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October 20, 2007
Village Voice Best of NYC Super-Post!
Best Neighborhood Bar Slated for Destruction by Frank Gehry Freddy's
Gehry's pact with developer Bruce Ratner to design the megalithic Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn torpedoed whatever remained of his alterna-rep. [...] It's the kind of true Brooklyn community that Gehry and Ratner, sitting in L.A. and Cleveland, will likely never understand.
Best Noble Failure It's Still Not a Done Deal
Recently, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn hosted a literary soiree and fundraiser. The title of the afternoon: It's Still Not a Done Deal. [...] DDDB's motto is hard to argue with: "Fighting for development that will unite our communities instead of dividing and destroying them." They've distinguished themselves by their intelligent analysis, delightful events, reasonable goals, and maybe the coolest advisory board ever (Jo Andres, Nelson George, John Wesley Harding, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jonathan Lethem, and Rosie Perez are just a few members).
Best Manhattan Neighborhood in Brooklyn Dumbo
Atlantic Yards may yet turn downtown Brooklyn into a soulless new Herald Square, but as of now, the borough's most Manhattanized neighborhood is the 15-square-block area that for several decades has boasted the acronym DUMBO (as in "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass").
Best Brooklyn Assemblyman Who Never Quits Jim Brennan
When the state refused to provide details of its agreements with Forest City Ratner for the huge Atlantic Yards project, Brennan took it to court. There, he won the release of hundreds of pages of previously secret records that showed what the government and the developer hadn't told the public: that their pledge to provide affordable housing was based on a shaky financial premise.
Michael Bloomberg's Last Meal Birdbath
He didn't stop the Atlantic Yards, and he never made the city a better place to bicycle, but he certainly is ferreting out trans fats! Accordingly, the playboy mayor's last meal will be a very dry vegan scone from City Bakery's Birdbath, an eco-conscious bakery in the West Village that buys wind power from Con Ed and uses green materials for construction.
Posted by amy at October 20, 2007 12:30 PM