[Vanderbilt Rail Yards photo via Flickr user threecee]
In what is surely the most dramatic Tuesday in Brooklyn since, like, Junior's ran out of strawberry cheesecake or something, preliminary work on the Atlantic Yards megadevelopment is scheduled to kick off today. Yes, today. A bus depot is being prepped for demolition so that a temporary rail yard can be built on the eastern edge of the 22-acre site, and later this week, a former auto-repair shop on Flatbush Avenue will be torn down so that Miss Brooklyn can stand in its place. Folks, this is happening. For now, anyway. There's still the matter of that lawsuit filed by 13 folks who are still living and working in the project's footprint. Says a Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn Press Release on the matter: "The prep work is clearly premature, as Forest City Ratner does not own the rail yards necessary to construct the 8 million square foot project and they do not own the properties necessary to build the arena or to demap streets to build high-rise superblocks."
· B'klyn Arena Tip-Off [NYP]
· Developer gets the ball rolling on Nets arena construction [NYDN]