the Neighborhood

FROM December 21, 2006

NY mag's Chris Smith blogs on the Times' lapse in reportage regarding Atlantic Yards, the hematoma of a development that's being plopped in the middle of Brooklyn (not long from the spot of yours truly) and are Frank O. Ugly to boot:

"Individual Times reporters have written significant stories along the way. But the Times, collectively, has never demonstrated the will or interest to examine Atlantic Yards in anything close to the proportion demanded by one of the biggest real-estate schemes in the history of the city. Maybe it's because Ratner is the Times' partner in building the paper's new Eighth Avenue headquarters. Maybe it's because Times editors think Atlantic Yards is an objectively good idea. Maybe it's because the Times, along with the rest of the city's mainstream media, does a lousy job of covering anything outside our midtown backyard. Whatever the reasons, the effect has been an abdication of the Times' civic and journalistic responsibility.

Alan Hevesi's driver shenanigans cost the citizenry $200,000 (which he's repaying) and affected the lives of no one; Atlantic Yards is floating $1.6 billion in state-backed debt, and Brooklyn's 2.5 million residents will feel the project's impact every day. "