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December 3, 2004

DECORATE DON'T DESTROY BROOKLYN, Press Release:
Forest City Ratner Executive VP Jim Stuckey Speaks for Over Two Hours, Says Nothing

BROOKLYN—Monday night at a Community Board organized “informational meeting”, Forest City Ratner (FCR) Executive Vice President Jim Stuckey, poster boy of the government/corporate revolving-door system, and point man for the FCR proposed 17 skyscraper and arena complex in Prospect Heights, spun a one-way PR lecture. The “information meeting” provided no information for the hundreds of citizens, community board members and politicians hungry for facts and details about Mr. Ratner’s land grab and secret, taxpayer-subsidized backroom deal.

The deeply concerned community, having suffered through the corporate welfare queen’s year-long PR campaign to convince the public that a private developer’s gain is the public’s gain, and that the imposition of a destructive, senseless, and reckless development plan on a diverse neighborhood is merely “collateral damage,” grew increasingly frustrated. Mr. Stuckey used a lot of big words, some of them real big, but managed to say nothing. Members of his grassroots “backup band,” ACORN and BUILD, accompanied the Ratner front man, chanting slogans and cheering throughout.

When Mr. Stuckey evaded a question about whether or not the proposed development site in Prospect Heights is “blighted,” a frustrated citizen yelled out, “you’re blighted.”

The dapper, Community Board 6 District Manager, Craig Hammerman, lost control of the meeting within minutes of the Q&A session. His inability to maintain decorum or decoration at the meeting was directly related to the fact that his Board, as well as CB 2 an 8, had set up a “meeting” format that only allowed for written and moderated questions, with no opportunity for follow-up or rebuttal from a questioner, leaving Mr. Stuckey with the last unctuous, platitudinal word each time.

The reigning PR Diva, Mr. Stuckey hit all of his high notes. Below are a few Stuckey classics, and some new insta-hits: * An intergenerational facility will allow young people to interact with seniors in more positive ways than harassing or mugging them on the street (no joke folks). * We are going to raise the bar and set a new precedent for how development is done in this city. * From the very beginning we’ve worked very hard to involve the community, and our availability here tonight is proof. * There are going to be no taxpayer dollars spent on our development, only on the affordable housing and infrastructure, which is the job of the city anyway. * From the very beginning this project was about jobs, housing, and bringing basketball to Brooklyn, and did I mention jobs and housing. * We didn’t buy the team to get a real estate deal.

Nathaniel Goldmine, Decorate Don’t Destroy Brooklyn spokesperson, wondered aloud, “Where does this guy get the balls? We’re not as dumb as he sounds, or at least as he pretends to be.”

Elected officials were reduced to shouting out and heckling along with their constituents. The closest the community got to hearing from a governmental body was when Mr. Hammerman read a letter, written by the pseudo-governmental, and unaccountable Atlantic Center Mall tenant, Empire State Development Corporation. The MTA and the City’s Department of Planning sent heartfelt thank you notes for the invitation, but had to decline because “everyone in the office will be at home watching the end of Ken Jennings winning streak on Jeopardy!”

To view the Ratner Proposal, please visit: www.ratnerville.com

DECORATE DON’T DESTROY BROOKLYN leads a broad-based community coalition fighting for urban design that will unite our communities instead of blinding them with more tacky neon signage.

Posted by lumi at December 3, 2004 7:40 PM