Appeal arguments in the Atlantic Yards case — 26 neighborhood and civic groups against Forest City Ratner and the Empire State Development Corporation — were heard at Appellate Court yesterday, and folks challenging the project seemed to feel optimistic about it. The plaintiffs "intently listened to the exchange between the five-judge panel and the attorneys yesterday afternoon. They heard a judicial bench that was extremely skeptical of the ESDC’s rationale for its blight determination," reads a DDDB press release. The defendants were required to prove that the area surrounding Atlantic Yards was blighted, and thus eligible to be snatched up under eminent domain, so the entire 30-minute argument focused on the definition of blighted (any talk of making an area blighted by way of demolishing it, as in the photo above?). Defendants squirmed when answering, and, wrote Atlantic Yards Report, "representatives of developer Forest City Ratner and the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), along with their clutch of attorneys, exited looking none too cheery."
What Remains. Photo by horseycraze.
