DDDB Signs On Brooklyn Star Power for AY Fight
The group most widely associated with the fight against Bruce Ratner’s proposed Atlantic Yards project just made a big move to broaden its public appeal by putting together a 33-member advisory board studded with such high-profile Brooklynites as Steve Buscemi, Heath Ledger and Jonathan Safran Foer. Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) is hoping the addition…
The group most widely associated with the fight against Bruce Ratner’s proposed Atlantic Yards project just made a big move to broaden its public appeal by putting together a 33-member advisory board studded with such high-profile Brooklynites as Steve Buscemi, Heath Ledger and Jonathan Safran Foer. Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) is hoping the addition of the celebs will make it harder for Ratner and others to portray the group as some fly-by-night lightweight organization and provide some counter-balance to the starpower Ratner himself has enlisted to sell his vision to the borough. One new board member, actress (and Ledger fiancee) Michelle Williams, isn’t too keen on what the development would mean for her newly adopted neighborhood of Boerum Hill: “His vision will increase traffic, pollution and asthma,” she said. “If Mr. Ratner lived here, he would understand what we love about it and why we want to preserve our open skies.” “It’s very frustrating to realize that something with such a massive scale can be imposed upon from people who don’t live here,” said author and Fort Greene resident Jhumpa Lahiri. Maybe all these stars can pool some funds together to offer Bertha Lewis more money to sell out to them than Ratner did. Heck, Heath could even throw in a kiss that would top the smacker Lewis gave Ratner last year!
Celebs Join Ratner Foes [NY Daily News]
Announcement of Advisory Board Formation [DDDB]
This is a losing strategy. I’m sure the majority of Brooklyn celebrities (along with their corporate endorsers) will actually want an affiliation with the Brooklyn Nets. How many games into the Nets inaugural season will it take before we catch Heath at courtside smiling for the cameras and rooting for the home team? Given the abysmal state of her career, Rosie should probably join him too. She could definitely use the publicity and uptick in profile.
When the arena gets built and the hype surrounding the Brooklyn Nets gets into full swing, any DDDB supporter, celebs included, can’t ever show their face at a Nets game. They are going to look like quite the idiot wearing a team jersey, drunk dancing on the huge Jumbotron and shaking their pom poms behind the backboard! Trust me, this will come back to haunt them. Moreover, I hope Heath’s kid will understand the foolish reason why mom and dad can’t take little Matilda to the Nets game!
DDDB pack it in. The arena will be built and the Brooklyn Nets are going to be the hottest ticket in town. The place will be sold out every game for the next ten years. I can’t wait to get my season tickets! Yahoo!
The Three Stooges were from Brooklyn. What about digging them up for the advisory board.
Unfortunately, now that Heath & Michelle are Brownstone Brooklyn’s official spokespeople, its official that our borough and lifestyle have jumped the shark…
Look for huge upcoming anti-Brooklyn backlash…
Isn’t this too little, too late?
at least they live in the fricking borough while they pollute it.
What is so sad about our culture is that our newspapers quote someone like Michelle Williams as a psuedo-expert when the sum total of her education is a H.S diploma and her collective time living in Brooklyn is probably less than 300 days.
Maybe if Heath and Michelle were so worried about pollution and asthma Heath wouldnt be driving Michelle all over the city in their “hulking Blue BMW”:
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051204/LIFESTYLE01/512040325/1031
Let’s save all the Ratner suck-ups the effort. “Nothing will make any difference – it’s a done deal. It’s better to rush a crappy development than to work out a good one. Corruption is simply the way things are done and it’s silly to think it could ever be otherwise.”
If you read who those people are, they are committed well respected people in just about every field under the sun, they are hardly minor – they are celebrites in their respect fields, if you will. Writers, activists and religious leaders are the community leaders that have historically lead the way to winning fights like these, hardly a minor issue. Their knowledge, reputation and passion is action based unlike the photo ops given by Ratner’s show pieces.
why undoubtedly. isn’t Jonathan Safran Foer a much bigger name?