against—and living in the footprint of—Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project. As developer Bruce Ratner continues to face serious financial and legal hurdles, Brian Carreira—the Rail’s former City Editor and long-time writer on Atlantic Yards—sat down with Goldstein at his apartment on Pacific Street in Prospect Heights to discuss his ongoing battle against one of the city’s most powerful players.

Shortly over a year ago, I wrote a piece about the Atlantic Yards where I lamented our elected officials’ refusal to use their political leverage to demand a development over the rail yards that would be more in scale with and more beneficial to the surrounding community.

On May 26th, the Economic Development Committee of the City Council held a public hearing about Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards proposal.

What a difference a year can make. As January 2005 winds to a close, Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards proposal, launched a year ago as the crown jewel in the developer’s Brooklyn menagerie, seems to be chugging along on fumes.

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.

In late October, Forest City Ratner mailed Brooklyn residents another of its glossy brochures intended to answer “Frequently asked questions about the Brooklyn Nets and Atlantic Yards.” Within it are the standard best-case scenarios regarding both the jobs potentially created by the project as well as its overall funding.

Developer Bruce Ratner has been busy in negotiations with the city and state, moving one step closer to his plan to build a basketball stadium and several office towers in Prospect Heights.

The protests against developer Bruce Ratner’s proposed basketball arena are getting more creative every day.

An arena is coming to Brooklyn. The ink is hardly dry on Bruce Ratner’s purchase of the New Jersey Nets, but the tinny media drumbeat has had the team plopping down in the county of Kings for the last couple of months.