The current issue
Neighborhood Map
Bay Ridge
  • Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights
Brooklyn Heights
  • Downtown, DUMBO
Carroll Gardens
  • Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Boerum Hill
Fort Greene
  • Clinton Hill, Crown Heights
North Brooklyn
  • Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
Park Slope
  • Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights
GO Brooklyn
Dining Guide
Where to GO
Events calendar
Classifieds
The Brooklyn Wire
Not Just Nets
Police Blotter
Perspective
Parenting
Politics
Transit
Podcasts
Brooklyn Cyclones
Merchant news
About The Paper
RSS Feeds
Avalon Fort Greene

Pols want Atlantic Yards security review

By Mike McLaughlin
The Brooklyn Paper

Tools

Print this story
digg
del.icio.us

A coalition of local officials is demanding an independent security review of the Atlantic Yards mega-project because the state’s development agency can’t be trusted to put the public safety first.

On Wednesday, eight Brooklyn Democrats announced that they had sent a letter to Gov. Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg asking for a security analysis in the wake of developments in Newark, N.J., where local cops decided — at the “eleventh hour,” the lawmakers said — to close off several streets to protect that city’s new glass-walled arena.

The Brooklyn lawmakers said they don’t want to be surprised by potentially major disturbances like street closings of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues.

“Atlantic Yards is at least as susceptible to attack as the Newark arena,” said the letter, which was signed by state Sen. Eric Adams (D–Crown Heights), Assemblyman Jim Brennan (D–Park Slope), Councilman Bill DeBlasio (D–Cobble Hill), Councilwoman Letitia James (D–Prospect Heights), Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D–Prospect Heights), Assemblywoman Joan Millman (D–Cobble Hill), state Sen. Velmanette Montgomer (D–Fort Greene) and Councilman David Yassky (D–Brooklyn Heights).

“[The security review] should be strictly independent of the Empire State Development Corporation to avoid any semblance of conflict of interest,” the letter added, referring to the state agency that is the development partner at Atlantic Yards.

In 2005, Brennan and four other Democrats sent a similar letter to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

This time, a spokesman for the NYPD said that there would be no street closings around the proposed 18,000-seat basketball arena.

“Our counterterrorism experts have examined the Atlantic Yards plans and they have met with those involved with its design and planned construction,” the spokesman, Paul Browne, told the New York Times. “They have been cooperative and receptive to NYPD recommendations, which did not require street closings.”

He declined to offer further details, telling the Times that the NYPD does not discuss “any vulnerabilities we’ve identified.”

Like Browne, Borough President Markowitz thinks the Atlantic Yards opponents are worrying about nothing.

“I said this early on, and am confident that developer Forest City Ratner is taking the proper steps in working closely with the NYPD and other relevant security agencies in ensuring the project adheres to the highest standards of safety.”

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper

←Dance: Ice, ice baby
→Construction Update: What’s Ratner up to now?

Reader Feedback

Enter your comment below

By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:

You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.

First name
Last name
Your neighborhood
Email address
Daytime phone

Your letter must be signed and include all of the information requested above. (Only your name and neighborhood are published with the letter.) Letters should be as brief as possible; while they may discuss any topic of interest to our readers, priority will be given to letters that relate to stories covered by The Brooklyn Paper.

Letters will be edited at the sole discretion of the editor, may be published in whole or part in any media, and upon publication become the property of The Brooklyn Paper. The earlier in the week you send your letter, the better.