Calls grow for stopping demolitions at Atlantic Yards

With the future uncertain for developer Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-project, residents are calling for a moratorium on demolitions at the 22-acre site. The projects’ opponents want Gov. David Paterson to demand a new construction schedule before more demolitions can proceed. Forest City Ratner says it won’t finish the project’s 16 towers by 2016, but has not issued a revised schedule. The Nets basketball arena and a residential tower are still slated to be done by 2010. While a demolition moratorium is unlikely, opponents say they want the Ward Bakery and other buildings to be preserved and instead getting torn down for “unnecessary construction staging areas.”