Ben Keel

New Development Team Promises Atlantic Yards Progress, But Housing Penalties Called 'Insufficient' - City Limits The new development team—the third since the megaproject was announced in 2003—has agreed to pay $12 million as they plan a new way forward.

First announced in 2003, the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn has still not delivered the total number of affordable homes it promised. Now, a new development team is poised to take over, and says it'll be different this time. citylimits.org/new-developm...

Rough week for my neighborhood having no trolly rail service for 10 days and being name dropped in an HBO show in the context of a fentanyl trade.

Moderation is not a silver bullet In 2024, moderate candidates for the U.S. House barely outperformed the average partisan

It wouldn’t surprise me if this desire for moderation is built in-part on election analysts commonly citing candidate moderation having a slim-but-real advantage over more ideological candidates. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/moderation...
Another source: goodauthority.org/news/do-mode...

lmk what a fair trade is, I’m game

You have a good method of including these little horrid details (complimentary). Like clusters of teeth amongst a wispy form, it’s disturbing in a fascinating way.

Senate pulls AI regulatory ban from GOP bill after complaints from states A proposal to deter states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade was soundly defeated in the U.S. Senate.

For the US, this is not true. The ban on states regulating AI was taken out of the midsummer bill. www.pbs.org/newshour/amp...

Likely yes? Offices host 1 person/100-200 SF vs 1 person/300-400SF studios or 1-2 people/500SF 1BR’s.

So in the case where it’s 40% worker traffic, it’s in the same ballpark. Just depends what building use will see highest occupancy in the long term.

I remind myself of this article’s point every day when reading nationwide housing trend headlines asserting the buyer’s market: only the local trends matter. Mostly bc I don’t want to have made a silly choice in buying near listing price this Spring.

Elected officials, including three from Congress, join CM Hudson in asking Governor and ESD to collect damages for absent Atlantic Yards affordable housing Led by Council Member Crystal Hudson, ten local elected officials yesterday wrote to Gov. Kathy Hochul and Hope Knight, CEO of Empire State ...

Elected officials, including three from Congress, join @cmcrystalhudson.bsky.social in asking Governor and Empire State Development to collect damages for absent #AtlanticYards #affordablehousing
atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2025/06/elec...
Which could fund affordable units nearby in AAMUP

Big brain move. Only question to me is the stoops. As a recent resident of such a street where we park on both sides of the sidewalk without penalty, makes sense to just remove it all and maybe add a step to asphalt. Let people park in that section between stoops, even, if the cars are to stay.

Pensive faced Rick asks for good news

Totally. The new characters can resonate as the old ones did with similar casting or direction but feel fresh in the new scenario or genre, like Mike Judge’s Hank-as-Pharma-CEO Rick in Common Side Effects. Or Iroquois Pliskin in MGS 2.

Love it! Great to get a nicely formatted page outside the zillow universe and I appreciate how the nearby county comparison reveals the regional differences at a sortable glance.

EB-5 visas allow foreign investors to get green cards through US investments. Norman’s and my Substack today illustrates how Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park kicked off EB-5 fundraising for nearly half of its buildings around 2014, then complicated the stakes and collateral over the next decade.

stoked!

A scatterplot titled “Built affordable Units Skew More Expensive”. Six Atlantic Yards buildings built over 8 years feature income-linked affordable units, but the qualified income for applicants and the rent for these units has risen and concentrated higher over time.

Complex real estate deals and public subsidy currently need info synthesis to be accessible to the time- or attention-strapped public it impacts. It’s what the graphics are for, but even our synthesis is still complex.

GenAI would be great for answering specific questions! But it ain’t there yet.

Map graphic for “Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Ownership and Design”, outlining the ownership of nine buildings in Brooklyn, NY, including the Barclays Center.

I may be 10% less wary of Gemini after Norman’s analysis, but it’s not a replacement for accountability journalism and the graphics we’ve made. AI likely relies on his work, too.

I’d be in favor of suggesting genAI in tandem if it were reliable and not broadly trained on work without permission.

New substack from Norman comparing popular models’ answers to our work

yes pls!!

Brooklyn's Stalled Atlantic Yards Plan Faces More Questions Than Answers - City Limits More than 21 years after it was announced, the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project has delivered the Barclays Center and eight towers, but remains about half-finished.

Announced more than two decades ago, the project has delivered the Barclays Center and eight towers, but remains about half-finished. Now, a May 31 deadline looms for the developer to deliver the remaining 876 affordable housing units. shorturl.at/NCN7C

lfg!!

🫥

I’m surprised to hear, my limited experience has been pretty decent (apart from maps being way zoomed out). Curious what’s gone wrong for you

I appreciate that septa’s new app will be real with me when I miss the bus: “maybe just walk”

Yes!! They could finally pull off the coveted triple-park.

How Many #AtlanticYards Apartments Were Rented to Households Earning Under $50,000?
normanoder.substack.com/p/how-many-a...
Well, far more than suggested in an otherwise useful table from BrooklynSpeaks Still, middle-income units are vastly over-represented. #PacificParkBK #affordablehousing

In other words, yellow and orange shapes are bigger and 2023 orange is as high as 2016 yellow.

Purple units (lowest income) are in highest demand but has not been built for 6 years despite a 2025 deadline. Many yellow units built in 2017 sat vacant for years despite being subsidized.

New graphic collaboration with Norman: the affordable units in Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park skew on the expensive side while the income ranges have nearly shifted up a full income bracket since the first delivery of 461 Dean in 2016.