'Angry' Anti-Ratner Protest at the Brooklyn Museum
Between 80 and 100 people showed up to a Develop Don’t Destroy-organized protest outside the Brooklyn Museum last night, according to Atlantic Yards Report, to publicly decry the cultural institution’s decision to honor Bruce Ratner at a gala. AY Report’s Norman Oder says the protest “was notably angry,” with some in the crowd holding up…
Between 80 and 100 people showed up to a Develop Don’t Destroy-organized protest outside the Brooklyn Museum last night, according to Atlantic Yards Report, to publicly decry the cultural institution’s decision to honor Bruce Ratner at a gala. AY Report’s Norman Oder says the protest “was notably angry,” with some in the crowd holding up signs that said things like “Ratner is a liar” or calling the developer a “con artist” or proclaiming Atlantic Yards a “dung deal.” In a separate post, Oder notes that the Forest City Ratner Companies Foundation gave the museum $100,000 in 2005 and another $100,000 in 2006; the foundation’s donations from last year have not yet been disclosed. The gala last night cost from $500 to $1000+ a plate.
“Shame!” Crowd Outside Museum Shouts “Ratner’s Bad for Brooklyn” {AY Report]
Photo by Brit in Brooklyn.
Why in the hell do these losers think they represent anyone other than a fringe bunch of do-nothings? You want to protest – fine – but stop saying you represent “the community” – YOU DONT.
The community speaks through elections and consistently the local and boroughwide electorate has spoken by electing pro-AY, pro development representatives – to the city council, the mayor’s office, the Statehouse and the Governor’s mansion. The arrogance of these people is overwhelming….
They look pretty much like the volvo driving liberals. Where were the hipsters and the illegal loft tenants? (Mommy send money asap I need a new place.) If it rained yesterday, would they stand in the rain to protest? Just curious.
Let’s not forget they are OLD and white.
The Atlantic Yards debate exemplifies the current generational conflict facing the nation. The old people, not satisfied with out they have enslaved the next generation through deficit spending, Social Security, and Medicare now also want to prevent the construction of new housing for their servants.
We need to revise the constitution such that the voting rights of the elderly are curtailed or eliminated. They have no vision for what is necessary to accommodate the next generation. Their only concern is that we maintain the status quo, forever.
With the baby boomers retiring, the most selfish generation in history, this conflict will become ever more pronounced.
Hate to clue you to this, but your friends are your friends. If a vocal few–not even many, let alone most–people don’t like one of your buds, you still stand by them. BMA clearly feels that Ratner is a friend, whatever the dollar amount, and 80–Eighty! In a ‘city’ of 2.5 million!–protesters doesn’t change a thing.
Brooklyn museum has always been a pathetic embarrassment.
Ha, ha. Has anyone seen the photos from this protest? Norman Oder estimated a pathetic 80-100 turnout (again, in a neighborhood of 20,000 people and a surrounding area 10X as populated). As always, most of the protestors were white and, of course, the event went on as planned, with neither the media (NYT, NY Daily News, NY Post, NY!, etc.) nor the attendees paying attention to the protest.
Real effective, guys. Keep fightin’ the man!
There has certainly always been complicity between cultural institutions and corporations with various levels of moral questionability.
Where the Brooklyn Museum crossed the line was in specifically honoring a man who is anathema to the community the Museum is supposed to be serving. Nobody argued that the Museum shouldn’t take his money; the argument was that, for a Brooklyn cultural institution to support and legitimize someone like Ratner, a man poised to toss homeowners out of their dwellings to build his team a stadium, was a betrayal of Brooklyn.
Here’s a link to my photos of the protest last night: http://kingstonlounge.blogspot.com
$200K? That’s all he gave the museum? F#@king cheapskate. And they’re lame for throwing such an insignificant donor a gala.
According to the papers today, 70% of Americans feel good about their financial situations for now, but 80,000 jobs were lost in March. If AY is built, will many say AY created jobs? What about the displaced and those who lost employment? Everyone knows jobs go somewhere else or to someone else. AY will be terrible for Brooklyn in the long haul, and fatcat Rattner and those who support him can go to hell.