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August 11, 2005
SOUTH AFRICAN TOURISM OFFICIALS BRIEFED ON RATNER’S ARENA PLAN
Here's an article we missed sent in by a reader who is obviously paying better attention that we are.
The NY Sun
Monday, August 8, 2005
Regional tourism officials from the North West province of South Africa, which is preparing to host the 2010 World Cup, were briefed last week on developer Bruce Ratner’s plan to build an arena for the New Jersey Nets basketball team in downtown Brooklyn.
A pro-Ratner state assemblyman from the borough, Roger Green, said he saw “some similarities” between South Africa and parts of Brooklyn — noting that both face high rates of unemployment and HIV/AIDS — and added that the June agreement between community groups and Mr. Ratner’s firm, which pledged to channel 30% of construction dollars to female and minority contractors, could serve as a model for development in the North West province.
In response, a spokesman for the anti-Ratner group Develop Don’t Destroy, Daniel Goldstein, parroting Mr. Green’s words, said that there are “a lot of similarities” between the Ratner plan, which would seize Prospect Heights properties via eminent domain, and the apartheid regime’s forced removal of blacks in “slum clearance” projects. — Special to the Sun
Posted by lumi at August 11, 2005 7:13 AM