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September 24, 2007
Brooklyn ‘blight’ renewal
MetroNY
By Michael Rundle
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN. Weeds and plants four feet high have turned the cracked sidewalk on Pacific Street between 5th and Vanderbilt avenues into a jungle, and any paving slabs still visible are thick with soda cans, old newspapers and broken glass.
A group of community residents and activists set out to change that yesterday, but their civic enthusiasm was also a form of protest. This street lies in the footprint of the Atlantic Yards project, and the group of trash collectors said they wanted to show developer Forest City Ratner they aren’t going to abandon their neighborhood.
Some even speculated the streets had been left to deteriorate on purpose.
“They’re trying to take away people’s homes, claiming blight. And yet they’re creating the blight,” said Jon Crow, a member of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn and several community gardens. “It isn’t fair to create blight so the state can take away people’s homes and give it to a private developer.”
Posted by lumi at September 24, 2007 9:09 AM