Daniel Goldstein

Here's the full decision by the Second Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals rejecting the appeal over use of eminent domain brought by critics of the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.

The first plaintiff listed on the appeal is Daniel Goldstein, a leader of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn. Last June, I met with Mr.  read more »

How did we miss this? Norman Oder reports that Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn’s walkathon on Sunday raised $50,000—less than last year but more than the year before that. Daniel Goldstein reassures the troops: “We're well-funded for the coming months.”

• We noted earlier on Tuesday that the day's preliminary work at Atlantic Yards might not be so apocalyptic. And Daniel Goldstein [depicted above by Sarah Sagarin] declares that Ratner's wrecking ball maneuvering is "premature, and a scare tactic used against the eminent domain plaintiff residents" and "a public relations gimmick intended to convince his investors that work is moving forward. Don't be fooled." [DDDB]
• SHoP Architects' new project m127 (or is it 127 M?) has a facade of brick and cantilevered custom-steel windows. Other perks: the newly built top floors are pushed back 15 feet from the front, and one lucky duplex has a roof deck facing the Empire State Building. [Interior Design]
• When "small is the new black" is declared in a large font size, you know the declaration has to be true. Especially if Oprah is involved. [Apartment Therapy]
• What the world needs now is "a new interactive lifestyle center." Luckily, the online rentals behemoth Apartments.com is launching Apartment Living--so New Yorkers can burn more time obsessing over landlords, leases, budgeting, moving, gardening, health, fitness, decorating and entertaining. [Apts/PR]
- Max Abelson
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At the prompting of one outspoken reader, here's a little more about the latest debate going on with the Atlantic Yards Project.

Years ago, Barclays Bank in England was involved in the slave trade and did business with South Africa during apartheid. Today, they've got the naming rights for the stadium that's part of the massive Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn.  read more »

Critics have seized on this as more evidence that Bruce Ratner's project is at odds with needs and sensitivities of the local community. Here's a statement sent over to me by Daniel Goldstein of the opposition group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn:

Atlantic Yards opponents are trying to forget all the bad things they said about Hakeem Jeffries, the winner in the 57th Assembly race, like that he was a duplicitous panderer who wanted to have it both ways on the 22-acre arena-and-housing complex. It is time to make nice, after all.

"If you tally up [Bill Batson's] and Hakeem's votes, 88 percent of the vote went to two candidates who opposed the use of eminent domain, according to their stated positions," said Daniel Goldstein, the opposition's main spokesman.  read more »

"A woman just called me up from Queens.  read more »

"A woman just called me up from Queens.  read more »

Our commercial real estate reporter Matthew Schuerman passes on this little observation:

It makes sense that Bill Batson would get a lot of backing from opponents of the Atlantic Yards development. (He's been one of the project's most outspoken critics during his run for a seat in the assembly.)

As it turns out, about a third of the contributions ($10,750 of $32,841) he has received since announcing in March came from board members or close associates of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn. The group's spokesman, Daniel Goldstein, and his father Lawrence accounted for $6,600 of that, according to Batson's latest campaign filing.

The other candidates in the 57th assembly race have until Saturday to file their reports.

Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn admonishes its spokesman in a statement which we suspect came from, or at least via, its spokesman:

We can state with absolute certainty that Daniel Goldstein is not a racist. But his choice of language in this one instance was thoughtless, and we want to assure our allies and our opponents that they do not reflect the values of our organization.

-Matthew Schuerman

... but is he contrite?

His statement after the jump.  read more »

-Matthew Schuerman

Atlantic Yards ur-opponent Daniel Goldstein got quoted in Ben Smith's Daily News column today, but it might be the type of publicity he would rather not have. The African-Americans who support arena-and-housing complex, Smith quotes Goldstein as writing in an e-mail, were tools of "wealthy white masters." There has been a racial undertone throughout this debate, but this comment, we think, opens another front. Black leaders in favor of the project, including the Rev. Al Sharpton and ACORN's Bertha Lewis, sent out a press release this afternoon calling on Goldstein's group, Develop--Don't Destroy Brooklyn, to apologize, and for their chief political supporter, Council Member Letitia James, to denounce the comment as well.

Smith put the quote in context on his blog.  read more »

We are waiting to hear from Goldstein. Meanwhile, the full release is after the jump.

-Matthew Schuerman

James Gardner in today's Sun says, "My sympathies incline slightly toward the builders," but belittles Frank Gehry's design for Atlantic Yards anyway, seeing in the skyscrapers allusions to 1930s architecture that are unsuccessfully translated into the modern day. Meanwhile, Jim Stuckey and Daniel Goldstein go at it on The Brian Lehrer Show. -Matthew Schuerman

A lively meeting over at Empire State Development headquarters this morning: the board was also expected to appoint a new lawyer to represent the agency on the Atlantic Yards project, until a dispute over the former lawyer, David Paget, is resolved. An appeals court hearing on that dispute, which the state economic development agency lost at a lower level court, is to begin at 2 p.m. today. Atlantic Yards opponents contend that Paget had a conflict of interest, since he earlier represented the developer, Forest City Ratner.

Daniel Goldstein, spokesman for Develop—Don’t Destroy Brooklyn writes in an e-mail: “Their main argument for their appeal was that they couldn't find a new lawyer. Apparently that is specious.”

A letter from the law firm representing the state agency in the appeal, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, states: “E.S.D.C. determined to take this step solely for the purpose of insuring that the environmental review of the project would not be delayed during this appeal and any possible subsequent review by the Court of Appeals.”

According to the March 20 letter, which Goldstein received as a party to the case, the agency was to approve the new appointment today. We’re waiting on confirmation of the vote from E.S.D.C.

-Matthew Schuerman

UPDATE: The new law firm is Bryan Cave LLP. (We erroneously said in an earlier version of this post that it was Skadden Arps, they are representing the agency in the appeal.)

The Empire State Development Corporation is going to appeal the conflict-of-interest decision by Judge Edmead, according to Daniel Goldstein, spokesman for Develop—Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, the neighborhood group that won that part of the Atlantic Yards case heard Tuesday. Goldstein said the group’s lawyer received a call from the state agency’s lawyer this morning, alerting him to the effort to pursue an expedited appeal.

An E.S.D.C. spokeswoman was not able to confirm the move or comment immediately, but Goldstein said he thought the agency was just inviting bad publicity. “Why are they going to the mat to defend this guy?” he told us. “This guy” being David Paget, who represented developer Forest City Ratner and then, on Ratner’s request, was hired by E.S.D.C. to advise on the environmental review process.

Whoa! That was quick. DDDB just sent out a press release. We imagine it will go up on its Web site soon..

-Matthew Schuerman

Typically anti-Ratner sites are a bit ranty, and fall back on community board and planning jargon that is too boring to sift through for most people.

Architect Jonathan Cohn has been blogging for the last month or so about the Ratner project in downtown Brooklyn, on a site called Brooklyn Views.

It's a rather sober architect's view--though decidedly anti-Ratner--and develops as simple and straightforward an argument against the scheme as you'll find anywhere on the Web, without a lot of vitriol. And a lot of neat little models.

Note: Daniel Goldstein writes to say that the project is not really in Downtown Brooklyn, but Prospect Heights.

Really, he's right, and his argument is here, if you're interested.  read more »

Prospect Heightsers stuffed the Curbed ballot box to make it the web site's Best Neighborhood of 2005, and now messing with the neighborhood is not OK.

- Tom McGeveran

The image problem plaguing the fight against eminent domain in this city—that it's a NIMBYish movement run by rich white people—was not helped much by a small press conference yesterday called by City Councilmember Letitia James. She's black, and two others who stood beside her were black, and there was one Asian person in that crowd, but amazingly the press corps attending the City Hall event was more diverse (44 percent not white) than was the crowd around James (29 percent). And usually it's the newsrooms who are criticized for not reflecting enough diversity! To be fair, a news conference held last week on the same issue at the same spot brought out some more black public officials, including state Senator David Paterson, and Daniel Goldstein, of Develop—Don't Destroy Brooklyn, said that others from the "eastern end" of the footprint that Forest City Ratner wants for his sports arena and residential complex wanted to come but couldn't make it. There's no question many of those who will be displaced in Brooklyn and in Harlem, where Columbia University wants to expand, are black and Latino, but unless they make their voices heard, the public will never know on whose side they stand. —Matthew Schuerman  read more »