The Only Things More Phallic Than The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower Are Headlines In The Brooklyn Papers

Leave it to the Brooklyn Papers to make dick jokes out of the latest Atlantic Yards news — “Size matters; State not discussing Atlantic Yards shrinkage with Bruce Ratner”:

State officials moved swiftly last week to deny they were negotiating behind the scenes with Bruce Ratner to decrease the size of his Atlantic Yards mega-development.

After the New York Sun reported on Tuesday that the Empire State Development Corporation had discussed “a reduction in the size of the project” with Ratner, ESDC blasted the report as untrue.

“ESDC has not been in discussion with Forest City Ratner about reducing the size of the project,” spokeswoman Jessica Copen told The Brooklyn Papers.

But the agency is under pressure — even from the project’s loudest supporters — to scale back Atlantic Yards.

At last week’s public hearing, Borough President Markowitz — the official perhaps most identified by his support of Atlantic Yards — told ESDC that it needed to “get real” about the impacts of the $4.2-billion, 16-tower, arena, hotel, residential and commercial development slated for the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues. “This project needs to be reduced.”

Fellow supporter, Assemblyman Roger Green (D-Fort Greene), went further, calling a 30- to 40-percent reduction in scale “a moral imperative.”

The state’s own draft environmental impact statement outlined numerous “significant” adverse effects, including increased traffic, more-crowded subways, long shadows, and the need for a new school to handle thousands of Yards kids.

After all is said and done, Gersh explains how this could all happen . . . and you do realize that this whole thing has probably been one big negotiating ploy, right? Er, suck on that . . .

Location Scout: Atlantic Yards.