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February 27, 2008
Democracy Now? Ratner Plays Hardball When It Counts
Brooklyn Downtown Star
by Norman Oder
Atlantic Yards Report's über blogger, Norman Oder, contributes this update on the brothers Ratner and their political gift-giving to the Brooklyn Downtown Star.
Bruce isn’t even the best-known liberal in his family. His older brother Michael, a distinguished lawyer, leads the Center for Constitutional Rights in its admirable effort to hold our government accountable for its off-the-radar detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He co-wrote the book "Guantánamo: What the World Should Know."
John R. MacArthur, publisher of Harper’s, calls him “America’s most important civil libertarian.”
For Bruce and Michael, however, business in Brooklyn comes first. That’s why Bruce’s company has required gag orders of those selling property for the Atlantic Yards project, thus clamping down on criticism and even requiring sellers to say that Forest City Ratner treated them honorably.
That’s why, even though Bruce and Forest City Ratner (FCR) stopped giving political contributions years ago - apparently to dispel suspicion that the donations helped win projects - Michael and his wife Karen Ranucci, the development director of left-wing radio show “Democracy Now,” stepped in to fill the breach. Though residents of Greenwich Village, they reliably wrote checks to Brooklyn candidates from the county Democratic machine. Some contributions, according to state records, even had the return address of Forest City Ratner headquarters in Brooklyn. Michael, who apparently has an office there, owns a piece of the Nets, the sports team his brother wants to bring to Brooklyn. The extended Ratner family controls FCR’s parent company, Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises.
Posted by eric at February 27, 2008 1:53 PM