Location, Location, Location

The $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, N.Y., which will feature a mini-city and basketball arena, may be moving forward but there’s one detail that is spurring discussion: How far back from the street should the arena be built?

City officials and other inquiring minds want to know for a couple of reasons – one being security, according to the New York Times. Traffic impact is reportedly another concern.

The debate seems to have stemmed from a new arena built in Newark, N.J., that was set 20 feet back from the curb. City officials there have reportedly decided to close off the streets near the arena during events in order to deter truck-driving terrorists, the paper said.

The Times reported that its efforts to find out where the 18,000-capacity arena will be placed at the site near main streets Flatbush and Atlantic were met with, well, confusion.

Officials with project developer Forest City Ratner and state sponsor Empire State Development Corporation reportedly referred inquiries to the New York Police Department. NYPD antiterrorism experts told the Times the planned location of the arena is secure and street closures won’t be needed.

Meanwhile, Forest City Ratner gave a Times reporter access to a rough site diagram, which reportedly shows the arena set back about 75 feet from Atlantic and 150 feet from Flatbush. A Forest City spokesman later amended those calculations, telling the Times the facility would be set about 20 feet from the curb.

When the Times asked police officials why the Atlantic Yards venue would be considered more secure than the Newark venue, it was told the NYPD safety assessment still stands.

What apparently made the factual intrigue so amusing to the Times is this one thing: The arena would hardly be invisible to potential terrorists – or anyone else – once it’s built.