Another article, from the New York Post: http://www.nypost.com/seven/12142006/postopinion/editorials/atlantic_yards_questions_editorials_.htm
This stood out:
' But failure to bless this project would be unforgivable.
After all, there's virtually no downside.
Which is why - but for a handful of holdouts with personal stakes and misguided, ivory-tower, eminent-domain purists - there's little real opposition'
I'd like to know more specifics about the holdouts and their properties. I'm an "eminent domain purist", but have little tolerance for hypocrisy. To the extent that any of these properties are housing businesses or residences that operate primarily on the taxpayers' dime (and there are a LOT of those in NYC), I'd have a little trouble with the property owners' claim that it's all theirs and the government has no right to take it for a fair price. If the mortgage and taxes on a property have long been paid with money taken from the taxpayers, it's a little difficult to regard the property as truly privately owned.
If these are really private properties and the owners don't want to sell, then the city should only authorize the developers to build their big project around those properties. If they have trouble figuring out how to do that, they can ask Donald Trump -- he did it in Atlantic City, altering the plans for a hotel/casino to fit around the modest home of stubborn little-old-lady Vera Coking (who is still living in her home).
For those not familiar with Mrs. Coking, she put her foot down in 1994, and kept fighting in court while then-owner of the property Bob Guccione had construction workers literally building a hotel OVER her house. In the end he was forced to dismantle the partially completed structure, and sell to Trump. Trump built around Mrs. Coking after she turned down an offer of $1 million for her home (she wanted $3 million). As of a couple of months ago, Trump was trying once again to buy her out, to put up a new, bigger casino. She's given him her price (not made public) but he's not willing to pay it (yet).
Good recent summary:
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/story/6878196p-6743121c.html
The officials steal property from some and give it to their friends.
Sounds like a downer to me.