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August 30, 2006
Richard Lipsky and the "booty capitalists"of the AY CBA
Atlantic Yards Report uses Forest City Ratner consultant Richard Lipsky's own words to deconstruct the "booty capitalitsts" (it's not what you think) lined up behind Ratner.
Credit Richard Lipsky, lobbyist around town against big box stores (yet for Atlantic Yards and other Forest City Ratner projects) for introducing the term "booty capitalists" to the local discussion. Actually, he's used the term regarding Wal-Mart's potential move to Brooklyn, but it's equally apt regarding Atlantic Yards.
As Lipsky has written in his Neighborhood Retail Alliance blog: We have referred to the potential Wal-Mart partners in this effort as "booty capitalists" and although the term was coined by Karl Marx its modern application refers to some opportunists, especially in the African-American community, who, while having few economic resources of their own, will use their political positions and a company's vulnerabilities to their own personal advantage.
(So "booty" is being used to refer to "treasure," rather than the more slangy you-know-what.)
Posted by lumi at August 30, 2006 1:33 PM