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BUILD - PRESS ROOM |
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Press Info/ Press Releases (Adobe Acrobat required to view PDF's - Press Release form FEBRUARY-8-2004 (View PDF) Press Release form FEBRUARY-27-2004
(view PDF) Press Release form MARCH-2-2004 (View PDF) Press Release form NOVEMBER-3-2004 (View PDF)
FEBRUARY-8-2004 Forest City Ratner, the development company for the project, has committed to negotiating a Community Benefits Agreement with BUILD to ensure that existing Brooklyn community residents profit from the business, jobs and housing opportunities engendered in the Atlantic Yards Development Project. In addition, BUILD endeavors to safeguard the best interests of Brooklyn residents in the planning and implementation of this project. BUILD will negotiate dynamic education, child care, youth development and senior citizen initiatives as well as community participation in business, job and housing opportunities into the Community Benefit Agreement.
In close proximity to the proposed site of the project, there exist communities that have traditionally been left behind and have not benefited from the development occurring in downtown Brooklyn. There is a 78% unemployment rate in the Fort Greene housing project and a 66% unemployment rate within the Farragut housing project. Moreover businesses within the vicinity of the proposed project site are undercapitalized. This long-term structural/economic crises must be addressed. Forest City Ratner’s commitment to honoring a negotiated Community Benefits Agreement with BUILD makes the Atlantic Yards Development Project a welcome and long needed solution to the depressed socio-economic conditions that plague many communities immediately surrounding the target project site including Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, Weeksville, Bedford Stuyvesant and Fort Greene.
Moreover, by bringing and housing a professional sports team to the community, the Atlantic Yards Development Project introduces an incalculable resource building on the existing cultural assets including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Museum, Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, the Jewish Children’s Museum, the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. Consequently, the arena brings a world class sports and athletic presence to an existing rich cultural community.
BUILD will host a series of Town Hall and committee meetings to facilitate an open and democratic process to generate the Community Benefits Agreement. We invite additional community residents and stakeholders to participate in this process. Current supporters include:77TH Police Precinct Community & Youth Council
88TH Police Precinct Community & Youth Council
Partnership for Youth & Community Empowerment (PYCE)
Fort Greene Empowerment Organization
Fort Greene Community Action Network
Developing Innovative and Viable Associations
Washington Avenue Merchants Associations
Faith Based Organizations
Kan Cobra
Malchijah Kilkenny Foundation
Operation Second Chance
People for Political and Economic Empowerment
Brooklyn House Recording Studio
Malchijah Hats
32 BJ
Carpenters Union
Electrical Union
T.R.A.D.E.S
High School & College Sports Groups
Raymond Saylor CPA
Block Association (Crow Hill, Prospect Place, Walt Whitman, Farraguat, 407 Lincoln Place, Hanson Place, GranDean and Union Street)
Vanderbuilt Merchants Association
Po’k Knockers
The Usual
Mc Donald’s (Vanderbuilt Avenue)
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MARCH-2-2004
BUILD is pleased to present a public forum series about the Nets Arena and Atlantic Yards Development project entitled: Opportunities with Atlantic Yards Development- “Don’t Get Left Behind.” BUILD’s membership consists of over 200 business owners, employment seekers, professionals, homeowners, renters, parents, youth as well as local civic and cultural institutions. Through its committees, BUILD has generated items to be developed into a Community Benefits Agreement with Forest City Ratner Companies, the private developer for the Atlantic Yards Development Project.
Opportunities with Atlantic Yards Development- “Don’t Get Left Behind,” is aimed at educating members of Brooklyn Communities directly and indirectly by the Atlantic Yards Project as well as Brooklynites at large about economic and community development opportunities possible with this project. To realize the possibilities of this project for Brooklynites especially those living in the central Brooklyn communities of Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, Fort Greene, Brownsville, Flatbush, Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant, it is imperative that a comprehensive Community Benefits Agreement be developed. Consequently, we invite you this public dialogue series so that we can present our initial thoughts to you as well as solicit your input.
“Don’t Get Left Behind”
Housing & Relocation 3/10 Hope City Empowerment Center
650-656 Washington Avenue (Between Bergen & Dean)Public Housing 3/12 TBA Finance 3/13 TBA Economic Development (Part I) 3/15 Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation
520 Prospect Place (Use Classon Ave Entrance)Economic Development (Part II) 3/17 Hope City Empowerment Center
650-656 Washington Avenue (Between Bergen & Dean)Education 3/18 TBA Technology 3/19 Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation
520 Prospect Place (Use Classon Ave Entrance)Entertainment 3/20 TBA Community Development 3/22 Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation
520 Prospect Place (Use Classon Ave Entrance)Health 3/24 TBA Seniors 3/25 Hope City Empowerment Center
650-656 Washington Avenue (Between Bergen & Dean)Youth/Child Care 3/25 Community Counseling & Mediation
810 Classon Avenue (Between Lincoln & Sterling)Environment 3/27 TBA (top)
NOVEMBER-3-2004
PROSPECT HEIGHTS ORGANIZATION – BUILD – FINDS “SEVERE FLAWS” IN RECENT PRATT INSTITUTE POLL ON COMMUNITY OPINIONS OF THE PROPOSED BROOKLYN ATLANTIC YARDS PROJECT
Organization Dedicated to Creating Jobs and Business Development in Prospect Heights Finds the Poll Does Not Adequately Reflect the Demographics, Income, and Length of Residency or Educational Profile of a Majority of the Community.2% of the Community was Polled, 55% of which have Lived
In Prospect Heights for 5 Years or Less.Brooklyn, NY – (November 3, 2004) – A comprehensive analysis of a recent poll about community opinions of development in the Prospect Heights area – and particularly the proposed Atlantic Yards Project – found “severe flaws” in both the sample of residents polled as well as proposed set of principles to guide future development that were proposed as a result of the poll. Those involved with this poll are irresponsible for attempting to present these poll results as a balanced and legitimate reflection of community wide attitudes and opinions.
Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD), an organization that promotes job growth, business development and economic stabilization for people who have been denied opportunities for generations in the Prospect Heights community analyzed the methodology of an October 2004 poll that had been conducted by the Pratt Institute for Community & Environmental Development for the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council (PHNDC). BUILD analyzed the found data after PHNDC asked that BUILD accept the guiding principles in their minority business and job promotion activities.
BUILD found severe flaws in the sample of residents polled by Pratt. The sample is far from representative of the community and the attitudes, and opinions gathered from the respondents cannot be ascribed to the community as a whole. The survey did not reach out to all of Prospect Heights but rather a newly-arrived minority that does not reflect the community makeup in race, income or educational attainment background. Highlights of the analysis found the following:
• The Poll represents only 2% of the community – 412 residents out of 19,426 – were surveyed in the poll.
• Although 69% percent of the community is African-American, Latino or Asian, they only represent 39% of the respondents to the survey;
• A majority (66%) of the community makes less than $74,000 – with 36% making $34,000 and less – the majority of the respondents (56%) earn more than $75,000 with 38% making $100,000 and above;• Half of the community (50%) have only a high school diploma or less, 91% of the respondents have a bachelor’s or graduate degree; and,
• 55% of the respondents have lived in the neighborhood five years or less.
BUILD found that the survey was biased against the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards Project, which PHNDC sited as the impetus for their study. BUILD found that the survey questions do not account for all the critical aspects of the Atlantic Yards Project such as business opportunities, affordable housing, job creation, the construction of parks and a health center as outlined in the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) affiliated with the project.
In fact, nowhere among the poll questions was there any mention of the CBA, an unprecedented legal document that the FCRC has developed with community partners, including BUILD, The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), local community boards in the community, Borough President Marty Markowitz and Reverend Herbert Daughtry among others.
Moreover, BUILD refutes the Eight Principles that the organization proposed to guide future proposed development in the community (see attached), citing misinformation regarding the public review process, the environmental impact, the creation of affordable housing.
“When BUILD examined the Principles and the data PHNDC used to develop them, we were mystified not only by the unbalanced sample of respondents, but more importantly, by the misleading questions that don’t properly reflect the entire scope of the project, including job creation, affordable housing and health programs for the community,” said James Caldwell, President, BUILD. “We found a distortion of facts and an ignorance of the community benefits agreement that doesn’t reflect the true nature of great strides that our organization and many others have done to create a one of a kind project that will not only boost the community, but the entire city as well.”
Overview of Analysis [ 1 Page ] Statistical Overview of Survey Disparities [ 1 Page ] Critique of Principles [ 4 Pages ] Preliminary Outline of Community Benefits Agreement as of 10/7/2004 [ 2 Pages ] Negotiated Affordable Housing Proposal Overview [ 1 Page ] (top)
