Norman Oder, the long-time critic and chronicler of the Atlantic Yards, admits he was skeptical of a 2016 claim by the city’s Public Design Commission, that Barclays Center offered“pedestrian-oriented public spaces” encompassing the large plaza in front of the arena.
He was wary of the claim for a couple of reasons, as he writes Wednesday in BKLYNer. Although officially owned by the State of New York, it was controlled by the arena leaseholder, then Mikhail Prokhorov now Joe Tsai, How could such a private space be a public space?
In addition, the space was, as he has said, accidental.