Barclays Center Rising

i live on the PH side of flatbush, and i’m not against the project. (and i’m a democrat, though that is entirely irrelevant.) most of the people *i know* on the block are also agnostic. not excited about traffic and post-game crowds/mess, but excited about games, filling in the hole, support for local businesses, more merchants in empty flatbush storefronts, etc. some people are against it, mostly those who have been in the neighborhood a long time. frankly, the anti crowd seems also to have been opposed to just about every other change that has happened in the neighborhood in the past 10 years (including, probably, the fact that i, and people “like” me moved in).

I love how some people are so naive that they think we need to preserve every little shanty instead of moving forward as a city and developing the last few remaining large parcels of land to move this city forward. So a few houses were lost in the process. They were paid handsomely for them, and this is a spot which was ripe for development and would have required a few buildings being torn down no matter WHAT was built.

The idea that we can preserve every little morsel is absurd and makes a case against preservationists. And considering that I consider myself a preservationist at heart that doesn’t mean that I don’t realize that compromises are needed from time to time to keep this city moving, evolving, creating and expanding for the people who continue to want to move here and start a new life.

Isn’t progress just as important as saving a few craptastic houses sitting at the edge of a railyard?

Think about the better good of the city instead of the few people who were displaced.

“Did you hear Ringling Bros and Barnum Bailey have signed on to have the circus there starting in 2012? Can guarantee you that TONS of parents in the area will be excited about that. ”

My daughter is 26, so I raised her in Brooklyn when things were at their lowest in our borough. I can tell you from first-hand experience that one of the most frustrating aspects of that experience was that I had to take her out of Brooklyn for almost any type of major entertainment, be it going to Madison Square Garden to see the circus or New Jersey for Great Adventure.

It is wonderful to know that today’s generation of Brooklyn parents will not have to do that, with the construction of this arena and a a reviving Coney Island.

Just as importantly, it will further enhance Brooklyn’s attractiveness as a place to live. My 86-year-old father will always tell you about the psychic blow to the borough’s image from the shut-down of the Brooklyn Eagle, the Dodger’s move to LA and the deterioration of Coney Island.

Please see the link below (in Friday Links) lalaland – as has been written elsewhere, there is no longer any fixed timetable for building anything other than the arena, and FCR’s own spokesperson has said that completing the project will take “decades” – so that’s at least 20 years right there.

http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2010/12/esdc-as-expected-approves-findings-that.html

By lechacal on December 17, 2010 11:35 AM

DH you can’t get bingo if you shout the number yourself.

damn – i suck at this game