Crain's New York - October 1, 2012 - (Page 10)

OPINION Game on at Brooklyn arena CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS editor in chief Rance Crain publisher, vp Jill R. Kaplan EDITORIAL editor Glenn Coleman deputy managing editors Valerie Block, Erik Ipsen assistant managing editors Erik Engquist, Jeremy Smerd senior producer, news Elisabeth Butler Cordova news producer Lauren Elkies contributing editor Elaine Pofeldt columnists Greg David, Alair Townsend crain’s health pulse editor Barbara Benson senior reporters Theresa Agovino, Aaron Elstein, Lisa Fickenscher, Matthew Flamm, Miriam Kreinin Souccar reporters Amanda Fung, Andrew J. Hawkins, Adrianne Pasquarelli contributing reporter Chris Bragg web reporter, producer Tania Karas art director Steven Krupinski deputy art director Carolyn McClain staff photographer Buck Ennis copy desk chief Steve Noveck copy editor Thaddeus Rutkowski data editor Suzanne Panara assistant data editor Emily Laermer researchers Eva Saviano, Amy Stern interns Ali Elkin, Emily Lundeen ONLINE AND INTERACTIVE SERVICES general manager, online & e-commerce strategy Kira Bindrim senior web developer, interactive Chris O’Donnell ADVERTISING, MARKETING AND PRODUCTION advertising director Trish Henry senior account managers Irene Bar-Am, Courtney McCombs, Sheryl Rose, Suzanne Wilson account executive Jill Bottomley Kunkes sales coordinator Danielle Wiener newsletter product manager Alexis Sinclair credit Todd J. Masura (313-446-6097) director, audience development Michael O’Connor senior marketing manager Catherine Schutten event producer Courtney Williams reprint sales manager Lauren Melesio production and pre-press director Michael Corsi advertising production manager Suzanne Fleischman Wies TO SUBSCRIBE: For print and digital subscriptions or customer service, e-mail customerservice@crainsnewyork.com or call 877-824-9379 (in the U.S. and Canada) or 313-446-0450 (all other locations). $3.00 a copy for the print edition; or $99.95 one year, $179.95 two years, for print subscriptions with digital access. www.crainsnewyork.com/subscribe TO ADVERTISE: Contact Advertising Director Trish Henry at thenry@crainsnewyork.com or call 212-210-0711. www.crainsnewyork.com/advertise FOR INFORMATION ON OUR EVENTS: Contact Event Producer Courtney Williams at cwilliams@crainsnewyork.com or 212-210-0257. www.crainsnewyork.com/events TO CONTACT THE NEWSROOM: J udgment Day has arrived for Barclays Center— and for those who fought it for nearly 10 years. The shiny new sports and entertainment facility was scheduled to open Friday night with a concert by hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, a champion of the arena and part owner of its featured tenant, the Brooklyn Nets basketball team. Growing pains can be expected as up to 19,000 fans arrive at once at Flatbush and Atlantic avenues—the very spot where the Brooklyn Dodgers wanted to move before government resistance led them to flee infamously to Los Angeles in 1958. But we expect opponents’ predictions of Brooklyn’s destruction by the Atlantic Yards project will soon be relegated to the annals of New York’s special breed of antidevelopment hysteria. Already there are clear signs that the arena and planned housing and retail have not doomed the area but revitalized it. Once-dingy commercial strips are teeming with new restaurants, taverns, shops, spas and other attractive businesses. Rents have tripled, and bidding wars for brownstones have returned. Brooklynites are sporting the Nets’ new logo as enthusiasm builds for the long-awaited return of major professional sports to the borough. The $171.5 million spent by the city on land and infrastructure for the project is looking like a wise investment, indeed. The jury is still out on whether all of the Atlantic Yards project will be built and turn a profit for its developer, Forest Barclays Center sparked growth even before it opened last week City Ratner. But the momentum generated by the arena is undeniable, with native daughter Barbra Streisand booking concert dates, major corporations snapping up sponsorships and Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov turning the pathetic Nets into a hip and highly valued franchise. As an urban planning endeavor, the arena has national importance. Putting Barclays Center in the heart of Brooklyn reversed the Meadowlands mistake that condemned the erstwhile New Jersey Nets to perennially low attendance. Its success will advance a promising trend toward incorporating entertainment venues into the fabric of cities rather than banishing them to suburban peripheries. As for those who foretold an Atlantic Yards Armageddon, they should want to be proved wrong as much as anyone. After all, most of them still live in Prospect Heights, Park Slope, Boerum Hill and nearby communities. We are happy to note that the manager of Freddy’s Bar, whose tavern in the project footprint was forced out, reopened in the South Slope and loves his new digs. Arena enemy No. 1 Daniel Goldstein also moved there. Life does go on after development battles. Sometimes it even gets better. CRAIN’S ONLINE POLL COMMENTS The truth about rents bloomberg news CITY COMPTROLLER’S REPORT MISLEADS ON HOUSING-COST BURDEN The city comptroller’s recent report on rising rents (“High rents hitting middle-class New Yorkers,” CrainsNewYork.com) slices and dices the statistics to erroneously make it appear that rent burdens in New York City are higher than elsewhere and, unbelievably, to suggest that middle-class renters have greater housing affordability problems than poor renters. First, New York’s rents have been rising along with rents in the rest of the country to the point where a majority of renters in New York and nationally pay more than 30% of income for rent, making the 30% limit an outdated standard. (Some of your readers may recall that the federal government used to define paying more than 25% as unaffordable.) Second, a large part of the rise in rents is the direct result WILL BARCLAYS CENTER WRECK SURROUNDING BROOKLYN NEIGHBORHOODS? Yes. There will be mayhem in the streets. No. The arena will be phenomenal. Date of poll: Sept. 24 292 votes 46% Yes 54% No of the increase in government levies for real estate taxes and water and sewer charges, yet the comptroller does not suggest restraining those increases as a way to rein in rising rents— perhaps because Comptroller John Liu, as a city councilman, voted for two midyear real estate tax increases. Nor does he suggest that zoning and other restrictive regulations raise the cost of housing. Third, when gauging affordability, the comptroller’s report fails to consider that many renters willingly pay more than 50% of their income in rent for the privilege of living in core Manhattan or highly desirable outer-borough neighborhoods (or to consider the 1 million college students who are paying rent with little or no income). There is a clear need to expand the supply and contain the costs of housing in New York City, but exaggerating the scope of the problem while ignoring root causes does not foster the rational discussion we need. —joseph strasburg President Rent Stabilization Association COMMUTERS TAKEN FOR A RIDE Carol Kellermann is correct that a deteriorating transit system would be devastating for New York’s economy and average New Yorkers (“MTA finances: a looming train wreck,” Sept. 24). But she’s wrong that we bear a collective responsibility for the system. New York riders already pay a higher percentage of its cost than riders in any other city. Our elected officials need to stop increasing fares (taxes, really) on those least able to afford them and rely more on broad-based taxes and corporate contributions to fund mass transit. —camille rivera Executive director United NY 711 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017-4036 editorial phone: 212.210.0277 fax 212.210.0799 Entire contents ©copyright 2012 Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. ®CityBusiness is a registered trademark of MCP Inc., used under license agreement. PUBLISHED BY CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. chairman Keith E. Crain president Rance Crain secretary Merrilee Crain treasurer Mary Kay Crain executive vp, operations William Morrow senior vp, group publisher Gloria Scoby group vp, technology, circulation, manufacturing Robert C. Adams vp/production, manufacturing David Kamis chief information officer Paul Dalpiaz founder G.D. Crain Jr. (1885-1973) chairman Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr. (1911-1996) FOR THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS: Go to www.crainsnewyork.com/poll to have your say. CRAIN’S WELCOMES SUBMISSIONS to its opinion pages. Send letters to letters@crainsnewyork.com. Send columns of 475 words or fewer to opinion@crainsnewyork.com. Please include the writer’s name, company, address and telephone number. 10 | Crain’s New York Business | October 1, 2012 http://www.crainsnewyork.com/subscribe http://www.CrainsNewYork.com http://www.crainsnewyork.com/advertise http://www.crainsnewyork.com/events http://www.crainsnewyork.com/poll

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's New York - October 1, 2012

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
CORPORATE LADDER
FROM AROUND THE CITY
OPINION
GREG DAVID
REAL ESTATE DEALS
REPORT: SMALL BUSINESS
CLASSIFIEDS
FOR THE RECORD
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crain's New York - October 1, 2012