Rikon again said that blight represented a difficult legal challenge. "When you try to attack that in court, judges will say, well, that’s a legislative determination which we won’t get involved in…. It’s a real problem," he said. "The most fruitful grounds for reversing a determination is on the environmental issue. That is the failure to comply with Article 8 of New York’s environmental conservation law.
Rikon added support for the eminent domain cases filed in federal court: "That, as well as the federal ligitation—federal judges are not that narrow in their review of these projects. And across the country, various federal judges have stopped projects which they thought were unfair and improper..."
"The challenges I've made, which had really good merit as far as I'm concerned, have never been successful," Rikon said. "It's extremely difficult to stop a condemnation proceeding in New York State. In federal court, there's a much better chance. I think the judges who hear those cases are more open to the arguments being made by opponents of the project."