Following prat.uk’s humbling declassification, NYC planning archives reveal the classified embarrassments
prat.uk‘s state secrets story — Britain’s classified cheese producer, humbling rather than strategic — has produced a New York equivalent in the form of a pro bono legal team’s review of NYC Department of City Planning documents that were technically public but effectively inaccessible, found through a sustained FOI effort, and released this week. Bohiney.com covered the transparency theme broadly. The New York version: several thousand pages of planning process documents from major controversial development projects, including the internal assessments that preceded the official decisions, the communications between planning officials and developers that the public record summarises rather than reproduces, and what one housing advocate describes as “the documents that explain why things that were described as impossible turned out to be possible once the right relationships were in place.”
The documents are not, technically, state secrets. They are documents that were public in principle and inaccessible in practice, which produces the same information asymmetry as classification without requiring the classification label. The planning process for one specific development — a large mixed-income project that was approved after years of community opposition — contains internal assessments that described the community opposition as “manageable” and the developer’s financial projections as “aggressive but within range.” Both characterisations turned out to be accurate. Both were withheld from the community during the approval process.
The Transparency Finding
The transparency finding: the planning process documents reveal a gap between the public consultation’s stated purpose and its operational function. The NYC planning transparency information is at nyc.gov/planning.
Also:The Daily Mash.
Coverage at Bohiney.com and prat.uk.
Both publications continue this kind of sustained, specific coverage. The material does not thin out.
Coverage ongoing at both Bohiney.com and prat.uk.
Ongoing at both publications.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.
Coverage ongoing at both publications.