Atlantic Yards set to break ground as neighboring families, companies are told to...

TAKE A HIKE!

I'm not sure if everyone knows about the struggle going on over the new Nets arena in Brooklyn. Its a real shame how it's been handled. The displaced argued that Atlantic Yards wasn't a true public project. Yes 30 million dollars of tax payer money was used but the end result was a privately owned complex of buildings. In the past 10 years the area was organically being revitalized free market style (as opposed to central planning style). NYC has been ground zero for a lot of insane eminent domain cases. Robert Moses wanted to put an expressway in lower manhattan!!!!????

It's going to be bittersweet when the Brooklyn Nets take the court...

Here is a documentary being made about the issue: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rumur/battle-of-brooklyn

http://www.nydailynews.com/real_estate/2010/03/11/2010-03-11_yards_to_break_ground_today.html
Brooklyn's new Nets arena finally breaks ground Thursday - and residents and businesses near the Atlantic Yards project were told they have 30 days to get out.

In letters sent last week, state officials said they will move to evict 22 families and companies in the project's footprint if they don't leave voluntarily by April 3.

"I don't know what I'm going to do. I can't find an apartment," said Maria Gonzalez, 57, who has lived in her Pacific St. flat for 37 years.

She said she can't find an affordable home despite help from a broker paid by Yards developer Bruce Ratner.

She and her two grown daughters all live in their own apartments in the building, allowing Gonzalez to care for three grandkids while their moms work. They expect to have to split up after the move.

"It's not right, but what can we do? Money talks," she said.

Neighbor Luis Tellez, 29, said he's looking at "tiny" apartments to replace his $974-a-month two-bedroom but hasn't found anything yet. "We don't know what's next, but we have to pack," he said.

Others say they're not going anywhere yet.

Daniel Goldstein, whose condo was seized by eminent domain, said he won't leave until ordered to by a judge and expects to stay several more months.

"It's a meaningless letter written ... to scare me," said Goldstein, a founder of Develop Don't Destroy, the leading opposition group to the project.

The arena, set to open in 2012, is part of the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project, which includes 16 residential and commercial towers and could take 10 to 25 years to finish.

Empire State Development Corp. spokeswoman Elizabeth Mitchell said the agency sent the letters because "we need to vacate the site as quickly as possible so that construction of this important project can proceed."

But Donald O'Finn, the manager of Dean St. dive bar Freddy's, said he's in no hurry to get out the way.

"I can't get my emotions out of this bar in 30 days, much less everything else," O'Finn said.