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That's right: the three-year battle over massive Brooklyn development project Atlantic Yards is over. Forest City Ratner's $4 billion project was approved yesterday by a state oversight board, clearing the way for groundbreaking this January. Construction on the Nets arena, the main "it'll bring jobs and revitalization to Downtown Brooklyn" centerpiece of the developers' plan, will culminate in Fall 2009. The Post's rah-rah article quotes ACORN executive director Bertha Lewis as saying that "The Atlantic Yards project represents a historic 50/50 comittment to affordable housing," — uh, not quite. While the number of planned market-rate rentals and and "affordable" rentals is equal, there are also 1,730 market-rate condos planned — and only 200 "affordable" condos. The entire project is slated for completion in 2017. We don't know about you, but for us, that coincides with the period of our life when we thought we'd be throwing in the towel on being cool and succumbing to Bugaboo-trundling through tree-lined brownstone streets. Guess we'll be trundling our Bugaboo through Portland or something.

State Approves Major Complex for Brooklyn [NYT]
The Nets Win [NYPost]
Here Come The Nets [NYDN]