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tel/fax:
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About DDDB
Our coalition consists of 21 community organizations and
there are 51 community organizations formally
aligned in opposition to the Ratner plan.
DDDB is a volunteer-run organization. We have over 5,000
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and we have over 150 block captains. We have a 20 person
volunteer legal team of local lawyers supplementing our
retained attorneys.
We are funded entirely by individual donations from the community at large
and through various fundraising events we and supporters have organized.
We have the financial support of well over 3,500 individual
donors.
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Ex-Yonkers Council Member: "Forest City Ratner games the system and does not play by the rules"
Forest City Ratner has “little or no regard for public opinion,” said John Murtagh, a former Yonkers councilman and opponent of the Ridge Hill project who recently testified in the trial. “Their entire business model is to exploit every tax loophole and taxpayer-funded subsidy that they can. Promise the world and deliver far less, and do it all by manipulation.”
This excerpt from the Journal News' coverage of the Yonkers Ridge Hill federal corruption and bribery trial is right on target and opponents** of Ratner's Atlantic Yards project would be in total agreement. And we see the parellels—oh, so does Mr. Murtagh:
But Murtagh sees many parallels between Atlantic Yards and Ridge Hill, including the silencing of community groups and backroom deals. Years after his first encounter with Forest City, and with the most recent allegations, Murtagh said he feels vindicated in his opposition to the project.
“Unfortunately, what’s coming out in this case now vindicates what we ... were saying about this company and this project five years ago,” Murtagh said. “In the court of public opinion it should be obvious to anyone that Forest City Ratner games the system and does not play by the rules.”
**In the same article ("Forest City known for tough political skills around region") Ratner uber-flack Joe DePlasco, in the ninth year of the biggest urban development controversy in the United States, failed the laught test:“I think there’s been tremendous support for Atlantic Yards,” said Joseph DePlasco, a Forest City spokesman. “There was a vocal opposition that was opposed to part of the project. There are many who support it.” Actually, Joey from Cobble Hill, there was, and is, massive opposition to the entire project, and most of those supporters who weren't political cronies*** in the tank, or Marty Markowitz, were paid partners contractually obliged to support the project.
***In the same article Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, D-Brooklyn, who helped arrange a meeting between the Zehy Jereis, charged with bribing Council Member Sandy Annabi to flip her vote and get Ratner's Ridge Hill passed said: “The company is a good one as far as I’m concerned. They definitely have a good track record as developers as far as efficiency and getting things done.”
Clearly Lentol's concern doesn't go very far as those who game the system and don't play by the rules usually do get things done efficiently.
Posted: 2.25.12
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