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this was poorly reporting! one of the lamest jobs of reporting EVER.

where was the opposing voices? where were the hard questions about lopez's connection to the bidding groups.

this is an important issue and this was a lame segment that allowed a political boss to talk story without any hard questions. boo.

This process is a shame for us and the city of new york.
This (lead agency not as normal City Planing) HPD staff is working on a fraud shame process, the entire process was secretive & even by now didn't publish it as every other plan on the web, and it was promised a few times.
Over 100 jobs is employed in this one property, and the eminent domain is killing it forever.
The property owners are getting basically wiped out because vito lopez wants it for his own organization, without competing open bidding.
The guy who schlep it was vito lopez for 10 years vito & victor Robles didn't allow the previous administrations to rezone it.
Now, UJO and rabbi niedermans friends who own properties there are stretched into the map (nothing to do with BT), and told them where and when to buy.
Why hasn't they put pfizer's property under eminent domain ? Pfizer don't have any employees now, and this square block has over 100 people on payroll, and there sitting there for a long time.
There is no organization, beside vito lopez and rabbi niederman who is for the scam within the entire area.
Councilwomen Diana Reyna is against it, Daniel Squadron is against it.
Yassky is the last minute for it, only because he wants vito lopez support for his comptroller race.
The community board voted for it, when 22 people where absent, because treats of the HPD.
The HPD should be ashamed, for corrupt deals and fraud scams.
Vito Lopez is one big hypocrite, when UJO build an a shaffer brewery he attacked HPD in 2002 for being exclusive when he is not the Representative in that particular area.
He is in bushwick/ridgwood nothing to do with joe lentols district.
Shame On Bloomberg ! Shame On HPD !

The idea that the future residents will be representative of the surrounding area is laughable. We have seen the southside saturated by the Hasidic community - the displaced Hispanic population was mostly shut out of the new housing built in the early 1990's by the allocation system - cost being just one factor.
Show me a system for access to housing in this area that won't be manipulated by any specific group and will give everyone, including young people, a fair shake.

In response to Sandy's comment:

It's obvious that there is a political context to this story, but it should not be forgotten that Vito isn't the only person who's got a political interest in the project. It's naive and/or misleading to suggest that Los Sures, St. Nicholas etc don't have a political interest in the B'Way Triangle, whether it's through their affiliation with Councilwoman Reyna's office or because of the broader difficulties CBOs have when vying for the same pot of Government money for housing projects. Let's be even-handed when assigning blame.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vito_Lopez

Can Assemblyman Vito please comment on the alternative Broadway Triangle Community Coalition plan being proposed? Many many groups have signed on to that plan (developed with help from the Pratt Institute), which also includes many more units of affordable housing, open space, opportunity for green business development, etc.

So Michael has a home, and too bad for everyone else. He has his and screw everyone else.

the comments here are an example of why it is so difficult to accomplish anything. and no, i don't know the details, but this sounds like at least a last best option.

The Assemblyman's comments about the effectiveness and timeliness of development projects is interesting. Can a process be "too open" thus hindering its realization? It is troubling to consider that more opaque processes might be a more effective process. What is the appropriate balance between broad inclusion and a smaller, controlled groups. Or does this a carry a political subtext?

Will the plan Lopez is talking about include any park space?

All of Vitos laudable sponsors are community based organizations he controls. The sponsors and design of the project eminate from Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Center and their housing corporation--which he founded and uses for his political base. The 'opponents' dont want more machine control in the community. Brian: research the political context of this story. Thanks

How can we have affordable housing in Willamsburg/Bushwick, or anywhere else in NYC, when our tax money goes towards paying landlords $3,000 a month to house homeless people, thus artificially increasing market rate rents?

Please define "affordable" housing. We have the same complaint about the Atlantic Yards project because "affordable" is based on the metro area, not the community or even the borough.