A Preference for Building

“We have beaten the odds and the obstructionists over and over again,” the mayor triumphantly declared in his State of the City address in March. He chose an appropriate venue: the Barclays Center, the new home of the Brooklyn Nets, which was a lightning rod for his all-out development policy. A vigorous opposition was beaten in the courts and the City Council in much the same way he often steamrolled opposition to his comprehensive rethinking of development. His 120 rezoning proposals were approved by the Council. The city arranged cheap public-backed financing for developers at a rate that dwarfed that of his predecessor, including bonds that helped build Barclays, as well as new stadiums for the Yankees and the Mets.