Several websites have been set up to collect information regarding the forthcoming air rights sale referendum and to advocate for various positions. We thought it would be helpful to compile them here.
SewardParkAirRights.com was set up by the Board to collect all official Board and Management communications regarding the air rights referendum. While some people consider the Board to be in favor of the deal, the Board has indicated that they will not be taking an official position recommending a yes or no vote, and we believe their communications thus far have been quite successful in avoiding bias. [Edited to add: On May 9, the Board announced that they are unanimously recommending a YES vote. We therefore no longer consider the Board’s communications completely unbiased, although we still believe their materials to be the most reliable because (1) the Board is the only group putting up materials that has a fiduciary obligation to shareholders, and (2) we’ve found almost no factual inaccuracies or inconsistencies in the Board’s communications.]
SewardAnswers.com is the official website of the Ascend/Optimum development team, set up by their PR firm Global Strategy Group. Information posted there should be viewed with a critical eye as their mission is to “sell” shareholders on the referendum, but we have reasonably high confidence that the information will still be factually accurate given the developers’ resources (including top notch land use counsel) and the potential litigation consequences of purposely misleading shareholders. [Edited to add: As of late May we have heard that Global Strategy Group is no longer serving as Ascend/Optimum’s PR firm.]
Seward Park Air Rights is a website from a group of shareholders who are strongly opposed to the deal. Information posted there should be viewed with an even more critical eye than the Ascend/Optimum site, since these folks have just as much of an agenda, but lack access to the expert resources that the developers and the Board have at their disposal. That said, there are some smart people behind the site whose opinions are worthy of consideration, and they have already posted some solid critiques of Ascend’s communications.
SPBuzz Air Rights Page is shareholder Dan Strum‘s collection of communications and articles on the air rights question. Most of the information here can be found elsewhere, but items marked with
are original content. Dan has been making a serious effort to keep his original content fact-based and carefully researched, and he has added some important pieces of information to the conversation. [Edited to add: Dan has also had some incorrect information on his site, but to his credit, has pulled those materials when they were pointed out.]
“Air Rights” tag on the Seward Spark should bring up a list of relevant posts from this website. To the extent we find time, we hope to fact-check any misleading (or potentially misleading) communications we spot from any party. Our goal is to be as neutral as possible on the question and to focus on helping make sure information is accurate so that shareholders (including us) can make our voting decisions based on facts and not propaganda. As always, comments and critiques are welcome on anything we post. [Edited to add: As of May 24, we intend to issue an editorial endorsing a decision one way or the other. But we still remain strongly committed to making sure that information is accurate no matter which side it supports.]
There have been some other anonymous websites, fliers, and even mass snail mailings that at this time we are not linking to or posting, as we have found them to be too full of grossly misleading information to be worthy of consideration. There are some really good arguments both in favor and against the deal, and we want to keep the conversation focused on facts and real considerations.