PPS lays out alternative to Brooklyn Nets proposal for the Atlantic Yards

In Re-Imagining Brooklyn's Inner Core, the Project for Public Spaces proposes a people- and places-focused alternative to the Forest City Ratner "Brooklyn" Nets big project (Atlantic Station). A centerpiece of the project is Frank Gehry designed starchitecture. (See this entry from Field of Schemes for a status report on the project, and this community group, "Develop--Don't Destroy--Brooklyn.")

Dusseldorf Ad featuring Gehry buildings. PPS photo.

Up close, the only signs of life are the dumpsters. Is this what Brooklyn really wants? PPS photo.

Forest City Ratner has been pretty smart. While hundreds of extant housing units will be demolished and their tenants displaced, a great deal of new housing will be constructed, with reasonably high amounts of affordable units. This has helped bring support from key housing activists such as Brad Ladner, formerly director of the Fifth Avenue Committee, and now director of the Pratt Institute Community Planning Program.

Divide and conquer is often a successful "Growth Machine" strategy.