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Atlantic Yards Not Nearly As Brooklyn Job-Friendly As Claimed
By
Garth Johnston
Published Jan 23, 2012
Modified Jan 23, 2012
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Jan 23, 2012
Modified Jan 23, 2012
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You guys are never going to believe this, but remember when Forrest City Ratner kept telling us that its Atlantic Yards Project would bring thousands of jobs and units of affordable housing to Brooklyn? They lied! Not only are there fewer (prefab) buildings going up than initially promised, but the steadily rising stadium, now known as the Barclay's center, has been a disappointment jobs-wise, too.
According to grumbling officials, "Nearly two years after it broke ground, the development has created less than a thousand jobs, fewer than the 1,500 slots a year developer Bruce Ratner had promised to bring to the area." And it gets worse. Only about 100 of the jobs that have been created have gone to workers from nearby the stadium—and according to Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries most of those have been low-paying retail gigs rather than high-paying construction jobs.
None of this is actually new (remember those "interns" who sued Ratner when it reneged on a promise of jobs and a union card?) but its the response from the Ratner cake that is the icing on the camp. First off, they're all "Over 20% of all contract dollars to date have gone to [minority] firms, the highest percentage in the city"—which, fair enough—but then the company's spokesman goes on to say that litigation (*cough* Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn *cough*) and "the economy" have "impacted" the number of jobs created. So yeah, its not Forest City Ratner's fault they aren't doing what they promised they'd do—its Brooklyn's fault for complaining and holding the whole thing up.
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Atlantic Yards
barclays center
brooklyn
develop don't destroy brooklyn
Forest City Ratner
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Garth Johnston
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