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July 24, 2007
Bklyn Techie "Mau Mau" NoLandGrab!
A columnist for Brooklyn Tech's "The Survey" explains that he has perused NoLandGrab on a number of occasions, but apparently not enough to get the joke that compared him to another columnist who is frequently cited for playing fast and loose with Atlantic Yards facts.
Several readers thought that the call to "Mau Mau the Yuppies" might have been an absurd parody, but apparently not. Yesterday the columnist went on the offensive in his open letter to NoLandGrab:
Having perused your blog on a number of occasions, it’s glaringly obvious that you and your colleagues are not a guileless, altruistic bunch. Remember, Ratner is a businessman looking to make a profit. He is under no obligation to vet your complaints; quite frankly, neither would I if faced with the prospect of addressing a cabal of ad hominem-happy, third-rate Buckleys with too much time on their hands. That you’ve elected to rag on a high school paper is primary evidence of how desperate your situation has become.
[The opinion piece from Tech's high school paper appeared in a Google News Search and thus becomes part of the archived record of opinions on the project.]
The columnist goes on to describe his good fortune of never having run into the Hagan sisters:
In my daily experiences studying and shopping in Fort Greene and its adjacent areas over the past three years, I have yet to meet an individual vehemently opposed to the development.
Ironically, it seems like the piece headlined, "Mau-Mau the Yuppies, Ratner!" wasn't meant to be published, at least not with the vitriol and invective that puzzled many readers:
Thanks to the kind of miscommunication that is unavoidable in any news organization, “Mau Mau the Yuppies, Ratner” – an earlier draft (c. February 2007) of an article that was published last month that was initially planned as an editorial, hence all the vitriol – was archived on our website. Nevertheless, I still stand by most of the opinions espoused in that piece to a large extent.
NoLandGrab: We weren't ragging on the opinions, just the facts, like the one that, "Ratner has expressed interest in constructing new facilities for Tech within the Atlantic Yards complex." Ratner's plan was to build new facilities in his floundering METROTECH and turn Tech's historic building into condos, but thanks for playing and for the laughs.
The most recent "President of BTHSnews.org" posted a response attempting to analyze the quirky column and our inside-joke response, "It's Nice To Be Examined."
We're not sure that Ratner would agree that it is "nice to be examined;" remember, an ex-FCR exec described it as "Orwellian" to the NY Times.
Posted by lumi at July 24, 2007 7:04 AM