Atlantic Yards opponents tire of debate, despite stadium’s continued impact

Eight years in, many opponents of Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project — and there have been a great deal of vocal opponents — are ceding victory to the developer and going quiet, the New York Times reported.

The $4.9 billion project is far from finished, and the promises of new jobs and affordable housing are still unfulfilled, and yet many community advocates have grown fatigued.

Eric McClure, who blogged against the development with the help of his wife on Nolandgrab.org, has decided to “hang up my keyboard,” he told the Times. And Daniel Goldstein — the resident whose eviction by eminent domain spawned a lawsuit, making him perhaps the most visible face of the debate — is now working on writing a memoir, as The Real Deal reported.

Others remain vigilant about how the arena will affect the area. “The fight isn’t over,” said Jon Crow, a gardener at the Pacific Street Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden, across the street from the Barclays Center. Crow and others worry that protracted traffic will increase pollution in the area. “We’ve got a neighborhood to protect.”

Just this morning, TRD noted that a lawsuit filed against the city by a subsidiary of Forest City over a $741 million property tax appraisal for the stadium was dropped, according to a report from the New York Post.

Still, many on the losing side of the battle about whether or not the Atlantic Yards had a right to grow in the first place are incredibly bitter. “I will always hate it,” said Candace Carponter, a real estate lawyer who volunteered her time for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, which monitored the project’s progress with a skeptical voice. “I will always know what [the Atlantic Yards] stands for — everything that’s wrong about government.” [NYT] –Guelda Voien