Opinion: Ratner Breaks Atlantic Yards Promises on Jobs, Housing—and Oversight

Norman Oder, the man behind Atlantic Yards Report, writes a piece on CityLimits.org today arguing that Forest City Ratner has failed to live up to promises on several fronts, and, because he hasn't hired the required independent monitor to oversee the project, there is nobody to call him on it.

Oder claims that the mega-developer has not come through with affordable housing promised on the Atlantic Yards site, nor has he hired as many local and minority contractors as he said he would.

Ratner dropped architect Frank Gehry in 2009, one of the major appeals of the project, and is planning to take 15 years longer than originally planned to finish construction.

All of this has gone on without much notice because Ratner has not funded an independent person to oversee the construction, something he promised to do in the 2005 Community Benefits Agreements, according to Oder. This person's job would be to make sure that Ratner came through with his promises.

"No wonder Forest City has avoided one of the CBA's few seemingly clear obligations: to hire an Independent Compliance Monitor, at up to $100,000 a year, to report on the progress of the CBA," Oder writes.