Developer Bruce Ratner Is Honored at Gala

Developer Bruce Ratner may be facing challenges to his Atlantic Yards project, but he received nothing but support from top New York politicians at a gala in his honor yesterday.

Rep. Anthony Weiner and the speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn — both likely 2009 mayoral candidates — as well as Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and the President of Brooklyn, Marty Markowitz, all lauded Mr. Ratner at a luncheon held by the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.

"Bruce Ratner is someone who reminds us all the time that, even in difficult financial times, we need to be a city that continues to grow," Mr. Weiner told an audience of more than 450 on the Upper West Side.

Mr. Ratner's proposed $4 billion redevelopment of Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards is currently facing delays and reported financial problems.

In recent months, it has become clear that the project — which would erect 16 skyscrapers, more than 6,000 apartments, and an 18,000-seat basketball arena at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues — may not have sufficient funding to move forward as planned.

Members of the Assembly and City Council have rallied with Brooklyn residents against the project and demanded the creation of a trust to reform it.

A coalition of community groups filed an appeal in the State Appellate Court last month, calling for a new environmental review of the project.

"How this man looks every day in a positive way at all the hate that's been directed to him, I will never know," Mr. Markowitz said of Mr. Ratner yesterday.