Although approved in the closing hours of former Gov. Pataki's administration, The Forest City Ratner Project (FCR) has continued to meet with intense community opposition, is facing lawsuits over issues of eminent domain and environmental review, is tied up in court, and has yet to address the long-term issues raised by community groups: transportation, environmental quality, security, public subsidies, and truly affordable housing and job development. The project will likely never be developed as proposed, and certainly not by the target year of 2016.

If only the first phase gets built--the arena and associated towers--they could permanently scar the rest of the area and produce acres of ugly surface parking for decades to come. This is why there must be another alternative. The long history of failed projects, whether from financial reversals or the erosion of community support, proves that IT'S NOT A DONE DEAL.