June 25, 2006

Nets arena taps $100m, sun's life-giving rays

The state of New York has approved $100 million in subsidies for developer Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, which would include a Brooklyn basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets, according to the New York Post. The money, said the Post, was included in a last-day-of-session budget agreement - the New York legislature loves to vote on controversial bills then skip town before anyone notices - by which "Gov. Pataki set aside $34 million of economic-development pork money he controls, while the Assembly and Senate committed $33 million each." Presumably this means that the money is coming out of various discretionary funds, instead of via the normal budget process - I'll see what I can find out once legislators are back in their offices tomorrow.

In related news, a study by the Pratt Institute has revealed how the Ratner project would cast shadows across most of Fort Greene from September to March. The author of the study, architecture professor Brent Porter, told the Brooklyn Papers: "In the winter, suddenly there'll be no light across most of Fort Greene most of the day. ... I'm speaking out because I won’t take this crap anymore. These shadows are a serious environmental impact."

And if that's the quote of the week, the story also gave the Brooklyn Papers' Gersh Kuntzman the chance to pen the lead of the week:

Bruce Ratner has been accused of many things, but now he's being accused of stealing the sun from the sky.

And you know who Kuntzman presumably has in mind.