Brooklyn Nets Arena

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It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the arena approaches.

The Brooklyn Nets Arena is a proposed sports arena to be built partly on a platform over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority-owned Atlantic Yards at Atlantic Avenue in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is part of a proposed US$3.5 billion sports arena, business and residential complex. The site is intended to serve as a new home for the New Jersey Nets, currently based at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The MTA site is 8.3 acres (34,000 m²); the Atlantic Yards project site would be 22 acres (89,000 m²).

The arena, along with the rest of the complex, is a project of Brooklyn developer Bruce Ratner, who acquired the Nets in 2004, with the purpose of moving them from New Jersey to this site near the New York City Subway in Brooklyn, one of the most transit-accessible locations in the city. The move would mark the return of major league sports to Brooklyn, which has been absent since the departure of the Dodgers to Los Angeles in 1957 (their proposal for a new stadium at the Atlantic Yards to replace the unprofitable Ebbets Field had been turned down by the city in the past).

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[edit] Design

Designed by architect Frank Gehry, the arena would host the Nets, along with concerts, conventions and other sporting events, competing with Madison Square Garden, Nassau Coliseum, Continental Airlines Arena, and the Newark Arena which is currently under construction. The arena's roof would feature a public park, ringed by an open-air running track that doubles as a skating rink in winter with panoramic vistas facing Manhattan year-round.

[edit] Development controversy

Main article: Atlantic Yards

Along with most stadium and arena proposals that utilize public money and / or property, the Atlantic Yards project is not without controversy. The development of the project, which is endorsed by the MTA and mayor Michael Bloomberg, has been strongly supported by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and is popular among some Brooklynites. But, it has also been opposed by a number of community groups in the area, and New York City Council member Letitia James, who points to the mixed successes of Ratner's previous projects, increased traffic congestion, and what she and her constituents see as the unfair exercise of eminent domain to remove residents for a commercial interest. Advocates of the project have claimed that the area is blighted in defense of using eminent domain, yet the area is in one of the hottest real estate markets in the United States. Roger Green, an early supporter of the project, stated unequivocally that the site is not blighted. The site of the arena was also privately negotiated to be sold to Ratner below the market value. Two opinion polls have shown that most New Yorkers oppose a publicly subsidized arena. The project, as of September 16, 2005, has grown to include 7,300 residential units (4,500 rental apartments, half "affordable," plus 2800 market-rate condos).

Critics also claim that many of the promises of the project have already been broken. For instance, the six acres (24,000 m²) of landscaped "public" space will in fact be owned by the developer, and he will refuse any activity against his liking. (Later it was changed to be defined as "publicly accessible space.") This is similar to one of his other major projects in Brooklyn, MetroTech, which does not allow advertisements or deliveries by neighborhood businesses. The park on the arena's roof was originally promised to be public, but as of fall 2005, it will be a private facility. Supporters of the project often cite the promise that 50% of the 4,500 apartments will be low-income. A few days after announcing that figure, the number of apartments was raised to 7,300, and the definition of "moderate income" was set at $109,000 per year. The average income in Brooklyn is $35,000, and the number of apartments that will supposedly be available for residents who make less than that will be 900. Of those 900, many of them will not be on the main Atlanitc Yards site, thus segregating the new residents by income. City Councilmember Charles Barron has asserted that the project will be "instant gentrification."

Opposition groups look to the successful cancellation of the similar (but larger in scale) West Side Stadium project that was to be constructed above the Hudson Yards in Manhattan. This stadium would have become the home for the New York Jets, who instead opted to share a New Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey with the New York Giants. The cancellation of West Side Stadium is considered largely responsible for the scuttling of the New York City 2012 Olympic bid, as it would have been the main Olympic stadium had New York City won the bid. Two other stadiums are currently being constructed in New York City: the Mets' Citi Field and the New Yankee Stadium, which has caused a mild public outcry with the public parkland being used for it.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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