C-SocPhil documents community impacts of delayed redevelopment projects
Sr. Fellow James Goldstein files affidavit in support of community groups in Atlantic Yards dispute.
BOSTON – On March 3, James Goldstein, Senior Fellow and Director of the Sustainable Communities Program at Tellus Institute, joined a panel of leading authorities in urban planning and community development who submitted affidavits on behalf of a coalition of community organizations in Brooklyn, New York, challenging the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and Forest City Ratner over the impacts of major delays in the controversial Atlantic Yards project.
In his affidavit, Goldstein analyzes several large urban development initiatives which have experienced lengthy construction delays impacting local communities in Boston and New London, Conn.
Goldstein concludes his affidavit by stressing, “The recent cases of Filene’s One Franklin development, Harvard’s Allston Initiative, and New London’s Fort Trumbull project all highlight the quantifiable and qualitative costs that arise in the course of unanticipated project delays. They invite a much more deliberate reconsideration of expectations about project costs and benefits once a delay occurs and, as in the case of One Franklin, demand a much more thorough analysis of the unanticipated impacts that inevitably arise from those delays.”
Research supporting Goldstein’s analysis was provided by a team from the Center for Social Philanthropy at Tellus Institute, led by the Center’s director Joshua Humphreys.
According to Humphreys, “Goldstein’s affidavit highlights the real costs that project delays can have on surrounding communities. We’re delighted to bring our organization’s expertise to the table in support of the petitioners’ attempt to hold this private, for-profit developer and their public nonprofit partner accountable for their impacts on the community. The cases of Harvard University’s Allston project and Vornado Realty’s Downtown Crossing disaster in Boston, as well as the notorious New London, Conn., redevelopment at Fort Trumbull provide fresh empirical evidence that project delays can have major consequences on communities that need to be thoroughly assessed. A new environmental impact statement is needed, and real community governance needs to emerge in the Atlantic Yards project.”
The other affidavits were submitted by Ronald Shiffman, the founder and former Executive Director of the Pratt Center for Community Development and a professor of urban planning at Pratt Institute, and Majora Carter, the founder and former Executive Director of Sustainable South Bronx and president of the Majora Carter Group.
The petitioners include several of the sponsors of BrooklynSpeaks, an initiative of civic associations, community-based organizations and advocacy groups concerned about the future of development at the Atlantic Yards site in central Brooklyn. The Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, the Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation, the New York Chapter of the Congress for New Urbanism, and the Fifth Avenue Committee, among others, are actively involved on behalf of the affected neighborhoods.
“When it approved the 2009 MGPP [the project’s modified general plan], ESDC ignored the law, the facts, common sense and, most importantly, the opportunity to engage the community to help make Atlantic Yards work for Brooklyn,” said Gib Veconi of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council. “The statements of these experts show how ESDC was deficient in its approval of Forest City Ratner’s proposed changes to the construction schedule, and that ESDC failed to learn from either the failures or successes of other large urban redevelopment projects.”
“Even though construction on the Barclays Center arena is underway, it’s not too late for the public to have a voice in the future of Atlantic Yards,” said Michelle de la Uz, executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee. “Since ESDC and Forest City have so far refused to engage the local community or its elected representatives in a meaningful way, we have no choice but to ask the Court for a reversal of the 2009 MGPP and to halt further construction. Appropriate study of the impacts of 25 years of construction must be made.”
The full affidavit by James Goldstein can be found online here.
More information on the Atlantic Yards litigation can be found at http://www.brooklynspeaks.net/.
About the Center for Social Philanthropy
The Center for Social Philanthropy (C-SocPhil) is an innovative, nonprofit social enterprise working at the frontiers of philanthropy and finance. The Center provides data, research, resources and tools to help foundations, donors, and mission-driven investors leverage their assets more fully for long-term sustainable social and environmental impact. The Center’s work fosters greater financial transparency, accountability and sustainability and helps a wide range of stakeholders to understand and engage in today’s increasingly complex capital markets. Since 2009, the Center has been housed at Tellus Institute, a sustainability think tank in Boston.
