Rep. Mike McMahon Says No Stimulus for Atlantic Yards
One Brooklyn Congressman, our newest, is the first to be on the record saying that using stimulus funds to bail out Ratner's Atlantic Yards is not a priority:
McMahon on line 1: New Ridge Rep. loves the stimulus
By Gersh Kuntzman
The Brooklyn Paper
Bay Ridge’s freshman Rep. Mike McMahon backed the nearly $800-billion federal stimulus package on Friday — he’s a Democrat, after all — and promptly called The Brooklyn Paper buzzing about his first truly historic vote.
"It felt good," the former City Councilman said via phone from Washington. "It’s a very good package considering it had to be negotiated in two houses of Congress and across party lines."
...
"It was my amendment that added $3 billion for transit to the original House package, which brought it up to $10 billion," he said. "The Senate scaled it back to $8 billion, but there’s still $1.2 billion that will be coming back to New York."
McMahon said his priority for that money would be renovating B and M line stations in Bensonhurst, a plan nixed by the MTA last year — not funnel the money, as some have suggested, to Bruce Ratner to jumpstart the stalled Atlantic Yards project.
"That priority is fixing train stations and getting ferry service from Bay Ridge to Manhattan," he said. "I do not see Atlantic Yards as a priority for the money from this package."
http://www.dddb.net/php/latestnews_Linked.php?id=1911
). That way, we can keep Batum as our distant-future small forward.
.