Learning to Oppose the Atlantic Yards Project
Even though he lives within a few blocks of where the Nets arena would be built if Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project gets the go-ahead, writer Chris Smith had been long in forming an opinion on the subject. Partly in denial and partly in the interest of maintaining some kind of journalistic neutrality, it was…
Even though he lives within a few blocks of where the Nets arena would be built if Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project gets the go-ahead, writer Chris Smith had been long in forming an opinion on the subject. Partly in denial and partly in the interest of maintaining some kind of journalistic neutrality, it was not until he jumped head-first into researching this article–and witnessing first hand Ratner’s “truly chilling” manipulation of the political process–that he found himself standing firmly in the opposition camp. It’s a long, personalized article with lots of color, but his Bertha Lewis encounter was arguably the most histrionic, providing the article’s money-shot of a race-baiting quote (equalled only by the class-baiting of Assemblyman Roger Green):
“You want to talk to me about traffic, you want to talk to me about density, you go right ahead,” she says, implying she considers it all a pretext. “Talk to me about what your resolution is to the resegregation of Brooklyn. Black and brown folks have been driven out of central Brooklyn!” Lewis ladles on the “street” theatrics as she warms up, shimmying in her chair and dropping her g’s. “We’re looking at the gentrification—I don’t see a lot of black and brown folks in the wave runnin’ up in here! The overwhelming folks who are opposed are white people and wealthier people and more secure people and people who just arrived. Come on! This is about the power dynamic of who in fact is going to be living in Downtown and central Brooklyn and where the power Âreally is going to be. And we’re down to get it on! We’re tired of being pushed out. If we can stop one iota of gentrification, we’re gonna do it!“
For what, 900 apartments for the $35K-and-under set? What about all the people who will be waiting longer on crowded subway platforms and whose children will see their public school class sizes balloon? Certainly many of them will be “black and brown,” no?
Battle for the Soul of Brooklyn [New York Magazine]
NY Mag Weighs in on Atlantic Yards Saga [Brooklyn Record]
Blabber, that is an extremely simplistic explanation that just doesn’t hold water. Nothing in this city goes down straight racial lines, for which I heartily thank God daily. People who are both pro and anti AY would like to make it that simple, but it certainly is not.
I thought the article was very interesting and quite good, for the most part, but then, the author is preaching to the choir in my case. BTW, I am African-American and not thrilled with AY and Ratner. That does not mean I am anti development at the site, because I think mixed income and commercial development at that site is both necessary and desirable, but not that behemoth monster that is AY.
What I don’t like are super rich companies dangling jobs and affordable homes in front of desperate people. I don’t like the sniff of race baiting in the way this is being portrayed as black and Latino versus white yuppies and aging hippies. Homes for minority families vs gentrifying white folks, basketball loving inner city people vs the US Open, or maybe the Master’s Tourney crowd. Too simplistic, and just not true.
Misspriss is correct – there are plenty of black folks aready in the area who will be as adversely affected by the shadow of the complex, as well as all of the other issues of transportation, density, etc. Some old, some new, some rich, some poor, most in the middle. When will politicians, writers and reporters learn that Black people, like all people, are not monolithic? We don’t all vote alike, think alike, dress alike, worship alike, have the same income levels, or listen to the same music. Just like everyone else. We don’t all think the same about AY. Bertha Lewis is correct in saying that black people should not be pushed out of PH/FG/CH. She chose the wrong company to further an admirable goal.
So let me get this straight. People need to drive their cars to AY so they can bring their babies and toddlers to a Nets game, drink lots of beer and then get back in their cars and DWI their way home with baby in the back seat.
Uh, I don’t get it, why do black people want this and white people oppose this?
Are blacks not inconvenienced by traffic jams? Do whites not want to go to baseball games? I just don’t get it. Someone help me out.
TonyTone: this is my screen name. Even if it weren’t, I doubt that you’d take my statements seriously, given that I disagree with your views.
Once and for all, what does having kids have to do with public transportation? Every day, hundreds of thousands of New York parents manage to take care of business without the luxury of a car. My neighbor raised four children and neither she nor her husband have ever had driver’s licenses.
It’s funny that when discussing development people are quick to decry the “suburbanization” of Brooklyn, but when it comes to the ultimate symbol of suburbania – the automobile – they change their tune. As usual, people are long on lectures, but when it comes to actually sacrificing their personal comforts for the better of the community (i.e. traffic) they become quite individualistic.
Do you think Ratner will actually build all these buildings for which he is seeking approval? It seems to me that market forces may significantly downsize the project. Eventually it may be built, but I really wonder if it can be built at the size and schedule of the current plan. Any thoughts?
What really needs to happen is that they need more elevators and exscalaors on the subway? It discourages ridership. I hate to see people carrying strollers up and down the stairs, or elderly people taking one step at a time slowly. Most other modern metros in other cities have this basic service.
Stay strong Arsenic.
I was raised by a single mom in Park Slope sans car. We traveled, went camping, even had a country house all without a car. B-man: Your car is all about you, not your kids.
Cars are simply bad for this, and most other large cities, and otherwise enlightened people who think about “context” and “scale” when it comes to development projects, have a huge blindspot for how out of “context” and “scale” cars are in Brooklyn.
Arsenic,
Talk to me when you’ve travelled on the subway or bus with two toddlers under the age of three, one of whom can’t even walk yet. If you’re going far enough to take transportation, you’re going to need a big diaper bag with supplies like water bottles, sippy cups, wipes, extra clothes, food, etc., not to mention your own purse or wallet. Two or three flights of subway stairs down to/up from the platform are more than daunting in this scenario: they’re impossible!
The Atlantic Yards development could be a great thing! Honestly, the area around the Atlantic Yards is so ghetto at night. Im not talking about Fort Green or near BAM Rose. Im talking about on Flatbush from the Altantic Center to the Manhattan Bridge, including Fulton Mall. Some of those blocks are not fun to walk around in at night. What I think the Atlantic Yards project will do is increase the value of the areas of Fort Green and Clinton Hill that we love, and make the areas of downtown Brooklyn that are so ghetto that much nicer and safer. The Atlantic Center Mall did that. Remember the years before that mall was there on Flatbush? It was scary. My two cents…