Welcome. Guidance Offered.
For voters in the upcoming primary elections, here is a guide to where candidates stand on Forest City Ratner's proposed "Atlantic Yards" development project in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. This blog will keep y'all abreast of these races and others that figure into the "Atlantic Yards" controversy.
**Reader KG points out that we forgot the Ratner/Boyland challenge to Senator Velmanette Montgomery (18th Senate District, which encompasses the proposed development site). We did forget, mainly due to the knowledge that the Ratner fueled Boyland campaign has no legitimate base outside of Metrotech–Forest City Ratner's headquarters, or now Ohio. And that knowledge has entered our unconscious. Thank you KG.
18th Senate District:
Velmanette Montgomery opposes the project.
Tracy Boyland supports the project, and
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57th Assembly District:
Bill Batson opposes the project.
Hakeem Jeffries supports the project.
Freddie Hamilton supports the project and signed the "Community Benefits Agreement."
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11th Congressional District:
Chris Owens opposes the project.
David Yassky supports the project.
Carl Andrews supports the project.
Yvette Clarke supports the project,
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10th Congressional District:
Charles Barron opposes the project.
Ed Towns supports the project.
Roger Green supports the project and was involved in forming the group B.U.I.L.D.
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Governer:
Tom Suozzi opposes the project.
Eliot Spitzer supports the project.
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Attorney General:
Sean Patrick Maloney opposes the project.
Andrew Cuomo supports the project.
Mark Green supports the project.
Charlie King supports the project
posted by atlanticyardsvoterguide @ 4:40 AM
12 comments
12 Comments:
oh jeeze. thank you KG. we will add it. Velmanette is such a shoe-in and Tracy Boyland such a last minute Ratner candidate we had blocked it from our minds. We will add it now, right up top. (oh yes, and Ms. Boyland should stop littering Fort Greene and Flatbush Avenue with her posters.)
You don't think that some of your descriptions could use a bit more detail? From what I've heard both Yassky (who I don't support) and Jeffries(who I do support) have more nuanced opinions on the Ratner project. Jeffries has come out in increasingly strong terms against many aspects of the project, particularly using eminent domain to build the arena. I am personally against most aspects of the Ratner Project, but this sort of simplification really hurts honest discourse. Give a few more details about each candidates position, perhaps find quotes...I think that would make this blog a much better resource
Jeffries is only against the project because he's been waffling and hearing everyone complain about his weak-kneed stance that now he's standing up.
Just proving Batson is the stronger candidate...
Jay, much more detailed analysis to come, don't you worry. Though you will see that this "simplification", the essence of most voter guides, is correct. Don't be alarmed, the nuances, aka: timid stabs in the air with one's finger, will prove these simplifications correct.
To be clear though, this is a voter guide with a point of view.
His opinion has evolved, like any sensible person's would when he or she gets more information. That doesn't make him weak. That's the same BS argument Republicans used against John Kerry. If anything it's made him appeal accross a much broader spectrum than Batson.
If you want to talk about strong versus weak. I've heard both Batson and Jeffries speak, and I can't imagine how anyone would think Batson could do a better job than Jeffries. He sounded like a bubbling idiot compared to Jeffries' articulate and rational comments.
Hakeem's position has evolved indeed...into a meaningless "i support this part but not this part" so in the end one still does not know when he thinks about the whole project.
more to come soon. promise.
OK good. I look forward to it.
It is obvious that if one is for economic and environment sustainability that they are on the left. Just because a candidate is against the AYP they should be elected to office. Do you really know how sick this sounds? Hakeem is a great qualified candidate...he cares about the community. Most of the politicians have been in office for over ten years like Ms. Montgomery and she has helped create the condition the community is in now; lack of jobs, housing and encouraging disharmony within the community. Barron is using all of you to get in office and then give you the boot. You will all be the joke in the end…mark these words! They are all talk and no action. The community needs a change and on September 12th we will speak loud and clear. We need new development. Hakeem is for the people and will be voted in by the people.
Glad you're doing this. Please keep it up!
Walter. WE are not saying that anyone should vote for anyone because anyone is for or against Atlantic Yards. We are informing the voting public on where candidates stand on the project. And then stating our opinions on those candidates.
Then, get this, the voter can decide what to do.
as for Barron "using" AY opponents. Say that to his face. And then ask him about Duffield Street, Yankee Stadium, Ikea and the Downtown Bklyn rezoning.
As for Hakeem, sure he is a good candidate. As is Batson. But Hakeem is for the project and Batson is against it. So, voters will make their decisions.
It shows a certain bias when you say that a former City Councilperson and a political scion like Tracey Boyland has no base except from FCRC lets me know that you do not care about the other people of central Brooklyn just your little world.
The 18 State Senatorial District is stretches much further into Central Brooklyn than Prospect Heights and Fort Greene it goes into Bed Stuy and Ocean Hill brownsville which is the Boyland base and (long time allies of Velamnette)-she never had to carry a petition in those areas because they were always carried by the Boyland Team.
So now the same people that carried her petitions and spoke and interacted with the voters (which she has not done in any meaningful way) are now running against her and for you to dismiss this run and to assusme that Tracey Boyland is a novice or is no threat to Velamanette shows that you do not know Brooklyn Politics outside your three block area.
Like I said earlier your bias is showing.
Dear anonymous. Our only "bias" is against Ratner's proposal.
Plenty of ink has been spilled on the Boyland Family Dynasty, so we won't go there.
You wrote "certain bias when you say that a former City Councilperson and a political scion like Tracey Boyland has no base except from FCRC."
We do have a certain bias which is that Boyland was a last minute candidate, with no public groundswell of support in this race, with a push-poll done on her behalf (who paid for that?) and sketchy financing, whose petitioners were paid.
As for where the 18th District stretches, we are well aware of its dragon-like contours. For those who aren't, go here.
(by the way, the poster forgets Red Hook, Sunset Park, Greenwood Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton HIll, Boerum Hill etc. Perhaps the commenter only knows his/her "three block area.")
We are well aware that Tracy is no novice, which is why its even more startling that she started this "race" at the last minute. For what reason? But our "bias" certainly does tell us that while she is something of a threat to the Senator, it is not a real threat.
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