Sharpton Backs Ratner's Plan for the Yards

July 19, 2005, NY Times — The Rev. Al Sharpton said yesterday that he was backing a plan by Bruce C. Ratner, the developer, to build a canyon of skyscrapers and an arena for the Nets over railyards near Downtown Brooklyn. Mr. Sharpton, much as he did when he announced his support for the proposed Jets stadium on the West Side of Manhattan, argued that the building plan, designed by Frank Gehry, would provide needed jobs and lower-cost housing for largely poor and minority areas nearby. “We have real problems in the neighborhoods surrounding this project,” Mr. Sharpton said in a statement released by his office. “We need a plan that is inviting to newcomers while avoiding the type of gentrification that pushes out the old while in the same breath romanticizing the old. “It’s not about a new Brooklyn or an old Brooklyn; it’s about a thriving Brooklyn where people of all colors have a chance for a better home, a better job and a better life.”
Sharpton Backs Developer’s Plan [NY Times]