With real estate prices in Manhattan skyrocketing, Park Slope has become an attractive alternative for young professionals and families. This has revitalized the neighborhood, with businesses moving in to compete for Brooklyn’s dollars. Where once Brooklyn was the butt of jokes, now it represents opportunity. It is this opportunity that developer Bruce Ratner hoped to exploit with the New York metropolitan area’s newest venue for sports and entertainment, the Barclay Center, the centerpiece of Ratner’s five billion dollar development known as the Atlantic Yards (Robbins, 2012). To obtain the land necessary, Ratner persuaded the State of New York to seize the land under the right of eminent domain (Berlinger, 2012). In addition, Ratner secured 1.6 billion dollars in public funding for his development, with the usual promise that Atlantic Yards would contribute thousands of jobs and millions of dollars to the community, bringing much needed traffic to the surrounding businesses, especially those of Park Slope. The first phase of Ratner’s development, the Barclay Center, opened in 2012. Anticipating a major increase in property value, landlords have increased rents exponentially. Despite their optimism, however, the visitor and tourist dollars did not materialize, forcing many small business owners to relocate (Lorenzetti, 2013). Meanwhile, as Ratner sought to rein in costs, he announced that the residential units conceived as part of Atlantic Yards would be built offsite, resulting in a major shortfall in promised construction jobs (Oder,
With real estate prices in Manhattan skyrocketing, Park Slope has become an attractive alternative for young professionals and families. This has revitalized the neighborhood, with businesses moving in to compete for Brooklyn’s dollars. Where once Brooklyn was the butt of jokes, now it represents opportunity. It is this opportunity that developer Bruce Ratner hoped to exploit with the New York metropolitan area’s newest venue for sports and entertainment, the Barclay Center, the centerpiece of Ratner’s five billion dollar development known as the Atlantic Yards (Robbins, 2012). To obtain the land necessary, Ratner persuaded the State of New York to seize the land under the right of eminent domain (Berlinger, 2012). In addition, Ratner secured 1.6 billion dollars in public funding for his development, with the usual promise that Atlantic Yards would contribute thousands of jobs and millions of dollars to the community, bringing much needed traffic to the surrounding businesses, especially those of Park Slope. The first phase of Ratner’s development, the Barclay Center, opened in 2012. Anticipating a major increase in property value, landlords have increased rents exponentially. Despite their optimism, however, the visitor and tourist dollars did not materialize, forcing many small business owners to relocate (Lorenzetti, 2013). Meanwhile, as Ratner sought to rein in costs, he announced that the residential units conceived as part of Atlantic Yards would be built offsite, resulting in a major shortfall in promised construction jobs (Oder,