The battle over the Atlantic Yards has been a punishing experience even for the most dedicated community activist. It has been long and unrewarding and now, with the opening of the arena, many are finally calling it quits, The New York Times reports. Read More
The Senate Banking Committee will hold hearings on high-frequency trading today, and the Wall Street Journal meets the star witnesses: Dave Lauer, a former trader at Citadel and Allston Capital who plans to tell lawmakers that high-speed trading has made markets less fair for many participants; and Andy Brooks, head of U.S. trading for T. Rowe Price, who will say that rules governing high-frequency trading generally favor bodies with short-term profit incentives. Read More
Hollywood actor John Cusack has developed some strong opinions on the mortgage crisis. He’s been doing some reading, even talking to a few experts, and is reasonably well-informed about a plan some California cities have to use eminent domain to seize troubled mortgages.
Those of you curious to hear what Lloyd Dobler thinks about a complex policy initiative can now satisfy that curiosity in a poorly-produced, 15-minute long video of John Cusack discussing these issues. Mr. Cusack shares his expertise during a painfully long HuffPost Live video, kicking off the first day of Huffington Post’s video news initiative in true Huffington Post fashion. Appearing via Google Hangouts, Mr. Cusack has a badly organized discussion with Arianna Huffington, segment host John Zepps, a random homeowner in California and John Vlahoplus, the guy who’s pitching the plan and the lone expert in the group. Read More
California has been the ‘cool kid’ of states, reinstating hippie-esque garb for daily wear and passing laws that appeal to a weed-loving population.
Now, the several cities in the state are toying with a novel—and highly debated—idea that would utilize its eminent domain power to restructure mortgages, without actually seizing the homes, The Wall Street Journal reports. Read More
Willets Point has long been one of the most neglected corners of the city, famously appearing in The Great Gatsby as “the valley of ashes.” The Bloomberg administration has been working for years to redevelop the 62-acre Iron Triangle, long home to auto body shops and a handful of heavy industries nestled between the Mets stadia and downtown Flushing.
Today, City Hall took a step toward spiffing up the site, if not quite in the direction it had hoped.
The administration withdrew its eminent domain case, known as a determination of findings, from state appellate court, halting takeover proceedings against a handful of holdout property owners in the area. This paves the way for the project to move forward, albeit in an altered form from the 2008 rezoning, which called for a mixed-use development on the site.
According to people familiar with the situation, the city is close to reaching a deal with the Related Companies and Sterling Equities to build a mall on the site. The exact details are still being worked out, and an official announcement is expected in the coming weeks. Read More
Add Megan McArdle to the (rather short) list of people outraged by the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday not to hear the eminent domain case surrounding Columbia’s planned Manhattanville campus in West Harlem. On her blog over at The Atlantic, McArdle has some stern words for New York State and the Supreme Court: Read More
Since he launched The Atlantic Yards Report in 2006, Norman Oder has written 3,747 blog posts on the contentious Brooklyn development project. It’s probably enough to fill an encyclopedia, let alone a lowly paperback.
But that is exactly what Mr. Oder is setting out to do, when he announces later today—in his 3,748th post—that Read More
These days, Carl Paladino is talking about using eminent domain to keep an Islamic Cultural Center out of Lower Manhattan.
This stance puts him at odds with most of his Tea Party supporters, who view eminent domain as an over-reach by the government.
But as a developer, Paladino was not against using hard-ball Read More
The Paterson administration files in court to take properties in the way of the planned Nets arena. Holdouts remain. Read More
Harlem state senator asks Paterson for moratorium on land takings, no appeal in Columbia Read More
