[NYtenants-online] NYTenants -- Brooklyn to Protest Ratner Arena/Towers

[Tenant]

NYtenants Online/TenantNet                                6/13/04
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IN THIS ISSUE ...

1. Tenants and the Ratner Plan
2. Rent Wars covers the Ratner plan
3. Brooklyn Block Party 6/19 -- Rally against Ratner Arena and Towers
4. Tenants in Nets arena path are at Ratner’s mercy

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TENANTS, DISPLACEMENT AND WHO'S SELLING-OUT

Of the over 800 individuals who could be displaced by the proposed Bruce 
Ratner Basketball Arena and surrounding towers in Brooklyn, there's a mix 
of co-op/condo owners, tenants, residents of a homeless shelter and many 
small businesses. Each group has different issues, but the mix shows 
exactly what could be destroyed by developer Bruce Ratner with the help of 
Borough President Marty Markowitz: a healthy, stable and diverse community.

While co-op owners are being given substantial buy-out offers from Ratner, 
tenants are finding themselves left out in the cold. Tenants' legal rights 
are less than homeowners' rights and do not attract the same 'Abuse of 
Eminent Domain' argument. It's still displacement, but not a property 
taking for the tenants. Nevertheless, the tenants form, as much as any 
other group, a stabilizing force of the Brooklyn communities that would 
experience displacement.

The impact of secondary displacement in the surrounding neighborhood has 
seen little attention. Tenants in the surrounding areas are likely to be as 
impacted as those on the arena site itself. Secondary displacement 
pressures take time to develop and are difficult to measure, but are as 
dangerous. For every Ratner tower that goes up, there will be pressures 
from other developers to tear down nearby tenements or brownstones, 
replacing those tenants with others who have little connection to the 
community and/or who can afford expensive apartments. Similarly, even in 
existing tenements, landlords will try to force out existing tenants and 
jack-up rents to levels never before seen in that area.

For those who doubt this scenario, all one needs to look at is the 
secondary displacement now happening in various areas of Manhattan: 
Clinton, Chelsea, Lower East Side/East Village and Harlem.

Despite the near unanimous rejection of Ratner's plans by the people who 
live and work there, one housing group, ACORN, has signed on in support of 
the Ratner plan and are thereby undermining the community opposition. 
Buying into Ratner's claim that he would provide some degree of affordable 
housing (which almost all developers provide anyway in exchange for 
government subsidies), ACORN is shilling for a private developer and one 
has to ask what's in it for them.

Many not-for-profits housing groups depend on the largess of the city (read 
Bloomberg and Doctoroff) for their operations. All the city has to do 
(usually through HPD) is to offer, or withhold, benefits that these groups 
desire for their operations. In biting the carrot, groups like this end up 
delivering the neighborhoods into the hands of people like Dan Doctoroff 
and Bruce Ratner. But the claim they're getting 'affordable housing' in 
exchange for their support is disingenuous. What they end up with is 
usually a net loss of affordable housing and destroyed communities.

Lately they've even broadened their efforts through a mis-named "Affordable 
Housing Coalition" seeking what's known as Inclusionary Zoning, a program 
that permits a small level of affordable housing units, but in reality 
gives developers a two-to-four times bonus of luxury units. And to even get 
a small mix of affordable units, they agree to large towers gutting 
neighborhoods and the creation of destabilization pressures in the 
surrounding area.

While they might end up with some affordable units in sterile and 
impersonal tower complexes, the overall plan could limit opportunities for 
affordable housing in a large swath of Brooklyn.

The simple fact that groups like ACORN are supporting rather than opposing 
such plans results in major damage for the Brooklyn neighborhoods. Rather 
than standing shoulder-to-shoulder with area residents, they're selling-out 
for a bone, and doing so up-front when their negotiating strength (or 
anyone's negotiating strength) is at its weakest.

It does not matter so much that they may have a stated position of wanting 
affordable housing ... we all do. The real impact of their actions will be 
seen in how much damage they are doing in the political process. ACORN has 
close ties to the Working Families Party which bills itself as being more 
progressive than the Democratic party. Both ACORN and WFP should be in the 
streets supporting the Brooklyn communities.


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Note: Rent Wars will re-air its Ratner Arena Protest Show:

In Brooklyn, June 21 at 7 PM:
Time Warner Channel 34 and Cablevision Channel 67

In Manhattan, June 20 at 12 PM:
Time Warner Ch. 57, RCN Ch. 112, Digital 110
Without converter: Time Warner Ch. 69


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CELEBRATE BROOKLYN COMMUNITIES BLOCK PARTY AND
RALLY AGAINST THE RATNER/NETS ARENA AND HIGH RISE DEVELOPMENT
Saturday June 19th, 2pm
Pacific Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues
Prospect Heights, Brooklyn

As developer Bruce Ratner's plan to build a new arena and high rise 
buildings in Brooklyn continues apace, the affected communities are coming 
together on June 19, 2004 in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn to show just what's 
at stake.

The event will highlight the problems of misguided intitiatives like 
Ratner's Nets Arena and 17 High Rise Proposal--the demolition of homes and 
businesses, misuse of taxpayer funds, 3K parking garage and traffic 
increase, environmental damage, mall-ification of mom and pop communities, 
lack of sustainable jobs and affordable housing.

Yet, the block party/rally will be first and foremost a celebration of the 
area's dynamic and viable communities and the residents who have done so 
much to transform this part of Brooklyn.  Popular musical acts and DJs include:

- DJ Scribe (Love Revolution)
- Eman (Bang the Party)
- DJ Dhundee (Sugar Cuts)
- Gamall (Rude Movements)
- Touch It Crew
- MC Enemy
- The Spunk Lads

Some of Brooklyn's finest restaurants and stores will be offering their 
wares; politicians, activists and performers will be keeping the throngs 
entertained. The event is not to be missed for anyone sympathetic to a 
community's right to choose its future, or anyone who simply wishes to 
spend a great day in Brooklyn.

Saturday, June 19, 2 PM. Pacific Street between 5th and 6th Avenue, 
Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. 2/3, 4/5, B or Q to Atlantic Avenue; N, R, D or 
M to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue.

More info at www.developdontdestroy.org
e-mail: contact@developdontdestroy.org
tel: 718-362-4784.


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MARKET FOR SELLERS, NOT RENTERS
UNLIKE OWNERS OF PROPERTY, RENTERS IN NETS ARENA PATH ARE AT RATNER’S MERCY
By Deborah Kolben
The Brooklyn Papers

With homeowners in the path of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards arena, office 
towers and housing project set to accept lucrative buyouts, a group of 
residents who have been there the longest ­ and stand to lose the most ­ 
are now banding together.

The more than 200 renters in the swath of Prospect Heights where Ratner 
plans to build the $2.5 billion residential and commercial development ­ 
including a professional basketball arena for his New Jersey Nets ­ are 
fearful that they will be left out in the cold.

As part of the plan, Ratner, principal owner of Forest City Ratner, seeks 
to either buyout or have the state condemn 11-acres of privately owned 
land. The arena development site encompasses six blocks, primarily in 
Prospect Heights, and is bounded by Dean Street and Flatbush, Atlantic and 
Vanderbilt avenues.

In January, property owners, business owners and tenants in the area banded 
together to hire civil liberties attorney Norman Siegel after learning 
about Ratner’s plans to purchase the New Jersey Nets and bring them to 
Prospect Heights.

When the nearly 100 residents piled into the Dean Street studio of Simon 
Liu ­ who stretches canvases for museums throughout the world in his 
10,000-square-foot studio ­ to interview Siegel, the attorney warned that 
Ratner would try to “divide and conquer.” Many shirked the warning and the 
group forged ahead, opting to hire Siegel and form a new coalition, called 
Develop Don’t Destroy-Brooklyn, to fight the plan.

But this week, tenants said they wound up with the short end of the stick. 
While owners of the condo buildings at 636 Pacific St. and 24 Sixth Ave. 
are negotiating deals with Ratner at rates far above market value, tenants 
­ most of whom have been in the neighborhood decades longer than the 
homeowners ­ say they have been ignored by both Ratner and their neighbors.

“This is my neighborhood. This is my community. This is my home,” said 
David Sheets, a paralegal who has lived in the area for 24 years and moved 
into his rental apartment at 479 Dean St. seven years ago. That four-story, 
brick, row house would be razed to make way for one of the soaring office 
towers planned for the development.

Sheets, like many of his neighbors, says he moved into the area because it 
was “fantastically cheap” and has lived there for so long that he has a 
“great deal” and moving could mean tripling his cost of living. Over the 
past several years, Sheets, who lives in the bottom two floors of the 
former SRO building, has watched as the old Spalding factory and a nearby 
warehouse were converted into luxury condominium lofts.

The neighbors who bought those apartments within the past two years are now 
about to walk away with fat checks in exchange for their apartments and 
their silence, says Sheets, referring to a gag order prohibiting criticism 
of the Atlantic Yards plan that is part of their deals with Ratner.

But what about the renters? “The horrible fact about tenants is that they 
receive very little,” said Michael Rikon, a partner in Goldstein, Goldstein 
& Gotlieb, a Manhattan law firm specializing in condemnation law.

Ratner has vowed to fairly compensate property owners and relocate 
displaced renters. But renters face much more uncertainty since the state 
does not guarantee any relocation assistance, said Rikon. “We’ve become 
collateral damage,” said Joel Towers, an urban designer who has rented at 
475 Dean St. for the past 12 years.

“When the fight was about eminent domain and the people losing their homes, 
we were all together,” said Towers. “And when the fight became about money, 
everyone seemed to say, ‘Well, the tenants don’t have any legal rights and 
that’s their tough luck’.”

The former sewing factory is home to many artists who also use the space as 
their studios. Only six of the 17 units in the co-op are owner occupied; 27 
renters occupy the other apartments. “The tenants have not only been 
financially supporting the fight but putting in a lot of time. We have 
raised public awareness and the owners seem to be getting large amounts of 
money,” said Towers, who estimates that he has put more than $100,000 into 
renovating the apartment he now shares with his wife and 19-month old son.

Towers, who has also helped draft alternative plans for the site, said he 
and his wife don’t think they can afford anything else in the area. The 
owners in the building are negotiating with Ratner, but declined to discuss 
what those dealings entail.

Tenants throughout the footprint of the plan are now joining together and 
are planning a special meeting with Siegel to discuss their options. The 
tenants interviewed for this article all said that nobody from Forest City 
Ratner has contacted them.

“Every time you hear a politician talk about this, they say Bruce Ratner 
will take care of these people. But in fact, there is a whole group of 
people being left out ­ and that’s the tenants,” said Towers. “We’re not 
going to discuss publicly negotiations with any residents,” said Beth 
Davidson, a spokeswoman for Forest City Ratner. “When the time comes, as 
we’ve said, we’ll work with residents to find comparable housing.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a major supporter of the arena plan, has touted 
Ratner as a “class act” who will take care of the displaced. "This 
developer had a pretty good reputation when he built Metrotech,” Bloomberg 
said earlier this year. Ratner is best known for developing the Metrotech 
office campus that encompasses 10 blocks in Downtown Brooklyn.

A group of artists living in a building torn down to make way for the 
Metrotech site initiated a lawsuit against the developer. As part of the 
Metrotech settlement, Ratner renovated an abandoned school building at 
Vanderbilt Avenue and Sterling Place and turned the Renaissance 
Revival-style building into luxury lofts.

Those apartments were offered to displaced artists. But only nine of the 22 
units went to those artists, and the rest were sold at market rate, 
according to a New York Times report from 1989.

Park Slope attorney Jason Bijur bought a four-story, painted-yellow 
building at 473 Dean St. just last year and says he has been approached by 
Ratner but has not yet made a deal. Last week, Bijur, a point guard when he 
attended the private Brooklyn Friends School ­ as he likes to point out ­ 
hosted a barbecue for his mostly rent-stabilized tenants and told them that 
he didn’t want to sell the 16-unit building.

“I would definitely like to stay and I think the tenants want to stay,” 
Bijur told The Brooklyn Papers. Included among them is Joe Pastore, 59, who 
several neighbors describe as “a real Brooklyn character.”

Each day, Pastore, a retired youth worker, walks the blocks of Prospect 
Heights, chatting with neighbors and picking up records and household items 
that others have cast away. Since 1967, Pastore has lived in a small, 
rent-stabilized studio apartment along Dean Street between Flatbush and 
Sixth avenues. “This is my neighborhood, and it’s a beautiful 
neighborhood,” Pastore told The Papers in January.

James Maloblocki, a jazz musician, who has been living in one of the 
rent-stabilized studios at 473 Dean St. for the past 17 years, says he does 
not want to lose his $600-a-month studio apartment. “We’re going to have to 
hold the politicians to what they promised us,” he said. “We keep hearing 
that Bruce Ratner is a good guy, but we haven’t seen any evidence of that.”