Forest City Ratner Drops Arena Proposal for Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards

Citing his profound remorse for inflicting developments like MetroTech and Atlantic Center on downtown Brooklyn, developer Bruce Ratner announced today that he is withdrawing the proposal to build a basketball arena and high-rise residential towers on the Atlantic Yards site.

"I've had a change of heart," an emotional Ratner announced. "I'm going to do what's best for Brooklyn in the long run." The new proposal he outlined combines residences and ground floor retail with a major new public plaza on what had been the proposed arena site. Ratner followed the unveiling by launching into a lengthy explanation of why it was essential to maintain the street grid throughout the site, and how he planned to enlist the Department of Transportation to turn Atlantic, Flatbush, and Fourth Avenue into walkable boulevards.

"This place is going to be like a central square for Brooklyn," the developer explained, wiping tears of joy from his face. "So you need to make traffic secondary to the pedestrian [sniffle] if you want people to actually use it." Saying that he felt as though a tremendous burden had been lifted from his shoulders, Ratner proceeded to engage in a frank, heartfelt, 6-hour Q&A session with community representatives in attendance. Asked what the new plaza would be called, he shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Oh, I don't know... Ratner Square has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

NYC & Company to Promote Walking and Biking

In a surprising shift, Jonathan Tisch, Chairman of the Board of NYC & Company, the City of New York's Tourism Bureau, announced today that the popular semi-annual Restaurant Week sponsored by the City for the last 10 years will be replaced with "Bike and Walk to Work Week."

"Surveys of tourists in New York during the unfortunate transit strike in December 2005 showed that visitors enjoyed the city more when it wasn't overpopulated with cars," Mr. Tisch said today from non-profit Transportation Alternatives headquarters. "In particular, they cited the ability to cross the street more easily, less fear of taking taxis, greater enjoyment of window-shopping, and fewer cases of asthma attacks as reasons for returning to New York City. This event is much better for our city's health than promoting dining in excess."

"Bike and Walk to Work Week" will be launched by a walk across Brooklyn Bridge by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Department of Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall in September 2006. Restaurants that formerly participated in Restaurant Week are encouraged to set up vending stations at major intersections where commuters may sample their chefs' cuisine on the way home. DOT will provide the tables, tents and other supplies to make it possible.

A Big Box that Floats

Sweden-based retail giant IKEA has withdrawn its multi-million dollar proposal for Red Hook and instead will be converting the famous Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship into a mega-budget furniture and living accessories extravaganza. This follows a pilot tested by Target last summer, when the retailer set up a store on a ship off the piers in the Hudson River.

IKEA will maintain some ties to Red Hook however. The mass retailer will lease mooring at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, the cruise ship port slated for development in Red Hook, but will have the flexibility of setting sail and programming many other shopping events that have yet to be experienced by the international retailing industry. Shoppers can sign up for day trips, where the ship will cruise around Manhattan Island, or for longer trips, where the ship will pay visits to Port Canaveral, Florida and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

"IKEA has shown that it truly understands the customer's desire to shape a shopping trip while ensuring the highest level of product exposure possible," said Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy: the Science of Shopping and Call of the Mall: The Geography of Shopping and president of Envirosell, a consulting firm devoted to understanding retail consumer behavior. "With CruiseIKEA, a shopping trip to IKEA easily becomes a vacation instead of a Saturday fighting the crowds."

And Speaking of Shopping...

Amidst the brouhaha over the future of the Bronx Terminal Market, Related Co., the "development company of record," has revised its plan for Gateway Center, the proposed retail development that would have replaced the old but still functioning market with big box chains and parking lots. Instead, Related will refurbish and expand the existing market site, creating capacity for up to 200 local vendors to set up shop. "This is our way of showing New Yorkers that we understand the unique qualities that makes the City what it is," said Steven M. Ross, Chairman of Related Co. "That's why we're here. This market is going to be a huge draw and launch hundreds of new businesses."