Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn hosts Walkathon against Atlantic Yards

Posted on 23. Oct, 2009 by Jonathan Balthaser in Barbara Raab, Beats, Classes, Urban

Outside a rundown bar on a blighted Brooklyn street, a man grabs a megaphone and jumps up on a green metal mailbox. Crowds of people holding banners and signs gather close around him. A drummer strikes up a low marching rat-a-tat-tat on his snare, and the man begins to speak.

“We’re outside Freddy’s Bar and Backroom. It’s one of the cultural icons of Brooklyn,” the man shouts, and the crowd erupts in cheers.

“Freddy’s has opera night, Freddy’s has quiz nights, Freddy’s has cringe nights, where you come and read your diaries. They host some of the greatest bands in the world,” he says. “Saving Brooklyn means saving places like Freddy’s, and saving Freddy’s means stopping the Atlantic Yards project.”

The man is Scott Turner, a staff member with Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, and stopping the Atlantic Yards project is exactly why this pastiche of protesters is braving the elements on this blustery October day. They are committed to halting the Atlantic Yards project, a development proposed by Bruce Ratner, who intends to build a $3.5 billion commercial and residential complex that spans 22 acres and falls at the intersection of four neighborhoods. Its centerpiece is a new arena that will be home to the Brooklyn Nets.

City Councilwoman Letitia James, who is leading the fifth annual Walk Don’t Destroy Brooklyn walkathon, is opposed to the project. “We are walking today because we are fighting to save the soul of Brooklyn,” she says. “This is about saving our communities. This is about Fort Greene and Clinton Hill and Park Slope and Prospect Heights and making sure we are one and we are not divided by this huge super-block.” Many community members fear that the complex will overwhelm and isolate the surrounding neighborhoods.

The walkathon comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed last week against the MTA for an alleged sweetheart deal it made with Ratner to sell its Vanderbilt Rail Yard. This month 19 community organizations will file another class action lawsuit against the Atlantic Yards project, says Daniel Goldstein, a spokesman for the Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. “The project is in trouble and we are in an endgame here,” says Goldstein.  “We are everywhere. We have been everywhere: Albany, Cleveland, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Jersey, everywhere, and that’s why we’re winning.”

If Ratner does not break ground by the end of the year, he will lose millions by forfeiting a tax-exempt bond status and lapsing on a $400 million naming-rights contract for the arena with Barclays Bank. The developer counters criticism by citing that about 40 percent of the construction would be for middle, moderate, and low-income housing. Ratner could not be reached for comment. He told The New York Times in August, “There is a stable and steady group of takers for work-force housing in the city. The goal is not just to create the required amount but possibly more than that.”

Along the two-mile-plus route, the crowd of protesters is buoyed by horns, trumpets and singing from the costumed Magic Circus Band. As the rally winds its way through the neighborhoods that will be affected by the project, roughly 200 participants hold signs that read “no arena” and “no eminent domain abuse!”

Akiko Ichikawa is one of the residents who joined in the march. Relaxing at the afterparty at Habana Café in Fort Greene, she emphasizes the need for more small businesses, affordable housing and green development in the area. She says she doesn’t want construction “that people from outside the neighborhood decide we need, because we know what we need. We live here.”

Check out a slideshow of pictures from the event:

Below is the route the walkathon-ers followed:

Below is video from different points during the walkathon. Did you participate? How did you feel the event went off?

Tags: atlantic ave, Atlantic Yards, Brooklyn, DDDB, John Turturro, Letitia James