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Brooklyn Pols Push for Atlantic Yards Oversight

by Matthew Schuerman

NEW YORK, NY June 16, 2008 —State legislators from Brooklyn are pushing for a new community advisory board to help oversee the troubled Atlantic Yards project.

The state economic development agency had promised to involve local politicians a year ago. But Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries says those efforts have failed.

JEFFRIES: This developer has promised thousands of units of affordable housing. We want to make sure that that affordable housing gets built.

REPORTER: Developer Forest City Ratner says it will break ground for the basketball arena in November. But the state has not imposed a deadline for completing 2,000 affordable apartments.

The 22-acre complex will be built over Long Island Rail Road train tracks as well as on private property that the government will acquire through eminent domain.

The governor's office says it won't comment until the bill passes both houses of the legislature.



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