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June 9, 2007
Ratner’s myth
Letter to the Editor, The Brooklyn Paper
To the editor,You recently printed a letter from Alvin Pankin, who was commenting about a photograph previously published in The Paper (“Thank Ratner,” May 26).
Mr. Pankin spent the first paragraph saying good riddance to the three buildings in that photograph that Forest City Ratner has demolished in the Atlantic Yards project site.
In the second paragraph, Mr. Pankin, in a non-sequitur, trotted out the most-insidious mythological talking point that Mr. Ratner’s supporters use against critics of the project — that they are “new arrivals.”
This is an insidious myth, first because it couldn’t be more false. Having spent the past three plus years working with project opponents and critics who favor sensible development, I can say with assurance that most have deep generational roots in the borough, or have lived here a significant amount of time.
Also, some of the most fervent project opponents trace their Brooklyn roots back for centuries.
The myth is also insidious because there is no eligibility barometer to civic discourse.
But, to paraphrase Samuel Johnson, this sort of mythmaking is always the last refuge of those without a substantive argument.
On another point, Mr. Pankin may not have liked what the now-demolished buildings looked like, but they once housed residential tenants and successful businesses. Now they are rubble-strewn empty lots.
Daniel Goldstein, Prospect Heights
The writer is spokesman for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn
Posted by amy at June 9, 2007 8:37 AM